Loftus Road. 2016-2017 season, 11th round of the Premier League.

Lu Ling walked into the court.

The acting head coach of QPR did not wear her usual sportswear this time, but instead wore a black formal suit and black heels of four or five centimeters. The black hair was scattered casually over the shoulders, and the same black pupils shone with a more confident light than before.

Her appearance drew huge cheers from the audience. It was the most enthusiastic since she became acting manager.

She smiled and waved to the stands.

After that, Pep Guardiola appeared in front of her.

The Catalans, who took the initiative to walk to the QPR coach's seat, curled the corners of his mouth and stretched out his hand, "Hello Christine, I'm looking forward to this fight with you." ”

Lu Ling looked at the coach, who had won twenty-one championships in eight years, and stretched out his hand.

She used to be very obsessed with Pep Guardiola's "Dream Three" Barcelona, when Guardiola was still a young man, with short hair, a good demeanor, a flying spirit, and a calm and arrogant look.

Maybe a little bit like Nick.

Of course, in fact, there are many, many differences between the two.

Now Guardiola is bald, and he seems to have lost some of the vigor of eight years ago, but the calmness, wisdom and unfathomability in his eyes are even more shocking.

This is the first time Lu Ling has been close to this talented coach.

She smiled slightly and said, "Hello Pep, it's a great honor to fight you. Hopefully it's a good game. ”

Pep still bent the corners of his mouth slightly, the girl opposite was really young, and the unique temperament exuded by her body was indeed impressive. Previously, he felt the same way when he played against Nicolás Flores. And in that game, he gave Everton's new boss a point, which he was not happy with. Don't try to replicate the results of your Spanish mentor, let alone the result against Tottenham.

Lu Ling knew that the Catalans were scrutinizing themselves, and so did she.

It's interesting to observe your opponents.

However, the two did not communicate much and soon sat down.

Enforcement referee Mike Dean blew the whistle and the game began.

****

In the 14th minute of the game, the score had been rewritten.

Manchester City's players were incredulous as England international Joe Hart sat on the ground with his hands on his knees and didn't seem to have come to his senses.

Patrick sped towards the corner flag area, thumb and forefinger of both hands outstretched, making his trademark gesture of celebration. After that, his teammates knocked him down, and the blue and white stands were fully in crazy mode.

Lu Ling stood on the sideline, and the moment she scored, she opened her arms vigorously and smiled wantonly, only to be momentarily stunned when she saw Patrick's celebration, but immediately, she turned around and high-fived George and the others in the coach's seat one by one.

It couldn't have been a better start.

Sky Sports commentator Martin Taylor continues to praise the bottom team's magical performance: "It's unbelievable, Manchester City have completely lost their form at Loftus Road, they couldn't even get into the QPR box, and QPR scored with their first shot, Patrick Amber's seventh goal of the season was the most beautiful goal I've seen in the Premier League this season!"

Pep Guardiola stood on the sidelines, lost in thought.

There was no problem with the fitness and morale of his players, but the problem was that they didn't cope well with the opponent's tactics.

In the last game, QPR started with a man-to-man midfield strangulation tactic, and then switched to a drop-out zone defence.

But at the start of the game, Kristen Lue used an extremely risky high pressing tactic.

Moreover, the young coach reactivated the Bielsa-style 3331 formation.

This formation allows for more people up front, so QPR has boldly pressed forward and the back line has been moved up to the middle line. Pep Guardiola's Manchester City, like his previous Barcelona and Bayern Munich, places a strong emphasis on the ball at the back. But they couldn't get rid of QPR's crazy forward pressure and full pressing tactics of high pressing.

In other words, the City players constantly tried to pass the ball out at the back, but they were either cut off or finally cleared under pressure, so that City could not control the ball.

And absolute possession of the ball has been the lifeline of Pep Guardiola's eight-year coaching career, and it is also his personal label. The extremely exaggerated possession rate of Tongguò made the opponent completely passive, and was finally taken by Pep Guardiola's side.

But City had just 51 per cent possession in the first 14 minutes of the game. In their previous ten games, they averaged 65 per cent possession.

Pep Guardiola tilted his head and glanced at Christine, this young girl is not simple.

Lu Ling can be said to know Guardiola well, she has watched most of his games against Barcelona and Bayern, studied a considerable part of them, learned a lot of things, and also found the reasons for Guardiola's defeat in some key defeats.

Pep Guardiola is a very controlling manager and will not hesitate to know about players who can't execute his tactics, so he has spent money at Manchester City to bring in players who match his tactical thinking to complete his deployment.

Such a strong technical capability is not something that QPR can confidently contain, but there is one exception.

It's Manchester City's goalkeeper Joe Hart.

In Barcelona and Bayern, Guardiola has Valdés and Neuer under his command respectively, and it can be said that he is one of the best goalkeepers with excellent foot ability today. The two goalkeepers are almost identical to ordinary midfielders with their foot skills, and can also be used as a passing point when they are pressed. Pep Guardiola's side have always been able to play a flurry of passes from the back, and the main reason is that the goalkeeper has added an extra passing point.

Manchester City's Hart, on the other hand, is an England international with excellent saving ability, but his feet are relatively rough. Because he is already the only homegrown flag player in the squad, Guardiola has not purged him.

Lu Ling used a crazy pressure that was hard to breathe at the beginning of the game, and the defenders often had to pass back to the goalkeeper or risk being cut off.

When Hart receives the ball, he can basically only drive it out with a big foot, which is equivalent to giving the ball to QPR.

Pep Guardiola kept shouting from the sidelines, telling Hart to watch more, find his teammates, and not blindly kick the shot, but this seems to have increased the pressure on Hart. In the 14th minute, Hart kicked the ball directly to the feet of Patrick, who was not far from the penalty area.

A dozen seconds later, Guardiola saw Patrick in celebration.

He fielded all seven of City's new signings for the season in this game, who spent £164million on the summer transfer window.

But he was the only one who failed to bring in Patrick Amber on the transfer deadline day. Now, the 19-year-old boy who turned down his invitation scored an incredible goal that left his team behind.

Manchester City's backline consists of Alex Sandro (not alone with former QPR player Sandro, a left-back brought in from Juventus), Laporte, Otamendi, and Danilo, all of whom have been recruited this season in addition to Otamendi, who himself was a player who was heavily introduced last season.

The introduction of these four defenders is worth 109 million pounds.

And they were all played by the No. 7 of the QPR.

Patrick was still more than 30 metres from goal when he received Hart's faulty pass, and in the right-hand position, he had already thought of Tina's pre-match instructions when the ball came by.

'It's possible for City to make a mistake at the back and if you get the ball and try to shoot first, because it's hard to find a gap in the City defence. Delay those few seconds and we'll miss out on what we have the chance. ”

So Patrick stopped the ball and went straight through the crotch past the left-back Sandro who pounced.

Laporte came up quickly, but the young French centre-back, who was skilled but thin, was leaned on by Patrick. After months of strength training, Patrick's counter-attacking ability improved dramatically, as he lowered his center of gravity, maintained a sideways stance, and forced his acceleration past Laporte to the top of the box.

Another centre-back, Otamendi, hesitated a bit and was ready to pounce. But Patrick stabbed the ball past Otamendi's left foot and got around the other side to finish the ball beautifully.

Right-back Danilo's desperate last-ditch tackle was deflected by Patrick's right heel.

After passing the four men so lightly, the boy fired a hard shot, without pursuing any angle, and the ball flew past Hart, who was already stunned, with a strong wind, and almost broke the net, and drilled into the top of the goal.

****

After the restart of the competition, all QPR members were recycled.

Sky Sports guest Alan Smith immediately noticed Christine Lue's adjustment to the formation: "After the first ten minutes of high pressing, Lu has changed the formation to 4231, and he has adopted a low-post defensive approach, and it is not too easy for Manchester City to break through. ”

Lu Ling's arms were protected, and his expression returned to Yan Sù, a weak team playing a team like Manchester City, stealing one and then recycling it, in a sense, is a conventional way of playing.

The question is whether it can be held?

For the next fifteen minutes, City had 85 per cent possession.

Up front, Sergio Aguero and Alexandre Lacazette had a couple of shots on target, but neither could score, with Green making two saves and two more sliding wide.

And the much-anticipated Serbian talent, Andrea Zivkovic, who wears Manchester City's No.37 shirt, has yet to get many opportunities. Lu Ling arranged for Yu Zixiang and Raymond to pinch him back and forth, on the one hand, to keep Zivkovic under constant pressure, and on the other hand, to cut off Manchester City's line to deliver the ball to this side.

City were a little restless overall, but they were significantly better than QPR's last opponents, Tottenham, and as such, kept order in their siege.

It looks like the top team is still likely to equalise at short notice.