Chương 36: Chapter 238 Manchester City collapses? Mourinho’s psychological warfare
On January 23, Manchester City swept West Ham United 3:0 at home and advanced to the League Cup final with a score of 9:0 in two rounds.
Lin Quan passed and shot, Aguero scored a goal, and De Bruyne also scored a goal with a free kick.
Manchester City has more flowers in the frontcourt and is in hot shape.
Two days later, Manchester City defeated FA Cup opponent Watford 4:2 at home and advanced to the next round of the FA Cup.
Aguero, who came on as a substitute in this game, showed off his power and scored three goals alone.
Among his hat tricks, two goals were assisted by De Bruyne.
De Bruyne has performed well in two consecutive games, making Manchester City fans quickly remember this young man who looks like a cartoon character.
On January 29, in the 23rd round of the Premier League, Manchester City defeated Tottenham 5:1 at White Hart Lane, completing a home and away double play against Tottenham, and both times were massacres.
Poor Tottenham conceded 11 goals to Manchester City in one season, directly setting a new record in team history and leaving behind Manchuphobia.
Manchester City scored a lot of goals in this game. Lin Quan, Aguero, De Bruyne, Jovetic, Kompany and others all scored.
After adding two new players to the team's midfield, Manchester City's offensive potential has been further developed and is even more terrifying than in the first half of the season.
"23 games undefeated, who can stop this Manchester City? "
"Another Arsenal?" Manchester City may break Arsenal's unbeaten record! "
The current longest unbeaten record in the Premier League is Arsenal's 49 unbeaten games across the 2003-05 season. This is also the second longest unbeaten record in the history of the five major leagues.
Given the fierce competition in the Premier League, Arsenal's record is extremely valuable.
Because of this, few latecomers can threaten the existence of this record.
After defeating Tottenham in an away game, Manchester City has entered the top ten in Premier League history with its 23-game unbeaten run.
There are only 9 teams in front of them with more unbeaten games than them. With Manchester City's current state, they are very likely to catch up with these teams and further improve their historical ranking.
However, just when everyone thought Manchester City would continue their unbeaten record in the league, they suffered an upset at home.
In the 24th round of the league, Manchester City lost 0:1 at home to Chelsea, breaking both their unbeaten season record and their unbeaten home record.
In this game, Mourinho took very targeted countermeasures against Pellegrini's formation.
He formed an ultimate defensive counterattack lineup and arranged three sweeping midfielders on the field to pressure De Bruyne and Kroos' passing and receiving.
Chelsea's new player Matic, who was bought from Benfica at a high price during the winter break, performed very well in this game.
His physical running, exaggerated defensive coverage and interception range, and strong aggression have all made technical players like De Bruyne and Kroos suffer.
Cross and De Bruyne were either violated or made frequent mistakes. Their passes could not reach Chelsea's penalty area.
Without the passing of the two men, our team's offense lost its previous smoothness.
The accumulation of offensive players in the frontcourt has become a decoration, and there is no way to threaten the opponent's goal.
However, Lin Quan's breakthroughs were always intercepted by the opponent's iron wall. Kroos wanted to control the rhythm of the game, but almost made a mistake because of the opponent's counterattack.
Chelsea's counterattacks and counterattacks are not only simple, but also efficient.
Seeing Mourinho's commanding attitude on the sidelines, people once wondered if they had traveled through time and space and seen the Blues in their heyday eight years ago!
At the end of the game, Manchester City had the advantage in almost all statistics.
The ball possession rate was 65% vs. 35%, the number of shots was 25 vs. 13, the number of shots on target was 7 vs. 6, the number of corner kicks was 12 vs. 7, the number of offsides was 0 vs. 4, and the number of yellow cards was 2 vs. 4.
However, the victory belonged to Chelsea. Their clean sheet also ended Manchester City's record of scoring in 61 Premier League home games in 1178 days.
Manchester City is only 5 games away from breaking Manchester United's longest record of 66 games in Premier League history!
After the loss, the mood of the team was very low.
Especially De Bruyne himself, he worked hard in this game and wanted to perform well in front of his old club, proving to Mourinho that giving up on me was your biggest mistake.
However, Mourinho's targeted defense against him made De Bruyne's performance substandard. Not only did he fail to help the team win, it even became a hindrance to the team.
This made De Bruyne feel uncomfortable, and he even couldn't help but doubt himself:
Could it be said that Mourinho's evaluation of himself is right and that he really cannot adapt to the Premier League?
"Don't be discouraged, it's just a defeat, it doesn't prove anything!"
After Lin Quan discovered De Bruyne's low mood, he came over and patted him on the shoulder, comforting him.
"Let's go and thank the fans who came to support us!"
De Bruyne saw Lin Quan's calm expression and nodded heavily:
"Um!"
After comforting De Bruyne, Lin Quan went to comfort other teammates one by one. Captain Kompany was doing the same thing as him.
Under the comfort of the two people, although the players were still not in high spirits, they still completed the work of going around the field to thank the fans.
In the CCTV commentary box, He Wei saw that Lin Quan was not hit after the team's defeat, but instead took the initiative to stand up and comfort his teammates. He couldn't help but sigh:
"Lin Quan has really grown a lot in Manchester City this season, and he has become more and more of a leader on the court!"
"Yes, it can be seen from his playing on the court that Lin Quan did not pursue the ultimate personal data, but gave up many opportunities to his teammates!"
"Yeah, he's such a team player!"
…
After defeating Manchester City, Mourinho was very proud and said in front of the media:
"I think after this game, there should be no doubt who is the best team, right?"
Since drawing with Arsenal away from home, Chelsea has won 7 consecutive league games in the past month.
Taking advantage of the opportunity to drive fast during the winter break, they overtook Tottenham, Everton and Liverpool, rushing to third place in the standings with 53 points, and returned to the championship group.
They are currently only 2 points behind second-placed Arsenal and 10 points behind top-placed Manchester City.
There are still 14 rounds of the league, and it is not impossible to catch up with Manchester City.
Especially under such terrifying pressure from Chelsea to chase points, the two teams in front may not be able to withstand the pressure and collapse.
Mourinho knows this well, so he has stepped up his psychological offensive against Arsenal and Manchester City:
"Wenger is a good coach, but the owner of Arsenal is not a good boss and does not give him enough support. His team has never been able to solve the problem of insufficient bench depth and is always prone to collapse when the league starts at a fast pace. , this year will be no exception!"
Compared with Manchester City, which is not short of money, Wenger's Arsenal's weakness is more obvious, and that is one word - poor!
Or two words - stingy!
During the winter break, Wenger once offered Liverpool a price of 40 million pounds 1 to take away Suarez, but this offer was regarded by Liverpool as Arsenal's humiliation to them.
The Red Army not only rejected Arsenal's offer, but also stated that they would never sell Suarez to the Arsenal, completely blocking the possibility of this transfer.
Originally, if Arsenal had to spend more money, the transfer would actually be promising, but because they were too stingy, the transfer was completely botched.
And he failed to leave Liverpool during the winter break, and there is still no Champions League to play in the second half of the season. This is a big blow to Suarez. Suarez's state has declined very seriously in these games, and Liverpool's record has also appeared. There was a clear decline, and Chelsea overtook the score.
Similarly, Arsenal's lack of offensive firepower has not been solved due to the failure to introduce Suarez during the winter break to strengthen the team's forward line.
This result can be said to be a lose-lose for both teams!
March is coming soon. March and April are the traditional seasons for Arsenal to fall apart. Mourinho now wants to move to a small bench to sit and watch the show.
He can guarantee that Wenger's Arsenal will still fall apart this year.
As for Manchester City, who are not short of money, Mourinho adopted another method:
"Manchester City made too many signings during the winter break, which made their lineup too crowded. I think Pellegrini must also have a headache now, not knowing how to appease the old players in the locker room. Emotions, right?"
Mourinho's words were not without purpose. After missing two consecutive starts, Fernandinho expressed his dissatisfaction with Pellegrini in an interview with reporters.
"I can help the team. I am no worse than these players on the field. As for why I am not allowed to play, I think it is the coach's bias!"
Fernandinho is a midfielder that Manchester City spent a full 40 million euros to introduce from Shakhtar Donetsk last summer. A player of this price is basically used as the core of the midfield by other teams.
However, he was continuously placed on the bench at Manchester City, and even stable playing time was not guaranteed.
The World Cup is about to begin, and if he continues to sit on the bench, Brazil coach Luiz Felipe Scolari may give up recruiting him.
This made Fernandinho feel the crisis and seemed to want to use this method to put pressure on the club and Pellegrini to put him back in the starting lineup.
However, the Brazilian's calculation was obviously miscalculated.
Pellegrini could not tolerate players using this attitude to challenge his authority as head coach, so he punished Fernandinho very severely - Fernandinho was suspended from the team 10 games.
He doesn't need to think about playing games for the next two months!
Mourinho saw that his fanning the flames was working, so he continued to increase his efforts:
"Manchester City will collapse like Arsenal. Without Fernandinho, their midfield defense will have problems. Neither De Bruyne nor Kroos can take his place. It's a pity for Peleg. Rini doesn't seem to know what to do with him!"
Mourinho's response greatly won the favor of Fernandinho, who praised Mourinho as a wise coach.
This move caused news to spread that the Brazilian wanted to defect to Mourinho.
Pellegrini basically would not respond directly to Mourinho's various remarks before.
He knows that Mourinho is good at talking and playing psychological tactics, but he is not an expert in this area, so he does not want to fall into the trap of the other party.
But now, he really couldn't bear it anymore.
Honest people also have tempers!
"Mourinho should shut his mouth, his team is 10 points behind us!"
Faced with Pellegrini's counterattack, Mourinho was not angry but happy.
As long as he fights back, it means he has been fooled!
"Ten points is not too much. Maybe before the end of March, my team can catch up with Manchester City!"
I don't know if Pellegrini fell into Mourinho's trap, or if he wanted to prove himself.
In the away game against Norwich in the 25th round of the league, Pellegrini continued the lineup from the previous game against Chelsea.
However, in this game, Manchester City's midfielder was once again targeted by the opponent.
After losing midfield support, Manchester City, which has the most offensive firepower in the Premier League, immediately misfired and was tied 0:0 by its opponents in the away game.
This was Manchester City's second consecutive game with zero shutouts. In the other game, Mourinho's Chelsea defeated Newcastle 3-0, winning their eighth consecutive victory and reducing the gap between the two teams to 8 points.
After this game, people who originally did not believe Mourinho's prediction for Manchester City also began to have doubts about Manchester City.
After two consecutive games with zero shutouts and being chased by Chelsea for 5 points in such a short period of time, are they really going to collapse as Mourinho said?
After the game, Mourinho proudly told reporters:
"No one will doubt my words now, right? The last game was 10 points, and after this game it became 8 points. Maybe it won't be surprising that the next game will be 6 points or even 5 points!"
"Manchester City should not have replaced Fernandinho. If Pellegrini does not correct this mistake, his team will lose points in the future!"
Reporters are also happy to see this kind of situation where a big lead is then reversed. The last time this happened was Newcastle in the 1995-1996 season.
That time, Newcastle led by 12 points but were defeated by Ferguson's Manchester United using psychological tactics, and were eventually reversed.
The current situation is exactly the same as before.
Manchester City's lead over Chelsea is even greater than the Magpies' lead over the Red Devils.
If Mourinho can lead Chelsea to reverse Manchester City and win the championship this time, even the reporters who criticized him or even attacked him before will not be able to help but applaud him!
If Manchester City is suspected of collapsing, then second-placed Arsenal is really collapsing.
At Anfield, Wenger's team was beaten 5:1 by the Red Army!
Despite Suarez's sluggish form, the game was still scoreless.
But in the Red Army, Skrtel and Sterling stood up and scored a hat trick and a brace respectively to help the team beat Arsenal.
After losing by a huge margin, Wenger's team gave up the second position and was overtaken by Chelsea by one point, temporarily ranking third in the standings.
Behind them, Liverpool and Tottenham are eyeing.
It seems that Arsenal can consider giving up their dream of winning the championship and prepare in advance for the battle to secure the fourth place.
Manchester City has no time to sympathize with Arsenal because the 26th round of the league is about to begin.
In order to solve the team's offensive problems, Pellegrini made adjustments to the midfielder's starting lineup.
He asked Yaya Toure to switch to defensive midfielder and act as a protective barrier in front of Cross to reduce Cross' defensive pressure.
Manchester City's previous losses were mainly in the midfield.
Mourinho may be right. Without Fernandinho's defensive hardness, Manchester City's midfielder is a bit soft.
Neither Kroos nor De Bruyne are tough players with outstanding defensive abilities.
It's a bit unprofessional to ask them to do this kind of work.
Therefore, they should be equipped with a defensive midfielder with a large defensive coverage area, active running, and tough body in the midfield to protect them.
The most suitable candidate for Manchester City is Fernandinho, but the latter has been suspended by Pellegrini.
If the Chilean doesn't want to go back on his words and slap himself in the face, then he will definitely not release the Brazilian before the 10-game ban is reached.
Therefore, he can only transform Yaya Toure, a B2B midfielder, into a defensive midfielder, asking him to give up offense and defend with all his strength. In this case, he should be able to barely achieve the effect he wants.
In addition, in the frontcourt offense, Pellegrini also developed some tactics specifically based on Lin Quan's characteristics to solve the team's offensive problems.
Amid doubts from the outside world, the 26th round of the Premier League officially began.
Manchester City faces the challenge of Black Cat Sunderland at home!
In the first half, Yaya Toure's sweep and interception in the midfield blocked many opponents' attacks. After Manchester City took control of the midfield, several passers in the team took turns delivering shells to the front line.
In the 2nd minute of the game, Lin Quan received an assist from De Bruyne to help the team open the scoring.
In the 32nd minute, Aguero received a pass from Lin Quan and scored another goal. Manchester City temporarily led Sunderland 2:0.
Judging from the results of the first half, Pellegrini's transformation seemed to be successful.
The Manchester City fans who came to watch the game at home breathed a sigh of relief. The team's two-game loss made them a little worried.
Now it seems that there is no need to worry, Manchester City is still the same Manchester City, and their strength is still strong!
At the 75th minute of the second half, Manchester City still firmly held the initiative on the court.
Although the opponent was unable to continue to expand its lead due to shrinking defense.
However, the advantage of a 2-goal lead, coupled with the fact that the opponent is not a team with strong offensive strength, makes Manchester City fans generally feel relieved.
Pellegrini calmly waited until the 80th minute before making substitutions. He replaced Lin Quan, Kroos, David Silva and others to prepare for the Champions League knockout rounds in a few days.
However, Pellegrini had just completed the substitution, and the situation on the court suddenly changed.
Sunderland's No. 10 Wickham showed his prowess and scored two goals in the 85th and 89th minutes, almost drawing Manchester City single-handedly.
When the referee blew the final whistle, the faces of the Manchester City fans at the scene had expressions of disbelief.
They couldn't believe that their team was tied by the opponent like this!
Counting this game, this is Manchester City's third consecutive game without a win in the Premier League.
But the good news is that Mourinho's team has also fallen behind.
In another game that ended at the same time, Chelsea was held to a 1:1 away draw by West Bromwich Albion.
Like Manchester City, they also led the whole game, but were tied by West Bromwich Albion in the 89th minute.
Calculating the time, Chelsea's tragic victory was almost exactly the same as Manchester City's.
After this round, the point difference between Manchester City and Chelsea has not changed, still 8 points.
However, Manchester City's three-game winless state has made the outside world generally worried about them.
With 12 rounds left in the league, can the eight-point lead really be maintained until the end?
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