Chapter 141: The Manchester City Crisis

On March 21, 2016, at the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City welcomed the challenge of their rival Manchester United at their home stadium!

This is the 171st Manchester derby, and in the previous 170 Manchester derbies, United had the upper hand with 70 wins, 51 draws and 49 defeats.

The Etihad Stadium has long been buzzing, and although United are on the verge of lifting the Premier League title again this season on all fronts, there is always another colour in Manchester that is on par with red.

Manchester City fans will not show mercy to their rivals because of their opponents' surprising form this season, and they began to boo Manchester United while the players from both sides were still lined up in the tunnel.

Pellegrini stood in front of the players' tunnel, shook hands with Manchester United coach Ancelotti who was walking out, and then turned around and walked to his coaching box, Ancelotti is the same, although the two sides have no personal grudges, but in the face of such a derby, the managers of both sides will never show any friendly side, they both have a pair of cold faces, and the pre-match handshake is just a kind of ritual that needs to be completed before the game starts.

Manuel Pellegrini was not in a good mood, despite the fact that his side caused United a lot of problems in the last meeting between the two sides, and a 3-3 draw ended United's nine-game winning streak. But Manuel Pellegrini is not on his mind at the moment, as this is his final season in charge of Manchester City.

A little more than a month ago, Manchester City officially announced that at the end of the season, Manuel Pellegrini will be sacked and replaced by Pep Guardiola.

This kind of treatment that is almost humiliating for Pellegrini makes Pellegrini very angry. In fact, Manchester City's results this season cannot be said to be bad, before Manchester City officially announced that Pep Guardiola will enter the team next season, Manchester City is ranked third in the league, and there is only a two-point gap between Leicester City and Leicester City, which is second in the league. In the Champions League, Manchester City beat Juventus in a group of death, and then eliminated Dynamo Kyiv in the round of 16 to reach the quarterfinals, which is already the best result for Manchester City in the Champions League.

After Manchester City officially announced in early February that Pep Guardiola would succeed Manuel Pellegrini at the end of the season, City's results began to decline, winning only two of the eleven games so far, losing five and drawing four, and have fallen out of the top four in the league standings, and are currently slipped to fifth, three points behind fourth-placed Arsenal.

Therefore, in the outside public opinion, there have been many criticisms of Manchester City's high-level handling of this way, and the early announcement of the manager after the end of the season will undoubtedly put the current manager in a very embarrassing position, first of all, the loss of the manager's authority, and then the fluctuation of the players' hearts, which have had an immeasurable impact on Manchester City's state.

Although Manuel Pellegrini was furious at the humiliation he had been inflicted on by the City hierarchy, his work ethic has kept him from trying to stop the City from continuing to decline. Before the start of this game, he talked to several core players of the team one by one, after all, Pellegrini is gone next season, but most of these players will continue to stay in Manchester City, Aguero, Silva, De Bruyne, these players still have a long-term contract, and Guardiola may not come up to clean them of these technical players, for this part of the players, Pellegrini is to use Champions League qualification to motivate, after all, as a top professional player, no one wants to miss the Champions League.

And the real need to worry about their position, such as goalkeeper Joe Hart, Zabaleta, Mangala, Yaya Toure and other players, Guardiola likes goalkeepers with outstanding skills at the feet and a certain ability to play the ball, so it is foreseeable that England goalkeeper Joe Hart, who has excellent reflexes and saving skills in front of goal, will be the first target to be cleared, because the typical England goalkeeper basically does not handle the ball with his feet - unless it is a big foot clearance.

And Zabaleta, Mangala, Yaya Toure are all for different reasons, and they are also the first clear targets of Guardiola listed by the media.

Pellegrini's main job during this period is also to appease this group of people, so far, Pellegrini's job is still good, the last three percent of the game, Manchester City finally did not lose again, they won one in the Premier League, stopped the losing streak in the league, and then drew 0-0 at home to Dynamo Kiev in the quarterfinals of the Champions League, with a 3-1 away victory to eliminate the opponent to advance to the quarterfinals.

In Pellegrini's heart, even if he leaves after the season, leaving with honor and leaving with infamy is completely different, even if he is angry in his heart, but after all, he still has to continue to mix in the football circle, and if he wants to eat this bowl of rice, he can't smash his own job.

In this game against Manchester United, although Manchester City's players, including De Bruyne, Kompany, Otamendi, Delph, Nasri and other players, were unable to play due to injury, Pellegrini still sent a rather luxurious starting lineup. Manchester City have built a luxury division in recent years through the big gold dollar, which has made Manchester City's bench depth very impressive.

"Let's take a look at the starting list on Manchester City's side first, the goalkeeper position is Joe Hart, due to Kompany's injury and inability to play, Joe Hart brought the captain's armband of Manchester City in this game, on the back line, Zabaleta came to play right-back, the center-back combination is Demichelis and Mangala, the left-back is Kolarov, the midfielder Fernantinho is paired with Yaya Toure, the midfielders Navas, Silva, Sterling, and the forward at the top is Aguero!" The Manchester derby was the highlight of the Premier League's round, and Andy Grey was back on the Etihad Stadium commentary box to explain the game.

'It looks like City's backline is a big problem, Mangala haven't started many games this season, and Demichelis is even more so, with the two centre-backs not feeling reassuring. Manchester United's side has not been affected by too many injuries, Herrera, Luke Shaw, Rooney, Jones four players are unable to play due to injury, but this has not caused much trouble to Manchester United's arrangement, the goalkeeper position is still De Gea, Valencia, Hummels, Rojo, Sandro on the backline, the three backs are Carrick, Kramer, Fellaini, Di Maria and Mata are standing behind Li Qingshan! ”

Amid the cheers of the fans at the scene, the referee on duty looked at the timer in his hand and put the whistle in his mouth.

The 171st Manchester derby has officially begun!