Chapter Forty-Eight: Manchester City's Fighting Spirit

The whole of England is restless over this Manchester derby in the upcoming 10th round of the league.

The pressure on the rest of the Premier League has been too great for Manchester United this season, with nine consecutive wins in the first nine league games, scoring 28 goals and conceding only five goals in nine league games, an average of more than three goals per game! That's not all, because just nine of the Premier League's 38-game season doesn't lead to the conclusion that Manchester United are the champions. But compared to Manchester United, the other Premier League giants have not had a good start to the season.

First and foremost is of course defending champions Chelsea, with Jose Mourinho's side having failed to see what they did last season, with a period of turmoil for the entire Chelsea team from the start of the season with a doctor's affair and a discord with the manager. And that's certainly reflected in their results – Chelsea have won just three of nine league games and lost four. Such a performance was completely inconsistent with their status as defending champions, as Chelsea were closer to the relegation zone than they were at the top of the table – they had just 11 points, just three points behind third-from-bottom Umbrella Delando.

For Chelsea, not to mention the Premier League title this season, the first thing they need to ensure is whether they can make it to the European places.

As for Liverpool, another Premier League giant, their situation is not much better than Chelsea. Liverpool ended their contract with Brendan Rodgers after Liverpool's draw away at their derby rivals Everton in the eighth round of the league, before former Borussia Dortmund coach Jurgen Klopp took over the reins. Jurgen Klopp's first game in charge was away at Tottenham, and Liverpool only managed a 0-0 draw at White Hart Lane. Liverpool currently sit in the middle of the table with 13 points, as well as 14 points away from leaders Manchester United.

The Premier League's record of winning the title by the largest margin is 13 points, which is for the current Liverpool, if they want to break this record to win the championship........... well, let's think about whether they can play in the Champions League next season.

Arsenal, on the other hand, have only 16 points from their defeat to Manchester United, sitting fifth behind Leicester City.

At this time, the top four in the Premier League are Manchester United at the top of the list, Manchester City in second, West Ham United in third, and Leicester City in fourth.

West Ham and Leicester City have had a very good start to the league campaign, but no one thinks these two teams will pose any title threat at the moment.

Among the traditional giants, the only one who performed normally was Manchester City. Therefore, this Manchester derby has received more attention. Because now the rest of the Premier League is counting on Manchester City to hold Manchester United back.

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Unlike the feud between Manchester United and Liverpool, Manchester United and Manchester City are city teams, and the rivalry between them has to do with their player class.

In fact, Manchester United and Manchester City are both teams made up by workers, but as the team develops, the composition of the players is also closely related to geography.

Despite the self-proclaimed 'in-town' Manchester City fans, the Old Maine Road Stadium in southern Manchester is the city's ghetto. The working class, who have lived here for generations, are the pedestal of the imperial industrial system on which the sun never sets, and they work weekdays, and come to the stadium on their days off to cheer on the blue moon. Some people have become fans of Manchester United because of their love for the Red Devils' mercury-drenched attack, unabashed pride, and more than 20 top-flight crowns, giving them reason to be obsessed. However, the support of the old Manchester City fans for the team only comes from the fierce loyalty of their ancestors to their hometown team. Prior to Abu Dhabi Group's investment in Blue Moon in 2008, the team's business model had been in a "raw archive".

There is no love without a reason in the world, and there is no hate without a reason. Manchester City and Manchester United have become sworn enemies in the same city, of course, there is a geographical and cultural inevitability, but also the accident of historical events. 100 years ago, when professional football was still in its infancy, Welshman Billy Meredith, known as "the first star in English history", played for Manchester City. According to the FA's salary cap order at the time, the maximum salary of a player during the season could not exceed £4 per week, and the off-season could not exceed £3. In order to keep Meredith, Manchester City used the "brown envelope" to give the extra income privately.

However, the story was exposed by a Birmingham newspaper, and the FA found Manchester City and Meredith guilty, suspended the players for nine months, and forced to sell all 17 players in the first team. Newtonsey, the predecessor of Manchester United, took the opportunity to buy six Manchester City main players, including Meredith, in one fell swoop, and the strength of the two sides reversed, and Liang Zi also ended in this way. In the years that followed, the hot action in the stadium, and the swearing in the stands never stopped.

Of course, Blue Moon and Red Devil also have occasional warm scenes. During World War II, Old Trafford was bombed to ruins by Nazi Germany, and Maine Road also housed Manchester United until Old Trafford was reopened in 1949. In the face of the rise and fall of the family and the country, the grievances in the stadium were put aside.

Ahead of the derby, Manchester City manager Manuel Pellegrini said in an interview: "We all know what this derby means, both teams want to perform well and win the game. We want to close the gap with Manchester United, who want to extend their winning streak! We will rise to the challenge. ”

For Chilean engineer Manuel Pellegrini, it was a tough challenge indeed.

In the past few days, Pellegrini has almost revolved around Manchester United, to be exact, around Li Qingshan.

The desk in his office is full of information about Li Qingshan's game statistics, videos and other materials.

Pellegrini knows very well that the biggest difference between Manchester United this season and last season is Li Qingshan - to study Manchester United, you have to study Li Qingshan.

The stats in front of Manuel Pellegrini are very clear, Manchester United have scored 28 goals in the first nine games of the Premier League, and Li Qingshan has scored 15 goals, accounting for more than 50% of Manchester United's total league goals. If Li Qingshan's assists are counted, Li Qingshan's direct participation in the goals alone accounts for more than seventy percent of Manchester United's total goals!

It can be said that this is a team of Li Qingshan!

If you want to deal with Manchester United, you have to deal with Li Qingshan. The meaning of both is the same.

How to deal with such a ferocious center?

Pellegrini's frowning brow has not been relaxed these days.

Against such a center forward with excellent scoring ability, there is really no good way to stop him.

Unless he ....... himself in a slump.

But this situation rarely appears to Li Qingshan. For more than two seasons, Li Qingshan's condition has been maintained very well, and there are almost no injuries.

It seems that there is no instability in the state of young players from Li Qingshan, if it were not for his huge progress in the past two seasons to remind people, Li Qingshan has not yet reached the peak of his career!

Although Li Qingshan did not score in the last Champions League game, interrupting his streak of goals, this is due to the factors of long-distance flights and low temperatures in Russia, so Pellegrini does not dare to expect Li Qingshan to suddenly be in a slump against Manchester City. I'm afraid that now Li Qingshan is holding his breath, just waiting for the outbreak against Manchester City.

How to deal with Li Qingshan?

It's a real headache.

……….

Manuel Pellegrini is thinking about how to deal with Li Qingshan, while Carlo Ancelotti is thinking about how to deal with Manchester City.

Carlo Ancelotti is still quite confident in the system he has built for Manchester United. With no injuries, Carlo Ancelotti is confident that he can rely on this main squad that will be very competitive across Europe.

For the current Manchester United team, the only concern for Ancelotti is that the substitute squad is a little mismatched.

It looks like Manchester United have Wayne Rooney on the bench, Carrick, Ashley Young, Nani, Hernandez and others, and such a bench is not bad at first glance. However, the bench that United need most is a substitute who can replace the back three.

Kramer, Fellaini, Herrera three midfielders, for Manchester United to bring a solid defense, but any of these three injuries, it is difficult to have a plug-and-play substitute, every time the back three have an injury, Ancelotti has to be forced to change the formation, a different formation to play.

Fortunately, all three midfielders can start in Manchester City's games, otherwise, if they change the formation to deal with Manchester City, Ancelotti is really not very relieved.

Manchester City's squad is quite luxurious, this summer, Manchester City has invested heavily in Sterling and De Bruyne two attacking weapons, both of which are plug-and-play, plus Silva and Aguero and others, Manchester City's attacking firepower is quite sufficient. They swept aside defending champions Chelsea 3-0 in August.

The attacking duo of Silva and De Bruyne is quite powerful and makes opponents unguardable. Kevin De Bruyne has just beaten Sevilla in the Champions League, scoring ten goals in eight games and three goals and three assists in five Premier League games.

Silva missed the previous two games with an ankle injury, but was on the bench in Manchester City's Champions League win over Sevilla on Wednesday and could match the Manchester derby if nothing else.

And Aguero has also been recuperating from an injury for nearly four weeks, and there is a high probability that this game can be paid.

Manchester City's lavish attacking line-up was all in place in the derby.

Manchester United's backline did not dare to be careless in the face of such an attacking combination.

Overall, both Manchester United and Manchester City have used the summer transfer window to upgrade their squads. Manchester United brought in Li Qingshan, while Manchester City brought in Raheem Sterling and Kevin De Bruyne.

What will the first leg of the season look like?

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On 25 October 2015, at Old Trafford, Manchester United hosted rivals Manchester City.

The red bus carrying Manchester United slowly drove towards Old Trafford, and on the streets on both sides of the bus, there were also Manchester United fans pouring towards the stadium.

Meanwhile, Manchester City's players have arrived in the visiting dressing room at Old Trafford.

Pellegrini has studied Li Qingshan in depth.

Li Qingshan's progress in the past two years has amazed Pellegrini. Two years ago, Li Qingshan was a classical type of center forward player, and he was very close to his body and head. But in the past two years, he has gradually expanded his ability to fit the characteristics of modern football.

Modern football is very demanding in terms of movement, and in addition to scoring goals, the center forward also has a number of other tasks. And in this regard, Li Qingshan is also doing better and better.

The current Li Qingshan not only conforms to the characteristics of modern football, but also has the ability of a classical center. He can move flexibly and has some ability on his feet. At the same time, he is physically strong, has excellent headers, likes to move in front of goal, and is not afraid of confrontation.

There are fewer and fewer centre-forwards like this in modern football.

However, after Pellegrini carefully studied Li Qingshan's penalty area, he found that Li Qingshan's goals were mostly headers, which showed that Li Qingshan still needed the support of crosses from the side.

If you want to freeze Li Qingshan, you have to cut off Li Qingshan's connection with the midfield, and it is best to isolate him.

But anyone can think of such an idea, and in fact there are many teams trying to use this trick against Manchester United, but Manchester United also have a way to deal with it. Manchester United only needs to find Li Qingshan with a long pass directly from the backfield, and they can support Li Qingshan, and if they want to cut off the connection between Li Qingshan and their teammates, where is it so easy.

Pellegrini was inspired by Manchester United's away game against Arsenal.

Arsenal scored twice in 10 minutes in that game, and although it was eventually reversed by Manchester United, it was undoubtedly the closest United came to dropping points this season.

When facing Manchester United, the average team always thinks of defense first, and Li Qingshan thinks of defense first. But why not do the opposite?

Speaking to his players in the dressing room, Manuel Pellegrini said: "They have holes in their defence! There is no doubt about it! ”

'This is Old Trafford, Manchester United's home stadium and they must be thinking that the first thing all the teams come here with is to defend. But we're not! Take a look at our attacking lineup, Sergio Aguero! De Bruyne! Silva! ”

"Other teams are afraid of Manchester United, we are not afraid! We're going to attack! ”

"Attacking from the very beginning of the game! Give the ball to De Bruyne, give the ball to Silva, give the ball to Aguero and hit the ball into their damn goal!! ”

Speaking of excitement, Pellegrini almost shouted.

For Pellegrini, who has always been known for his calm and wise, it is very rare for him to utter such a passionate speech.

There is no doubt that City's players are also quite a payer, they certainly don't think they are worse than Manchester United, and they like the manager to say "we want to attack".

The Manchester City players screamed and pushed through the dressing room and walked out of the tunnel.