593. Small victory over Tottenham
In the last game against Villa, Manchester City had many players rested. De Bruyne was able to play in this game, while Silva had some minor injuries. He felt some muscle problems during training, and he had not participated in the joint training these two days.
Wensheng is not only considering Tottenham’s issue, he also has to consider Barcelona’s issue. After playing Tottenham, Manchester City will go to the Camp Nou to challenge Barcelona. This game must be very powerful!
“How is it feeling lately?!”
"We must hold on to it at critical moments! Of course, we must say that the small problem is that we have finally had a relatively complete lineup now, so we can't ruin ourselves again!"
"At this stage, you don't have to think about anything, play well!"
"Don't worry about family affairs, I hope your family can support you!"
Tian Wensheng often talks with his players in the past two days. Even during Friday's training day, he asked the club to prepare and invited the players' families to come to the training base to have a dinner together and visit the team's three glorious years!
On Saturday afternoon, Manchester City arrived at White Hart Lane Stadium on time.
There are two teams in North London, one is native Tottenham Hotspur, and the other is considered an outsider. Arsenal has spent a huge amount of money to build a new stadium, and the income from each match day makes Tottenham jealous.
There is no way to avoid jealousy. More seats and more commercial facilities, of course, means huge profits.
So Tottenham also proposed a new stadium plan, and they planned to rebuild the White Hart Lane Stadium.
The White Hart Lane Stadium now can only accommodate more than 30,000 spectators, but Tottenham Hotspur fans are very large. Many people cannot enter the stadium to watch the game, and many facilities are also relatively outdated.
Levi is stingy in the transfer market, and the construction of the new stadium is also one of the reasons why he is stingy.
In his first year of coaching Tottenham, Pochettino was not as amazing as he imagined. This is actually very normal. The personnel and tactics need to be adjusted. He and Tottenham players also have a running-in process. At the beginning of the season, Pochettino performed poorly and later slowly followed. Now he and his Tottenham have 58 points, so there is definitely no chance to compete for the Champions League qualification, but they rank sixth and might even be able to catch the last train of the Europa League.
This is not the first time that Wen Sheng and Pochettino have met. When Pochettino coached Southampton, the two were opponents and their relationship was quite good. However, this time, neither side would give anyone face, and everyone wanted these three points.
After a promise of a cup after the game, both of them hurriedly returned to their respective positions.
Manchester City sent a 4231 formation in this game, and Pochettino also used 4231.
After both sides entered the game, the pace was very fast. Wensheng did not want to play against Tottenham in this game, and Pochettino was not the kind of conservative head coach.
Because of this, both sides shot frequently, but the first one to take the lead was Manchester City. In the 12th minute, Manchester City took advantage of Tottenham's corner kick off the attack. Navas threw the ball and launched a quick attack. Manchester City made a smooth counterattack. Suarez shot a single shot from the close-angle and pierced through the goal guarded by Lori.
After that, the rhythm of the game dropped, but Manchester City's two defensive players in the midfield, Kimmich and Milner, were not good at defending and failed to help Manchester City control the rhythm. Instead, Tottenham Hotspur's outstanding performance in the midfield vaguely suppressed Manchester City's momentum with their outstanding performance.
Tottenham also had many opportunities in the first half, but unfortunately, Navas was the only one who was in the way, so Tottenham was unable to break the Manchester City goal.
"If you can't control the midfield, do you want to substitute?" Brian asked Wensheng. The coaching team actually thought of many ways to maintain the team's state, but sometimes the state is not psychologically controlled, and physical condition is the key.
Even big-name stars are in a downturn, not to mention that Manchester City are still playing young player Kimmich and veteran Milner today!
"Let's take a look first! We have Barcelona in the middle of the week, so we have to let Casemiro take a breath!" Wen Sheng was helpless. Dembele was injured. Dembele was also injured a lot this season. Fernandinho was suspended in this game. In order to accumulate strength for Barcelona, he had to make certain sacrifices.
So the temporary combination of Kimmich and Milner appeared, but the effect was not good.
"Look at their Harry Kane?" Wensheng pointed at Kane.
"Not bad, very potential!"
"Maybe I'll take a break next season, so, Brian, you can tell Malwood, you can tell Sorrentino, Kane, Manchester City should buy it! He can play two forwards! It forms a certain competition with Suarez!"
Brian Kidd smiled, "I'm really worried about leaving?"
Of course Wensheng would not say that Kane is really useful. Manchester City bought him to save money!
Tottenham's offensive in the second half was even more fierce. Judging from live TV, Manchester City is the second in the league, and there is no advantage in front of Tottenham. Professional players actually know that Manchester City's state in the league can't be said to be good, but they can still win certain games. On the contrary, Manchester City's form is definitely very good in the Champions League.
Navas was in a hurry, and Harry Kane also performed very well, but the problem was that he was still a little bit short of goals.
With Taylor's whistle on duty, Tottenham, who beat Manchester City 21, lost 0-1 to Manchester City at home, and Manchester City only had 13 shots in the game, 7 fewer than their opponents. It doesn't look like a dominant team.
Pochettino said in an interview after the game: "Navas performed so well today. He was the best in the game, and it was the difference between Tottenham and Manchester City. We had the opportunity to score with a corner kick, but Manchester City seized this counterattack opportunity and scored by Suarez. I think we were a little unlucky and we were disappointed with the result."
Their defender Ross was also very regretful in an interview: "We deserved to get 1 point, we have 2 or 3 excellent opportunities, and Manchester City just seized their first real goal opportunity. I think we did a good job against the strong team at home, and everyone should be proud. I hope we can get 9 points in the remaining 3 games."
When evaluating the game, Wen Sheng also admitted that Manchester City was not as good as expected today. "For Tottenham Hotspur, it is a pity that we failed to get points at home. Our performance today is not as impressive as some games! But I want to say that Tottenham are worthy of one point, but we are also worthy of three-pointers!"
The reporters thought to themselves, what did you mean?!
Don't worry, Wensheng really gave an explanation.
Chapter completed!