Chapter 472 Harry Kane’s attack, Tottenham’s serf sings!

After entering January, it seemed that Manchester City's state had some ups and downs because of its excessive lead.

In four games in January, they achieved a record of 2 wins and 2 draws.

Compared with other teams, this record is definitely a result that makes them very satisfied.

But when it comes to defending champion Manchester City, it seems a little imperfect.

In particular, Manchester City's 0:0 draw with Everton at home surprised the fans.

Manchester City was a bit slow in this game and missed many opportunities.

Everton played really well, especially their forward Lukaku, who performed well in the game and created several opportunities with his personal strength. It's a pity that his teammates' ability to seize opportunities was too poor and wasted. The opportunity he created.

Lukaku's performance last year was already very good, and this year he has continued his outstanding performance last year, attracting the attention of many teams and even wealthy clubs.

Among them, Chelsea and Manchester United are the most interested in Lukaku.

Lukaku is a former Chelsea player. Chelsea saw that he performed so well with the Toffees and naturally wanted to bring him back to Stamford Bridge.

Manchester United lacks a strong center. As the younger brother of Manchester United, Everton has such a good center in the team, so the big brother will naturally consider it.

Based on the relationship between Manchester United and Everton, as long as the player himself does not object, this transfer should not be a big problem.

Guardiola did not pay attention to outside discussions and even criticism.

The knockout rounds of the Champions League are about to begin. He must allocate the physical fitness of the players as much as possible and reduce unnecessary consumption in order to face the cruel knockout rounds of the Champions League.

Moreover, the record of 2 wins and 2 draws has no impact on Manchester City's top position. Their main competitor, Leicester City, also has a record of 2 wins and 2 draws in these four rounds. The point difference between the two sides is still 12 points.

There are 15 rounds left in the league, and Manchester City is 12 points ahead of their opponents. With such a huge advantage, Manchester City can naturally play more calmly.

After entering February, Guardiola became bolder in the team's rotation.

In the fourth round of the FA Cup, Guardiola started a nearly full substitute lineup.

However, what is unexpected is that this group of Manchester City substitutes defeated their opponents 5:0 in the away game, beating Aston Villa to nowhere.

The most outstanding performance in this game was Manchester City's own youth training player Iheanacho. He completed a hat trick with a head kick, bringing his total number of goals this season to 14.

The season is not over yet. With his current scoring efficiency, by the end of this season, his total number of goals may reach 20.

This is a very scary number. The leading shooters of many Premier League teams cannot score so many goals in a season, let alone as a substitute!

After this game, Iheanacho's name was completely out of the spotlight.

Now not only the Premier League teams know him, but also teams in other leagues know his name.

In fact, during the winter break, a team had already made an offer to Manchester City, hoping to introduce him.

However, these offers did not meet Guardiola's psychological expectations, and Iheanacho did not want to leave Manchester City yet, so they were all rejected.

Now, after such a brilliant performance, his value will definitely continue to rise.

In the summer, if other teams want to take him away, Manchester City may not even take a look at an offer below 30 million euros.

Regarding Iheanacho, Guardiola's attitude is actually very clear.

If he is willing to stay, then Manchester City will open the door to him and welcome him to continue to stay in the team.

But Guardiola will not promise him the main position. He can only sit on the bench and compete for the main position.

However, with Aguero's current form, it will be very difficult for Iheanacho to compete with him, not to mention that with the arrival of Sane, Jesus and others, his playing time will be further squeezed.

Therefore, Guardiola still prefers to sell or loan him out.

After some communication with Guardiola, Iheanacho had an idea in his mind. Although he was reluctant to leave Manchester City, he still made the decision to leave for the sake of his career.

Out of respect for his old club, he rejected the olive branch of the Premier League team and preferred to go to other leagues.

He doesn't reject La Liga, Bundesliga, Serie A or even Ligue 1.

And when Manchester City spread the news, many clubs were interested and sent people to investigate him.

Among them, there are even scouts from two Chinese Super League teams.

…

On February 6, after a 1:0 win over Sunderland in the away game, Manchester City encountered Leicester City again.

This is the second meeting between the two teams after 40 days.

Since the last meeting, the two teams' current records are almost identical. In the past five league games, both teams have achieved 3 wins and 2 draws.

The difference is that the opponents Manchester City encounters are generally weaker.

Leicester City's opponents are very strong, including strong teams like Tottenham and Liverpool.

And when facing these giants, Leicester City has won.

This has greatly improved Leicester City's morale before the second first-place battle with Manchester City, and they have completely overcome the shadow of the previous defeat.

Ranieri is still as humble as before. He complimented Manchester City and Guardiola, praising them as the best team and the best coach. He believed that Manchester City's dominance in the Premier League is unbreakable. Leicester City go to the Etihad Stadium with the goal of picking up a point.

Leicester City kept their posture very low, as if they had accepted their fate.

However, when the game started, they didn't look like they were going to admit defeat.

Having learned the lesson from the previous defeat, Ranieri naturally chose a solid defensive counterattack tactic in this game.

Leicester City's formation has shrunk very much. Except when counterattacking, the team's formation will be slightly pressed out. At other times, their players basically don't leave the half-time, and they don't even leave the 30-minute mark. meters area.

This extreme defense brought huge trouble to Manchester City's offense.

During the winter break, Leicester City also made reinforcements and introduced a fast forward.

Every time it was their turn to counterattack, the forward was asked to compete with Manchester City's defenders for speed.

The success rate of this tactic is not high, but the threat is not small.

In the first half, Leicester City relied on defensive counterattack tactics and was evenly matched with Manchester City.

After the second half, Manchester City began to change their formation, and the formation became 3241.

Behind the forwards, there is a large group of passers feeding the forwards.

What's even better is that these passers are also attackers, and they are also very capable of scoring, especially Lin Quan.

This formation makes full use of the width of the field, stretching the opponent's defensive formation and creating excellent opportunities for offensive players, especially players who penetrate from behind.

With this tactic, Manchester City scored first in the second half.

However, the opponent was also lucky. A long shot from outside the penalty area was refracted on the defensive player's leg, unexpectedly evening the score.

Manchester City then scored another goal in the counterattack, but unfortunately it was offside.

In the following time, both teams made no further achievements, and the battle ended in a 1:1 draw.

After this battle, Manchester City's lead has not narrowed, still 12 points.

Leicester City also successfully scored a point in the away game, so this result is acceptable to both parties!

After playing against Leicester City, Manchester City has entered a very intensive schedule.

In the next half month, they have 4 games to play.

There are two Premier League games, one Champions League, one League Cup and one FA Cup.

Among them, three games are all concentrated in the last week of February, which makes Manchester City somewhat overwhelmed.

Last season, Guardiola strategically gave up the FA Cup and League Cup in order to maintain results in the league and Champions League.

This season, due to the increase in the thickness of Manchester City's bench and Guardiola's rotation, the team's physical condition has not encountered major problems in multi-line operations.

Therefore, after soliciting the opinions of the players, Manchester City will not give up these cup competitions this season and hopes to win another Grand Slam!

Among them, the League Cup has almost been played, and only the final is left.

The only trouble is that it was Manchester City and Liverpool who made it to the final round of the League Cup.

Liverpool has also experienced a championship drought like Arsenal in recent years. Even if it is a mosquito leg like the League Cup, they will probably not let it go.

Therefore, there is a high probability that Liverpool will play all the main players in the final.

To win them, it's probably not possible to rely entirely on substitutes and young players.

Manchester City also has to send its main players to play, but this game is very close to the league.

If the main players are sent to fight Liverpool to the end, they may have to give up strategically in the 27th round of the league.

"It's okay to give up the 27th round of the league. Anyway, we have a huge lead, and the 27th round of the league is also very close to the Champions League quarter-finals. The players have just returned from the away game, and their physical fitness must not have fully recovered. If we play another league game, we will definitely be in no condition to compete with Liverpool for the championship, so I agree to give up the league!"

In internal discussions, most people in the coaching team were in favor of giving up this league.

Even if they lose this game, they will only lose 3 points to their opponents at most. They still have a huge lead and don't have to worry about losing the championship.

Furthermore, the opponent is not strong. If Manchester City sends substitutes to play, they may not lose. If they win or draw, it will be considered a profit.

Considering that they had to give up the 27th round, in the 26th round of the home game against Tottenham, everyone in Manchester City hoped to completely defeat the opponent and steadily score these 3 points.

As Kane's strength continues to improve, under his leadership, Tottenham's record this season has improved a lot.

Although Son Heung-min was abducted by Manchester City, it had some adverse effects on them.

But Kane's rise made up for these shortcomings. He also became a popular star in the Premier League and was touted by the Fleet Street media as the new star of the British Empire.

I don't agree with the British Emperor Stars that were blown out before. Kane really has this strength.

Therefore, he has attracted the attention of a large number of top clubs. There are even rumors in Real Madrid that Florentino intends to introduce Kane to replace Ronaldo.

This statement is not groundless. After all, compared to the "old" Ronaldo, Kane, who was born in 1993, is younger and has greater future potential.

Real Madrid often buys players from Tottenham, and Bell was bought from Tottenham.

However, when they bought Bale, Real Madrid was severely beaten by Tottenham.

If they really want to poach Kane from Tottenham, I'm afraid they will be slaughtered even worse. After all, in Tottenham's eyes, Kane is much more important than Bale!

Although Kane's performance in the past two seasons has been very good, almost no one was optimistic about Tottenham before the game.

The reason is also very simple. Manchester City seems to have a bloody restraint on Tottenham.

In the past few seasons, when Manchester City played Tottenham, they often scored big scores and scored four, five or even five or six goals. This was not once or twice, but often.

Therefore, before the game, everyone felt that Tottenham was doomed, and some people even started betting on how many Tottenham would lose.

However, to everyone's surprise, Kane had his own breakout in this game.

He and Eriksen scored 3 goals together, helping the team beat Manchester City 3:2 in the away game. They avenged their shame and finally stood up in front of Manchester City.

The loss in this game was very unexpected for the entire Manchester City team. Even Tottenham, a tight opponent, could not win. They had already lost 3 points before the 27th round.

So, will they give up the next round?

"Coach, should we adjust our previous plan?"

"Yes, if we lose again in the next round, our lead may be reduced to 6 points!"

There are still 12 rounds in the league, and a 6-point lead is actually not that small.

But after losing 6 points in two rounds, this momentum is a bit wrong, even if they gave up one of the games on their own initiative.

Once Manchester City shows such a decline, the suspense of this season's championship will reappear.

Then other teams will be more tenacious when encountering Manchester City. After all, except for them, almost the entire Premier League does not want them to monopolize the Premier League championship.

This also means that their next game will be more difficult to play.

Therefore, they cannot afford to lose the next game.

Guardiola also fell silent after hearing the words of the coaching staff.

He knew the stakes here and knew that his decision was likely to have a huge impact.

"Let me think about it seriously!"

Guardiola didn't rush to make a decision because he couldn't make up his mind for a while, so he planned to go home to discuss it with Lin Quan, or watch while walking, and wait until after the Champions League knockout round?

If it really doesn't work, then give up the cup. Even if you lose the League Cup, it doesn't matter!

After all, the Triple Crown does not include the League Cup!