Chapter 901： When "Guardiola" meets Guardiola

On the evening of August 15th, Manchester Etihad Stadium.

The players have already taken the hand of the caddie, led by referee Mike Dean, walked into the stadium amidst the noise of the fans, and the curtain is about to kick off the first game of the new Premier League season.

38-year-old Brendan Rodgers stood on the inside of the player tunnel with a stern face, his eyes fixed on the front exit, trying to calm himself.

Tonight, he is dressed very formally. He wears a black suit and a tie. There is a pocket scarf in the breast pocket of the suit. The high hairline and the meticulous combing of the hair make him look very ceremonial. feel.

This is the Premier League he has been waiting for for many years!

It is also a game he has been looking forward to for a long time!

…

Although only thirty-eight years old, Rogers has been a coach for seventeen years.

He was twenty years old that year and had to retire early because of injuries, so he went to take a coaching course.

In 1994, he entered the Reading youth team and rose step by step to the positions of director of youth training and assistant coach of the first team.

That was the peak moment of La Liga football.

Bosque’s Real Madrid at the turn of the century, Iruetta’s Super Deportivo, Cooper and Benitez’s Valencia, and later Rijkaard’s Barcelona, ​​these teams have all won in European football. Gained a great reputation.

All people of insight basically agree that the strength of Spanish football is not lost to the Serie A of the Little World Cup.

It was also during that period that Rogers often went to Spain to study in the name of learning Spanish. The most important thing was to learn and understand Spanish football, which opened up a whole new world for him.

Because he is proficient in Spanish and familiar with Spain and Iberian football, Mourinho entered Chelsea in 2004. When Chelsea initiated a vigorous reform of the youth training, Rogers applied to Chelsea and became 18 years old. The head coach of the youth team was promoted to head coach of the reserve team two years later.

In November 2009, the British championship team Watford did not perform well. After the head coach Busroyd left get out of class, he was coached by assistant coach Markie McKay for five games. The results were still not satisfactory, so they found Chelsea. Rogers of the reserve team.

The performance of coaching Watford was not bad, but after the end of the season, Rogers was replaced by assistant coach Markie McKay, and Rogers came back to coach Reading, his old club, who was determined to impact the Premier League, but it was not winter. During the break, he was fired.

After class from Reading, it took Rogers half a year to find his next job.

Unlike Reading, the Premier League team that made the Super League, Swansea is a mid-range team that has only been promoted from the third level to the Championship for two years. The results are hovering in the upper middle. The previous two head coaches were Spain. Martinez and Portuguese Paul Sousa.

These two coaches not only led Swansea to perform well in the League and the British Championship, but also injected the football gene of the Iberian Peninsula into the team. So after sending away these two coaches, Swansea chose decisively. Rogers.

This time, the two sides hit it off.

No one thought that after coaching Swansea for a year, Rogers successfully led the team to a further step, entered the promotion zone, defeated Nottingham Forest and old club Reading in the play-offs, and successfully promoted to the Premier League.

It can be said that up to now, Rogers' coaching career has been a well-earned inspiration.

Deeply influenced by Spanish football, Rogers especially admired Barcelona's football style.

Control the ball, transfer, open space...

This set of football concepts of Barcelona has a profound impact on Rogers.

Even as early as last season, when Guardiola led Manchester City to success, Rogers did not deny that he was a Guardiola fan and he liked Guardiola's football very much.

It's just that no one thought at the time that the first game after Rogers led the team to the Premier League was to face Guardiola's Manchester City.

…

Rogers stretched out his hand to treat his suit, took a deep breath, and walked toward the player's passage.

With the improvement of the team's performance, Manchester City's home attendance rate is extremely high, especially after the expansion of the stadium, the home capacity is close to 50,000, and it is now full.

Rodgers was not welcomed by Manchester City fans. As soon as he walked out, he was booed by the scene.

He is used to this.

No home fan of an England team would like the visiting coach.

After walking out of the player channel, Rogers quickly turned his head to look at the coaching bench of the home team, and found that Guardiola had walked towards him, and he immediately greeted him with a smile.

"Hello, Brendan."

"Nice to meet you, Josep."

The two greeted at the same time, but what is interesting is that Guardiola speaks English and Rogers speaks Spanish.

This made the two teams laugh at the same time.

The same football concept allowed the two of them to discuss each other's tactics on the sidelines, which also seemed to be somewhat tit-for-tat.

The resources and support that Guardiola can get in Manchester City are impossible for Rogers to get in Swansea.

For example, he does not have a super center like Su Dong, so he can only choose shooters like Daniel Graham, assaulters on the wing, players like David Silva, and Tony Cross This kind of role.

All of these are impossible for Swansea to have.

As the head coach, Rogers can only make compromises on the tactical level, and there is no way to fully realize his ideas.

Guardiola also expressed recognition and respect. After all, it is quite difficult to lead a team like Swansea to the Premier League. You know, four years ago, this team was still in the third level. This is Swansea was promoted to the Premier League for the first time in history.

"However, when it comes to the game, we won't keep our hands."

Rogers smiled awkwardly, he came to Manchester, in fact, he was mentally prepared to lose.

"In the British Championship last season, you had a very fatal problem, that is, you played very well at home, but played very poorly at away. This has a lot to do with your tactics. I hope you have made up for this this summer. It's flawed, otherwise..."

Guardiola did not finish speaking, but the tit-for-tat is already very obvious.

Rogers can only smile bitterly, because his players are limited, even in the English Championship, it is difficult to achieve home and away such as Manchester City, always maintain a high level of pass control, because all the teams always play more on the away field. difficulty.

"We came with a learning attitude." Rogers laughed.

Guardiola looked at Rogers deeply and nodded politely, "Good luck."

"The same to you."

The two head coaches separated on the sidelines and returned to the coaching area.

...

...

Rogers said that Swansea came with a learning attitude.

This is obviously fooling.

At the beginning of the game, Swansea explained well why they were called the Manchester City team of the British crown last season.

The high position pressing and oppression unbridled, launched a violent impact on Manchester City.

Manchester City also attaches great importance to the debut of the new season. Except that the goalkeeper will switch from Joe Hart to Courtois, every other position is the main force of the last season, basically unchanged.

But even so, Swansea's high-position press still caused a lot of trouble for Manchester City.

It’s not that Manchester City’s players lack tacit understanding. It’s the first game of the new season. Players generally have not yet entered the state. And Swansea’s high-intensity pressing and pressure has had an impact on Manchester City, leading to the team’s passing. There are a lot of mistakes in catching the ball.

Especially from the sixth minute, Swansea launched a series of attacks.

In the four-two-three-one formation, the shadow forward Dobby, who was ambushing behind center Graham, used a sudden long shot to take Manchester City's goal, but was thrown by the goalkeeper Courtois from the outside of the small penalty area. The ball was blocked, and then after the Belgian goalkeeper landed, he jumped up again, grabbed the ball before Graham, and hugged the ball under him.

This wonderful save won the warm applause of the fans for Courtois.

In the twelfth minute, there was another counterattack from Swansea. The left back Tate quickly cut in and sent a pass. Dobby volleyed from the front of the penalty area, hitting vigorously, and was defeated by Courtois. Hold out the beam.

The Belgian goalkeeper won the second round of applause.

Guardiola also applauded him from the sidelines, but at the same time he was dissatisfied with the performance of the players on the court. UU reading www.uukanshu. com

Everyone can tell that Swansea's players have entered the rhythm and form earlier than Manchester City.

In the first fifteen minutes, Manchester City's possession rate was only a poor 40%.

After experiencing Swansea's two attacks, especially two shots, Manchester City's players gradually entered the state of the game and found the rhythm of the game.

Especially the midfield.

The team began to find the rhythm of passing the ball under the high pressure of Swansea, and played very patiently.

Through this continuous back and forth inverted foot, or even back pass, patiently control the ball and drag Swansea's players to run.

Especially after twenty minutes, Swansea’s high-intensity and fast-paced press was too expensive and obviously some could not keep up, because they also needed a reasonable allocation of the physical fitness of the whole game, and it was impossible to take it all at once. The physical energy has been exhausted, so how do you play next?

Stand still and let your opponent kill?

But just when Swansea was about to slow down and try to take a breather, Manchester City gradually took the initiative and pressed forward on the defense line, especially in the possession zone. Busquets passed the center line and went directly to Swansea. Wangsey has possession of the ball from the periphery of the 30-meter area.

In the twenty-third minute, Busquets received a return pass from his teammate and suddenly caught a glimpse of the timing. He sent a fatal mid-to-long pass and dropped it to the right side of the front of the penalty area.

Su Dong used his body to block Swansea's central defender Kokel, and after steadily stopping the ball, he suddenly turned around, threw off Kokel, and dribbled the ball inward.

Before another central defender Williams stepped forward to make up the spot, Su Dong suddenly shot with his left foot on the right side of the top arc of the penalty area, kicking a heavy curve ball, and went directly to the upper left corner of the goal.

This sudden shot made everyone shocked.

Swansea goalkeeper Walm even flew directly to the side, trying to get the ball out.