Extraordinary coach

Don't be proud of defeat, just win.

Guardiola is serious about this sentence. In his opinion, only victory has real meaning in the competition field.

The winner takes all, and it is useless for the loser to get more praise. Losing is losing.

Guardiola feels that he has lost enough in the past two years. Especially the defeat at the hands of Sun Yi, which can be said to account for the majority of the games he lost in recent years.

In other words, Guardiola is now Sun Yi's victim.

Guardiola can only defeat Sun Yi to wash away the shame on himself.

"Must defeat Southampton!"

So, this sentence became Guardiola's most urgent wish. He can face other losses calmly, but he can no longer accept losing to Southampton.

And now Guardiola also has great confidence in this goal.

After nearly half a season of running-in, Manchester City is now close to its best state.

And the extremely excellent players in the team are Guardiola's greatest capital.

Another thing that gave Guardiola confidence was the match between Southampton and Tottenham.

Southampton almost lost at home. This really gave Guardiola a lot of inspiration.

You know, after learning about the situation of that game, Guardiola immediately asked for the game video to study and learn.

It was also that game that gave Guardiola great confidence in defeating Southampton at home.

"Tottenham almost did it, and we can definitely do it with stronger strength!"

In training, Guardiola also used that game to encourage the players.

"We can definitely do it!"

Manchester City players also became more confident in themselves because of Tottenham as an example.

It was also because of Tottenham that Sun Yi attached great importance to the game against Manchester City.

For this reason, he even invested far more energy than before to study the strategies that Manchester City might use in the game.

By studying the match videos, Sun Yi found that the tactical system of Manchester City, which is still dominated by De Bruyne, Silva and others, has not changed much.

However, the midfield has been strengthened, especially the hardness of the waist area has been increased.

Overall, the current Manchester City team should be stronger than the Community Shield.

However, Sun Yi judged that Manchester City should not have much change in tactics.

Guardiola is not the kind of person who will easily give up his tactical system to play unconventional games.

Sun Yi thinks that the most important thing is to look at Southampton itself.

In the game with Manchester City, the competition is more about making fewer mistakes. Who makes fewer mistakes is the key to victory or defeat.

Therefore, when Sun Yi was preparing for the game, he tried more ways to reduce Southampton's mistakes.

Or it should be said that he tried to cover Southampton's shortcomings in left-wing defense and not expose it to Manchester City.

And this is what Sun Yi is most worried about. He thinks Guardiola will definitely seize this point to make a fuss.

But what makes Sun Yi most helpless is that Southampton does not have many choices in the left back defense point.

And time will not give him the opportunity to slowly find a solution.

Christmas schedule, it is already good to have two days of rest.

Soon, the match day arrived, and Sun Yi led the Southampton team into the Etihad Stadium.

"Manchester City, come on!"

"Manchester City, win!"

...

A large number of Manchester City fans poured into the stadium. Their number is obviously more than before against other teams.

This is also the performance of Tottenham that gave them confidence.

Manchester City fans really hope to see the team beat Southampton.

They have been waiting for this day for more than two years.

And this time, they really feel very hopeful.

However, the fans of the "Blue Moon" have also learned their lesson. Having had a painful experience of being slapped in the face, they are not going to say anything too arrogant before Manchester City really beats Southampton.

Listen to their cheering, how civilized and low-key!

Walking into the Etihad Stadium, Sun Yi still felt a little uncomfortable without hearing the arrogant slogans of the home team fans.

Not hearing the provocative voices, Sun Yi always felt that something was missing. It was hard to find some topics to motivate the players.

Sun Yi focused his attention on Manchester City and soon found that Manchester City was really stronger than before. This is true from the perspective of individual strength.

If it is just from the players, the players of Manchester City are still very coveted by Sun Yi.

Not to mention De Bruyne, any other player, even the substitute players, are the existence that makes Sun Yi's eyes shine with love.

It can be said that on the bench, Southampton is far inferior to Manchester City.

Southampton can only form a strong lineup, but Manchester City players can easily form two lineups with little difference in strength and very competitive.

The only thing that makes Sun Yi feel confident is that Manchester City is not as good as Southampton in terms of top combat power.

Manchester City has only one player who can reach S-level strength, De Bruyne. Although the other players are basically excellent players with A+ level strength. But they are still a little bit lower.

As for Southampton, in addition to Van Dijk who is S-level, there is also Ronaldo who is as strong as S level.

One Van Dijk can offset De Bruyne, while Ronaldo is completely an advantage like a king bomb.

This is Sun Yi's biggest confidence.

Therefore, when the game started, Sun Yi was very calm, even calmer than the game against Tottenham.

His calm look really gave people a feeling of winning.

As long as the Southampton players looked at Sun Yi, all their nervousness disappeared.

This made Southampton perform better than the previous game at the beginning of the game, and each player seemed calmer.

"Well~ Southampton's situation is better than we thought. It seems that the last game did not seem to affect their confidence."

The assistant looked at the field and said to Guardiola with some entanglement.

Guardiola nodded and said: "Sun's adjustment ability is really getting better and better. In just two days, Southampton has been adjusted better by him."

"Then will our pre-match strategy be successful?" The assistant asked with some lack of confidence.

"Any strategy is just a means to improve the team's chances of winning, and it will not be the main determining factor."

Guardiola said so.

In fact, what Guardiola wanted to say was "it's hard to say", but he couldn't say it directly, which might hit his morale.

After saying this, Guardiola thought about what might happen next. He even felt that he needed to start planning for the worst.

And the game on the field was actually not bad.

Southampton did not have the upper hand at Etihad as in the previous game.

They played back and forth with Manchester City, forming a situation of equal strength.

For many people, Manchester City did a really good job.

This is enough to prove the strength of Manchester City.

And Manchester City fans are quite satisfied with this.

"Our team performed well today. Whether it is offense or defense, we are not inferior to Southampton."

"In this case, we have the advantage of home court and are very likely to beat Southampton."

"Come on, let's win the first victory over Southampton in the past two years!"

The biggest hope of Manchester City fans is to beat Southampton. And with Manchester City's strength, they really have a chance with the support of home advantage.

Even Sun Yi felt: "Manchester City played well today. If this situation continues, it will be very dangerous for us."

"Yes. Manchester City is in a really good state today. They played out their characteristics completely. And more importantly, they also learned some defensive methods from Tottenham. They are very targeted at Felix!" Dio said.

"Boss, Felix is ​​being defended like this again, will he not be able to bear it?" Kaka asked with some concern.

Sun Yi looked at the field and said calmly: "I believe he should be fine. At least in the short term."

Pointing to Felix who was getting rid of the ball on the field, Sun Yi continued: "You see, he obviously played smarter than in the last game. These are the growth he brought in the last game."

"He has improved again!" Kaka couldn't help but nodded with some emotion.

"Yes. He has really improved. The more difficult the game, the more it promotes his growth." Sun Yi smiled.

It is precisely because of Felix's growth rate that he dared to let him continue to start in this game.

And from the game, at least so far, Felix has not been watched like in the last game. This makes Sun Yi very satisfied. He is also more confident in the next game.

The game on the field continues, and as both sides begin to fully enter the game state, the game becomes more intense and stalemate.

"Their left defense is worse than the game against Tottenham. Our key attack there is not as effective as we expected before the game." The assistant said with some regret.

"Sun made a substitution in this game. I didn't expect that the young man Malang Sarr played as a full-back and did a great job." Guardiola was calm. He even had the energy to comment.

"Although this player is young, he seems very experienced. Look at him, he has a lot of ideas when defending, and more importantly, he is very calm."

"The position selection is reasonable, the speed is quite fast, and even his feet are active. It's hard to believe that this is a 20-year-old kid."

"Does Sun really have a golden finger? Otherwise, it's really hard to explain why he can use people so accurately."

Guardiola sighed more and more as he spoke, and even almost praised Sun Yi's amazing ability to discover players.

The assistant saw that Guardiola was actually praising the opponent's players, and couldn't help but smile.

"Boss, but in this situation, our offensive effect along the way is not good. Do you want to consider adjusting it?"

"Adjust?" Guardiola shook his head. "No!"

"Keep doing this?"

"Of course. You know, although this little guy's performance is unexpected, he is also the weakest link of the Southampton team on the field. Apart from this, is there anything better for Southampton than this?"

The assistant was silent for a while and shook his head. "No."

Then the assistant said unwillingly: "Don't Southampton have any other weaknesses?"

"Yes. That's how strong teams are. I said that point is a weakness only for us. If it's for other teams, then it's not a weakness. In fact, it's the same for us. Weaknesses are relative, it depends on what opponent we are facing."

Guardiola and his assistants were discussing the weaknesses of the Southampton team on the Manchester City team. Sun Yi was also discussing the weaknesses of the Manchester City team with Dio and others.

"Their weakness is also on the left side." Kaka pointed to the field and said.

"That's right. Zinchenko's point is the biggest defensive weakness of the Manchester City team on the field at present." Sun Yi nodded.

Like Southampton, Manchester City's defensive weakness is also on the left side.

Zinchenko, a player who changed from an offensive player to a left back, actually did a good job in defense. But after all, he is not a professional defender, and there are still some big problems.

In Sun Yi's opinion, Zinchenko is probably about the same as Malang Sarr. Such strength is still enough for ordinary teams. But against Southampton, it is a weak link that can be exploited.

"That's the case. Why don't we attack from this point? I saw that they attacked from Sarr's point." Kaka asked in confusion.

"Because I think differently from Guardiola. He wants to seize that point and press hard, but I want them to ignore their weaknesses." Sun Yi smiled confidently.

Seriously speaking, the weaknesses of Southampton and Manchester City are actually the same.

And Sun Yi's original plan was to take the same approach as Guardiola. It was just that Tottenham's sneak attack made Sun Yi think he could learn from it.

So, Sun Yi's idea now became: if you don't attack, you'll kill.

"Oh. So that's the case. Just like the last game, when Tottenham scored the first goal." Kaka's eyes lit up and he felt that he had learned something.

He turned around and saw that Dio didn't look surprised, and understood that the current situation on the field was a strategy deliberately arranged by the coaching staff.

It turned out that everything on the field was actually under the control of the coaching staff.

Kaka felt that he was becoming more and more confident in this game.

When Kaka thought of the situation in the last game, he felt even more joyful and expectant.

"Hey, pay more attention to Ronaldo. He is our strong point, develop more in that direction."

Kaka looked up and saw that Sun Yi had already arrived at the sidelines and shouted loudly to the field.

Thinking of what Sun Yi had just said to him, Kaka couldn't help but secretly give a thumbs up.

"You clearly know where the weakness is, but you deliberately attack the opponent's most important defense. This is using Ronaldo as bait! No, it's a smoke bomb."

"Great!"

"I'm afraid he is the only one in the football world who uses a superstar who has won the Golden Ball several times as a smoke bomb?"

"The coach's ideas are really different from those of ordinary people!"