Chapter 573 Don’t Take Manchester City Lightly

The Manchester United players were celebrating the goal. Bruno ran towards the visiting team fans' stands and made encouraging gestures to the Manchester United fans. Then, he was surrounded by his teammates.

Manchester United's attack came from Kante's pressing. After Bruno scored, Kante was very happy. He ran over and celebrated the goal together.

Huge boos erupted at the Etihad Stadium. Manchester City fans were far from friendly towards Bruno, the Manchester United player who scored the most goals against Manchester City.

It's not just the crazy celebrations of Manchester United players that are stimulating Manchester City, Mourinho is also doing the same.

Amid the boos at the Etihad Stadium, the Manchester United coach jumped up and down on the sidelines and clapped happily, which obviously stimulated the Manchester City fans even more.

"Although there is no evidence that Mourinho was provoking Manchester City fans, his celebrations clearly did not sit well with Etihad."

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Mourinho was so proud that he even hummed a song under his breath. Shi Shiran returned to the coaching bench and sat down, and said to his assistant Faria: "Rui, everything is under my control."

Faria said nothing and gave him a thumbs up.

However, Mourinho's elegance only lasted five minutes.

"Fake!" Mourinho was furious on the sidelines.

Not far away, his dear friend Guardiola rushed out of the coaching bench to celebrate, and the Spanish coach even wiggled his butt.

Yes, Mourinho once said that Guardiola is his true friend, which stems from the relationship they established when they were at Barcelona.

Mourinho said Guardiola called him to comfort him for nearly two hours when his father passed away in June last year.

However, on the court, the two are each other's biggest rivals, trying every means to stimulate each other.

"Offside! It's an offside kick!"

Mourinho roared on the sidelines and was severely warned by referee Felix Bruchy before returning to the coaching bench angrily.

Maybe it was the 4:0 lead that made the Manchester United players a little careless, or maybe it was seeing the first half of the game coming to an end that made the Manchester United players loose their minds. In the 44th minute of the game, Van Dijk's pass from the left side of the backcourt was interfered with and intercepted. , Fernandinho passed the ball to Sterling on the right side in the midfield. Sterling got the ball and passed it to the center from the right side of the penalty area. Jesus pushed the ball and scored. Manchester City rewritten the score to 1:1. .

When Sterling passed the ball, Luke Shaw, who was guarding him, did not stretch out his feet to intercept. He watched helplessly as Sterling sent the cross. When Jesus shot, there was no one around him to defend him. The horse closest to him was Quayle just raised his hand, signaling that Jesus was offside.

Mourinho could see clearly that when Sterling sent the cross, Jesus was indeed not offside, but this did not prevent him from protesting to the referee: What if the referee really believed it?

But the fact is that there was no such thing as the referee determined that Jesus was not offside and Manchester City's goal was valid.

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The equalizer boosted City's morale.

Facing Manchester City's offensive impact at the last moment of the first half, Manchester United chose to defend with all its strength.

In the remaining few minutes of game time, the game reached a deadlock.

In the end, neither side was able to score again in the last few minutes of the first half. The game ended at 1:1. Manchester United still led by three goals 4:1 in the total score.

In the players' tunnel, Mourinho was still negotiating with referee Bruchy. He emphasized that the ball was suspected of being offside.

Bracey told Mourinho that he could see clearly that there was no offside.

"Are you sure?" Mourinho asked with a puzzled look.

"I'm sure." Felix Bruchy said with a serious expression.

"Well, I believe you." Mourinho nodded. "As we all know, you are a very good referee who is worthy of trust."

Hearing this, Felix Bruchy, who was a little unhappy at first, smiled.

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"What are you thinking? A dog biting your eyeball?" Mourinho roared in the visiting team's dressing room at the Etihad. "Don't forget, our opponent is Manchester City. Don't think we have beaten them four times this season. , don’t take Manchester City seriously!”

Mourinho stared at the players and said loudly: "Why are you laughing? I'm serious, be serious."

Finally he couldn't help laughing himself.

With this smile, the tense atmosphere in the locker room suddenly disappeared.

"Okay, let's get down to business." Mourinho knocked on the table. "The defense needs to review the ball that was lost. When the ball was lost, the concentration was obviously not enough."

"We are not satisfied with the 1:1 score, and Manchester City is even more dissatisfied. Therefore, in the second half of the game, Manchester City will still strengthen its offense. It will still be a solid defense first, and then Manchester City's counterattack." Mourinho said.

"The focus of our attack is-" Mourinho drew a circle on De Bruyne's name on the tactical board and said heavily, "Press him! Attack him!"

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Mourinho has focused on Manchester City, and the key player he studied is De Bruyne.

De Bruyne has an extremely strong ability to observe behind the opponent's defense and a very high level of passing ability. This is De Bruyne's most unique and powerful ability.

It is precisely because of De Bruyne's ability that once he holds the ball in a game, he will subconsciously choose to find the space behind the opponent and try to pass the threatening ball as much as possible.

Since the ball is handled in this way during the game, his ability to control the ball and get rid of it cannot be exercised. Therefore, when holding the ball without space, De Bruyne cannot get rid of the defender by controlling the ball. If he wants to get rid of it, he will simply accelerate to get rid of it.

Everything has its pros and cons: De Bruyne's ability to pass the ball will give him a simpler and easier scoring opportunity when he pushes the counterattack. But once the pass is wrong, it means that the three forwards running on the three lines will inevitably be unable to chase back. At this time, because the opponent regains the ball after losing the ball, it will form a situation of more people playing less after the ball is intercepted.

Due to De Bruyne's technical characteristics, the forwards of our side will choose to make a lot of forward runs when De Bruyne holds the ball, and the midfielders of our side will gradually not respond in large numbers at the first time, because there is a high probability that De Bruyne will choose to pass the ball behind him.

After De Bruyne holds the ball, David Silva and Fernandinho will quickly approach to respond. But De Bruyne will not choose to control the rhythm to pass and cut, but to move forward quickly.

As a result, David Silva and Fernandinho will hesitate in their support. Once they hesitate, the rhythm of the next support will change and be disrupted. Therefore, David Silva and Fernandinho made a lot of support errors in the game.

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De Bruyne's rapid advancement after holding the ball, due to the habit of long-term training and competition, has led to the problem that the fineness of small techniques cannot be exercised and improved, which will be slowly exposed once facing the opponent's tight pressure.

At this time, the error rate is very high. Once a mistake is made, the team will be counterattacked by the opponent instead of counterattacked by the opponent. The forward line and midfielder who have already quickly and fully advanced have to chase back immediately.

The more times this happens, the physical strength of the team's midfield and frontcourt will be consumed quickly, and the backcourt players will also face more pressure because of facing the opponent's counterattack more times.

Due to De Bruyne's technical characteristics, the opponent's defensive strategy will be relatively simple.

Once Manchester City holds the ball, let De Bruyne support. If De Bruyne holds the ball with his back, it is easy to make mistakes due to insufficient small techniques. If he has already turned around, he will be given a non-threatening space. De Bruyne will most likely subconsciously choose to speed up and get rid of him. After speeding up and getting rid of him, he will be eager to pass a threatening ball. At this time, the backcourt can break it as long as it controls the passing route.

On the defensive end, De Bruyne is used to scrambling. Once he scrambles, he will immediately launch a counterattack, and there will be a lot of space in the backcourt to pass the ball.

Once a mistake is made, the position must be filled by the back waist or the other side of the forward. The original positions of the two are also lost at this time, and the sidebacks have to retract more tightly to protect the central defenders to prevent the opponent from directly attacking.

Due to the retraction of the sidebacks, there will be a lot of space on the wing for the opponent to cross the ball from the bottom. This is why everyone often sees the wing being blown up when De Bruyne is on the court.

The defense of Jesus, Mkhitaryan, Sane, and Bernardo Silva is to first prevent them from breaking through, then cut off the passing route, and finally seize the opportunity to scramble, so that the opponent cannot cause a vicious cycle of losing position-filling-losing position.

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In Mourinho's view, De Bruyne is a double-edged sword. When he is in good form and has a low error rate, he can create a lot of opportunities. When he is in bad form, he gives the opponent a lot of opportunities.

Such technical characteristics are not a problem against weak teams, but very good. Because the natural quality of the players of weak teams leads to a low success rate, and the weak teams get a good opportunity to hit the opponent's back after the counterattack error.

So Manchester City often appears to hammer the opponent when playing against weak teams.

For this reason, when De Bruyne is on the court, the best double central defenders are Kompany and Stones, who can grab and chase back. The biggest problem of Laporta and Otamendi is that he lacks observation and protection of the space behind him, and their backs have always been a weakness. And the sidebacks also need fast-chasing sidebacks like Kyle Walker.

For strong teams, a high error rate is equivalent to suicide. The defense of strong teams will not leave a lot of space behind them. Once counterattacks, their efficiency is not comparable to that of weak team strikers. Weak teams may not be able to form a real threat with five counterattacks, but strong teams can be fatal with one or two.

In the knockout stage of the Champions League, once the ball is lost first, the strong team facing can counterattack more calmly, which is suicide.

"De Bruyne is very good at passing threatening balls, don't give him the opportunity to get the ball easily." Mourinho said.

In Mourinho's view, De Bruyne's shortcomings are relatively average long-range shots, average ball protection, slow ball handling speed, poor physical fitness, poor running ability, poor defense, poor headers, and slow speed.