Chapter 466 Croskant De Bruyne, Manchester City’s ceremonial third midfielder!

Chapter 466 Kroos + Kanter + De Bruyne, Manchester City’s official midfield three!

Seeing that the opponent had strengthened their defense on the wing, Manchester City immediately made changes. When Lin Quan was dribbling the ball, he began to walk more towards the center, seeking cooperation with his teammates, using passes, cuts and runs to stretch the opponent's defense. Look for opportunities.

Leicester City retreated Brother Drinkwater from the defensive midfielder position to the back line, which resulted in the protective force in front of the back line being greatly weakened.

The consequence of this weakening is that their overall formation has to move back to allow others to fill the vacancy caused by his departure.

But the result of the overall formation's backward movement was a comprehensive siege by Manchester City. The game also evolved into a half-time offensive and defensive drill between the two teams.

Although this is the home ground of Leicester City, the situation on the court made the fans of the home team tremble with fear.

Although they knew in their hearts that there was a gap between their team and Manchester City, they did not expect that the gap would be so big.

Judging from the scene, they have been completely suppressed and can hardly pose a threat to the opponent. On the contrary, every attack and even every pass made by Manchester City makes them feel terrified, for fear that the opponent will score again in the next second.

Fortunately, what they worried about did not happen. Under the tenacious defense of Leicester City soldiers, Manchester City was unable to continue to expand the score.

But also because they devoted most of their forces to defense, it was difficult for Leicester City to threaten when they counterattacked. If the midfield players did not follow up, they would have to rely on the forwards to fight alone. .

As for his ability to fight alone, Van Dyke really has never been afraid of anyone.

As a result, Leicester City's few counterattacks in the first half were almost all resolved by Van Dijk's defense.

The score of 0:1 remained until the end of halftime. Players from both sides stopped playing and returned to the locker room to rest for fifteen minutes in preparation for another battle.

In the visiting team's locker room, Guardiola looked very relaxed.

He praised the players' performance in the first half and made some tactical arrangements for the second half.

Manchester City is now in the lead. Although the lead is not large, Leicester City's offense poses no threat to them.

Even if Manchester City doesn't score more goals in subsequent games, they can still win these three points with an economical score of 1:0.

After this victory, Manchester City's lead expanded to 12 points.

Leading by 12 points at half-time. With such a huge lead, the possibility of overturning in the second half is very small. Manchester City can also devote more energy to the European war.

Thanks to the collective overturn of the traditional giants in the Premier League, Manchester City faces little competition in the Premier League, but the situation in the European war is still unclear.

The current situation in European football is very chaotic. The traditional giants are still strong, and the emerging forces are also coming fiercely.

There are five or six opponents that Guardiola considers to be threats, including La Liga's three giants, the Bundesliga giants and Ligue 1's Paris Saint-Germain. If they encounter these teams in the knockout stage, even Manchester City cannot guarantee that they will be able to win. Advance.

Of course, before that, they first have to face their opponent in the quarterfinals-Dynamo Kiev.

This team is not particularly strong, but due to the game time, their home court may not be easy to play.

According to the Champions League competition system, in the knockout stage, the first team in the group will play against the second team in the group first.

The game system of "Guest before Home" is originally beneficial to the first place in the group, and it can be regarded as a little benefit for the first place in each group.

However, it is still very cold in Kiev in February. If you are unlucky enough to encounter ice and snow, the game will definitely become more difficult to play.

What is even more worrying is that artificial turf combined with icy and snowy weather can easily cause injuries to players.

If several generals in the team are injured because of a weak opponent in the knockout round, then it will be very uneconomical.

So Guardiola is thinking about how to play in the first away game to avoid injuries and not affect promotion?

He has considered strategically giving up the first game, but this is playing with fire. If he messes up, he will definitely become the butt of everyone's jokes!

Guardiola's thoughts were drifting to the game two months later, while on the other side, Ranieri was a little frowning.

For Leicester City, they urgently need to score goals now. The defense can only prevent the opponent from expanding their lead, but cannot allow them to tie or even reverse the score.

Therefore, he must focus on offense.

"Vardy, you don't have to retreat to defend in the second half, just stay in front. We need your goals."

Vardy nodded heavily. As Leicester City's leading shooter, he has a heavy burden.

If he can't stand up, the team's game may be in trouble.

"Mahrez, you have two main tasks in the second half. Keep an eye on the opponent's No. 12. You can't let him organize and pass the ball so comfortably. Once you complete the steal from his feet, don't hesitate to pass forward immediately. Find Vardy.

Our counterattack must be fast and we must not give the opponent time to defend! "

Mahrez nodded expressionlessly, grabbed a bottle of water, opened it and took a sip.

In this game, he is one of the most desperate players on the field.

And the reason why he is so desperate is because he is eager to prove himself to Guardiola.

Manchester City made an offer to the team during the summer window, but the offer was too low and was rejected by the club.

Like many midfielders, Mahrez also yearns to play under Guardiola.

But he felt that he had not received the respect he deserved. If Manchester City and Guardiola really valued him that much, they would not be able to offer only 30 million pounds!

Therefore, Mahrez hopes that through this game, Guardiola can get to know himself well and let the other party know that he is far stronger than he imagined. If he wants to take him away, 30 million is not enough, at least 40 million or even 50 million is needed. Just fine.

Mahrez thinks very highly of himself and does not think he is inferior to anyone else.

However, it is very difficult for him to achieve such a value in his position. If he follows the original trajectory and performs well in Leicester City, completes the dark horse miracle with his teammates and successfully wins the championship, there is still some hope.

But if Leicester City does not win the championship this season and lacks the title of Premier League champion, it will be difficult to reach a worth of 40 million or even 50 million pounds.

After all, this is the value of a player of Modric's level, and now he is still far from Modric, and he will not reach Modric's height in the future.

The fifteen-minute intermission ended quickly, and the two sides changed sides to fight again.

Five minutes into the second half, Guardiola could see the adjustments made by the opponent during the halftime break.

"Leicester City has arranged special personnel to keep an eye on Kroos. It seems that they have also seen the huge threat Kroos poses to them!"

The commentators also noticed that when Mahrez was defending, he stuck to Kroos like a piece of candy, almost never leaving.

"This move seems to have some effect. Cross is very uncomfortable playing. The number of passes and receptions is less than before, and it is difficult to send threatening passes like before."

What the commentators can see, the coaches of both teams can naturally see too.

"Huh? Do you want to block Cross?"

Guardiola held his chin and analyzed it carefully.

Cross is now positioned very far back, and the opponent has to arrange someone to mark him at the cost of destroying the entire formation. Obviously, he is scared of being beaten by Cross.

Guardiola admitted that doing so is indeed effective, but at a cost!

A disjointed formation means more chances for Manchester City!

Sure enough, although Kroos has been restricted in this regard, Manchester City actually has more than one playmaker on the court.

Cross was restricted and De Bruyne quickly stepped up.

And because his position is closer to the frontcourt, his passing poses a greater threat.

In a short period of time, De Bruyne sent two passes that penetrated Leicester City's defense, and one was resolved in time by Schmeichel.

A goal was scored once, but unfortunately, the goal was invalid because Aguero was called offside.

On the sidelines, Ranieri broke into a cold sweat.

The opponent's midfield configuration is really enviable. The midfield combination of Kroos, Kante and De Bruyne is the strongest combination in football today.

It's not enough to hold down one person, you have to hold down all of them.

But even if they hold down all three of them, they still have Lin Quan in front of them.

Lin Quan can also act as an organizer, providing assists to his teammates and helping them score goals.

In other words, it is almost an impossible task to restrict Manchester City's midfield playmaker.

Damn it, how come Manchester City has access to so many talents?

If I had such a good configuration, well, then I would probably have to leave get out of class...

Ranieri was envious, jealous, and resentful, but there was nothing he could do about it. He was not sociable and found it difficult to have a good relationship with players, especially big-name stars.

As for wealthy clubs, there are many stars in the team, and the locker room is already chaotic. If the head coach is unable to control the locker room, he will pack up and leave sooner or later.

It's not that Ranieri has never led a wealthy club, it's just that it's difficult to stay in a wealthy club for too long.

He is only suitable for those mid-to-lower teams. These teams are relatively simple, have few big-name stars in the team, and the locker room is relatively stable, so that he has no worries and can play to his strengths.

There is no time to think about this now. What he is worried about now is the game on the court.

I wonder if my arrangement will be discovered by Guardiola?

At present, it seems that it has not been discovered. In this case, Leicester City still has a chance.

…

"That's weird!"

In the commentary box of Sky Sports, after watching the game for a while, Martin Taylor felt a little weird, but he couldn't tell what was weird.

"What's wrong? What's weird?"

His partner Andy Gray immediately echoed the question.

"Do you feel that Mahrez is a little too rigid on the field?"

"Why do you say that? The task Ranieri assigned him should be to restrict Kroos. Judging from his performance in the second half, he did a very good job. Didn't you see that Kroos's frequency of touching the ball has decreased? ?"

"That's true, but after Manchester City transferred the core of the organization, shouldn't he retreat a little appropriately to better maintain his midfield position and prevent the formation from losing balance?"

"That seems to be true. Kroos's teammates stopped passing the ball to him and continued to press Kroos tightly. It didn't seem to mean much, especially when he didn't have the ball at his feet."

Hearing what Martin Taylor said, Andy Gray also felt a little strange.

"Haha, Ranieri wants to launch a sneak attack!"

In the stands, Zidane saw through Ranieri's plan at a glance.

Why is Mahrez still staring at Kroos?

On the surface, this seems to be a task assigned to him by the head coach, and he is performing it faithfully.

But in fact, it was just a cover for him to mark Kroos. He used this cover to put himself in this position. Once Leicester City launched a counterattack, he could pass the ball to the forward from the position closest to the forward, and he was able to pass the ball to the forward. Teammates create the best chance to score.

The reason why Leicester City's counterattack in the first half was not threatening was because after being suppressed, their front line was disconnected from the players behind them, making it difficult to get support and they could only rely on their own personal strength to fight alone.

Manchester City has the top central defender in football and is not afraid of the opponent's one-on-one fight. As a result, their counterattack will naturally fail.

Now, Ranieri has buried Mahrez behind Vardy. Mahrez can pass the ball to Vardy and complete the attack with his own breakthrough ability.

Manchester City's formation pressed too far forward, and the defense in the backcourt was actually very empty.

If there is only one person fighting back, it will not pose a fatal threat.

But once Leicester City invests two or more troops in a counterattack, Manchester City's defense will face a severe test.

In this way, it will be greatly reduced for Leicester City to score goals.

The opportunity Ranieri was looking forward to came soon. In the 65th minute of the second half, Manchester City's offensive round ended. After Schmeichel completed the save, he quickly stood up holding the ball, rushed to the penalty area, and made a unicorn arm handle. The ball was thrown into the frontcourt.

Mahrez headed the ball and Vardy received the ball and rushed towards the Manchester City goal like a high-speed sports car.

But unfortunately, he still failed to get rid of Van Dijk.

Van Dijk's awareness was very good. When the opponent's goalkeeper got the ball, he started to retreat. When his teammates failed to compete for the header, he rushed towards Vardy.

As soon as Vardy received the ball, Van Dijk appeared in front of him.

Still the same as before, Van Dijk did not rush forward blindly. He stared sideways at the ball at the opponent's feet while retreating to block the opponent's dribbling route, forcing Vardy to slow down.

This defensive method made Vardy very uncomfortable, and his speed inevitably dropped.

And his speed has slowed down, and the Manchester City players chasing behind him will not slow down.

Seeing that the defensive players were about to catch up with him and double-team him.

In the end, Vardy had to take a hasty shot when he had nothing to carry.

The shot was of average quality and was easily resolved by Navas.

After Navas passed the ball to Zabaleta, he bumped fists with Van Dijk.

The two have done this kind of cooperation countless times in training and competitions, and they already have a tacit understanding!

Seeing that Vardy's shot missed, the Leicester City fans at the scene let out sighs.

When Mahrez headed the ball, they all thought it was a goal.

Unexpectedly, I still fell short in the end!

The biggest regret is that head coach Ranieri is a little worried. Did this attack reveal his intentions and make Guardiola aware of the problem?