Chapter 83 After this battle, the road ahead will be smooth

Grealish’s head was buzzing, not knowing whether Li Chen was really inviting him tentatively or joking with him.

Seeing his confused look, Li Chen did not explain clearly. He just smiled, patted his shoulder and then strode away in a cool manner.

All that was left was the swing disheveled in the wind and Guardiola, who was watching the interaction between the two from behind and didn’t care.

Grealish would definitely not tell Guardiola about this.

He entered the locker room rather absentmindedly, thinking about Li Chen’s intention.

If any other head coach made such a joke to him, he certainly wouldn’t take it seriously.

But it was Li Chen who led them to win the World Cup at the end of last year, giving him the most important title in his career.

Not only does he have strong coaching skills, but he also understands his technical characteristics very well.

At least in the limited playing time at the World Cup, Grealish felt that he played very comfortably.

Li Chen would let him do what he is good at, and not just ask him to make tactical sacrifices to help his teammates open up offensive space.

If he could transfer to Newcastle and give full play to his offensive talents under the command of Li Chen, wouldn’t that be better than staying in Manchester City?

He is not opposed to Guardiola’s tactics and the way Guardiola uses him.

But, why should he, who has the ability to obtain a higher tactical position, always serve as a supporting role for other teammates?
The 27-year-old Grealish is once again seriously thinking about his career future.

At this time, Li Chen, who didn’t realize that his joke had made Shaker serious, was continuing to cheer for Newcastle’s starting players today.

“For us, today’s game is an important turning point in this season, or even the end point.

Before the game, I didn’t emphasize the importance of this game to you so much because I didn’t want to put you under psychological pressure to play against Manchester City from the beginning.

But now is the best time for you to have the awareness to fight for this game!

Our league title rival will not be Arsenal, not from the beginning. Their starting lineup is very strong, but they are too young, have no experience in competing for the title, and their bench is not deep enough.

Compared to Arsenal, our biggest advantage is that we have many “champion players” in the team. They are experienced in winning championships and can always provide great help to the team in key games and at key moments.

The same is true for Manchester City, and the only team in the Premier League this season that can compete with us in terms of bench depth is Manchester City.

Therefore, as long as we can get points in this game and prevent Manchester City from closing the points gap with us, it will lay a huge advantage for the subsequent league battles.

Use the pace of the game that we are best at to drag Manchester City into the mud!

After this battle, we will enter the countdown to winning the championship. Come on, boys, fight for Manchester City. In more than two months, your reward will be the whole of England! “

The general mobilization initiated by Li Chen made all the Newcastle players in the locker room excited and became extremely excited!
What a wonderful thing it would be to suppress Manchester City, which is at its peak, and win the championship of the Premier League, the world’s top professional football league!

Indeed, as Li Chen said, Newcastle now has many championship players, and they have won both mainstream league titles and the Champions League.

But apart from them, there are many more young players in Newcastle who have never tasted the league championship.

Their desire for the Premier League title is unquestionable, and they are willing to do everything to achieve this dream!
After Li Chen ignited their inner desire for the league championship, they inevitably became overly excited, even a little agitated.

It would certainly be inappropriate to pour cold water on the entire team at this time, so Li Chen focused on instilling in the midfield trio the importance of continuing to keep a cool head.

Li Chen gave special instructions to Guimarães.

Maddison did not start today, and Guimaraes was the core player in Newcastle’s lineup.

As long as his heart doesn’t become agitated, the rhythm of the Newcastle team’s game will not be disrupted.

Guimarães certainly understood the importance of maintaining the tempo in the second half of the game, and nodded repeatedly to Li Chen to show that he knew what was going on.

In addition, Li Chen also made a second-hand tactical plan.

He directly asked Madison, who had been called into the locker room to listen to the tactical arrangements for the second half of the game, to go out and warm up early.

Once the game situation changes significantly and Newcastle urgently needs to stabilize the midfield, Li Chen will immediately replace Madison.

The 352 starting formation remains unchanged for the time being. As long as the players are united, this formation will not lack midfield confrontation and defensive depth against Manchester City.

Feeling confident, Li Chen returned to the court confidently.

After the start of the second half, Manchester City, contrary to his expectations, did not choose to start with a strong attack, but instead played steadily and patiently.

Guardiola seemed to have some enlightenment.

Start to further enhance Haaland’s tactical position in the offensive system.

After all, it is difficult to break into the flanks facing Newcastle’s iron defense, and the two wings currently lack explosive changes, so it is better to use the big center forward tactics!
No matter how closely Haaland was defended by Gvardiol or how uncomfortable it was for him to kick, his physical impact and shooting skills were still there.

As long as Manchester City concentrates their offensive resources to feed him the ball, he will always be able to create some opportunities.

As long as his strong attack in the middle can pry open Newcastle’s dense defense, Manchester City’s other offensive players can truly gain more offensive space.

Guardiola is willing to take this gamble, and the change in tactical thinking also makes him look forward to the situation improving.

This was a variable that Li Chen had not expected. He really did not expect that the “stubborn” Guardiola would actually be willing to rely on the big center forward to play straightforward offensive football.

This seems too unskilled, and the scene is not gorgeous or smooth. It is really not the tactical style that Guardiola and Manchester City would choose.

But Manchester City has already achieved the tactical effect.

Under the hard pressure, Manchester City used Haaland as a bridgehead and truly supported him with all their strength. They forced the ball into his hands and allowed him to pose a threat again!

There was actually no problem with Gvardiol’s defense, but facing the explosive performance of Haaland, his performance seemed much more passive.

The rest of Manchester City’s offensive players became restless, and as Haaland played more and more confidently, they also made more forward runs around Haaland.

However, at the critical moment, Li Chen still took action.

He decisively replaced the defensive player who was marking Haaland, allowing Pepe, who was originally lagging behind, to come out early to limit Haaland’s performance.

This decision made many fans watching the game on TV worry about Pepe.

If it is the 2016 European Cup version of Pepe, then the fans absolutely believe that he can teach the young Haaland a hard lesson.

But can Pepe, now 39 years old, really play as a central defender to hold down Haaland’s performance?

The vast majority of neutral fans were not optimistic that Pepe could complete the defensive task assigned to him by Li Chen at this moment. But reality soon gave these fans a loud slap in the face!

Not only was Haaland unable to break through Pepe’s defense in the ground confrontation, but even his connection habits when shooting were discovered by Pepe!

After two consecutive shooting attempts were blocked by Pepe, Haaland looked a little confused.

Guardiola once again held his head and widened his eyes on the sidelines.

If he didn’t believe in Pepe’s professionalism, he would really want to doubt whether this 39-year-old guy took drugs before the game? !
After all, Thiago Silva rejuvenated his career at the age of 36 and put in a superb performance in the Premier League in the late spring.

You, Pepe, are 39 years old and you haven’t retired yet. You are still restricting the current top center like a rookie on the court!
It’s fun!
You want to join Cristiano Ronaldo in overturning fans’ inherent impression of players in the twilight of their careers, right?
Not only Guardiola couldn’t accept it, commentators from various countries also found it difficult to accept the live broadcast of the game they saw.

But after their inherent common sense was overturned, they began to admire Pepe’s defensive art even more.

The holy monk who laid down his butcher knife has honed his defensive skills to another transcendent level.

So much so that even though his physical fitness has long since returned to its peak, he can still rely on his experience, awareness and skills to perform like a defensive giant.

This is undoubtedly the luck of the neutral fans who watched this scene.

And for Manchester City supporters, this is a complete disaster.

Haaland officially lost his momentum, and no matter how many times he fed the ball to him, he couldn’t make any waves.

This kid’s efficiency in using his body is still too poor. In static ball handling, he can’t compare to the old monk who has an extremely solid lower body.

As his impact threat dropped significantly, the other Manchester City players who ran around him and attacked were also in vain.

Guardiola’s originally successful tactical adjustment was wasted due to Pepe’s extraordinary performance.

Newcastle’s morale was boosted, and the defense in the midfield and backcourt became increasingly tough, forcing Manchester City to find a new way to attack.

The only thing that may make the home Manchester City fans feel relieved now is that Newcastle’s desire to attack was indeed not strong enough today.

Havertz’s frequent retreat to defend made Rowe the de facto bridgehead for Newcastle’s counterattack.

The Portuguese superstar’s offensive deterrence is still there, but his ability to take the ball and work alone is indeed not as good as before, not to mention that his fulcrum role is not as good as Havertz.

In this situation, the quality of Newcastle’s counterattack is indeed not as good as in normal games.

The efficiency of finishing at two points has dropped significantly, and it seems that the desire to attack is not strong enough.

Where there is gain there is loss; this is an eternal law in the tactical game of professional football.

Especially in a real strong dialogue, if you want to significantly increase the thickness and tenacity of the defense, it is inevitable to significantly weaken the offensive strength.

Manchester City, who are unwilling to take excessive risks in attack, are not so easily counterattacked.

Guardiola even used the 4231 formation today with two defensive midfielders, so Li Chen naturally would not be stubborn.

It’s a big profit to steal a chicken, and it’s not a loss to draw.

Why should he follow Guardiola’s rhythm and fight a head-on offensive battle to decide the outcome?

Klopp and his Liverpool were tough enough, and together with Guardiola, they left fans with several classic red and blue battles that will last a long time.

But the price was that they died standing several times.

This group of players, who should have won more championships, regretted it for several years.

For Li Chen, dying standing was something he had to consider only when he was in a truly desperate situation.

Now he just wants to make his rivals suffer while consolidating his lead in the league standings.

In the 64th minute of the second half, Li Chen seized the opportunity to make another substitution, replacing Marcelo and Joelinton with Van der Ven and Sean Longstaff respectively.

Not only did the defensive advantages on the flanks and center be reestablished, but the hidden danger of Joelinton getting a yellow card was also resolved.

After completing the substitution, Li Chen sat back and waited for Guardiola to make his next move.

As time went by, Guardiola was losing more and more tactical initiative and could only choose to give it a try early.

Bernardo Silva and Mahrez came on successively, replacing Gundogan and Foden.

Manchester City also changed its formation to 433.

Seeing that Haaland could not break through Pepe’s defensive restrictions, Guardiola had no choice but to replace him with Alvarez in disappointment.

However, after Alvarez came on the court, he did not play as the No. 9 position, but went to the left winger position.

Grealish was entrusted by Guardiola to play as a false 9 at a critical moment.

Having given up the fulcrum center forward, Manchester City resumed the rotation attack with frequent player position changes in the frontcourt.

Grealish’s footwork is indeed outstanding, and he is more or less able to take the ball away compared to Haaland.

Alvarez and Mahrez, who were given the right to shoot, frequently looked for opportunities to cut inside and shoot on the left and right wings.

However, Sommer, who was in great form, did not give them the chance to be heroes, and kept their shots out with almost perfect saves time and time again!

In the 80th minute of the second half, Guardiola, who had no cards to play, could only replace De Bruyne with young player Palmer.

But when Li Chen saw Palmer come on the field, he used up the last two substitutions in one go, replacing Rowe and Havertz with Willock and Ward-Prowse.

This is to maximize the defensive blocking capabilities of the midfield.

Neither Palmer nor Bernardo Silva had the space to shoot after passing and cutting through the middle.

A depressing atmosphere shrouded the Etihad Stadium.

When the referee blew the whistle to end the game, the Manchester City fans at the scene immediately burst into booing expressing their extreme dissatisfaction with Newcastle!
Li Chen took the initiative to walk towards Guardiola with an unconcealable smile on his face.

Guardiola was obviously in a bad mood, so the two of them said goodbye and parted after a brief conversation.

Listening to the huge boos from the audience, Li Chen’s heart was filled with pride.

After this battle, the league journey will be smooth sailing!

(End of this chapter)