Nine Hundred and One When "Guardiola" Meets Guardiola

On the evening of August 15, Etihad Stadium, Manchester.

The player has already taken the caddie's hand, led by the referee Mike Dean, and walked into the stadium amid the roar of fans in the audience, and is about to kick off the first match of the new Premier League season.

Thirty-eight-year-old Brendan Rodgers stood on the inside of the tunnel with a grim face, his eyes fixed on the exit ahead, trying to calm himself down.

Tonight, he wore a very formal dress, a black suit with a tie, and a pocket square in the breast pocket of the suit. He had a high hairline, and his hair was meticulously combed. He looked very ceremonial. sense.

This is the Premier League he has been waiting for for years!

It's the game he's been looking forward to for a long time!

...

Although only thirty-eight years old, Rodgers has been in charge for seventeen years.

At the age of twenty that year, he had to retire early due to injury, so he took a coaching course.

In 1994, he entered the Reading youth team, and gradually rose to the position of director of youth training and assistant coach of the first team.

That was the pinnacle of La Liga football.

At the turn of the century, Bosque's Real Madrid, Irueta's Super Deportivo, Cooper and Benitez's Valencia, and later Rijkaard's Barcelona, ​​these teams have all achieved European football. gained a great reputation.

All people of insight also basically agree that the strength of Spanish football is not lost to Serie A in the small World Cup.

It was also during that time that Rogers often went to Spain to study in the name of learning Spanish, and the most important thing was to learn and understand Spanish football, which opened up a new world for him.

Because he is proficient in Spanish and is familiar with football in Spain and the Iberian Peninsula, in 2004, when Mourinho entered Chelsea and Chelsea launched a vigorous youth training reform, Rodgers applied to Chelsea as an 18-year-old. The head coach of the youth team, and two years later he was promoted to the head coach of the reserve team.

In November 2009, the British Championship team Watford had a poor performance. After the coach Boothroyd was dismissed, assistant coach Malkey McKay coached for five games, and the results were still not satisfactory, so they found Chelsea. Reserve Rodgers.

The performance of coaching Watford is not bad, but after the end of the season, Rodgers' position was replaced by assistant coach Malkey McKay, and Rodgers returned to coach Reading, the old club who aimed to hit the Premier League, but it was not winter. During the break, he was fired.

After leaving Reading, it took Rogers half a year to find his next job.

Unlike Reading, a super-strong Premier League team, Swansea is a mid-level team that has only been promoted to the British Championship from the third tier for two years. Martinez and Portuguese Paul Sousa.

These two coaches not only led Swansea to perform well in League One and the Championship, but also injected the football genes of the Iberian Peninsula into the team, so after sending these two coaches away, Swansea decided to choose Rogers.

This time, the two hit it off.

No one could have imagined that after coaching Swansea for a year, Rodgers successfully led the team to go further, entered the promotion zone, and defeated Nottingham Forest and his old club Reading in the play-offs, and successfully promoted to the Premier League.

It can be said that up to now, Rodgers' coaching career has been an inspirational one.

Influenced by Spanish football, Rodgers especially admired Barcelona's football style.

Possession, transfer, space...

This set of football concepts of Barcelona has a profound influence on Rodgers.

Even as early as last season, when Guardiola led Manchester City to success, Rodgers made no secret that he was a Guardiola fan and he liked Guardiola's football very much.

But no one thought at the time that Rodgers' first game after leading the team to the Premier League was to face Guardiola's Manchester City.

...

Rogers stretched out his hand to straighten his suit, took a deep breath, and walked towards the player tunnel.

With the improvement of the team's performance, Manchester City's home attendance rate is extremely high, especially after the stadium expansion, the home capacity is close to 50,000 people, and it is now full.

Rodgers was not popular with Manchester City fans and was booed as soon as he walked out.

He's used to it.

The home fans of no English team like the away manager.

After walking out of the player tunnel, Rodgers quickly turned to look at the home team's coaching bench, only to find that Guardiola had already walked towards him, and he immediately greeted him with a smile.

"Hello, Brendan."

"Nice to meet you, Josep."

The two greeted at the same time, but interestingly, Guardiola spoke in English while Rodgers spoke in Spanish.

This made both teams laugh in unison.

The same football concept made the two discuss each other's tactics on the sidelines, and they were somewhat tit-for-tat.

The resources and support that Guardiola could get at Manchester City was something that Rodgers could not get at Swansea.

For example, he doesn't have a super center like Su Dong, so he can only choose a striker like Daniel Graham, a striker on the wing, a player like David Silva, and Tony Cross. this role.

All of this is impossible for Swansea.

As a head coach, Rodgers can only make compromises at the tactical level, and there is no way to fully realize his ideas.

Guardiola also expressed his approval and respect. After all, it is not easy to lead a team like Swansea to the Premier League. You know, four years ago, this team was still in the third tier. Swansea are promoted to the Premier League for the first time in their history.

"However, when it comes to the game, we won't keep it."

Rodgers smiled awkwardly. He came to Manchester and was actually mentally prepared to lose.

"Last season in the Championship, you had a very fatal problem, that is, you played very well at home, but played very poorly on the road. This also has a lot to do with your tactics. I hope you have made up for this this summer. It's flawed, otherwise..."

Guardiola did not finish his words, but the tit-for-tat was already very obvious.

Rodgers can only smile bitterly, because his players are limited in strength. Even in the Championship, it is difficult to maintain a high level of passing and control at home and away like Manchester City, because all teams always play better on the road. difficulty.

"We came with a learning attitude." Rogers laughed.

Guardiola looked deeply at Rodgers and nodded politely, "Good luck."

"You too."

The two head coaches separated on the sidelines and each returned to the coaching area.

…………

…………

Rodgers said Swansea came with a learning attitude.

This is obviously cheating.

From the start of the game, Swansea made a good example of why they were dubbed Manchester City in the Championship last season.

Pressing and pressing from a high position was used without hesitation, and launched a violent impact on Manchester City.

Manchester City also attaches great importance to the debut of the new season. Except for the replacement of goalkeeper Joe Hart with Courtois, every other position is the main force that continued last season, basically unchanged.

But even so, Swansea's high pressing and pressing still brought a lot of trouble to Manchester City.

It's not that Manchester City's players lack tacit understanding, but the first game of the new season, the players are generally not in the state, and this high-intensity pressing and pressing by Swansea has caused an impact on Manchester City, leading to the team's passing. There are a lot of misses.

Especially from the sixth minute, Swansea attacked continuously.

In the four-two-three formation, the shadow striker Dobby, who was ambush behind the center Graham, used a sudden long-range shot to take Manchester City's goal, but was thrown by the goalkeeper Courtois from the outside of the small penalty area. The ball was blocked, and after the Belgian goalkeeper landed, he jumped up again and grabbed the ball before Graham.

This wonderful save won Courtois warm applause from the fans.

In the twelfth minute, there was another counterattack from Swansea. The left defender Tate quickly plugged in and sent a cross. Dobby, at the front of the penalty area, volleyed a volley. Pull out the beam.

The Belgian goalkeeper won the second round of applause from the audience.

Guardiola also applauded him from the sidelines, but was also dissatisfied with the performance of the players on the pitch.

Everyone can see that Swansea's players get into rhythm and form earlier than Manchester City.

In the first 15 minutes, Manchester City's possession rate was only a measly 40%.

After two attacks by Swansea, especially after two shots, Manchester City's players gradually entered the state of the game and found the rhythm of the game.

Especially midfield.

The team began to find the rhythm of passing and controlling the ball under this high pressure from Swansea and played very patiently.

Through this continuous back-and-forth, even back-passing, patiently controlling the ball and pulling the Swansea players to run.

Especially after 20 minutes, Swansea's high-intensity and fast-paced pressing and pressing consumes too much and obviously can't keep up, because they also need to reasonably distribute the physical fitness of the whole game, and it is impossible to put them in one breath. The physical energy is exhausted, so how do you play next?

Stand still and let your opponents slaughter?

But just when Swansea was about to slow down and try to take a sigh of relief, Manchester City gradually took the initiative and pressed the defensive line forward, especially in the ball possession area. Wanxi's 30-meter area perimeter possession.

In the 23rd minute, it was Busquets who received the return pass from his teammate, and suddenly saw the right opportunity, sent a fatal mid-to-long pass, and gave it to the right side of the front edge of the penalty area.

Su Dong blocked Swansea's central defender Corker with his body. After stopping the ball firmly, he suddenly turned around, shook off Corker, and cut in horizontally with the ball.

Without waiting for another central defender, Williams, to come forward to fill the position, Su Dong suddenly shot with his left foot on the right side of the top of the penalty area, kicked a powerful curve ball, and went directly to the upper left corner of the goal.

This sudden shot shocked everyone.

Swansea goalkeeper Worm even flew to the side, trying to hit the ball.