"Thirty minutes have passed and there hasn't even been a shot. What on earth does he want to do?"
In front of the Manchester City coaching bench, Estiarte said angrily.
The man the Manchester City assistant coach refers to is, of course, the head coach of rival Chelsea, Di Matteo.
The game has been played for half an hour, and Chelsea didn't even have a shot. This is simply outrageous.
Why is this happening?
Because Chelsea is unwilling to invest troops in the offense, Juan Mata is difficult to launch an offense under the restriction of Zabaleta. Lampard is more suppressing Busquets and cannot invest in the offense, resulting in Chelsea's forward failure.
There was no one on the field who could hold the ball and initiate an attack.
As a result, Drogba was left alone in the frontcourt, and in the contest between Pepe and Kompany, it was even more difficult for him to beat four hands with one fist.
In fact, even at his peak, in one-on-one situations, it is difficult for Drogba to take advantage of Pepe and Kompany, not to mention that Drogba is no longer at his peak, and he is still a
On the other hand, the Ivorians are even more embarrassed.
Since his teammates couldn't pass the ball and it was difficult for him to take advantage of Pepe and Kompany, Drogba was not stupid. He immediately chose to pull wide and ran to the right wing, which was Manchester City's left wing.
Marcelo was specifically chosen to bully.
Damn it, I can't stand up to you Pepe and Kompany, why can't I bully Marcelo?
What's more important is that Marcelo often pushes forward. He is said to be a left back, but in fact he is more like a left midfielder or even a left winger. Therefore, Manchester City's left wing, which is also Chelsea's right wing, is basically empty.
of.
Ramirez follows Marcelo forward, so the entire right wing is freed up, and Drogba runs over to receive the long pass from his teammate.
But it has to be said that the accuracy of Chelsea's long passes is really poor. Even if Drogba can barely catch it, it is too far away from the center, making it difficult for Chelsea's offense to exert a threat.
To put it bluntly, Drogba is not a star with super personal abilities like Su Dong, Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. His advantage has never been in dribbling, so when he is allowed to go wide, there is no one around to respond, and in the middle
If no one keeps up, how can the offense be effective?
This resulted in the current situation. Chelsea had zero shots in the first half hour of the game!
Chelsea's situation is indeed embarrassing, but Manchester City's situation is not particularly optimistic either.
Seven shots, four long-range shots, and three shots in the penalty area, but none of them posed a threat.
Both of Su Dong's shots were blocked by Chelsea's defensive players with their legs or bodies.
To put it bluntly, Chelsea's current defensive strategy is to fight tooth and nail.
First, the iron bucket tactic was used to strictly guard the defense. If Manchester City opened a crack, the defensive players would use their bodies to block it.
It may be an exaggeration to say that the most eye-catching blocks were three times, from Gary Cahill, and two of them were from Sudong. This shows how hard these Chelsea defenders are working.
The defense was tight and the soldiers fought hard. Chelsea's iron-barrel formation also gave Manchester City no time to pass and control the ball, and they were unable to pose a real threat.
This also made Estiat look a little angry and anxious on the sidelines.
Especially on the pitch, there are frequent foul scenes of Chelsea players infringing on Manchester City players, which is even more worrying.
This is actually a very normal tactic, but under this scope, everyone will be dissatisfied.
…
"Chelsea's defense tonight was more conservative than when we played Bayern in the previous two rounds, and the formation was more rigorous. It left us less space and almost no space at all." Guardiola analyzed lightly, without any hint of confusion.
Emotional color.
Only those who are familiar with and understand him know that Guardiola actually said this, which already means that he has some regrets.
Su Dong said before the game that he cannot push his opponent to death.
A rabbit bites when it gets angry, not to mention Chelsea is a tiger.
Although he is old and sick, a tiger is still a tiger.
If Manchester City pushes Chelsea like this, it will only push the Blues even tighter, and eventually they will become monolithic.
According to what Su Dong said before the game, a kind of strategic thinking of the Chinese, what is it called... the enemy must be surrounded.
"Di Matteo is really an Italian!" Torrent said sarcastically.
Italy also tends to represent conservatism.
Di Matteo's tactics tonight were indeed very conservative, but very practical.
At least until now, Manchester City has not been able to come up with an effective solution. As a result, they now have more than 70% of the ball possession rate, but they have never been able to create a real threat.
"Do you want to adjust now?" Estiart asked with concern.
Guardiola stared blankly at the game on the court, frowning and did not answer.
…………
…………
Just like the solemn atmosphere in the Manchester City coaching bench, the atmosphere in the Chelsea coaching bench is also not relaxed.
Almost every attack of Manchester City will make Di Matteo worried and everyone on tenterhooks, because Manchester City has a super scorer like Su Dong in the team, who dares to be careless?
Even the slightest slack or the most inconspicuous mistake may be caught by Su Dong and score a goal.
Fortunately, Chelsea's defensive players are very experienced, so so far, they have made zero mistakes.
Yes, Chelsea's defensive players, including the midfielders, have not made any major mistakes in defense so far. This makes almost every attack by Manchester City like hitting a brick wall, making it difficult to pose a threat.
But Di Matteo didn't dare to be careless.
The initiative lies in the hands of Manchester City and Guardiola.
Blue Moon has the advantage of passing and controlling the ball, a stronger bench, and more options. Chelsea can only respond passively, so Manchester City may make adjustments at any time.
Di Matteo couldn't guess what kind of adjustments Guardiola would make next.
Replace with Hazard?
Well, there is such a possibility.
The Belgian winger is completely different from Di Maria. He is shorter, has better dribbling ability, and is more able to create threats and fouls in intensive defense, especially fouls.
Su Dong's free kick skills are obvious to all. If Hazard dribbles the ball to break through the crowd and induce Chelsea's defensive players to foul, it will be dangerous, and this must be guarded against.
Or replace with Aguero to share Su Dong's pressure?
Or should we directly change to three defenders to further strengthen the offense?
Di Matteo was quite worried about this.
…………
…………
Although both sides had their own thoughts, by the end of the first half, Manchester City had not made major adjustments to their tactics on the field.
Guardiola only made slight adjustments to local positions, but the effect was not particularly obvious.
The number of shots on goal was nine to zero, and Chelsea didn't have a shot on goal throughout the first half.
This surprised everyone, but also took it for granted.
Manchester City's ball possession rate actually exceeded 80%, which is simply outrageous, but the score is still zero to zero.
The game was intense, but also very dull. Both sides were attacking and defending. Most of the time the football was played back and forth between Manchester City's midfield and backfield. It was difficult to open up the situation in the frontcourt, which was very depressing.
But this is the Champions League final!
As long as you can win, any tactic is a good tactic.
…
When the Manchester City players returned to the locker room, Guardiola and other members of the coaching staff also returned.
The halftime break is precious, and the coaching staff and players are racing against time to prepare.
Guardiola began to summarize some of the team's gains and losses in the first half. He believed that the team's 80% ball possession rate in the first half seemed like a lot, but in fact, there were not many threatening ball possessions, and more of them were in the middle.
A kick in the backcourt.
"In the second half, we should withdraw the entire formation appropriately and concentrate on the midline area."
"Busquets has been disturbed to a certain extent. David Silva and Toni Kroos need to move back closer to our No. 4 position. At the same time, their movement can be more flexible and they don't need to be restricted to their positions.
Try to get Mikel and Meireles out as much as possible."
"We have to be ready in the second half to deal with the threat from the opponent's midfield."
Guardiola's words surprised everyone in the locker room, and then they all turned to look at Su Dong.
Su Dong didn't give much reaction, but suggested lightly: "Our side attack in the first half put a lot of pressure on the opponent, but I think we should open up the opponent's defense more in the second half, and try to stay on the side as much as possible."
I can handle any one-on-one situation, breakthrough or inside cut."
This proposal was immediately approved by Guardiola.
In fact, everyone knows that Guardiola is adjusting the team's tactics and making the formation retreat. In fact, it is to reduce the pressure on Chelsea. This is to listen to Su Dong's advice before the game, but he refuses to say it clearly.
If the ball is transferred to Chelsea, no one knows whether the Blues will press out and play.
However, after the overall retracement, Manchester City will have more space, especially David Silva and Toni Kroos are further back, which will cause Chelsea's defense to also press out, and the space in the frontcourt will be relatively large.
Bigger.
This is what Su Dong proposed, let the wide players spread out the formation and form a one-on-one situation as much as possible. Whether it is passing from the bottom or cutting inside to cooperate, Su Dong can do it.
There is another very important reason why Manchester City dared to withdraw the midfielder, and that is Toni Kroos's long pass.
You know, throughout the first half, under the pressure of Manchester City, Chelsea's long pass success rate was very low. One of the important points is that Chelsea lacks long pass experts.
But Manchester City is different. Everyone knows how sharp Toni Kroos' long passes are.
Even if they retreat, Manchester City is confident that when necessary, Toni Kroos can pass the ball to the most threatening and weakest area of Chelsea's defense at any time.
More importantly, after David Silva and Toni Kroos retreat, with Busquets as the anchor, the two players can move more flexibly, which will inevitably make Chelsea's double midfielder feel embarrassed.
If you follow, the entire formation will definitely become loose; if you don’t follow, with the abilities of David Silva and Toni Kroos, once they get the ball, they may pass the ball to Su Dong and others in front at any time.
.
This is the adjustment Guardiola made based on Su Dong's suggestion. As for risks, judging from Chelsea's attitude in the first half, this team did not even think about attacking.
In other words, Di Matteo's counterattack is more like luck.
