The morning after arriving in Barcelona, Gao Shen was woken up on time by the alarm clock on his mobile phone.
He lay lazily on the bed, mentally cursing the group of Barcelona fans who had been noisy outside the hotel last night, and then gathered his energy and got up from the bed.
After brushing his teeth and washing his face, Gao Shen changed his clothes and made a video call to Su Qing who was far away in Manchester.
During the continuous away games, I didn't stay at home for a few days during this period.
Su Qing was fine. She chatted with him about domestic matters and didn't mention Leeds United at all.
This is also a tacit understanding between her and Gao Shen.
This is a critical moment for Manchester City, and she will not mention Leeds United to express her feelings.
On the contrary, she kept asking him how he was preparing.
Although it was through the video, she also noticed that Gao Shen looked like he hadn't slept well.
There is no other person in the world who knows better than her what Gao Shen looks like when he has had enough sleep, and what the reaction is like when he does not get enough sleep.
"Stop talking, a group of Barcelona fans were beating gongs and drums outside the hotel last night. They were so angry." Gao Shen said speechlessly.
"I really wanted to call Guardiola last night."
"Hey, you didn't sleep well, do you want to drag him into the water?" Su Qing chuckled.
"Does he still need me to pull him? Let me tell you, he must not have slept well last night."
When it comes to understanding Guardiola, most people would consider him number two, but few would consider him number one.
Guardiola is a troubled guy. It would be strange if he could sleep peacefully before this kind of game.
"Seriously, does the hotel not care if those fans are making such a fuss?"
"What the hell, why don't you care?" Gao Shen was speechless, "Isn't this blocking people at the door of the hotel?"
"that's all?"
"Otherwise? People are making noise on the road outside and they haven't entered your hotel. Can you take care of it?"
"Didn't call the police?"
"Reported."
"Then what?"
"The police station came around symbolically to ask them not to affect the rest of surrounding residents and hotel guests."
"Um?"
"Then, as soon as they heard that we were living there, they left."
"Is this okay?" Su Qing was also speechless.
Gao Shen was desperate, "I should have made a video call to you last night to listen to the beautiful singing."
"Don't! Sleep is the best skin care product for women."
The two of them chatted wordlessly until Gao Shen went out.
…
Not only did Gao Shen not sleep well, Carlo and others also looked listless.
It’s not surprising, except for those people who are super capable of sleeping, who can still cheer up after being disturbed all night?
"To be honest, all of us have been dragged down by you."
When Carlo saw Gao Shen, he was full of complaints.
"You said it was not good for you to offend anyone. Offend the Barcelona fans? Now you are fine. You have come to their territory and they won't even let you sleep. You tell me, how much they hate you!"
Everyone was in awe after hearing this.
Gao Shen was also speechless, "It's been several years, and they haven't made any progress at all. They are still the same."
"Who says it's not?" Buenaventura was also very depressed.
"It doesn't matter if the tricks are old, as long as they are easy to use." Carlo is still insightful.
The whole breakfast passed with the complaints from Manchester City coaches.
As with all away match days, the team's breakfast is a collective affair, with all players eating together.
After breakfast, everyone went back to rest, and then arrived at the hotel's conference room on time.
This is a routine business of each game day.
Especially when there are double matches a week like this, there is less time for meetings on weekdays. The pre-match meeting on the morning of the match day is particularly important. The senior team will arrange some precautions during the match and the people who need attention.
That's the same today.
…
At the beginning of the meeting, Carlo took the lead in introducing this game and analyzing the opponent.
Carlos Vargas distributed a report to each player, which included some data analysis and targeted data on their opponent players.
Buenaventura and Pintus will brief the players on aspects such as physical fitness and physical confrontation.
For example, like Manchester City vs. Barcelona, Manchester City has an advantage in terms of physical fitness. Therefore, even if the enforcement standards of the Champions League are different from those of the Premier League, the coaching staff still encourages players to appropriately increase the physical fitness of Barcelona players within the standards of the Champions League enforcement.
confrontation.
This is the advantage of Manchester City.
Besides, if we really want to fight for possession of the ball, can Manchester City beat Barcelona?
This is the highlight.
Gao Shen is often the last one to appear. He will summarize the remarks of previous members of the coaching staff, analyze the overall strategic situation, and lay out the tasks and strategic goals of the game.
For this game, a deep attitude is to score away.
The goal of Manchester City is of course to win. If you want to win, you have to score.
"Just now Carlos said that their data team has studied almost all of Barcelona's games this season, and they found that Barcelona has a characteristic, which is that they like to control the ball and the rhythm."
This is a nonsense, but it is obviously not what I want to express.
"But we all know that the biggest trouble is starting and ending."
The players nodded.
Manchester City itself is also a team that is very good at controlling the ball and rhythm, so they know why the beginning and the end are more difficult.
The first is the start. At the beginning of the game, you can't just control the ball if you want to control it, or control the rhythm if you want to control the rhythm. You need a process.
It's like a car, it takes a few seconds to accelerate from zero to one hundred.
Has anyone seen someone jump from zero to one hundred in an instant?
No!
Even airplanes and rockets require this acceleration process.
The same goes for controlling the rhythm.
You need to control the ball, control the space, and form an advantage before you can control the rhythm.
Therefore, Barcelona's control over the start is relatively weak.
"When playing against Barcelona, it is very important to get the start."
Last season's UEFA Champions League finals, high -profile also wanted to start a wave, but did not grab the goal.
"Barcelona's control will be stronger than last season. Their overall ball control will be more skillful, their players will cooperate more tacitly, and they will have more experience, so their ability to control the ball and control the rhythm will be even better."
"So, we started to grab a wave, the best success, not to score the goal, it is still the same, steady, counterattack!"
High -profile is pragmatic. When facing a team like Barcelona, he doesn't mind gougoling.
Even, he doesn't mind taking David Silva and letting Yaya Toure start.
The desire to fight for the battle in Cottida midfielder was very strong. In the previous league, he scored a goal. After the game, he found high and deep. He repeatedly requested the battle Barcelona, especially Norku.
High profound decision all over him.
When visiting Camp Nou, Manchester City's defensive pressure will be great. The midfield combination of Yaya Toure, Xavi Martinez and Rakitic should be able to strengthen Manchester City's midfield.
The reason why he arranged it this way was because of another set of data given by the analysis team.
"Barcelona's offense will break through more from the center, especially the two ribs, so no matter where the ball is, they will move back to the center. Our midfielder must pay attention to this."
"Once the opponent takes control of the game, the rhythm will lack changes. They are used to playing at a certain rhythm, so you have to adapt to them and don't be too obsessed with grabbing the ball. What you have to do is to maintain the overall formation.
Orderly and thorough.”
"The three midfielders can go forward, but they must be able to retreat to me in time. The defense must be tightened and let them go to the wings."
"Even our two full-backs, Felipe and Lichtsteiner, you have to pay attention to moving into the penalty area when retreating. Don't worry about them passing the ball. Let them pass as long as they are not in front of the baseline.
Just pass the ball, do you understand?"
Felipe and Lichtsteiner both nodded, they understood what Gao Shen meant.
"They will have a lot of passing, large-scale transfers, and cross-positioning of players. You are familiar with this, right? You all know what the purpose of this is, right?"
The players all nodded.
Manchester City are also familiar with most of these things, and even why they do it is taught to them by Gao Shen on a daily basis.
Not only do they know how, they also know why.
Now, this can help them better understand Barcelona's tactical intentions.
"All in all, in this game, we have to focus on the two openings and the two endings. The rest of the time, let Barcelona control the ball. We have to stabilize our position. They control their ball. We have to focus on our defensive formation and order.
.”
When speaking of this, Gao Shen pointed to Javi Martinez.
"Xavi, your position is very critical. You must stand firm for me. I don't care whether it's Messi playing the ninth position, Fabregas, Aguero, or two forwards plus the tenth position."
Both attacking midfielders are good, but you must protect the penalty area unshakably for me, do you understand?"
"Understood!" Javi Martinez assured solemnly.
After joining Manchester City, his level has improved rapidly and he is now truly the world's number one defensive midfielder, not losing to Barcelona's Sergio Busquets and Real Madrid's Xavi Alonso.
The difference is that Xavi Martinez's defensive ability is stronger, especially high balls and physical confrontations. He is also good with his feet and has excellent passing ability, but in the end he is not as good as technical midfielders such as Busquets and Xabi Alonso.
But in Manchester City, what Gao Shen relies on most is his defense and positioning.
"We already played against Barcelona once in the Champions League final last season. In the past three years, we have also played against many different high-level opponents. We even played against the champion of the Copa Libertadores in South America."
"I believe that everyone has rich game experience and can deal with various opponents, but I still have to emphasize one point again. Playing against Barcelona, we will encounter more challenges and greater threats."
"Even now, I still can't guess what tactics Guardiola will adopt, but that doesn't matter."
"The important thing is that you remember what I just said, and that during the game, throughout the game, from the moment the whistle blows to the end of the whistle, you must maintain two hundred percent for me.
Focus.”
"Focus will help us win!"
At this point, Gao Shen has said all he needs to say.
"Everyone didn't sleep well last night. Take a good rest at noon and recuperate. In the evening, go to Camp Nou and play Barcelona!"
As Gao Shen waved his hand, the players all responded and stood up to disperse.
…
After seeing off the players, Gao Shen discussed with the coaching staff in the conference room for a while.
It wasn't until noon, when he was about to go to dinner, that Gao Shen suddenly received a phone call.
