Starting from playing as a defensive midfielder for Real Madrid

Tottenham and Sheffield United ended their final EFL Cup semi-final showdown on the night of January 28th.

With a slight advantage of a one-goal victory in the first round, Tottenham narrowly defeated Sheffield United 3-2 in two rounds and successfully joined Chelsea in the EFL Cup final.

This is the final stage that the FA would like to see.

The London Derby is a meeting between bitter rivals. The more exciting the final is, the better it will be for the promotion of the EFL Cup.

However, there is still a full month before the start of the EFL Cup final, and the FA is not in a hurry to promote it.

What they are more concerned about is the "Double Blue War" that is coming soon!

The importance of this game to Manchester City is self-evident.

Chelsea's current league record is 21 wins and 1 draw, while Manchester City has 17 wins, 3 draws and 2 losses.

Trailing Chelsea by as many as 10 points, Manchester City wants to close the points gap with Chelsea. They must seize this face-to-face opportunity!

Otherwise, this season will be nothing more than a repeat of last season's ending of being steadily crushed by Chelsea.

It is really uncomfortable to hope that other league opponents can attack Chelsea, and then watch Chelsea steadily score points over and over again, and finally watch Chelsea win the championship early!

Guardiola knows, and all Manchester City players also know, that their best chance is in the next round of direct dialogue with Chelsea!

There is a gap in strength between Manchester City and Chelsea, but in terms of tactical games, the two teams are almost completely equal.

When other Premier League teams play against Chelsea, the gap in strength can indeed be seen, and they will basically be severely suppressed by the all-main force Chelsea on the scene.

Manchester City is currently the only team in the Premier League that can allow Chelsea to temporarily avoid the edge and develop ball-control tactics in the backcourt.

Neither Arsenal nor Tottenham forced Chelsea to control the ball in the backcourt.

So no matter how big or small the opportunity is, Manchester City is qualified to challenge Chelsea.

In order to counterattack and win the Premier League championship this season, they can only move forward and compete head-on with Chelsea again.

Once they retreat, they will basically withdraw from the competition for this season's league championship.

The tense atmosphere before the war enveloped the entire Premier League.

On January 31st, starting from 12:45, the 23rd round of the Premier League will begin one by one.

Today's Premier League battle will not come to an end until 17:30 that afternoon.

As the "main course" of the final game of the day, of course it is the double blue battle between Chelsea and Manchester City!

There are no other Premier League matches starting during this period, so almost all Premier League fans will also pay attention to the focus showdown between Chelsea and Manchester City.

Regarding this battle, the players and coaches of both sides appeared to be more cautious before the game, and they all used some official clichés in interviews with the media.

When asked about the tactics chosen and the starting players, Mourinho and Guardiola remained silent.

It was not until the last hour before the start of the game that fans saw the starting lineups of the two teams today through media disclosures.

Chelsea's starting players still seem to be quite satisfactory, and the main players are basically playing. I think the starting lineup will not change much.

But Manchester City's starting lineup excludes Aguero who is healthy. In the last round of the league, Aguero played a full 90 minutes!

This is huge news. No reporters or fans would think of the sudden conflict between Aguero and Guardiola.

The relationship between the master and apprentice has been very good since they started working together last season.

And after Aguero scored in the last round of the league, he was very excited to celebrate with Guardiola on the sidelines by hugging him.

Therefore, ruling out the possibility of disagreement between the generals, let’s take a closer look at Manchester City’s starting roster.

Many fans who reacted quickly guessed Guagliola's tactical ideas instantly.

"No forward formation! Guardiola will directly use the no forward formation when facing Chelsea today!"

"Wang Defa?! Guardiola has started to work hard again! He didn't stay up all night and ruin his brain, did he???"

"How can we guarantee goals without Aguero... Well, it seems that Aguero has not scored many Chelsea goals before, but is it really a good choice to drop the main striker before such a crucial game?"

Premier League fans from all over the world complained about Guardiola's starting selection today.

But when the two teams finished their warm-up and finally went through the pre-match ceremony, they were about to start a head-on battle.

The formation that Chelsea put up instantly helped Guardiola attract the fans' complaints!

Chelsea's starting lineup will not surprise fans.

But...what kind of trouble is Chelsea, who has put up a 3421 formation on the field, going to do? ? ?

"Holy shit! Mourinho was influenced by Rogers? Isn't this too over the top, 3421 formation? Didn't Chelsea just beat Liverpool to pieces? I'm a little dizzy, I can't understand!"

"Someone tell me this is not true! How come Mourinho has also learned from Guardiola and started to improve the tactics at the tactical level...Has Chelsea ever played a 3421 formation in this season and a half? Why is it suddenly doing this?"

"Maybe he won too much and Mourinho wanted to try what it feels like to lose."

"Okay, this fucking reason seems reasonable now... but this game is more interesting! Damn it, I suddenly feel excited!"

…

Discussion topics about this game among fans from all walks of life suddenly doubled explosively on the Internet.

The commentators from various countries who had completely guessed Chelsea's starting lineup before were all busy complaining about Mourinho's behavior in their hearts and apologizing to the audience.

After the game officially started, they took the time to quickly reintroduce the starting lineups of the two teams.

“…Chelsea’s starting three central defenders are Thiago Silva, John Terry and Karas.

The left wing-backs Bertrand, Matic and Li Ang are in the middle and deep, and the right wing-back De Bruyne.

The two central midfielders are Hazard and Kroos, and Ibrahimovic steps forward to serve as the starting center..."

“Manchester City’s starting goalkeeper today is Joe Hart.

Defense line: Clichy, Mangala, Kompany and Zabaleta lined up from left to right.

Fernandinho and Fernando served as the double defensive midfielder, and David Silva appeared in the starting position of the attacking midfielder today.

Left midfielder Milner, right midfielder Jesus Navas, lone forward Cesc Fabregas..."

With the quick introduction by commentators from various countries, the starting lineups of Chelsea and Manchester City were also quickly unveiled and presented to fans from all over the world.

Fabregas' opening position was indeed at the forward position.

Just like the pseudo-center he played at Barcelona in the past few seasons.

But after taking the lead at Stamford Bridge, Fabregas quickly integrated into his midfield.

Manchester City also almost gave up running interference on the front edge of Chelsea's penalty area and directly formed a huge six-man ball-controlling group in the midfield.

If Chelsea still chooses to play the regular 433 formation today, they will indeed suffer from insufficient numbers in the midfield.

But under the unconventional 3421 formation, Chelsea's midfielder was able to quickly assemble a six-man fighting group!

In terms of midfield confrontation, the two teams invested the same number of people. Manchester City did not take the advantage expected before the game. Chelsea mistakenly hit the match evenly with Manchester City in the opening game.

A trace of surprise flashed in Mourinho's eyes. To be honest, he did not expect Guariola to boldly change his formation in this game and compete with him in a no-forward formation.

And he will use the three-center-back system in this game not just on a whim.

Just like in the past, in order to deal with Manchester City's increasingly perfect high-position pressing tactics, they designed a cracking idea for controlling the ball in the backcourt.

The reason why Mourinho has the idea of ​​​​playing a three-centre-back six-midfield formation is also to restrain Guardiola's passing and control tactics.

As long as the two wing-backs can actively track back on the defensive end and not easily lose their position, then this formation will have a natural advantage in midfield confrontation.

If they can better contain the performance of Manchester City's midfield, then Chelsea will be able to hold more winning cards in the competition.

It's just that at the beginning, Mourinho only studied the tactics of 352.

Until they encountered Rogers' 3421 genius formation, Mourinho and Holland took a look.

Hey, it seems that this style of play is more suitable for leveraging the abilities of Li Ang and Kroos on both offense and defense.

So after the two came down, they immediately began to adjust their previous tactical ideas.

And a 3421 formation improved by the Chelsea coaching staff was re-released today.

Naturally, the entire Chelsea team has tried this specific tactic many times on the training ground, and it worked well, so they will use it to fight against Manchester City today.

So far, the effect seems to be pretty good, at least Chelsea has not been at a disadvantage in the midfield confrontation.

On the defensive end, Li Ang and Matic protected the rib area of ​​their own half very closely.

Manchester City's midfield penetration, which is better at penetrating the ribs, seems to be very difficult to work today.

Amid the cheers of tens of thousands of fans at home, Chelsea seized the opportunity and decisively fought back against Manchester City.

At most, Chelsea even had as many as six players pressing into Manchester City's defensive third!

In terms of pressing defense, Chelsea is also as fast as the wind.

Manchester City's backcourt players may have just grabbed the ball. Kroos and Hazard would join forces to counterattack immediately, and the Chelsea players behind them would block it at all levels.

Karas would sometimes cross the center line to help De Bruyne double-team his opponent. This kind of counterattack made many fans in front of the TV feel numb!

In a way, Manchester City fans are proud at this moment, because the Chelsea they face is a Chelsea that is really going all out.

This kind of defensive intensity can basically only be "enjoyed" by Manchester City.

Teams like Liverpool and Tottenham simply cannot withstand Chelsea's high-intensity pressing for fifteen minutes.

Arsenal may be better, but they are still half a step behind Manchester City, let alone Chelsea.

Of course, Manchester City fans may not want such pride.

As soon as they saw that the game had reached a stalemate in the midfield, they subconsciously felt that something was wrong.

Because in previous matches with Chelsea, whenever such a game situation occurred, it meant that Manchester City's offensive operation was successfully suppressed by Chelsea.

If Manchester City wants to win this game, it originally needs to ensure an unimpeded offensive end.

But Chelsea is not very interested in completely defeating Manchester City.

The current points gap between the two teams has widened, and the advantage of three wins is enough for Chelsea to calmly face the subsequent league challenges.

It would be better to defeat Manchester City and extend the advantage to four wins.

But if Manchester City can be defeated more economically and the two teams draw, it will be a good result for Chelsea.

In the final analysis, Manchester City did not put much pressure on Chelsea to catch up in the league.

If Manchester City is only five or six points behind Chelsea, then Mourinho's strategy must be to defeat Manchester City as a priority.

There is not much sense of crisis, nor much pressure. Chelsea only need to maintain a certain vigilance against the few pursuers at the top position, and that is enough.

Li Ang kept observing Manchester City's tactical adjustments on the court.

Now he seemed to be an experienced hunter, not in a hurry to lure his prey into a trap, but constantly thinking about how to subdue the unruly beast in front of him at the minimum cost.

In terms of tactical layout, Manchester City will not make big mistakes. Guardiola seems to be in control of this game, but the forward-less formation he chose actually maximizes Manchester City's ability to control the ball.

This is what Manchester City is best at now. It is undoubtedly correct to use its own strengths to compete with its powerful opponents.

But in terms of mentality, Li Ang firmly believes that the less anxious Chelsea are, the more impatient Manchester City players will be.

He is waiting for an opportunity, not an opportunity for Manchester City players to make mistakes on a tactical level, but an opportunity for them to make wrong judgments due to impatience.

Fabregas and Silva will definitely be able to keep their composure. After all, the tactical responsibilities they shoulder and their own personalities determine this.

So if you want to find a breakthrough, you still have to be on the wing.

Li Ang waited patiently, and he and Matic defended patiently in the backcourt.

Until the 26th minute of the first half, Milner, who was holding the ball on Chelsea's right, suddenly made an offensive attempt to do a one-on-one with Clichy!

His choice is actually quite normal. Offensive players originally need to exert a certain degree of subjective initiative and constantly try to break through in order to better open up the opponent's defense.

But he chose the wrong person to break through.

De Bruyne's return to defense was not very timely this time, but the defensive combination of Leon and Karas was not something Milner and Clichy could easily challenge.

The two-on-one cooperation between the two of them only quickly passed the ball twice on the wing.

The moment Krissy stepped forward, Karas quickly turned around and blocked his position.

And Li Ang had already accelerated a step ahead of Milner and intercepted the football from the wing!

This is the great opportunity Li Ang has been waiting for!

De Bruyne, who had failed to retreat in time before, is now the perfect target for Li Ang to counterattack with a long pass.

The football that cut through the sky on the field closely linked the two figures in the front and backcourt.

The forward attack of Clichy and Milner allowed De Bruyne to have an unobstructed path on Manchester City's left wing!

Fernandinho has been taken away by Kroos who moves forward intelligently.

And just in front of the TV, countless fans thought that De Bruyne would keep playing until he was near Manchester City's penalty area.

But he was very "willful" and directly sent a big arc pass!

This pass drew a beautiful and deadly arc in the air.

It can be said that 99% of forwards in the football world are unable to respond to this cross and shoot.

Because the speed of this ball is very fast and it is a semi-high ball, it is really difficult to handle.

But when the man at the front of Chelsea's formation is called Ibrahimovic, it seems extremely reasonable for such a cross to appear on the court!

A pass, a run, a volley with a bow and an arrow!

Joe Hart was once again beaten by Ibrahimovic's shot!

And at the moment when the football penetrated Manchester City's goal.

Li Ang, who was standing in his own half, had raised his arms and greeted the passionate cheers given to him by the Blues fans in the nearby stands with a smile on his face!

The excitement of the Double Blue War has only just begun!