In the head coach's office at the Everton training base in Liverpool, Moyes held the opponent intelligence that assistant coach Stephen Round had just submitted to him. After reading it, he started asking.
"It's absolutely true." Stephen Land said very firmly, "This was submitted by Jim Barron and Clive Middlemass. The two of them personally went to Carrington to spy on military intelligence, and through various
We went through various channels to find out the information, which basically corroborated their intelligence."
Jim Barron is Everton's chief scout and Clive Middlemas is Everton's opposition analyst. Both scouts are used to gather intelligence on Everton's opponents for the next game.
expert.
Among them, Jim Barron has been working for the team for many years, and Middlemas has worked for many Premier League and Championship teams. He just arrived at Everton this summer. Both of them are in their early 60s and have extremely rich work experience.
Moyes heard that it was corroborated by two scouts, so he basically believed it.
According to this information, Gao Shen specially practiced set-piece offense in Manchester City, and also specially arranged targeted training and offensive routine drills for high center forward Giroud. This is already a very obvious signal.
"Stephen, what do you think?" Moyes closed the document in his hand, turned around and put it on his desk.
Stephen Ronde joined Moyes' team in 2007, but before that, he had a rich coaching experience, assisting many famous Premier League coaches including Keegan, and has been an old acquaintance with Moyes for many years.
"I guess they are wary of us adopting defensive tactics."
Moyes curled his lips, this is actually not difficult to guess.
Even from Everton's perspective, it is normal for Manchester City to make such preparations.
The 1-6 defeat to Arsenal at home in the first round was a painful blow to Everton, but this was caused by many reasons, and it was something Moyes never thought of.
The first is that Everton's own lineup is incomplete, with two main core players, Arteta and Jagielka, missing. This has a great impact on Everton.
Also, in the first round of the league, Everton's condition was not ideal and it was a bit slow to enter the game.
On the other hand, because Arsenal has to participate in the Champions League qualifying rounds, Wenger has always attached great importance to the Champions League. After all, it involves more than 10 million euros in revenue, so Arsenal's state has been adjusted very well from the beginning.
Due to many factors, Everton was led by Arsenal from the very beginning.
The Gunners' passing was too fast and accurate, and Everton was really unprepared.
It can be said that this was an accident.
But since it was an accident, it cannot be copied.
Moyes will never let the tragedy in the first round happen again in the second round.
More importantly, the second round of the league was Gao Shen's first home game in the Premier League, and his pressure was not lost to Moyes at all.
Therefore, it is indeed normal for Manchester City to predict Everton's game strategy in advance and plan for the difficulty of the game. It also implements set-piece tactics and high center forward tactics in advance.
Moyes even feels a little proud of this. After all, the Everton he coached ranked fifth in the Premier League last season, and their strength cannot be underestimated. Even Manchester City, who is coached by an experienced coach, cannot be indifferent to him.
He still has this bit of confidence and assurance.
When Stephen Round saw Moyes silent, he was also thinking secretly in his heart and asked: "Don't you want to keep it?"
Moyes looked directly at his right-hand man and smiled, "You know, Ferguson said that in a field like the Premier League, there is no future for being conservative."
Ronde was a little confused. Did Ferguson say this?
Okay, let's pretend he said that.
"But in this case, the risk is a bit high." the assistant coach reminded.
"We don't need to say that we are completely desperate to attack. We are just playing our offensive level normally, or we are just not playing conservatively. What's more, Manchester City is now sure that we will defend strictly, so
…”
There is still a chance!
Moyes thought to himself.
Stephen Round has to say that Moyes’s idea is very tempting.
Manchester City spent more than 200 million euros this summer, and counting the previous ones, it has been close to 400 million euros.
Nowadays, Gao Shen is really worth 400 million!
In the professional coaching circle, Gao Shen is now truly the world's top coach, and his popularity is unparalleled. No one will be unconvinced, because he achieved it through hard work, and his tactical concepts and achievements are also well-known.
No, although he left Serie A, Italy's Coverciano training base still invites him to teach. Every one of his classes is overcrowded, which is enough to prove Gao Shen's strength.
However, whether it is to talk about being looked down upon by his peers or to talk about the competitive pressure of professional leagues, the more Gao Shen is recognized by others, the more he is targeted, and the more people want to defeat him.
Everyone knows that defeating Gao Shen is equivalent to establishing one's position in the industry and becoming famous in one battle!
Did Allardyce not think about this level during his disastrous defeat in the first round?
What Moyes is thinking now actually involves this aspect.
Gao Shen is like a touchstone. Everyone wants to go up and test his gold content. What if he succeeds?
Besides, in the same league, we are all life-and-death opponents, who doesn’t want to win?
…………
…………
In midweek, the Premier League ushered in the second round of matches.
The first game was Carlo Ancelotti's Chelsea challenging Black Cat Sunderland away.
Chelsea was the away champion in the Premier League last season, and the Blues' away performance was quite amazing. In this game, Ancelotti made a huge rotation, rotating all three lines.
This is also what surprised Gao Shen, because Fatty An is famous in Serie A for "He can cut off his head, and he will not rotate until he beats him to death". He sticks to the same lineup to the end, but as soon as he arrived in the Premier League, he immediately started rotating.
It can be considered an improvement.
However, the price of rotation is the instability of the back line.
Sunderland took the lead with a counterattack from Darren Bent.
However, Chelsea continued to play steadily in the second half after changing sides and after constant adjustments, they finally started to exert force after fifty minutes.
The Blues still adopted a high-pressure midfield tactic, using a diamond position to contain Sunderland, with Deco at the front.
Drogba and Kalou formed a forward double.
This allowed Chelsea's midfielder to play to their heart's content. First Ballack scored, then Drogba assisted Lampard to score, and finally Bosingwa assisted Deco to score a goal.
Chelsea defeated Sunderland 3-1 away from home.
After two consecutive league reversals, both in the second half, Chelsea's overall strength and players' mental outlook have improved significantly compared to last season.
Especially after Ancelotti took charge, it can be clearly seen in two consecutive games that the Blues have improved their midfield control, and even Essien has begun to serve as a midfield passer.
This can also be regarded as a major feature of Ancelotti's transformation of Chelsea.
…
This round of Manchester United is an away game against newly promoted Burnley.
This newly promoted team has not appeared in the top league for 33 years, and they have not defeated Manchester United for 41 years. This makes Manchester United full of confidence before the game. Everyone feels that the Red Devils will win their opponent away from home.
A matter of minutes.
The key is not whether you can win, but how many goals you can win.
Ferguson also rotated the team's lineup, including Valencia, who rested many of the main players who played in the first round.
As a result, surprisingly, in the 19th minute, veteran Blake's long-range shot sent a world wave, and goalkeeper Foster, who replaced the injured Edwin van der Sar, was completely helpless.
What's even more surprising is that after conceding a goal first, the Red Devils launched a fierce attack on Burnley, but both the midfield and the frontcourt, the players were a little tired, especially in the 44th minute.
, Manchester United won a penalty, but Carrick missed it.
This was a huge blow to Manchester United's morale.
After that, no matter how Manchester United attacked, Ferguson even replaced Berbatov and Valencia in one breath, but the result still failed to reverse the situation.
In the end, Manchester United lost 0-1 to newly promoted Burnley in an away game, causing the first big upset in the Premier League in the new season.
Ferguson was so angry that he probably had to turn on the hairdryer after the game.
Gao Shen also watched this game and basically reflected his previous judgment on Manchester United.
If the midfielder cannot produce the ball and the center forward feeds the midfielder, the biggest hidden danger is that the players on the forward line are not in ideal condition.
Ferguson made a rotation in this game, using Irving to replace Berbatov, who had a sluggish performance in the first round, but the effect was also very bad. Today's Irving is no longer the trend-chasing boy he was back then, but more of an opportunist.
With Rooney alone in the frontcourt, even if they were facing a small town team, Manchester United would not be able to come up with a very effective solution when the opponent was heavily defensive.
At the same time, this game still reminds Gao Shen that even a newly promoted team like Burnley can overturn Manchester United.
…
Tottenham defeated Hull City 5-1 at home, and Redknapp's team finally exhaled and raised their eyebrows.
Benitez's Liverpool also shined in this game, beating Stoke City 4-0 at Anfield.
It is obvious that after Benitez reorganized the double midfielder, Liverpool's midfield immediately returned to order.
The Spanish coach's biggest coaching trick is to double the defensive midfielder. After Biglia joined, his back straightened and Liverpool's results also came out.
Arsenal, which beat Everton in the first round, faced Bolton at home. As a result, they conceded a goal in the seventh minute. However, Arsenal's players then exerted their strength and kept chasing. First, they equalized the score before the end of the first half.
Then he scored three goals in the second half and finally reversed Bolton by four points.
…
Nine games were played in the second round, and a total of five teams won two consecutive victories, namely Arsenal, which ranked first, and then Liverpool, Fulham, Chelsea and West Ham United.
Manchester City has one game less and is temporarily ranked eighth, while Manchester United is ranked ninth.
Judging from the start, Manchester United had more problems, while Arsenal was as vigorous as ever.
The Gunners' start and the first half of the game are always very strong and amazing. The key lies in the winter break and the second half.
The finale of the second round is when Manchester City faces Everton at home.
This is also Manchester City's first home game of the new season, and it is also Gao Shen's first home game in the Premier League.
The entire Etihad Stadium prepared a grand welcome ceremony for Gao Shen.
The person responsible for commentating this game is Sky TV's gold medal team, Andy Gray and Martin Taylor.
After seeing the display of the Manchester City home fans, both of them couldn't help but sigh from the bottom of their hearts.
