Moyes was still confused when he walked into the Etihad Stadium.
Ever since he saw Manchester City's lineup, he has been troubled by a problem.
Why did Gao Shen create such a lineup?
When he walked into the stadium, he happened to see Gao Shen waiting for him at the entrance of the players' tunnel. The smile on his face made Moyes have no doubt that Gao Shen was not as disappointed when he saw his lineup as he thought.
.
On the contrary, Gao Shen seemed very confident.
How is this going?
Could it be that my information is wrong?
It was the first time that the two met on the playing field, but their friendship with each other was not good. After a few polite greetings, they each returned to their coaching benches to prepare.
Moyes took two steps and turned back to look at Gao Shen's back, feeling very puzzled.
Especially when he returned to his position and saw the positioning of Manchester City's lineup, he felt something was wrong.
How to describe that kind of weirdness?
Normally, before the start of the game, both teams will set up their respective formations, so that we can roughly see the positions of each other's players.
But Manchester City's position tonight is very strange.
Since Everton kicked off first, five Manchester City players were positioned in a semicircle, close to the center circle of their own half, and one was alone on the left side of the center line.
But there is no one on the right sideline, and the entire right half looks very empty, which makes Manchester City's entire formation look very asymmetrical.
The lineup is also weird.
Goalkeeper: Neuer.
Defense: Gareth Bale, David Luiz, Kompany and Zabaleta.
This line of defense was also Manchester City's lineup for the first round. Gao Shen only rotated one full-back, obviously hoping for stability.
Midfielder: David Silva, Henderson and Rakitic.
Forwards: Hazard, Suarez and Sturridge.
This was Moyes' original guess.
Because judging from Manchester City's warm-up match performance, Gao Shen has always placed Hazard in the left wing position.
But in the actual game, Gao Shen discovered that Sturridge was standing on the far left side of the center line, Hazard was standing near the left side of the center circle, and Suarez was standing near the right side of the center circle.
David Silva, Henderson and Rakitic formed an arc, standing close to the center circle.
What position is this?
Why is it all so messed up?
Moyes was very puzzled.
"What the hell is he doing?" Stephen Land was also very surprised.
In the entire coaching bench, all members of Everton's coaching staff felt very confused, and they obviously did not understand Gao Shen's intentions.
But it didn't matter. After the game started, they quickly saw the clues.
…
As the game whistle blew, it was Sturridge who was near the left line. He was the first to press towards Everton's hinterland, and his speed was very fast, forcing Everton's midfield back pass to be transferred.
Go to the side road.
At this moment, Hazard and Suarez look like two attacking midfielders dragging behind Sturridge.
The first pass into the penalty area came from Manchester City.
Sturridge dribbled the ball from the left and cut inside, then hit the wall with Suarez and handed it to Hazard. The latter sent the ball into the penalty area to find Suarez, but was blocked by central defender Yabo and failed to pass to Suarez.
At his feet.
But the first shot of the game came from Everton, Tim Cahill's long shot, which went straight high.
The pace of the game was very fast, and neither side held back.
Judging from the game, Manchester City's advantage in passing and controlling the ball is still obvious, but the pace is faster.
And Moyes also gradually saw that the positioning of Manchester City players on the court was by no means the 433 that Gao Shen was good at, but actually 442, and it was a 442 in the midfield diamond position.
"What the hell is this guy doing?" Moyes was confused.
Manchester City was a newly reorganized team, and it was not easy to put together a lineup. However, they played 4-3-3 in the first round and beat teams like Blackburn. In the second round at home, not only did they not continue the lineup from the first round, but
Rotation, even changing formations.
Doesn't he know that this is a taboo for Manchester City at this moment?
Four four two, midfield diamond position, this is Ancelotti's tactics at Chelsea!
But Gao Shen's style of play is completely different from Ancelotti's.
As we all know, the 442 diamond-shaped midfield position has several characteristics. One is that the attack is initiated by the No. 10 position, which is the attacking midfielder. Together with the two central midfielders, it can quickly form an offensive numerical advantage in the frontcourt.
This is a tactic of attacking the middle, so Gao Shen hid Robinho and Robben tonight.
Ancelotti's Chelsea adopted a midfield diamond position in order to improve the ball propulsion problem and maximize the advantages and role of Drogba, a powerful high center forward.
But the advanced playing style is completely different.
First, he didn't worry about the ball advancing at all.
Needless to say, David Silva and Rakitic, Suarez himself is also a good player in dribbling the ball. Even Hazard, judging from his several dribbling postures, is quite skillful.
In this case, Manchester City does not need to worry about the ball advancing at all.
The change of Gao Shen is that the positions of the two forwards and the No. 10 attacking midfielder, namely Sturridge, Suarez and Hazard, are actually very flexible.
Just like just now, Sturridge quickly moved forward from the left to apply pressure, and Suarez and Hazard retreated.
Later, after Suarez pressed forward, Hazard began to play the role of No. 10.
But the three players often change positions.
More importantly, as soon as Everton grabs the ball, no matter who the three players are, the one closest to them immediately puts pressure on them, or even pulls wide and chases back, while the other two automatically play the role of double forwards.
The purpose of this is to solve the problem of pressure from the frontcourt and the wings that exists in the 442 diamond position.
But there is another problem with this lineup, that is, the single defensive midfielder cannot protect the two ribs enough.
This is actually the reason why Chelsea was scored in two consecutive rounds.
But Gao Shen obviously expected that Everton did not have the kind of player who was good at hitting the ribs. The more threatening player was Pienaar, so he arranged for Rakitic to position further back, clearly to suppress it.
Pienaar.
In other words, with Everton's current lineup configuration, there is no good way to face Manchester City's lineup.
But the advantages of this lineup are obvious, especially when attacking. Gao Shen directly and boldly asked the two full-backs to actively move forward, especially Gareth Bale, who almost used himself as a full-back, and even
The winger is in use.
From the very beginning, Gareth Bale was very active, frequently inserting very high along the left wing when attacking.
Moyes was also looking anxiously on the sidelines.
Everton's players are somewhat uncomfortable with Manchester City's change.
They also did not expect that Manchester City would change from the original 433 to the current 442.
The thing is, they seem to be adapting quite well.
…
"Tactics are dead, formations are dead, but people are alive."
Gao Shen laughed and said while watching the game from the sidelines.
He is very satisfied with the progress of the game, Manchester City has gradually overwhelmed Everton.
"As long as players know what they should do on the court at any time, why they do it, and how to do it, then they can perform their duties well no matter what position they are on the court without having to
Imprisoned and bound by location.”
Gao Shen indeed guessed that Moyes might defend tightly, but he has never been a person who would give up the initiative to his opponents or take advantage of small-probability events, so he not only arranged set-piece attacks, but also arranged good luck.
Lu's high forward tactics are all preparations for a long-term attack.
But what he really wants to do is to defeat Everton in a head-to-head confrontation.
Although it is only the second round of the Premier League, rotation is also necessary.
Ancelotti's Chelsea are rotating, Ferguson's Manchester United are also rotating, and even Wenger's Arsenal have made a lot of adjustments, and the sophisticated Manchester City will naturally be no exception.
So, he switched to a four-four-two diamond stance.
The 4-4-2 formation is quite popular in the Premier League.
Gao Shen is particularly looking forward to the dual strikers of Sturridge and Suarez, Hazard playing as an attacking midfielder, and Gareth Bale on the left.
After all, this tactical style of play relies heavily on the offensive power of the full-backs.
As for Hazard, he actually played as an attacking midfielder in Lille, which is his old profession. In his previous life, Gao Shen joined Chelsea and transformed into a left winger. This was all the result of transformation.
Just when Gao Shen was thinking about it, Manchester City quickly transferred the ball to the left wing after stealing the ball in their own half.
Before Gareth Bale could cross the halfway line, he spotted an opportunity and sent a diagonal pass with his left foot. He transferred the ball to the left rib of the frontcourt and handed it to Hazard.
The Belgian midfielder stopped the ball, and before Fellaini could get close, he quickly passed the ball directly to the center of the frontcourt.
Although both Suarez and Sturridge fought hard to catch up, Phil Neville, who played as a central defender in this game, retreated quickly, but Sturridge was very persistent and had Phil Neville entangled with him.
The Everton central defender failed to clear the ball in time and tried to block Sturridge with his body, but the Manchester City striker actually stalked him and the two became entangled.
Phil Neville tried to make a clearance in a hurry, but lost his balance, fell to the ground, and failed to kick the ball.
The referee didn't blow the whistle.
Sturridge was stunned for a moment and had no time to catch up with the ball.
On the contrary, Suarez, who rushed over, caught up without thinking, took the lead, and kicked a volley directly to the left of the top area of the arc.
This shot was powerful and heavy, and the ball flew straight to the right side of the Everton goal with lightning speed.
Howard stood on the left side, reacted quickly and dived sideways, but in the end he still failed to catch Suarez's furious shot.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
"Eight minutes into the game, it's Suarez again!"
"A volley from the edge of the penalty area opened the scoring for Manchester City, one to zero!"
The entire Etihad Stadium instantly erupted.
All the Manchester City fans rushed out of their seats and cheered wildly.
Suarez quickly rushed to the sideline and celebrated his third Premier League goal this season.
Gao Shen also calmly raised his right fist in the home team's coaching bench and sent congratulations to Suarez from afar.
He knew in his heart that Manchester City's offensive storm tonight had just begun!
