From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 573 Don’t Take Manchester City Seriously

Manchester United players were celebrating the goal. Bruno ran to the away team's stands and made encouraging gestures to the Manchester United fans. Then he was surrounded by his teammates.

Manchester United's attack originated from Kante's pressing. After Bruno scored, Kante was very happy. He ran over and celebrated the goal together.

There was a huge booing at the Etihad Stadium. Manchester City fans were not friendly to Bruno, the Manchester United player who scored the most goals against Manchester City.

It wasn't just the crazy celebrations of Manchester United players that stimulated Manchester City, Mourinho was also doing the same thing.

Amid the boos at the Etihad Stadium, the Manchester United head coach jumped and danced on the sidelines and clapped happily, which obviously further stimulated the Manchester City fans.

"While there is no evidence Mourinho was provoking City fans, his celebration clearly did not sit well with the Etihad."

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Mourinho was so proud that he even hummed a song under his breath. He returned to the coaching booth and said to his assistant Faria: "Rui, everything is under my control."

Faria said nothing, but gave him a thumbs-up.

However, Mourinho's elegance only lasted five minutes.

"Fuck!" Mourinho was furious on the sidelines.

Not far away, his beloved friend Guardiola rushed out of the coaching bench to celebrate, and the Spanish coach even shook his butt.

Yes, Mourinho once said that Guardiola is his true friend, which stems from the relationship they established when they were in Barcelona.

Mourinho said Guardiola called him and comforted him for nearly two hours when his father died in June last year.

However, on the court, the two are each other's biggest rivals, trying every way to provoke each other.

"Offside! This is an offside goal!"

Mourinho roared on the sidelines and returned to the coaching seat in disappointment after being severely warned by the referee Felix Brüch.

Perhaps the 4:0 lead in the total score made Manchester United players a little careless, or perhaps it was because the first half of the game was about to end that Manchester United players relaxed their minds. In the 44th minute of the game, Van Dijk's pass from the left side of the backcourt was interrupted, and Fernandinho passed the ball to Sterling on the right side in the midfield. After Sterling got the ball, he passed it to the middle from the right side of the penalty area. Jesus pushed the ball and scored, and Manchester City changed the score to 1:1.

When Sterling passed the ball, Luke Shaw, who was defending him, did not even stretch out his foot to intercept it. He just watched Sterling make the cross. When Jesus shot, there was no one defending him. Maguire, who was closest to him, just raised his hand to indicate that Jesus was offside.

Mourinho saw clearly that Jesus was not offside when Sterling made the cross, but this did not prevent him from protesting to the referee: What if the referee really believed it?

But the fact is that there is no chance of a mistake. The referee ruled that Jesus was not offside and Manchester City's goal was valid.

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The equalizer boosted Manchester City's morale.

Facing Manchester City's offensive attack in the final moments of the first half, Manchester United chose to defend with all their strength.

In the remaining few minutes of game time, the game reached a deadlock.

In the end, neither side was able to score any more goals in the last few minutes of the first half, and the first half ended in a 1:1 draw. Manchester United still led by three goals in the total score of 4:1.

In the player tunnel, Mourinho was still negotiating with the referee Brüch, and he emphasized that the ball was suspected of being offside.

Bresci told Mourinho that he saw it clearly and there was no offside.

"Are you sure?" Mourinho asked with a puzzled look.

"I'm sure." Felix Brüch said seriously.

"Okay, I believe you." Mourinho nodded. "As everyone knows, you are a very good and trustworthy referee."

Hearing this, Felix Brüch, who was feeling a little unhappy, smiled.

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"What are you thinking? Did a dog take your eyeballs?" Mourinho roared in the away team's locker room at the Etihad Stadium. "Don't forget, our opponent is Manchester City. Don't think that we don't take Manchester City seriously just because we have beaten them four times this season!"

Mourinho glared at the players and shouted, "What are you laughing at? I'm serious. Be serious."

Finally, he couldn't help laughing himself.

With this smile, the tense atmosphere in the locker room suddenly disappeared.

"Okay, let's get back to the point." Mourinho knocked on the table. "The defense needs to review the goal they conceded. They were clearly not focused enough when they conceded the goal."

"We are not satisfied with the score of 1:1, and Manchester City is even more dissatisfied. So in the second half of the game, Manchester City will still strengthen the offense. We will still stabilize the defense first, and then counterattack Manchester City." Mourinho said.

"The focus of our attack is..." Mourinho drew a circle around De Bruyne's name on the tactical board and said in a loud voice, "Press him! Attack him!"

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Mourinho has conducted in-depth research on Manchester City, and the key player he studied was De Bruyne.

De Bruyne has extremely strong observation ability behind the opponent's defense line and extremely high-level passing ability. This is De Bruyne's most unique and powerful ability.

It is precisely because De Bruyne has this ability that once he has the ball in the game, he will subconsciously choose to look for the space behind the opponent and try to pass a threatening ball as much as possible.

Since the ball is handled in this way during the game, his ability to control the ball and get rid of it cannot be exercised. Therefore, when there is no space to hold the ball, De Bruyne cannot get rid of the defender by controlling the ball. If he wants to get rid of it, he simply accelerates to get rid of it.

Everything has its pros and cons: De Bruyne's ability to pass the ball threateningly will give his team easier and simpler scoring opportunities when they counterattack. But once the pass is wrong, it means that the three forwards running in the three lines will inevitably be unable to chase back. At this time, because the opponent regains the ball after losing it, it will form a situation of more people against fewer people after the ball is stolen.

Due to De Bruyne's technical characteristics, our forwards will choose to make a lot of forward runs when De Bruyne has the ball, and our midfielders will gradually not respond in large numbers in the first time, because there is a high probability that De Bruyne will choose to pass the ball behind him.

After De Bruyne holds the ball, David Silva and Fernandinho will quickly approach to receive the ball. However, De Bruyne will not choose to control the rhythm to pass and cut, but to move forward quickly.

As a result, David Silva and Fernandinho would hesitate in their response. Once they hesitated, the rhythm of their next response would change and be disrupted. Therefore, David Silva and Fernandinho made a lot of errors in their response during the game.

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De Bruyne's quick advancement after holding the ball, due to long-term training and game habits, has resulted in the inability to exercise and improve the fineness of his small techniques, which will slowly be exposed once he faces tight pressure from opponents.

At this time, the error rate is very high. Once a mistake is made, our team will be counterattacked by the opponent instead of being counterattacked. The forward line and midfielder who have already quickly and fully advanced will have to immediately chase back with all their strength.

As this happens more and more often, the physical strength of our midfielders and frontcourt players will be consumed quickly, and the backcourt players will also be under great pressure because they have to face more counterattacks from the opponent.

Due to De Bruyne's technical characteristics, the opponent's defensive strategy will be relatively simple.

Once Manchester City has the ball, let De Bruyne receive it. If De Bruyne holds the ball with his back to the goal, he is prone to mistakes due to his lack of skills. If he has turned around, he will be given a non-threatening space. De Bruyne will most likely subconsciously choose to speed up and get rid of him, and then rush to pass a threatening ball. At this time, the back can break it by controlling the passing route.

On the defensive end, De Bruyne is used to scrambling for the ball, and once he steals the ball, he immediately launches a counterattack, leaving plenty of space in the backcourt to pass the ball.

Once a mistake is made, the defensive midfielder or the forward on the other side must fill in the position lost. The original positions of the two are also lost, and the full-backs have to move inwards more tightly to protect the central defenders from direct attacks by the opponents.

As the full-backs move inwards, a lot of space will appear on the wing, giving the opponent the opportunity to cross the ball from the bottom. This is why we often see the wing being broken when De Bruyne plays.

The defense of Jesus, Mkhitaryan, Sane and Bernardo Silva is to first prevent the opponent from breaking through them, then cut off the passing routes, and finally seize the opportunity to steal the ball. In this way, the opponent cannot cause a vicious cycle of loss of position - replacement of position - loss of position on their side.

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In Mourinho's view, De Bruyne is a double-edged sword. When he is in good form, his error rate is low and he can create a lot of opportunities. When he is in bad form, he gives the opponent a lot of opportunities.

This kind of technical characteristics is not a problem against weak teams, but a good thing. Because the weak teams' natural player quality problems lead to a low success rate, and the weak teams' counterattack mistakes just give them a good opportunity to hit the opponent from behind.

Therefore, when Manchester City plays against weaker teams, they often beat their opponents.

For this reason, when De Bruyne is on the field, the best double center backs are Kompany and Stones, who can both steal and chase. The biggest problem of Laporta and Otamendi is that they lack observation and protection of the space behind them, which has always been their weakness. And the full-backs also need full-backs like Kyle Walker who can chase quickly.

For a strong team, a high error rate is tantamount to suicide. The defense of a strong team will not leave a lot of space behind. Once they counterattack, their efficiency is not comparable to that of a weak team's forwards. A weak team may not be able to pose a real threat even if they launch five counterattacks, but a strong team can be fatal with just one or two.

In the knockout stage of the Champions League, if you lose the ball first, the strong team you face will be able to counterattack more easily, which is suicide.

"De Bruyne is very good at passing threatening balls, so don't give him easy opportunities to get the ball," Mourinho said.

In Mourinho's view, De Bruyne's shortcomings are relatively average long-range shots, average ball protection, slow ball handling, poor physical fitness, poor running ability, poor defense, poor headers, and slow speed.