Football’s First Defender

Chapter 709: Turbulent Manchester City

For Liverpool, in the UEFA Champions League knockout round, it was sent off from 10 to 11, and after being bombarded by opponents at home, they managed to maintain a 0-0 score. enough.

In the second round, although Liverpool is going to Madrid and going to Atletico Madrid for the devil's home challenge, it will inevitably endure tremendous pressure from Atletico Madrid.

But as long as Liverpool can remain unbeaten on the road and look for an away goal, then they can directly enter the Champions League quarterfinals.

Of course, the time interval between one-eighth matches of the Champions League is still very long, and Liverpool need to revert the focus of the team to the domestic league in these two weeks.

Fortunately, because Liverpool’s city rival Everton will have a domestic cup to play, this Merseyside Derby, which was supposed to be the weekend after the first leg of the Champions League knockout round, will be postponed to April. This allowed Liverpool, who spent a lot of time with Atletico Madrid, to get a lot of rest during this period of time.

After more than a week of rest time, the physical energy consumed in a fierce battle with Atletico Madrid was replenished, and Liverpool's opponent was replaced by Manchester City.

Manchester City, since entering February, in the league competition, there are some signs of collapse.

Originally, the team's fourth-line battle, although it is advancing, but also makes the players' physical fitness still greatly affected.

For the four-line battle situation, Manchester City has recently experienced some lagging behind in double matches for a week, or even a three-day match.

Or the players were unable to keep up with their physical fitness and were unable to perform at their best in the game, making Manchester City's game eventually reduced to two and a half lines.

The first to be out is the FA Cup.

Before the start of the Champions League knockout rounds, Manchester City, which had been fighting on multiple fronts, encountered it in the draw of the FA Cup. After the beginning of the new year, Chelsea gradually recovered some of the game conditions.

Chelsea played at home and did not give Manchester City face at all. They beat Manchester City 5-1 at home. Judging from the team's outstanding performance, there was no situation in which they would fall to the edge of relegation in the first half.

It can only be said that this is the strength of Chelsea players.

As long as Mourinho dismisses get out of class, the team will immediately recover spontaneously, from a relegation team before the new year to a powerful team with good strength.

Therefore, Mourinho's dismissal is not so much a poor record, as it is that the relationship with the players is too rigid, so that the players are on the court and can't do their best for him.

Manchester City was completely eliminated in the FA Cup, and in the Premier League, it also lost two straight into February.

Leicester City, which is at the top of the list, has reached a 10-point gap, which can be said to be hopeless.

Therefore, of course, Manchester City wants to focus all of their attention on the English League Cup and the Champions League arena, to try their best to compete for the highest honor.

In the Premier League schedule, this match against Liverpool is a compelling matchup, and it is also a key battle that concerns whether the goals of the two teams can be achieved in the Premier League.

For Liverpool, at this time, it needs to win more matches to catch up with Leicester City, which ranks first. For the honor of the Premier League's three consecutive championships, Klopp and Liverpool's management still value it very much.

As far as Manchester City is concerned, with a gap of 10 points from the top of the list, they no longer have any illusions about the championship this season, but this year's Premier League competition for four teams is quite fierce.

Today's Manchester City, after two consecutive defeats and one less round of the match, has fallen to fifth and fell out of the Champions League.

They are only 3 points away from Arsenal, ranked fourth, and only 2 points away from Manchester United and West Ham United behind them.

It can be said that Manchester City shifted its focus to the Cup, especially the long-awaited Champions League competition for the championship, it is not impossible, but first of all, you have to ensure a Champions League place next season in the league.

After all, the broadcast revenue of the Champions League game is very important for Manchester City, which needs to smooth out financial statements and prove that there is no violation of the fairness law.

Manchester City may not value the tens of millions of euros of funds shared by the UEFA Champions League broadcast, but they value such book "revenue" to ensure that Manchester City is not punished by UEFA due to financial problems.

In this red and blue battle, before the game, many media supported Liverpool to win at home.

After all, compared to Manchester City, which has frequent schedules and turbulent teams in the recent past, Liverpool's team lineup is more tidy, and the players are in good physical fitness.

Manchester City just finished the final of the British League Cup. Although they won the championship, they were also driven to a desperate situation by Everton. It can only be said that they have dedicated a lot and have at least one champion to let the coach leave decently.

That's right, the Manchester City management's sorrow operation did indeed have some "amazing" European football, and also caused some of its own team to fall into turmoil.

In February, Manchester City unilaterally announced that the team will sign with Bayern coach Pep Guardiola, who has announced that they will not renew their contract with Bayern earlier this summer. Pep Guardiola will take his pass to control the football. Manchester.

But such an official announcement is somewhat unfair to the current coach Pellegrini.

You know, Pellegrini’s contract is up to 2017, so Manchester City’s operation is equivalent to explaining, I will let you lead the team for half a year, and then after the season, no matter what your performance is, even if you win 4 crowns Wang, I also want to "fire you".

When the official announcement was made, Manchester City was fighting on the fourth line, and even the fourth line was likely to compete for the championship.

As a result, it was an official announcement by the Manchester City management that completely plunged Pellegrini into an embarrassing position, and the players were also moved. Manchester City's performance instantly went into turbulence and there was a tendency to collapse.

Especially in the two key league games after this, Manchester City has two consecutive home games, against Tottenham and Leicester City.

The result was that Manchester City, which was clearly underperforming, was defeated 1-3 by Leicester City at home and then beaten 1-2 by Tottenham.

Then it was a 5-1 loss to Chelsea.

Three consecutive scenes of direct defeat of the giants, so that Pellegrini's haggard performance, directly appeared for the headlines of major sports newspapers.

During his tenure, he was officially announced as his successor. Pellegrini's last post is what Manchester City fans want to see.

Fortunately, at least I just won a Europa League championship. Even when facing Everton, the game was scored into a penalty shootout, but it was a champion anyway.

After a difficult February, the Manchester City fans also hope that the team can regain their form and be able to play vigorously in the away game when facing Liverpool.

This red and blue battle is another time for Manchester City to face the giants. The previous 3 games were all lost. This time it needs Manchester City to use its good performance to justify its name.

In this away game against Liverpool, Pellegrini’s Manchester City starting list ~lightnovelpub.net~ has not changed much from before.

Although Manchester City has ample personnel reserves, for Pellegrini, the use of the starting list will not change much except for injury factors.

Manchester City continued its 451 formation, single forward, of course, the most stable scorer Aguero in the Manchester City lineup.

Fernando, Fernandinho, and David Silva serve as the team's three midfielders, responsible for the midfield defense and offensive organization.

Navas and Sterling continue to separate the left and right sides. Both are speed-type side players. Both of them appear on the field at the same time, which represents Manchester City's wing attack and will play extremely aggressively.

The four-back Sabarata also has Klixi as Manchester City's two full-backs, and Otamendi is a double center-back combination of partner captain Kompany.

The goalkeeper is still Joe Hart.

In fact, apart from David Silva, Guardiola's fellow, everyone else, especially the midfielders, has a great sense of crisis for Guardiola's arrival.

Everyone knows the transmission control system of Barcelona and Bayern, so is he a "dish" of Guardiola? Nobody knows.

After all, Manchester City's treatment is really good, if possible, everyone still wants to stay in such a team with no bad money.

Now the most rumors outside are Manchester City’s Joe Hart. The Manchester City and the England national team are going to leave the team because Guardiola has said that he wants a goalkeeper who can pass, and Joe Hart is about passing the ball. , It really inherited the roughness peculiar to British players.

This also makes Joe Hart now in the game, in addition to wanting to use his saves to prove his strength, occasionally he will deliberately make a long pass to show his passing training results...