This Christmas, Dick spent it in a hurry, because although Christmas fell in the middle of the week, Manchester City would not have to play two games in a row before and after Christmas, but there were so many things, Dick didn't have time to feel comfortable.
For Christmas, he just flew to Monaco with Charlotte, attended the royal family dinner and rushed back quickly. Charlotte stayed in Monaco to reunite with her family, and Dick rushed back alone.
return……
Although a bit pitiful, Manchester City's performance after Christmas was good. On the 28th, they defeated Blackburn 4-2. Di Natale scored twice, and Barnes and Ashley Young, who came on the bench, also
Each scored one goal, and just two days later, they met Liverpool. In this game, Manchester City was more defensive, and finally tied with Liverpool 0-0 - during the devil's Christmas period, they were able to achieve such a result.
The results are already quite good.
During this period, Arsenal also had one win and one draw, and continued to be one point ahead of Manchester City. Manchester United fell behind. They had one win and one loss in the two league rounds, leaving a one-point gap behind Manchester City.
Dick is very satisfied with the current performance of the team. Being able to survive this period of devilish schedule proves that Manchester City's current strength is quite good, and the state of the entire team has also been stimulated. The same is true for them in the second half of the season.
When starting to sprint.
In the first half of the season, Manchester City's game will be somewhat ups and downs due to issues such as running-in, but other strong teams also have some ups and downs due to the Champions League. In the second half of the season, unless they play in the Champions League and can enter the final, in fact the Champions League
The impact on them is not particularly big. This time is the biggest test for Manchester City. Now that Manchester City can show the ability to still perform well after rotation, this will give them a better chance in the next league sprint.
Performance.
Manchester City's games are getting better and better, but Vassell is getting more and more anxious. Now he has to go to training every day. Being late will be fined. He has to watch the game in the stands every time, even if he goes to an away game.
More importantly, his agent has been active for a long time, but no Premier League team has extended an olive branch to him...
Not to mention the top teams, the mid-range teams also have their own forwards. Vassell, the relegation team, didn't want to go to the relegation team before. Now even the relegation teams have no one who wants him because of his salary.
too high...
"Admit your mistake and try to return to the first team..." The agent came to persuade Vassell.
Vassell is unwilling to do this. After all, it is too embarrassing to do so. In addition, even if he returns to the first team, there is no place for him in the first team now. Torres will return from injury soon. Sturridge
He has become the new favorite of Manchester City fans, and there is no place for him in the front line. What is the use of returning to the first team?
He could only comfort his agent. There was still a month left before the winter transfer window closed. He could slowly look for it, even if his salary was reduced, as long as there was football to play...
Vassell is depressed, but Dick doesn't pay attention to how depressed he is. Anyway, it's his business if Vassell leaves. If he doesn't leave, there is still one and a half years left on the contract. With Manchester City's current financial resources, they can't support him for another year and a half.
There is no problem. The key is that all the players can see Vassell's appearance now. This can be regarded as a deterrent to everyone, lest those who don't open their eyes come out again, want to leave and open their eyes, and seriously propose to change.
If you know how to apply, the club will never give you a hard time. If you play any tricks, the club has rules and regulations to punish you!
While Vassell was depressed, Dick was chatting with Torres.
After a month of recuperation, Torres has fully recovered. In fact, his injuries can be healed in two weeks. However, Dick knows that Torres has actually been tired for a long time, and some minor injuries have not been completely healed. It happened that Sturi
Qi performed well, and there is no harm in letting him recuperate for a while. In fact, after a month of rest, Torres has reached a very good point in both physical fitness and condition. In the second half of the season, Manchester City will still rely on him.
The power launches the final sprint for the championship!
"How's it going? Do you feel any pressure? It took me a month to recuperate, but a little guy performed so well." Dick said to Torres with a smile. Sturridge's performance in the past month has indeed been outstanding, playing five games.
In the game, he scored two goals and performed very well in the game. This really puts pressure on the main force.
"There's not much pressure... there will be competition everywhere, as long as I perform better." Torres laughed. He knew why Dick was talking to him, because Dick was worried that he would have other ideas...
…
"It's best if you think like this...The next three days will be the league game against Newcastle, and then there will be two consecutive cup games. I plan to gradually let you find the state of the game. Don't be too anxious. If you have the previous
The situation is good. I will let you play for ten or twenty minutes. In the FA Cup game, I will let you play half time. When you wait until the League Cup, you will be able to start. Take your time. We still have half of this season to go and three more.
There is a championship waiting for us to win, and my bonus depends entirely on your performance." Dick laughed heartily.
"No problem, boss, I will definitely perform well... After you left, I haven't tasted the taste of a championship for a long time." Torres smiled slightly, these words were his true words, Coach Dick
During those two years at Atletico Madrid, although Torres was a substitute, he won two league championships, a Champions League championship and a UEFA Cup championship with the team. After Dick left, everything began to become so difficult.
Come to think of it, Atletico Madrid has not won a decent championship in the past five years. As the captain of Atletico Madrid, Torres also feels very depressed. But now, being able to fight for some decent honors as the main force, Torres is very much looking forward to it and very excited.
eager.
He knows that the second half of the season will be even more severe, which is why he agreed to recuperate for another half month, so as to save his strength and perform better in the second half of the season!
"Don't worry, Fernando, you will not worry about championships and honors in the future. A player like you should get more things... Now you are heading towards your peak period, so work hard.
"Dick nodded and said softly.
The Premier League's time around Christmas is a history of blood and tears. The Bundesliga has more than a month of winter break around Christmas, and La Liga and Serie A also have at least a week to half a month of rest. Only the Premier League,
Not only is there no winter break, but the games during this period are even more ridiculously intensive. Think about it, Manchester City played two rounds of league games in a row on December 28th and December 30th. On January 3rd after the New Year,
There is another league game - this situation is not only encountered by Manchester City, but all teams are like this, so under such circumstances, it is more likely to fall behind.
Meeting Liverpool and Newcastle in succession at this time, Manchester City was not very lucky. Dick was already very satisfied with the draw with Liverpool before. After all, the players were very tired, but after all, Manchester City was still ranked second, still lagging behind Arsenal.
One point, this game against Newcastle, Dick will also try to win the game.
The game against Newcastle was very difficult from the beginning. Although both sides were very tired, they also fought fiercely on the field. For both sides, this game was very overdrawn from the previous two consecutive league games.
Awesome, but in this case, the rotation that Manchester City used before played a big role. At least in terms of fatigue, Manchester City is not as tired as Newcastle...
After struggling for more than half an hour, Manchester City finally gained a slight advantage in physical fitness, but Newcastle players appeared tired. In a quick counterattack, Sturridge passed the ball down, and Parker followed up directly.
After blocking the penalty area, Di Natale stepped in and shot first, and the ball rolled into the goal from Given's armpit!
After taking the lead, Manchester City began to slowly control the situation. Although they did not have that kind of control master in the midfield, Dick has been consciously increasing the passing link in training. The back and forth passing and scheduling are slowly improving.
Although it is unlikely to reach the heights of the three previous teams coached by Dick before there is a metronome, in some cases, it is still possible to use passing to save energy and control the situation.
This season Manchester City has no European competitions, but there will be no European competitions next season. If they rush and play hard in every game, then even if their physical fitness is too good, they will not be able to support the whole season. There is relaxation and relaxation, which is the king.
Although Manchester City's passing is not very skillful, it can still be passed smoothly even though the physical fitness of the Newcastle players has dropped significantly. The main passing is concentrated in the backcourt, and the Newcastle players do not dare to press too hard.
Come on...
After the start of the second half, Manchester City had the opportunity to continue to kick back to save energy. At the same time, the frontcourt was always ready to launch a counterattack. This tactic made Newcastle look very depressed. Don't press forward. These guys seemed to be ready to kick back.
At the end of the game, if they press forward, the gap in the backcourt is too big. Ribery's speed and dribbling alone can give them a drink.
With such a frustrated mentality, the Newcastle players began to have more and more gaps in their performance. Finally, in the 73rd minute, Manchester City seized another opportunity. Ribery broke through and created a corner kick. Parker
A corner kick was taken, and Kompany, who assisted, beat the opponent's central defender Taylor and scored with a header, expanding the score to 2-0!
This goal meant that Manchester City basically won the game. In fact, it was the same. After Dick took a two-goal lead, he replaced Di Natale with Torres. His appearance made the Manchester City fans scream.
Warm applause, after a month away from the game, Torres returned to people's attention again.
However, Torres didn't seem very excited as soon as he came on the field. He just ran on the court honestly, took the initiative to drop back to get the ball, and passed the ball, leaving Sturridge in front, while he started to attack.
Under such circumstances, his performance was naturally not much better. In the end, he only touched the ball a few times in the past ten minutes. He had one pass and one missed shot. There was no impressive performance.
.
After this game, as Arsenal and Manchester United defeated West Ham United and Birmingham City respectively, the points gap between the top three did not change. In the next period of time, the Premier League will temporarily stop and the upcoming games will begin.
It is the third round of the FA Cup (Premier League teams will appear one after another in this round) and the first leg of the semi-finals of the League Cup.
