Super Marshal

This year, the Premier League's Christmas schedule is obviously more miserable than last year.

From December 26th to January 6th, there are eleven days to play four rounds of the Premier League, and more importantly, there will be another FA Cup match on the 8th, thirteen Playing five games in one day is a test for any team.

Fortunately, the opponents that Manchester City encountered during this period of the schedule were not strong. This also made Gao Han determined to carry out the rotation to the end, because even tough players cannot play so many games in a short period of time. Contest.

On December 26, in the 19th round of the Premier League, Manchester City defeated Newcastle 3-1 away from home.

On December 28, Manchester City defeated Aston Villa 4-0 at home.

On January 1, 2011, Manchester City ushered in a massacre at the City Stadium, beating Blackpool 7-0. Cristiano Ronaldo scored four goals, not only dominating the league's top scorer list. , and also launched the final sprint for the upcoming FIFA Ballon d'Or.

On January 6, in the 22nd round of the Premier League, Manchester City went south to London and defeated Arsenal 1-0 in an away game. The Portuguese scored the winning goal, which allowed Cristiano Ronaldo to receive the FIFA Ballon d'Or. The calls grew louder.

Two days later, in the third round of the FA Cup, Manchester City played with a full substitute lineup and beat Ipswich 7-0 away from home. Youngster Harry Kane got the start and scored two goals. Gareth Bale He also scored twice. Manchester City performed very well and won the applause of the whole house.

Also during this disastrous Christmas schedule, Ferguson's team also performed well. The Scottish coach has unparalleled experience in the Premier League winter break schedule, so he led Manchester United with bumps and bumps along the way, but In the end, they recorded three wins and one draw in four rounds, maintaining an unbeaten schedule during the winter break.

This also allowed Manchester United to quickly widen the gap with Chelsea, closely chasing Manchester City as second in the league.

Relatively speaking, Chelsea's situation is worse. Scolari's coaching position has been questioned, and coupled with the intensive winter break schedule, the Blues first lost to Arsenal 1-3 away from home, and then again. They drew with Aston Villa 3-3 at home, and finally lost to Wolves 0-1 away from home.

Although they defeated Bolton 1-0 at home, with a record of four games, one win, one draw and two losses, let alone Manchester City, even compared with Manchester United, there is still a full six-point gap, and the ranking immediately dropped from the original second place in the league. It has dropped rapidly to fourth place in the league, only four points more than Tottenham Hotspur, which is fifth in the league. The situation is not safe.

Arsenal's winter break schedule is four games, two wins, one draw and one loss. The points are catching up with Chelsea. The two teams have the same points, but the Gunners lead by virtue of their goal difference, and Wenger's biggest gain during the winter break is Robin van Persie.

As soon as the Dutch forward returned from injury, he immediately became Arsenal's number one weapon on the front line, showing impressive scoring form.

As for the Red Army Liverpool, the situation is equally worrying, with one win and three losses in four games, and the ranking has dropped to tenth in the league. Coach Hodgson dismissed get out of class, and the famous Dalglish came on stage. After the 22nd round, Liverpool couldn’t wait to announce At a high price of 45 million euros, local center Carroll was introduced from Newcastle.

Now everyone is waiting to see whether Dalglish and Carroll can save Liverpool's fate.

According to the original plan, Gao Han did not plan to attend the annual awards ceremony held by FIFA in Zurich, because after playing the FA Cup on January 8, the League Cup semi-finals ushered in on the 12th, and his opponent was the Hammers. Help West Ham United.

However, FIFA specially sent an invitation letter and made an invitation call at the end of December. It turned out that he was not only a finalist for the best coach of the year, but also the presenter of the first FIFA Ballon d'Or winner.

"Why me?" Gao Han asked in confusion on the phone.

"Because Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have played under you."

This explanation... is really hard to refuse.

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The annual FIFA awards conference can be called the Lawrence of international football, especially after this year's merger with the Ballon d'Or of French Football magazine, it has become the only awards event in world football.

As the first grand event, the organizer FIFA has naturally made full preparations. It not only invited all the shortlisted candidates to attend, but also organized various events. The most eye-catching one was the head coach symposium. .

As the name suggests, this is a warm-up discussion arranged before the awards ceremony. It is attended by the top six coaches shortlisted for the Coach of the Year list, including World Cup champion Bosque, Champions League champion Guardiola, and Real Madrid coach Mourinho. , German national team coach Loew, Manchester United coach Ferguson, and Manchester City coach Gao Han.

It is rare for six head coaches to gather together, and the topics discussed are naturally closely related to football. One of the most important links is the selection results of the best team of the year, which have been announced in advance.

The goalkeeper is Casillas, the defense is Puyol, Pique, Xavi Martinez and Mascherano, and the three midfielders are Iniesta, Sneijder and Xavi. The field trident is Cristiano Ronaldo, Villa and Messi.

Obviously, this list not only considers the player's performance on the court, but also looks at the player's transcript.

Spain and Barcelona won the World Cup and Champions League respectively, which naturally made the international players of these two teams more favored, especially Spain, which won seven out of eleven seats, which is quite rare.

But there is also a doubt, that is, in the selection of the best team, right back and center back Puyol were placed at left back. This is also a very surprising place.

The organizer's explanation for this is that there has been a lack of a truly convincing best candidate for the left back position in the past year, but Puyol at right back has performed quite well, and Manchester City's right center back Maschera No is also absolutely amazing, so it was a deliberate choice to have both of them selected at the same time.

This interesting phenomenon naturally became the focus of the coaching symposium.

When Guardiola accepted the question, he said that today's full-backs are no longer just purely defensive players, but are playing an increasingly important role in offense. On the right, there are Maicon and Alves. An outstanding player like Lahm is lacking at left back.

"It's clear that no left-back has performed convincingly over the past year."

Chelsea's Ashley Cole's condition has declined a lot, and the divorce scandal has tarnished his reputation and seriously affected his condition, making it difficult for him to take on this role.

Inter Milan's Evra and Bayern Munich's Marcelo are both the top left backs in today's football, but in the past season, they have not shown convincing form and results, so it is difficult for them. Selected to the best team.

The best match in terms of performance is Spanish national team left back Capdevila, but the 33-year-old veteran is simply unsatisfactory in the club.

Real Madrid and Barcelona have relatively average left-back configurations, and Manchester City does not have the role of left-back at all. This has made the selection of left-backs quite a headache in the past year.

As the head coach of the national team, Del Bosque also admitted that there is indeed a shortage of left backs, but he is not worried about it.

"Spain has a very strong talent pool in this area. For example, in Chinatown, right back Carvajal and left back Alba are currently the focus of the national team. Alba has also been selected for the national team. I think They all have the strength and potential to establish themselves in the national team in the future."

Gao Han also strongly agrees with Bosque's view. He believes that the shortage of full-backs is only temporary. At the same time, he also defends Evra and Marcelo, his two favorites, believing that their performance has only had ups and downs and will soon return to normal. Get back your status.

Guardiola also agreed with Bosque's point of view, and he joked with Gao Han intentionally or unintentionally that Barcelona is paying close attention to two young players, Carvajal and Alba. The former is just nineteen years old and has always been in the game. He performed well in the competition with Danilo, and the latter, Alba, is 21 years old and has made rapid progress in Chinatown, which is impressive.

"He is from our Barcelona youth academy."

Guardiola's words made all the media reporters cheer in the audience. Is this a plan to poach Chinatown?

Gao Han's response was just a faint smile, "They are not for sale!"

As soon as these words came out, the whole audience burst into laughter.

Everyone knows that the items not for sale in Chinatown are not really not for sale, but it depends on whether your bid is not high enough.

After flirting with the media reporters, the two old friends glanced at each other and laughed tacitly.

In the last part of the symposium, when each other was evaluating who was most likely to win the award, what was surprising was that Gao Han received five of the six votes present.

"If I'm not wrong, the only one that was not voted for Mr. Gao Han should be your own vote, right?"

When reporters asked questions, Gao Han smiled awkwardly and acquiesced, choosing Bosque.

"I am good friends with Aragones and Bosque. I know them very well. I know that it is very, very, very difficult for Aragones to lead the team to win the European Cup, but I also know that Bosque will win the European Cup." It is not easy for Spain to lead the team to win the World Cup and continue the glory of the Spanish national team."

However, Gao Han also reminded Del Bosque to be careful with Loew in his final comments.

"Loew and I are also very good friends, so I know that he is a person who needs to be vigilant very, very much. The German team he coaches is still growing and improving rapidly. I think that the European Cup in a year's time will And in the World Cup three years later, and even in the longer term, Loew's Germany team will be the strongest team."

Loew expressed his gratitude for the appreciation from Gao Han. At the same time, he also affirmed that Gao Han gave him great help and encouragement. He said that Gao Han is the number one head coach in the world in his mind.

Mourinho, who has always been regarded as having a grudge against Gao Han, rarely voted for Gao Han this time. The Portuguese madman's answer was also very domineering.

"There is no doubt that he was indeed the best head coach in the past year, but now it is 2011. I choose him as the best coach of the year just to be able to use him in the next year." As the goal, completely defeat him!”

Gao Han, other than giving a wry smile in response to such a face-to-face provocation, still didn't know how to respond.

There is no way he could say to Mourinho, please, please don't challenge me, okay?

What's more, this is just the vote of six coaches at the head coach symposium. Whether they can be elected depends on the final vote tally by FIFA.