Nine Hundred and Ninety-Nine Mourinho's Unique Skills

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With the whistle of the Turkish referee Cakir, the first round of the world-renowned Champions League semi-final officially sounded the horn at Camp Nou, and the scene was filled with boos from Barcelona fans.

The first to kick off was the Manchester City center Su Dong, who was standing in the middle circle.

Barcelona fans' perception of Su Dong has always been quite torn. They both miss his good days when he played for Barcelona, ​​and hate him for repeatedly leading the team to slaughter Barcelona after leaving Barcelona, ​​which makes Barcelona fans love and hate him. , quite contradictory.

Once, Barcelona hated him more than love, but after the easing last season, especially after Barcelona won the Champions League, their attitude towards Su Dong has improved a lot.

But now, they are starting to hate it again.

No way, Su Dong is too strong.

...

From the very beginning of the game, Manchester City was aware of the change in Barcelona's formation.

It doesn't look like a traditional Barcelona style of play, it's a bit like a three-back formation.

Puyolpic and Mascherano, the three players in the back line, lined up from left to right.

Alves, who was originally thought to appear in the back line, actually appeared on the right side of midfield.

As a result, Barcelona's midfield from left to right becomes a combination of Sedou Keitaia Tourejavi and Alves.

Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas before midfield, Messi after.

The Argentine superstar as a lone striker.

This lineup is a little weird.

Barça had never seen such a style of play before.

It looked like 3421, but when City's Sanchez on the right dribbled the ball and wanted to open the defense from the right, Sedou Keita dropped back to the defense.

This proves that Barcelona is not without full-backs, but just pushed the full-backs to the midfield.

Sedou Keita and Alves are said to be full-backs, but when defending, they can retreat to the back line at any time to protect the defense on the wing, which will turn Barcelona's back line into a five-back.

Pressing out when attacking, and retreating when defending, has high requirements on players' tactical execution and physical strength, as well as defensive ability, but Sedou Keita and Alves are basically competent.

The purpose of this is actually very simple, that is, to exert enough pressure on Manchester City in the midfield.

Especially Cesc Fabregas and Iniesta, the two players are almost staring at Busquets.

Everyone knows that Busquets is Manchester City's midfield and midfield passing hub. He can comb and play the ball stably under high pressure. The role is very obvious, and the personal ability is also very strong.

Mourinho used two players, Iniesta and Cesc Fabregas, to pinch Busquets. In addition to defending, the intention was to ensure that after a successful steal, the two would be able to fight back as soon as possible. Messi formed a match.

In terms of overall tactics, Mourinho really adopted a more stable tactic. Instead of showing an aggressive momentum at the beginning of the game, he took the initiative to give up the ball and tried to use the advantage of the number of midfielders to form pressure and pressure on Manchester City. .

It has to be said that Mourinho's strategy is still effective.

The drop of Cesc Fabregas and Iniesta and the forward movement of Sedou Keita and Alves when City had the ball in midfield gave Barcelona a full six players in midfield, Manchester City usually only have three Even if Su Dong retreated, there were only four, and he was completely at a disadvantage.

The Barcelona players quickly managed to steal the ball through this kind of pressing and pressing from the midfield.

Under the interference of Iniesta, the ball that Busquets passed to David Silva was stolen by Xavi. Although David Silva went into the counter-attack for the first time, Xavi was faster and directly A kick passed to Messi who was receding in front.

Messi pulled out the defensive area of ​​Manchester City's central defender, dribbled the ball forward after catching the ball, and when approaching Pepe, he faked a shot and fooled Pepe. Although he failed to break through with the ball, he still sent a precise kick. A direct pass was given behind the Manchester City defence.

Cesc Fabregas moved forward quickly, Kompany chased back all the way, grabbed the penalty area, fell to the ground and tackled before Cesc Fabregas kicked, blocking the Barcelona player's shot from the bottom line, turning it into a shot corner.

Later, Barcelona's corner kick was cleared out of the penalty area. Yaya Toure grabbed the second landing spot. After stopping the ball, he fired a long shot from nearly 30 meters away from the goal, which was high.

Two consecutive shots, both from Barcelona.

City are in control of the situation and the ball, but have yet to put together a decent attack.

Guardiola kept calling on the players to be patient on the sidelines, and Su Dong, who was wearing the captain's armband, also signaled his teammates to try their best to control the ball and try to slow down the rhythm.

...

Benitez said that football is about space and possession.

City have the ball, but Mourinho wants Barca to grab space.

So he took advantage of the number of people to build a very solid steel defense in the midfield.

Even at first glance, he seemed to directly put the defense line in the midfield.

As long as Manchester City players enter the midfield with the ball, they are immediately chased and intercepted by Barcelona players.

Even if Su Dong retreats and forms a diamond-shaped ball-handling formation with David Silvatoni Kroos and Busquets, it will be difficult to penetrate this line of defense of Barcelona.

Mourinho is really good at building defense.

Especially now, when Su Dong retreated and the two wingers rushed forward, they were imprisoned by Barcelona's three central defenders.

You know, Puyol and Mascherano are both fast, and both can keep up with Di Maria and Sanchez's dribbling breakthroughs, not to mention a pique who is dragging at the end.

After Su Dong retreated, Yaya Toure had been pestering him.

The Ivorian midfielder has always had a mixed record at Barcelona, ​​but Mourinho has a lot of trust and reuse in him.

As long as Su Dong retreats, he and Harvey will never step forward.

Manchester City also quickly realized the difficulties in the midfield. Marcelo and Zabaleta began to actively move forward, participating in the passing of the ball in the midfield, hoping to open the situation from the wing. At this time, the game has passed quickly. Ten minutes.

In the first ten minutes, Manchester City didn't even have a shot.

It can be seen how tightly Barcelona has restricted Manchester City's midfield and frontcourt in this game.

Low-position defense, strangulation in midfield, three central defenders, and only one Messi left in the frontcourt, this seems to be a solid defensive counterattack.

"Remember, early in the season, after the European Super Cup loss to Manchester City, Mourinho said that he actually prefers to play the counter-attack because he believes it is the most effective tactic against Manchester City."

"Now, he finally got his wish and gave up the tactic he wanted to play the most, but it seems that the fans at the scene still have some opinions. After all, at Camp Nou, Barcelona has always been tyrannical, but now they are forced by Manchester City. The only option is to back up and fight back, which is somewhat embarrassing for the Barcelona fans."

"But Mourinho's creed has never been to win beautifully, but to win!"

...

The ball is in the hands of Manchester City, but it is difficult to create a threatening attack.

Even after fifteen minutes, Manchester City still didn't even take a shot, which made the situation on the field a little irritable.

Until the 19th minute, when Su Dong saw Di Maria returning to defense with Alves who had moved forward with the ball, he immediately ran to the left.

Marcelo and Di Maria joined forces on the left flank to break Alves' ball to David Silva.

The Spanish midfielder sent a through ball that went directly behind the defense.

Su Dong slanted into the left from the middle and stopped the ball before everyone else.

Puyol also blocked Su Dong's passage to the restricted area for the first time.

He knew Su Dong too well.

One-on-one, Su Dong was not afraid, he made a fake move, stabbed the ball to the bottom line, and tried to force a breakthrough, but Puyol reacted fast enough to keep up immediately.

I saw that Su Dong was slightly more explosive, leading by half a position, and stabbed the ball into the big penalty area. He rushed out of the court, and after avoiding Puyol, he suddenly accelerated and grabbed the ball before it went out of the baseline. The foot kept the ball in the line and returned the ball to the penalty spot before Pique came to make a clearance.

I saw that Sanchez arrived at this time, and faced Su Dong's return pass and drew directly, forming Manchester City's first shot of the game.

This was originally a very good opportunity, but under the interference of Mascherano, Sanchez's kick was a bit off, and it went directly out of the bottom line and failed to pose a threat.

The entire Camp Nou stadium breathed a sigh of relief.

Although he failed to break the goal, Su Dong's speed and technique when facing Puyol and Pique on the left side of the road was really worrying.

As long as he is still on the court, no one can rest assured.

Sure enough, just four minutes after the last attack, Manchester City once again intercepted the ball in midfield.

This time, Tony Cross passed a long pass to the back of the defense, Su Dong quickly plugged in, grabbed ahead of Pique, headed the ball, headed from Pique's left to Pique's right, and he accelerated to chase Going up, before Pique, the whole person made an emergency stop and dunked the ball to the left, gave Pique directly, and dribbled the ball to the left.

Puyol stepped forward to fill in for the first time, but Su Dong sent a ball to the bottom line.

With no one to defend, Di Maria slanted into the left rib of the penalty area, caught up with Su Dong's pass, and pushed the far corner with his left foot.

As a result, the inevitable shot hit the lower edge of the right post and bounced out, failing to score.

Di Maria clenched her head in pain and fell into the Barcelona penalty area.

This was already a one-shot, and the chance was so good that it hit the post.

"Manchester City's offensive has improved in this period of time, and it has become more and more threatening. Su Dong has created opportunities in succession, but it is still lacking in the first step."

"Neither Di Maria nor Sanchez are the kind of players who score very efficiently."

"But the problem is that in Manchester City now, only Su Dong can hold the ball in the frontcourt and create opportunities."

"Guardiola was on the sidelines, still calling on the players to be patient, to hold their ground and wait for the moment."

"Obviously, both sides are waiting for the opponent to make a mistake."