With 11 consecutive wins in the Premier League, Manchester City has extended the lead to 10 points, and at the beginning of the season, it was once regarded as the most fierce three-legged situation in the Premier League championship competition in recent years, kicking and kicking gradually disintegrated, and in the blink of an eye, It was kicked by Manchester City into a thriving pattern.
Too strong! City's dominance looks really hard to shake.
At the beginning of last season, Manchester City did not start well, and many people, including me, were skeptical about The future of Manchester City for three reasons:
1. The main centre-forward Aguero began to enter a period of degradation and recuperated for a long time, will Manchester City fall into the quagmire of "weak front"?
2, the main back Fernandinho has basically retreated to the second line, Rodri from the personal style, obviously can not take Fernandinho's class, the back position is one of the eyes of Guardiola's 4-3-3 system, Manchester City front and back are the back of the waist as the axis, the overall formation of the movement, in the formation transition period, Will Manchester City have the collapse of the tactical system?
3. After the departure of the team's "brain" David Silva, Manchester City's frontcourt double-core drive disintegrated, relying on De Bruyne alone, can it still support Manchester City's stormy attack?
Judging by the progress of the schedule, our worries are not superfluous, Manchester City only scored 83 goals in the 2020-2021 season, while in the past three seasons, Manchester City's goal scores have been 106, 95 and 102 respectively.
However, the defensive performance of only 32 goals conceded, and this is still based on the ups and downs of Manchester City's performance in the first 10 rounds, indicating that Guardiola has gradually built a new offensive and defensive balance for Manchester City, the core mystery is that Guardiola has made Cancelo, who plays as a full-back, more active in the middle of the midfield, and since a back cannot play the role of an axis, then I will match the dynamic "dual axis" mode of pseudo-double back.
At the same time, isn't there no center in the front court? Then, I don't need the right center tactics, everyone in the front court can play to the ribs, Gundogan is under such encouragement, frequently go to the front, before Guardiola once let Gundogan help Rodri "wipe his ass", once changed the position of 4-2-3-1, with poor results.
However, when Canceló rushed to the middle of the road, and Gundogan transformed into a midfield free man, Manchester City's frontcourt attack was suddenly invigorated, and in a season when Manchester City was most despised by people and most likely to lose its dominance and go downhill, Gundogan bravely stepped forward, And Manchester City not only did not collapse, but successfully completed a smooth transition, well, it also took the Premier League championship trophy into the pocket again.
Looking back at the 2020-2021 season, the term "de-core" may best summarize Guardiola's tactical design ideas, and Manchester City's playing style gradually has no specific axis, and everyone rushes to make the opponent invincible.
In the 2021-2022 season, Manchester City will further develop this "de-core" tactical design idea, when De Bruyne can not appear because of the new crown, we suddenly found that Manchester City's frontcourt attacking organization has hardly been affected, although De Bruyne's scalpel pass, from the visual point of view, has an unparalleled pleasing to the eye.
However, City's way to win has never relied on this kind of finishing touch, but on the continuous high pressure of the midfield, and the wave after wave of attack produced by a large number of possessions.
The premise of being able to form this kind of offensive is that all players on the field must have good ball control ability and good running ability, so that the distance between players can be maintained within a reasonable range, or it is easier to find teammates by passing each other, or it is easier to grab two penalties to launch a sustained attack when besieging opponents.
In fact, every time City recruits a player, they are trying to remove the player's personalization label, so that the player can better integrate into Guardiola's tactical system, such as Mahrez was previously in Leicester City, has unlimited control, and the right to fire, in Manchester City is just a winger, the same is true for the newly introduced Gralis.
Even Sterling, who has been with Manchester City for many years, is not an absolute main force now; Foden, the youngster who played flying last season, is only a member of the frontcourt rotation, and Guardiola is to create such an effect, and each position does not depend on a single player.
Guardiola's advantages in building a team like this are obvious, such as this season's Chelsea midfielder No. 7 player can not play, and then lack of a wing-back or something, it seems that Chelsea has a lot of manpower, but the entire attack and defense system is suddenly greatly reduced; Liverpool is also similar, Fabinho, Henderson once both can not play, and then less Van Dijk, the team will change to another team in seconds.
In terms of the current Manchester City system, less than two or three players, the overall strength of the team will not have much impact, this is the real bench thickness, of course, such a bench thickness, both thanks to Guardiola's core tactical system, but also thanks to Manchester City's player reserve ideas, Every player recruited by Manchester City, the core of the selection of materials must have the same position of remarkable ball control ability and ball ability, to use a fashionable word to describe, all members must "know martial arts", for the vast majority of teams, This threshold is almost never reachable.
We must not only lament the cleverness of the tactical system that Guardiola has created for Manchester City, but also lament the personnel reserves that Manchester City cannot reach, if you want to play the Premier League at this level of the league into a dominant, the requirements are also quite harsh!