Super Marshal

August 19, 2009, evening, Manchester City Stadium.

In order to make way for next year's World Cup in South Africa, major European leagues have compressed their schedules. The Premier League in the new season has directly entered a double-match week from the beginning, which has brought heavy competition pressure to all participating teams.

Three days after playing the first round, Manchester City ushered in the first home game of the new season.

The City Stadium, which can accommodate more than 47,000 fans, was packed. Countless Manchester City fans booked the first home game early, hoping to be the first to enjoy the first home game coached by Gao Han.

Before the game, Manchester City held a brief home opening ceremony for the new season and conducted a special event.

That is, before the game, on the big screen at the scene, an edited clip of the highlights of several other wealthy teams that Gao Han has coached in the past nine years, except Chelsea, was played, as well as many superstar players in the team. outstanding performance.

The short film is not long, but it is beautifully edited and paired with exciting music, making the atmosphere extremely lively.

After the video was played, Manchester City's players walked out of the tunnel one after another amid the stadium's broadcast and received cheers from the fans. The biggest star, Cristiano Ronaldo, was assigned to the finale.

The fans in the audience gave every player the most enthusiastic applause and cheers. Many fans even did not forget Kaká, who was unable to play. The live broadcast footage was also specially shown to the Brazilian superstar in the chairman's stand, allowing him to Also enjoyed the welcome from all the fans.

The atmosphere in the stadium was extremely intense, especially when Gao Han walked into the stadium from the players' tunnel. More than 40,000 fans in the audience shouted his name in unison. Countless fans held up their cards and formed a wave of Gao Han in the huge stands. A giant portrait to express their support for the world-famous coach.

Gao Han smiled throughout and raised his right hand to greet the fans in the audience, which made him receive an even more enthusiastic response.

Although the first round of the new season was not ideal, they still defeated their opponents 2-0 in an away game. All Manchester City fans are convinced that the team's downturn is only temporary. Give it a little more time, Gao Han We will definitely be able to adjust the team to its best condition and perform as well as it should.

Because in the past nearly ten years, Gaohan has never disappointed.

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In the second round, Manchester City's opponent is Everton.

Moyes' team had just suffered a 6-1 defeat to Arsenal at home, and visited the City Stadium in the second round. This made Moyes complain about the devil's schedule before the game, but he was obviously well prepared for the game.

At the beginning of the game, Manchester City still took the initiative, but unlike the away game against Blackburn, this time Gao Han was not in a hurry to score, but aimed at stabilizing the team's passing and controlling style and controlling the rhythm of the game. , attack slowly.

Moyes also seemed worried about repeating Allardyce's mistake. He did not organize a press after the opening game, but retreated.

After the test of the first round, coupled with Gao Han's targeted adjustments to the problems exposed in the first round in the past three days, the players have a better understanding of Gao Han's technical and tactical play, and their passing and control organization has become more skillful. .

Everton is not a fuel-saving lamp. The defense is very well organized, making it difficult for Manchester City to attack the 30-meter area.

But Manchester City showed a big improvement in this game, that is, the high-intensity pressure in the midfield and frontcourt made it difficult for Everton to hold the ball, and Manchester City had absolute possession of the ball.

Several players in the midfield and backfield are also obviously more confident in picking up and controlling the ball, and have become more calm.

However, Moyes arranged a four-fifth formation for this game, and the midfielder gathered famous Premier League players such as Phil Neville, Arteta, Pienaar, and Cahill. The overall strength cannot be underestimated.

Gao Han kept walking to the sidelines and repeatedly reminded the players to stay calm and patient. Even in the first half, the two sides ended in a 0-0 draw. The scene seemed very dull. During the halftime break, Gao Han still reminded the players to continue. Stick to the style of play in the first half and firmly control the possession of the ball and the rhythm of the game.

Because he knows that nothing can be accomplished overnight and needs to be done step by step.

At least judging from the current situation of Manchester City, if you first master the possession of the ball and the rhythm of the game, you can establish yourself in a situation where you are undefeated, or not so easily defeated. As long as you do this, sooner or later the frontcourt offensive players will Everyone will seize the opportunity.

As for the offense, we have to wait for the team to gain a foothold first.

After changing sides and fighting again in the second half, Everton once tried their best to disrupt Manchester City's passing and rhythm, but Moyes' team soon exposed a flaw of their own, and Manchester City calmly seized the opportunity.

David Silva received a direct pass from Kompany with his back and passed it across to Modric who ran over to receive the ball.

The Croatian midfielder sensed that Everton's defense was over-pressured and passed the ball over the head, sending the ball behind Everton's defense. Cristiano Ronaldo countered offside and stepped in with no one to defend him. Forming a one-on-one shot, he dribbled the ball into the penalty area and calmly made a push shot, one to zero!

Afterwards, Everton began to counterattack, but Manchester City retreated consciously, stabilized their position, and launched two quite threatening counterattacks, which scared Everton into retreating again soon.

In the end, Manchester City defeated Everton 1-0 with Cristiano Ronaldo's goal in the 58th minute.

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With double matches in a week, the Premier League pattern has undergone certain changes.

Liverpool, who capsized in the gutter in the first round, returned to Anfield this round and slaughtered Stoke City 4-0, playing the most exciting game of the round.

Chelsea beat Sunderland 2-1 away from home, Tottenham Hotspur also beat Birmingham 5-1 away from home, and Arsenal, who won the first round, continued their winning streak in this round, winning Bolton Wanderers 4-2 at home.

Only Ferguson's Manchester United lost to Burnley 0-1 away from home.

But even if Manchester United lost, the British media criticized the most after the game, but it was Manchester City who won.

Many media were very dissatisfied with Manchester City's 1-0 victory over Everton at home, because except for Cristiano Ronaldo's flash of inspiration, Manchester City did not create many scoring opportunities throughout the game, even in In terms of some offensive statistics, it is not as good as Everton.

"The cold team is chasing possession as always. In this game against Everton, Manchester City's possession rate was as high as 62%, setting a record for the highest possession rate in the 20 Premier League games this season. .”

“But with 62 percent possession and with European stars like Cristiano Ronaldo, Benzema, Sanchez, David Silva and Modric, They only took 12 shots and had five on target, while their opponent, Everton, took 11 shots and had seven on target."

"You know, the player with the lowest value in Manchester City's frontcourt is enough to be worth the total value of Everton's entire frontcourt offensive players, but the data produced by both sides is exactly the same. This is completely unacceptable."

But Gao Han smiled and expressed that he was satisfied with his team's performance at the post-match press conference.

"I'm happy because I see progress, I see all the players are gradually integrating into the team, everyone needs to give us more time and everything will be fine."

For the fans at the scene, Gao Han said that he was very excited.

"I feel great today. The fans here are amazing. Even when the team is in a bad situation, they still support us. I want to say to all Manchester City fans here, believe me, the team will gradually improve." On the right track.”

However, the outside media obviously did not trust Gao Han's words.

Three days later, on Saturday, in the third round of the Premier League, Manchester City still welcomed Wolves at home.

Manchester City started this game very well. Cristiano Ronaldo scored a goal in the 17th minute to help the team lead 1-0.

But after taking the lead, Manchester City once again became helpless in the face of Wolves' tenacious sniping. Especially in the second half, Wolves replaced a forward and replaced it with a defender, switching to 541. After the formation, it became more difficult for Manchester City to attack.

In the end, Manchester City once again scored 1-0 at home.

After the game, everyone once again targeted Manchester City, which was weak in attack, especially when Manchester United defeated Wigan Athletic 5-0 away from home, Arsenal defeated Portsmouth 4-1 at home, and Chelsea defeated Richland 2-0 away from home. In Lehm's case, Manchester City's one-goal victory will inevitably pale in comparison.

In this round, Liverpool lost to Aston Villa 1-3 at home and suffered another defeat.

But despite the doubts from the outside world, Gao Han spoke highly of the team's third-round game. Especially in the locker room after the game, he affirmed the team's performance.

Because in this game, the team created a total of 21 shots, of which 14 were on target and seven missed. Whether it was from the perspective of scoring opportunities or efficiency, they were quite good. good.

As for why he only scored one goal, Gao Han has been coaching for so many years. Of course, he knows better than anyone else that sometimes scoring a goal is just a little bit less satisfying.

But the media outside obviously don't see it that way, because judging from the first three games of this season, Manchester City's performance has been sluggish.

After the third round of the Premier League, the League Cup game ushered in midweek.

Gao Han appropriately rotated the team's lineup, including players such as Sturridge, Petrov and Ruo, who all got the chance to play. The team also returned to the 433 formation, and the result was a three-match away game without any surprises. Zero defeated Crystal Palace to advance.

This immediately caused the media to speculate again, thinking that Gao Han should not stick to the 343 formation, but should switch to 433.

At the very least, Manchester City players are obviously more comfortable with playing with a back four.

At the weekend, in the fourth round of the Premier League, Manchester City challenged Portsmouth away, but Gao Han once again adopted a three-back system.

As a result, this time they encountered a very tenacious sniper attack from the home team. Portsmouth received a total of 22 fouls and six yellow cards in this game. This data is the best proof of the game process, and Manchester City is sitting on a hundred With a 60% ball possession advantage, in the end it was only relying on Cristiano Ronaldo's goal in the 30th minute to win 1-0 again.

Four consecutive rounds were won by one goal, which led several British tabloids to publish reports mocking Gao Han and Manchester City, ridiculing Gao Han for believing in a conservative one-to-zero doctrine and not daring to invest troops in the offense.

In the focus of this round, Arsenal visited Old Trafford to challenge Manchester United. As a result, Van Persie scored first, but was equalized by Rooney. After that, midfielder Diaby's own goal allowed Manchester United to reverse the score 2-1. .

This was also Arsenal's first defeat of the season.

After four rounds, there are three teams that have won all four Premier League games. Chelsea ranks first, Tottenham Hotspur ranks second, Manchester City ranks third, followed by Arsenal and Manchester United, and Liverpool ranks third. In eighth place, behind West Ham United and Stoke City.

Cristiano Ronaldo scored four goals, tied for the top scorer list with Manchester United's Rooney and Tottenham Hotspur's Defoe, and he was the only scorer to score in all four rounds.

So much so that many media took advantage of this to ridicule Gao Han, because Manchester City only scored five goals in total.