What ball king, call me ball god

"It's the first leg of the EFL Cup semi-finals. Manchester United vs Manchester City."

"The two sides have entered the stadium and the game is about to begin. Now let me introduce to you the starting players of both sides!"

"Manchester City's formation is 343, or it can be said to be 3421. The goalkeeper is Bravo, and the three central defenders are-left central defender Otamendi, central defender Fernandinho, and right central defender Rodri. The two sides Wing-backs - The left wing-back is Mendy, and the right wing-back is Walker. The two midfielders are Gundogan and De Bruyne. The two front midfielders are Bernardo Silva and Mahrez. The one at the front is Sterling. Today's Manchester City lineup is another striker-less lineup. Sterling's finishing ability is actually not very good, and Manchester City does not have a regular center on the bench today. So today Manchester City There is actually a question mark on our ability to attack difficult problems!”

"Manchester United also made personnel adjustments today, and the formation also changed to 4231. The goalkeeper is Romero, and the defense from left to right is Luke Shaw, De Ligt, Smalling, and Dalot. The one on the left of the double defensive midfielder is Guimarães, and the one on the right is Matic. The attacking midfielder is De Jong, the left winger is Lingard, and the right winger is Mata. The center forward is Lin Kedi."

"It can be said that Manchester United played a total of 5 non-main players today. This is still much larger than Manchester City's rotation. In fact, Manchester City only rotated a goalkeeper and a central defender."

"Ten Hag was still very bold today, because many of the players who were rotated were not in the squad. On the contrary, Ruben Dias and Grimaldo, who were only officially announced today, are already in the squad. , they may also appear today. If one of the two appears today, it will set a record for the fastest appearance after the official announcement of joining!"

"Today is the semi-final of the League Cup after all. Although the semi-final of the League Cup is a two-leg match, the opponent is Manchester City who are ready to go. Manchester United has rotated some people on the field, which already has a certain disadvantage. If we want to It won’t work if you start a new player who hasn’t been used up before. Of course, it doesn’t rule out that Ten Hag is really bold! He dares to do this!”

After the game started, Manchester City took the lead to kick off.

Sterling's playing style in the middle obviously made this player who is happy to play very uncomfortable.

When De Ligt faced Sterling, he had the physical advantage and his flexibility was not bad at all, which made Sterling very embarrassed.

But soon, Manchester City's three frontcourt players, Mahrez, Bernardo Silva and Sterling, began to take turns moving around, and their positions were no longer fixed.

This has revitalized Manchester City's frontcourt offense, but in the final analysis, these three people are not pure centers, and they have little offensive ability, and such small and fast players need space, but now Manchester United does not give Manchester City space, firmly The space is crushed, which makes the three frontcourt players of Manchester City who need space for conduction very uncomfortable.

As a Sterling shot was blocked, De Ligt protected the ball and then split the ball to Dalot on the right.

After taking the ball, Dalot first looked up and observed, and then began to push forward. Just less than 10 meters forward, Bernardo Silva approached, and then Mendy also pressed up, and the two came together to press Dalot. Lot.

Dalot has good skills with his feet. As soon as he saw his opponent approaching, he immediately turned around, took the ball with him, and then gave it to De Ligt.

De Ligt was well prepared and looked up before receiving the ball. After receiving the ball, he did not blindly release the ball. He looked up again, looked up, and then passed it to Matic in front of him.

Matic picked up the ball sideways. After receiving the ball, he turned around and then moved forward, trying to pass it to De Jong. De Jong also saw Matic's intention and wanted to run forward. , come with an advance amount.

But De Jong also saw his intention, and his opponents must have seen it too.

After all, the opponent was Manchester City, so Rodri took the lead and blocked his position, and the ball was intercepted.

After stealing the ball, Rodri stepped forward and stole the ball.

Rodri then made a long pass to Mahrez.

This is not often seen in Manchester City's games, but Rodri observed that Mahrez had a good chance and passed it directly.

Mahrez got the ball before Luke Shaw rushed up, and then made a trip forward, rushing directly to the baseline.

Then when he reached the edge of the penalty area, he was about to make a pass. There was only Sterling in the middle, and it was useless to pass the ball. So De Ligt did not jump up, but stood in position and prepared to defend.

But then, De Bruyne rushed forward.

At the top of the penalty area.

Mahrez continued to break through, and after throwing away Lindelof, an inverted triangle was passed directly to De Bruyne.

De Bruyne shoots with a putt.

All at once.

1:0.

Manchester City took the lead in the away game. About 10 minutes into the game, Manchester City, which played without a striker, scored the first goal instead.

"Oops - this time it was Matic's passing error. The intention of the passing was too obvious. When facing a top team like Manchester City, if there is an opponent player next to the teammate you want to pass, you must not When you pass a ball with too obvious intentions, even if you pass it, the ball speed should be faster, otherwise like this ball, if the ball speed is a bit slow and the intention is too obvious, it will be easily intercepted."

"The main reason is that Matic hasn't played in the starting game for too long. In fact, if the opponent in this game is of average strength, it will be fine if Matic starts the game. The pace will not be too fast. But today's opponent is Manchester City, and they start in the starting lineup." Teach is debatable, we did talk about this before the game!"

At this time on the court, Matic was in a very bad mood after losing the ball, but his teammates had no time to comfort him at this time.

Because the players of Manchester United want to quickly get back the score at home.

So after the restart, Manchester United's offensive became fierce.

But obviously, there is still something good about Manchester City's three central defenders today. Originally, Manchester City's defense was short of major generals. Fernandinho's effectiveness as a central defender was okay against mid-to-lower teams, but against strong teams Sometimes things don't work out, and Guardiola switches to three central defenders, with two wide central defenders protecting the center. Fernandinho can attack with peace of mind. When defending, Gundogan will also retreat to provide corresponding protection. , so the defensive stability of this lineup has increased significantly.

When Ten Hag was watching the game from the sidelines, he felt that Guardiola was worthy of being a top tactician. A weak point was suddenly changed to a strong point for him.

Now Manchester City's defense is to retreat to maintain a stable defense, and to advance to pass and control.

For a time, Manchester United had nothing to do.

During the halftime break, Ten Hag was also thinking about how to break this defense.

After much thought, Ten Hag decided to let Linke switch to the right. Mendiga Otamendi's side was Manchester City's weak defensive side. If Linke attacked the middle, Manchester City would be protected by the army. If it's from the side, Lin Ke's speed and inside shooting ability should be used to make a breakthrough.

Therefore, in the second half, Mata was replaced on the right and replaced by Rashford, who was asked to play in the center, and then Link played as the right winger.

"Hey - we saw a change in Manchester City's lineup. Lin Kedi moved to the right wing position, and the newly replaced Rashford played the center position."

"It seems that Manchester United wants to attack the right wing!" Lin Kedi, who had changed his position, was also unambiguous. After receiving the pass from his teammate, he started to speed up. Mendy had not yet retreated, but was directly beaten by Lin Kedi. Breaking through the defense line.

Upon seeing this, Gundogan was so frightened that he immediately ran back, trying to get to the full-back position to prevent Lin Kedi's first charge.

But Linke's speed was too fast. Before Gundogan came back, Linke had already approached Otamendi's side. Otamendi knew the danger of Linke and he didn't dare to take the lead. action, but stood on the edge of the penalty area.

Therefore, Lin Kedi took the initiative, moved to the right, and then suddenly left. Otamendi inevitably followed suit, and then Lin Kedi pulled with his right foot and squeezed into the penalty area from the inside.

Once inside the penalty area, Manchester City's defensive players were less afraid to make big moves.

As soon as Lin Kedi entered the penalty area, he immediately pretended to shoot with his left foot. Bravo had already made a save action, and then Lin Kedi quickly poked with his right foot.

The ball rolled into the near corner goal!

"Lin-ke-enemy!"

"It's him again! He stood up again when he was lagging behind. Less than 1 minute into the second half, Lin Kedi switched to the right wing position. It was an immediate success!"

"As you can see from this goal, Lin Kedi is definitely a world-class player when he plays as a winger. He can also make clever passing moves during quick breakthroughs. This combination of speed and technology, I I've only seen it on Messi before! It's very difficult to pass people in such a high-speed state, because the speed must be high enough and the center of gravity is low, so passing people is more efficient, and Lin Kedi is a standard With the height of a center, it is amazing to be able to make dribbling moves at such a high speed!”

Originally, Lin Ke's sudden outburst after the enemy changed positions at the beginning of the second half made everyone feel that it was likely to become an offensive battle.

But just after Link scored, Guardiola immediately made substitution adjustments and replaced Mendy with Cancelo.

After Cancelo came on the field, he played even more strangely. When attacking, he stood next to the two midfielders, like a left midfielder. When defending, he moved directly next to the central defender and became the fourth central defender.

This is a new role created by coaches of Guardiola's school, the defensive midfielder.

Or it can also be called an inside full-back.

However, this name is not quite accurate. It would be better to call him an inside full-back.

This is the position Cancelo plays now.

The line played by Lin Kedi is now heavily guarded by Guardiola, so Lin Kedi will encounter great resistance whether he forces a breakthrough on the wing or cuts inside.

Lin Kedi is not a lone wolf, so when he sees that his side is blocked, he passes the ball to his teammates, or attracts firepower to create opportunities for his teammates.

In fact, in the second half of the game, two hard-won opportunities were created.

Both times, Link attracted the defense of three players on the right. The first time was a sudden cross pass to the center. The ball suddenly flew out of the encirclement. Rashford had basically no defensive players around him. Got the ball, and then shot the anti-aircraft gun.

It caused waves of regret.

As for the second pass, Lin Kedi broke through to the rib position and was surrounded again. Lin Kedi observed Rashford's reverse run and decisively sent it through with a kick. Rashford got the ball. A volley shot, but it hit the outside of the net, another good opportunity wasted.

Two excellent opportunities were wasted by Rashford, which made the fans at the scene feel extremely regretful.

Although Manchester City did a very good defensive job in this game, they did spend most of their time dealing with Manchester United's defense, or in other words, Lin Ke's fierce attack on the right side, so their offense was insufficient. of.

In the end, the score in the first leg of the League Cup semi-finals was fixed at 1-1.

After the game, both teams were obviously not in a good mood.

Went into the locker room.

Ten Hag said nothing else.

The state of Manchester United today is indeed not very good.

Ten Hag would not say anything at this time.

After the game, Ten Hag and Lin Kedi participated in the post-match press conference together.

Although today's game was 1-1, the attention of the game was still focused on Lin Kedi.

Many reporters asked questions about Lin Kedi's goal.

There are a lot of questions, such as whether Lin Kedi will change positions to play in the future, and if the effect of playing on the side is good, will he continue to play.

As for these questions, Lin Kedi answered some of them himself, and left those that he couldn't answer to head coach Ten Hahe.

As soon as Ten Hahe said his final concluding words, the reporters in the audience were keenly aware that Ten Hahe's words would definitely be the headlines tomorrow!

That's what Ten Hag said.

"I don't think I need to fix Lin Kedi's position. Just like in the second half, Lin Kedi was on the right wing and returned to the center position. He is not fixed. In the previous game, Lin Kedi was also playing. He switched to the left wing position in the middle, and even dropped back to get the ball to organize. It was in that game that he assisted a hat trick. So what I want to say is that Lin Kedi played the center position, and is now the first center forward, playing as a left winger. He is the first left winger, he is the first right winger when he plays as a right winger, and he is the first attacking midfielder when he plays as an attacking midfielder! I think Lin's comprehensiveness in defeating the enemy is the strongest in history!"

Ten Hag talks about the rise.

Lin Kedi listened very enthusiastically at first, after all, the head coach praised himself face to face, but the more he listened, the more he felt something was wrong.

Coach, if you say that, it will be in the headlines again tomorrow.

The key is what you said, many people will attribute these words to me! (end of this chapter)