Chapter 71 God Possessed
After the team played against Aston Villa, the time officially entered November. On Tuesday of the second week, Manchester City ushered in a new round of the League Cup.
Manchester City's League Cup started from the second round. As a mid-level Premier League team, it was still relatively late to participate. After the game between Donska and Gillingham, the team has entered the fourth round, and the rest There are only 16 teams in the team, that is, the team is going to compete for the quarter-finals. At this time, it is very difficult to draw easy opponents.
In the end, Manchester City drew Aston Villa.
This is a good opponent. In the fourth round of the League Cup, as long as we don't draw giants like Manchester United and Arsenal, it can be regarded as good luck.
Manchester City have just beaten Aston Villa, and the result is against them at home. Perhaps the headache will be Aston Villa coach O'Reilly. He has not yet figured out how to deal with Manchester City. The two teams 'second round' The fight came again, and he could only bite the bullet and lead the team to Manchester.
O'Reilly also talked about this before the game, "It's bad because we just lost to them by a big score, and now we have to play a cup game with them."
"If after 90 minutes we lose, no one will be surprised, because we just lost 3-0, maybe that puts the pressure off us, but the pressure is on their side..."
O'Reilly said "trying" to think about the best, but when he got to the game, his words turned into "self-comfort".
In this game, Wansheng made some adjustments to the lineup.
The most important adjustment is the frontcourt collocation. Darren Bent has already determined the starting position, but his partner with Andy Cole is not a very good choice. There will always be some problems with the cooperation between the two. This may be And Andy - Cole offensive ** relatively strong, and Darren - Bent is just a young player. But in the end, there are still some problems of cooperation between the two, so Wansheng chose Robbie Fowler and Darren Bent as partners.
It is worth mentioning that the teenager Miller has also been arranged in the squad. If the situation goes well, Wansheng will also consider giving opportunities to the local young people of Manchester City.
in addition. midfield. Wansheng gave Morris time to rest, so this game started with David Silva and Joey Barton. Joey Barton's personal ability is not bad. The advantage is that the defense is quite good. David Xi After two games of experience, Elva can now support some situations.
However, the pairing of the two is a bit unstable. So on the sideline candidates. Wansheng arranged the veteran Reina and the powerful Sinclair.
Reina, David Silva, Joey Barton and Sinclair, this set of four in the middle is not bad at all. As long as they can perform normally, at least they are more than enough to deal with Aston Villa.
Of course, experimenting with new formations and collocations, and giving new players a chance, is still unstable. The opponent is Aston Villa again, but it is definitely not a weak team. But Wansheng didn't put his mind on the League Cup at all. For him, this is a tasteless competition. It doesn't matter if he won the last honor, because the only goal of the team this season is Even if it is the league championship, it doesn't matter if you lose two cups because of this. If you want to win everything, you might not be able to win anything. After all, the focus of the league is for sure, and the cups are just used as a test field.
In the frontcourt, Wansheng is most concerned about the cooperation between Joey Barton and David Silva.
Only Morris, Joey Barton and David Silva can play in the midfield of the team. Morris is not a problem. He can do a good job with others. In comparison , Joey Barton is a lot worse, David Silva has the ability, not to mention the potential, but his game experience is still too little, which limits his performance.
The combination of Joey Barton and David Silva is no problem, then the midfield of the team is basically worry-free.
Unexpected things always happen in football games.
In this game, there was no problem with the cooperation between Joey Barton and David Silva that Wansheng paid attention to. The two played one after the other, one attacked and the other defended. According to the tactics and habits, they performed well. However, there was a problem with the team's defense in the backcourt. Sun Jihai and Koppelle Ferreira, each one made a mistake, caused Aston Villa to score two goals in the first half. If it wasn't for Robbie Fowler's previous score With one goal, Manchester City will face a passive situation where the midfielder is two goals behind.
Even if they were one goal behind at home, the situation was not much better.
Wan Sheng began to have a headache for the backcourt defense.
He found that Koppelle Ferreira and Sun Jihai are not good partners. The main reason is that Koppelle Ferreira has too little experience, while Sun Jihai has a lot of experience, but his personal ability is somewhat unable to keep up. There is no one who can 'raise the lead'. If the two paired up with Distin or Dunn respectively, there would be no problem. Now the pairing of the two is still too immature.
So Wansheng can only choose to replace Dunn.
Richard Dunn is definitely the general of Manchester City. In the past few seasons, he was the best player of Manchester City. While he and the captain Distin formed the backbone of the rear, his performance was no worse than Distin.
However, after being injured last season, he has been recovering from his injury, he has not been able to participate in the team's summer preparations, and cannot keep up with the team's new tactical rhythm, so Wansheng can only use him as an alternative.
In fact, Dunn was quite unbalanced.
Before the start of the season, he never worried about the main position, because he believed that he was the best defender of Manchester City, so after his return from injury, he was not in a hurry to try to keep up with the team's new tactics.
But Dunn didn't expect this to affect his appearance.
In his understanding, the central defender does not need to keep up with any tactics and rhythm, just defending at the right time and intervening at the right time, but the team's new tactics broke his inherent thinking, when he realized this At that time, it was difficult to have a chance to play, because both Distin and the new Portuguese boy Koppelle Ferreira can do well, even Sun Jihai, who he has always looked down on, because he can keep up. The team's tactical routines can get a lot of appearances, but he can only sit on the bench most of the time and watch his teammates play on the field.
Since realizing this, Dunn has also started to work hard.
He has a reason for having to work hard, even if he is very dissatisfied with Wan Sheng - he has just recovered from his injury. He needs to regain his position, and he can decide for himself whether to stay or not. Not now, if he wants to leave, no team will take the initiative to contact him, because other people will think that his injury has affected his state. Otherwise, how can you lose the chance to play after the injury?
After a period of hard work. Dunn also has a certain understanding of the new tactics, and he has to admit in his heart that this new young coach is really a genius. It is almost impossible for an average team to beat Manchester City just by relying on this tactic, because according to the From a tactical point of view, after the audience is attacked and suppressed. Opponents struggle to find opportunities close to the goal. Not to mention scoring goals, of course, these are the understandings of a defensive player in the backcourt. After all, he knows what he needs to do tactically, how to run, and how to insert assists in a timely manner. , he can keep up with the team's offensive and defensive rhythm.
Still, the previous few games. Dunn still didn't get the chance.
He was still a little anxious.
No professional player wants to be on the bench all the time watching his teammates perform, and now Dunn is finally getting his chance. Although it was only in the League Cup, it was also a big step forward for himself. He had never been so excited for a chance to play, but now he feels this feeling again.
When he came on stage, he even gave a warm hug to Sun Jihai who came off the court -- the two had not been this close in two seasons.
Then, he came out.
...
"Richard Dunn, he replaced Sun Jihai!"
Manchester Stadium commentator Berbat said, "We seem to have not seen Dunn for a long time. It seems that the injury has had a great impact on him, but we can still remember his excellent defense and powerful scoring!"
"Now we wish him well..."
Perhaps Manchester City fans are more concerned with scoring goals than Dunn's performance.
They do have an impression of Dunn, and many fans are familiar with it, but they are more concerned about the team's performance. Since Wansheng coached the team, the team's performance has made many fans crazy, so that Dunn, who does not play, is not on the show. The players were gradually forgotten, and some fans even thought that Dunn had been sold. When they saw Dunn again, they realized that the guy was not sold, but was injured and could not play.
Now they just clapp their hands in response, and then talk about who will help the team to tie the game for a while, but these players will definitely not have Dunn's name.
However, Dunn's strength is indeed very strong, at least a lot stronger than Sun Jihai.
After adapting to the team's new tactics, his advantages in personal defense have been reflected. In training, his defense is always strong, and now on the field, he has immediately become a defensive core that can be relied on in the backcourt. At the same time, The inexperienced Koppelle Ferreira is also under a lot less pressure. With Dunn supporting the situation, he doesn't have to take on too much defensive tasks.
Seeing these in Wan Sheng's eyes, he is still very satisfied with Dunn's performance.
With Distin at the back, Ferreira of Koppelle, and now Dunn, he doesn't have to worry about the position of central defender.
But from the perspective of Manchester City fans, Dunn's performance is really inconspicuous. The most important thing is that he is a defensive player. No matter how good a defensive player is, it is difficult to attract attention. What everyone cares about is Manchester City's offense.
In the frontcourt, the brightest player is only Darren Bent!
After the opening of the second half, Darren Bent received a long pass from Joey Barton and took the lead to help the team score the equalizing goal.
This goal wants to be dazzling, and many media commentators have greatly praised Darren Bent, but what they did not expect is that this is just the beginning. In the next time, Darren Bent Completely possessed by God!
In the 59th minute, Aston Villa defender Melberg fouled David Silva, Manchester City won a free kick 24 meters in front of the goal, and David Silva kicked a curve ball over the wall , Darren - Bent to keep up with the header ferry, the football hit the right post and bounced into the other side of the net.
This goal helped Manchester City lead Aston Villa 3:2!
The media and fans were all excited for Darren Bent's brace, but just five minutes later, the wonderful scene was staged again.
Robbie Fowler made a breakthrough cross, David Silva got the ball in front of the post, but Joey Button's volley on the heel hit the goalkeeper Sorensen, just when he was still annoyed At that time, Darren Bent appeared again, and he was in the right place at the right time.
He faced the ball and completed a supplementary shot and scored the ball into the goal for the third time!
4:2!
When the football flew over Sorensen's fingers again, the whole Manchester Stadium was boiling, all the Manchester City fans were shouting a name, and all the cameras were also pointing at a player, that is, the excited hands standing in front of the door Young boy covering his face--
"Darren—Bent—!!"
“Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooal!!!!!!”
"Third goal! Darren Bent's hat-trick, he played a magical scene at Manchester Stadium! Perfect goal, perfect hat-trick, the second half has started, only 20 minutes later, this Cambridge The county boy scored three goals!"
"Poor Sorensen, completely beaten by Darren Bent, 20 minutes into the second half, his door fell three times..."
"After this game, I'm sure he will remember Darren Bent's name, it will even become his nightmare... Of course, now we don't care about Sorensen, we want to save Darren on the field -Bent congratulations! He used three goals to give Manchester City fans a belated Halloween treat!"
"..."
The whole Manchester City fans were crazy about Darren Bent's hat-trick, and the loudest cheers broke out in the audience, but in a position in the back row of the east side stand, there was a man wearing a Manchester City jersey with a long brim. The figure did not move.
When he raised his head and looked carefully, he would find that it was Nikolai Anelka!
Anelka went to the reserve team, so he was not able to make the squad. He originally wanted to watch the game and see what the kid who replaced him could do, but now his expression has gotten worse, because His rivals exploded in full force.
Three goals, all beautiful, this performance can definitely shake his position in the team, and now he can't do anything, he can only sit here and watch, and even underestimate being discovered by the fans around him.
Looking at the teammates who were excitedly celebrating on the court, and the new young boy, he felt more and more uncomfortable in his heart, and his position was like a pincushion.
Eventually he stood up, turned and left the field. (To be continued ~^~)