After returning to Manchester from Milan, Manchester City took a short rest and headed south to London non-stop, where they checked into the Manor Hotel that they had booked early.
After learning the lessons from the last time they competed with Manchester United, Manchester City will now book a hotel very early every time they play an away game against a team in London. This time the League Cup final is being held at Wembley Stadium in London, and Manchester City still stays at the hotel.
Enter this familiar hotel.
The hotel has hosted Manchester City many times and we are very familiar with each other and have a lot of experience.
The team had a string of wins in the first half of the season. After entering February, their performance did decline. First they tied with Everton, and then they tied with AC Milan. Although they were all away games, the opponent's strength was not weak, but
It's even in the end.
This is actually not surprising.
The coaching staff has repeatedly emphasized that this is due to the pressure accumulated by the team after long-term multi-front operations. Especially from Christmas to the winter break, Manchester City has played more games than other teams, so the pressure is naturally greater.
big.
But for the players, a draw is a draw, and they are still somewhat affected.
Cardiff is not a strong team. They are only ranked eighth in the current English Championship. In the just-concluded round 32 of the English Championship, they lost 3-0 away to Ibwich Albion.
On the face of it, this is not a close match.
But games on the football field are not based on strength at all. If the winner can be determined by just looking at the strength of the cards, then there is no need to play the game. Just calculate the wave before the game. The winner is simple and clear, and it saves trouble.
.
One obvious point is that Cardiff gave up their previous league game against Ipswich Town and focused on preparing for the League Cup final.
Unlike Manchester City, which has a tight and intensive schedule and is distracted from fighting on multiple fronts, Cardiff is now concentrating all its forces on this final, trying to pull off a big upset.
To put it bluntly, for a team like Cardiff, losing the final is natural, and winning is a huge profit.
…
"They have up to fourteen days to prepare, and they will be very, very well prepared, but we obviously can't do it. Even so far, we don't have time to conduct targeted tactical drills against our opponents."
After arriving at the hotel, the team held an internal meeting, and Estiarte analyzed the current problems of Manchester City.
They have the advantage in terms of strength, but their condition is not necessarily the same. Manchester City players are generally tired, while Cardiff are recharging their energy.
In terms of preparation, Manchester City has no time to prepare at all. The games are one after another. They are too busy to rest and adjust. How can they find time to conduct targeted drills?
Of course, even so, Manchester City still has an overwhelming advantage.
But Cardiff may not be incapable of fighting, especially if they are well prepared.
Against Cardiff, Manchester City will definitely take the initiative. Needless to say, Su Dong believes that the team should attack first and strive to score first, which is very important for stabilizing Manchester City's morale.
"After the opening, we tried to play a high-profile game. It is best to score goals, and then completely integrate the game into our rhythm. In this way, it will not be easy for Cardiff to resist even if they want to."
Everyone nodded, and many players voiced their support for Su Dong's opinion.
In such a final, scoring first is very important. For a team like Manchester City, scoring first is even more important.
As long as they take the lead, the team will have more patience and slowly wear out Cardiff.
On the other hand, Cardiff, if Manchester City scores first, can they still defend patiently?
Guardiola and other coaching staff also agree with this view, so how to score first?
Based on this, Su Dong came up with several coordinated routines, all of which Manchester City are very familiar with. They will use them on the spot according to the situation on the court and use whichever one is more suitable.
In this League Cup, Manchester City will still make rotations. Hazard will replace Di Maria, Leighton Baines will replace Marcelo, and other positions will also be adjusted according to the situation.
Due to the injury to Douglas Costa on the right, Sanchez is likely to be left in this game.
In the city of Milan, Zabaleta also has to rest at Wembley Stadium.
By then, Manchester City's left and right wings will be activated, and the key depends on the players' on-the-spot performance and state.
The only thing that worries the Manchester City players is Su Dong.
In the match against AC Milan, Su Dong was indeed not very active. Although he created two penalty kicks and were ignored by the referee, throughout the game, Su Dong was not as amazing as usual, which also prevented Manchester City from being able to
Goal.
In the second half, Guardiola replaced Aguero, but he was also unable to score.
So much so that the media would say that when Su Dong was on fire, Manchester City couldn't even find the goal.
When Guardiola asked Su Dong concernedly, he couldn't help laughing.
"Don't worry, just in case, I brought three pairs of shooting boots to London this time!"
Everyone fell down laughing.
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Malky Mackay is a defender who first played for Celtic in the Scottish Premier League and later joined Norwich City in the English Premier League at the time.
In the summer of 2004, he moved to West Ham United. One season later, he moved to Watford and helped the team successfully advance to the Premier League. It was a gift from God in the later stages of his career.
Fourteen games, zero goals, this is his answer in the Premier League.
It was also that year that he entered the Scottish national team, and his appearances stopped at five games.
After retiring from Watford in 2008, Malky Mackay did not leave the team. However, a few months after retiring, Watford head coach Bosroyd sacked him, and Mackay coached for four years.
He played in the British Championship and later became the assistant coach of the new head coach Rodgers.
After Rogers went to Reading to coach, McKay naturally took over his position and became the head coach of Watford. After two years of coaching, last summer, seeing that Watford had no hope of reaching the Premier League, he jumped ship.
Cardiff, who finished third in the English Championship that year, aims to help this team break into the Premier League.
Since this team received an investment from Malaysian tycoon Tan Zhiyuan in 2010, it has become ambitious and wants to break into the Premier League. Tan Zhiyuan also has another well-known identity in China, the uncle of the wife of the king Andy Lau.
So far this season, Cardiff has not shown the spirit to break into the Premier League in the English Championship, and the league ranking is also hovering in the promotion play-off area. However, in the League Cup, Cardiff has made it all the way, which is extremely surprising.
the finals.
Whether it is the boss, management, players or fans, they are all very satisfied with McKay.
Even McKay himself is very excited and looking forward to it, because he knows that his career is on the way up, and he very much looks forward to leading Cardiff to the Premier League that he dreams of.
More importantly, he hopes to become a famous head coach in the Premier League like Rodgers, who he assisted back then.
Playing against Manchester City is undoubtedly such an opportunity.
Everyone knows how strong Manchester City's performance is in the Premier League.
Although Cardiff has gone through many challenges and encountered Premier League teams, Manchester City is the most valuable touchstone.
McKay wants to use Manchester City and this League Cup final to make all Premier League teams recognize him again.
Therefore, in this game at Wembley Stadium, McKay, who was full of desire to win, did not hide his aggressiveness at all and was not willing to defend. Instead, he deployed England's iconic 442 tactics.
Just after the kick-off, Cardiff took the initiative to attack Manchester City and quickly broke into the outside of Manchester City's penalty area.
Even the commentator of Sky Sports, who was responsible for the broadcast, exclaimed, "This is a very courageous and surprising decision!"
Even if it’s not?
A team ranked eighth in the English Championship faced Manchester City, who were destined to win the Premier League. They played uncompromisingly from the beginning, took the initiative, and directly attacked the outside of Manchester City's penalty area. They were about to enter the penalty area.
.
Isn't this surprising?
McKay wore a black suit and stood in front of the coach's bench, silently watching everything that happened on the field.
At first glance, he seems to have the air of a handsome man.
…
It has to be said that Cardiff's opening attack really surprised Manchester City.
Originally, in the team's plan, Cardiff should have retreated steadily.
Who would have thought that he would take the initiative to press it out.
Are Manchester City afraid?
joke!
The biggest headache for Manchester City is actually the team that retreats defensively. How about taking the initiative?
That's so welcome!
At the 83rd second, Cardiff left midfielder Mason dribbled the ball in front of the penalty area and tried to break into the penalty area, but Busquets intercepted the ball first.
After the Spanish midfielder stole the ball, he did not hesitate to fight and passed the ball directly to Toni Kroos in front.
The German midfielder turned his back to the attacking direction and passed the ball directly to David Silva without stopping.
The Spanish midfielder stopped the ball and moved forward, dribbling the ball directly past the center line.
Cardiff's defense retreated quickly and immediately got close to David Silva. This made Su Dong, who was at the front and ready to hit behind, realized that it was not possible and immediately gave up advancing and instead took the initiative to run back.
, raise your hand for the ball.
David Silva passed the ball to Su Dong.
The retreating Su Dong brought out central defender Turner. Facing the incoming ball, he suddenly stopped, hooked the ball with his right foot, turned around from the other side of Turner, and then chased the ball away, forming a formation.
A nice pass.
In an instant, the entire Wembley Stadium fans screamed in surprise.
Su Dong quickly caught up with the ball, strode forward, and spotted the opportunity, passing the ball to Hazard on the left, while he turned to the middle, especially to the top of the arc at the front of the penalty area.
, keep an appropriate distance.
When Hazard stopped the ball, a one-on-one situation was formed outside the left corner of the penalty area.
Facing right back McNaughton, Hazard started after stopping the ball. With a skillful fake move, he deceived McNaughton and then suddenly cut inside laterally. After attracting the attention of another central defender, Hudson, he kicked the ball horizontally.
Passed to the top of the arc.
I saw that Su Dong, who had deliberately slowed down to advance forward, had already accelerated suddenly and rushed directly to the top area of the arc. Facing Hazard's cross, he fired without stopping the ball and fired a heavy long-range shot.