Chapter 252 Manchester not by the sea

On the evening of February 16, Old Trafford Stadium, Manchester, England.

What will be held here tonight is the 25th round of the Premier League, between Manchester United and Manchester City at home.

That’s the Manchester derby!

In recent years, with the rise of Blue Moon Manchester City, the Manchester Derby has become a globally watched event.

The games and competitions between them are often super dramas in the Premier League, such as the famous 9320 miracle in the 2011-2012 season. Manchester City reversed the championship at the last second, while Manchester United on the other side could only be stunned.

A year later, in the 2012-2013 season, Manchester United defeated Manchester City to win the championship, allowing Manchester United coach Sir Alex Ferguson to retire honorably.

The gathering of stars from these two teams has gradually made this ancient industrial city the center of European football culture.

But this year's situation is a little special, because after Ferguson left, Manchester United was a little bit depressed.

After 25 rounds of the Premier League, the top three are Chelsea, Arsenal and Manchester City. Their points are 56, 55, and 54 respectively, which is a one-point gap. At the same time, they have also formed the first group to compete for the championship.

.

And what about Manchester United?

They ranked seventh with 41 points, followed by Liverpool with 50 points, Tottenham with 47 points, and Everton with 45 points.

In other words, it is a little difficult for them to even qualify for the Europa League.

At this time, the much-anticipated Manchester City Derby is ushering in. Manchester United wants to take this opportunity to overturn Manchester City and perform a serf singing, while Manchester City wants to continue to crush this city rival in order to continue to maintain competitiveness for the championship.

Both sides are at war with each other!

…

Dzeko, Aguero, David Silva, Kolarov, Fernandinho, Yaya Toure, Jesus Navas, Milner...

In the visiting team's dressing room, Manchester City coach Pellegrini was standing in front of the players, his eyes scanning each of their faces.

This veteran coach, who holds a civil engineering certificate and is known as the "Chilean Engineer", is also coaching Manchester City for his first season this year.

He knows that coaching at Manchester City is very stressful.

His predecessor, Italian Mancini, won Manchester City's first English top league title in 44 years of history in 2012.

But just because he lost the league championship and the FA Cup the next season, he was dismissed.

Of course, Manchester City's poor performance in the Champions League was also an important reason for Mancini's dismissal.

But in short, in the current Manchester City, if you don't have outstanding results, you will definitely not stay for a long time.

Now, Pellegrini suspects that if he fails to win this Manchester City derby, he will be dismissed from get out of class.

Because tonight's game is about whether Manchester City can continue to compete for the championship, and it is also the game that Manchester City fans value most!

Perhaps it is precisely because Manchester City has not been a threat to Manchester United for a long time, so in the hearts of Manchester United fans, Manchester City's hatred value is probably ranked third after Liverpool and Arsenal, at most.

Maybe Leeds United should be further ahead?

Ferguson proved this when he said Manchester City were just "noisy neighbours".

But it's different for Manchester City fans.

Manchester United will always be their number one rival and their most hated opponent!

So, is the sky in Manchester red or blue?

If we push the time forward a few years or even ten or twenty years, there should be no suspense about this answer.

but now?

It's really hard to say.

Therefore, Pellegrini is confident to lead these disciples in front of him to conquer Old Trafford and bring victory to Manchester City fans!

"Manchester United is not scary at all now, and Old Trafford is not the devil's home stadium it used to be." Peggong was doing the final mobilization.

"You are also the best players in the world, better than those next door. Whether it is in the Premier League or the Champions League, whether it is the World Cup or other competitions, many of you have achieved great success."

"Successful players are never afraid of any challenges! So today, we must defeat Manchester United at Old Trafford and win this Manchester City derby!"

"We want to win the Premier League championship this season! Not only that, we also want to win the Champions League championship this season!"

"Four days after today's game, we will face our first opponent in the Champions League knockout round, Hamburg."

"I believe our German opponents are watching us at this moment, trying to find our flaws."

"Then let's put our best foot forward! Let's scare them!"

"Let us first defeat Moyes' Manchester United, then defeat Pan Yi's Hamburg, and move forward with all our strength!"

…

"Ah - chirp!"

In the stands, Pan Yi suddenly sneezed.

"Mom, who is scolding me secretly?" Pan Yi touched his nose.

After the game against Braunschweig that afternoon, Pan Yi and Nagelsmann rushed to Manchester overnight to watch the Manchester City derby.

This is a great opportunity to see your opponent up close!

Due to the importance of this game, Manchester City will definitely go all out to avoid seeing a big fight among the rotation players, and they will also be able to see Pellegrini's latest tactical ideas.

And Manchester United has also entered the top 16 of the Champions League. In fact, it can be regarded as a potential future opponent.

Inzaghi, Pintus and others will stay in Germany to lead the team, and then come to the UK to join Pan Yi after they have rested with the players.

"Didn't you say before that sneezing means someone is missing you?" Nagelsmann looked at Pan Yi doubtfully, "Why did you turn to scolding you again?"

"Uh... this needs to be sensed." Pan Yi explained casually, "If a beautiful woman is thinking about me, I can naturally sense it. But just now I clearly felt that a smelly man was scolding me!"

"..." Nagelsmann was speechless.

Anyway, it was Pan Yi who had the say, and the right of interpretation was always in Pan Yi's mouth. Nagelsmann was already used to it.

"Look, they're entering!" Pan Yi pointed at the stadium and gently brought the topic away.

Nagelsmann raised his eyes and saw, sure enough.

Under the stands, red Manchester United players and blue Manchester City players were led by the referee team into the Old Trafford turf.

Manchester United, playing at home today, set up a 433 attack formation, obviously wanting to eat up their city rivals.

On the front line, Welbeck is on the left, Mata is on the right, and Rooney is in the center.

Midfielder Carrick is in the middle and deep, with Fellaini and Cleverley on both sides.

Lined up in the back line from left to right are Evra, Ferdinand, Jones and R. Da Silva.

Goalkeeper De Gea.

Pellegrini arranged the 4411 formation that he often used this season.

The single arrow in front is Dzeko, and Aguero plays a shadow forward behind him.

The midfield four will be David Silva, Fernandinho, Yaya Toure, and Jesus Navas.

The back line is Clichy, Demichelis, Kompany and Zabaleta.

Goalkeeper Joe Hart.

"I have asked you to study Peggy's Manchester City game before. Do you have any experience?" Pan Yi asked Nagelsmann.

Now Pan Yi attaches great importance to the training of these coaches under him, so he will test them if he has the opportunity.

With Nagelsmann's understanding and learning attitude, coupled with the guidance of a famous cheating coach like Pan Yi, his growth rate is very fast.

Pan Yi feels that Nagelsmann is definitely capable of being the head coach of a team in one of the five major leagues. It just depends on whether he is willing to go out and work alone.

And if Nagelsmann really goes solo, Pan Yi won't feel any discomfort, but will be happy for him.

Developing players is training, and training coaches is also training.

When the time comes, all the famous coaches of various teams will be his own apprentices, and Pan Yi will be able to have peaches and plums all over the world. Isn't it wonderful?

Apart from anything else, buying and selling players is easy to negotiate.

Look at the high-end goods that Guardiola will sell to Arteta in the summer of 2022, wow... that can send Arsenal to the top of the list!

Oh, it seems to be reversed. It was given by the master to the apprentice.

But in fact, the same thing is true. If Arteta develops one day, he will also repay Guardiola, right?

"Pellegrini's football philosophy is indeed quite different from the views of many modern top coaches."

Nagelsmann didn't know that Pan Yi was thinking so much. When he received the teacher's question, he began to answer it seriously:

"His tactics have two important starting points. One is the purpose of controlling the ball, which is to create scoring opportunities; the second is to achieve the purpose of controlling the ball, and the offensive players can choose their positions flexibly and freely."

"During the game, this Manchester City team is not obsessed with high ball possession. They advocate pushing forward and playing more directly."

"When they face opponents who are obsessed with possession of the ball, they can always generate higher expected goals despite not having as much possession as their opponents."

"In other words, they are willing to sacrifice part of the ball to create more threats, and their offensive methods are unpredictable."

"From their formation structure and offensive running, we can see how Manchester City implements the above principles in actual combat. For example, their initial position is 4411, but when attacking, they often advance the full midfielders on both wings and turn them into a

4231…”

Nagelsmann said while Pan Yi nodded.
To be continued...