Away beat Bolton, Manchester City quickly dispelled the shadow of the last defeat with a victory, but in this round, Arsenal and Manchester United are very tough, Arsenal beat Chelsea who has just changed the coach by one goal, and solidified their first position in the league, and Manchester United also defeated Liverpool with a score of 1-0, and continued to chase Manchester United with the same points, Chelsea and Liverpool began to fall behind, and now Chelsea has 34 points, five points behind Manchester City, Liverpool have one point less than Chelsea, and if this continues, the two teams will have to fight for fourth place in the league......

After winning Bolton Wanderers, Manchester City face the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup against Tottenham Hotspur, who had beaten them before.

Tottenham didn't start the season very well, but they weren't going to be relegated, and in that case, they were more keen on the likes of the Carabao Cup, which was a shortcut to European competition.

Now Tottenham is ranked twelfth, and the points are not up or down, so in this game, they are almost all the main players, and Dick is bound to not let the main players consume too much in this game, coupled with the tight schedule of the next Christmas, Dick started his rotation at this time.

Rotation is a foundation, before Dick did not rotate because the team had just pulled up, and it was the time when the game was needed to gradually increase, disrupting the main lineup would only be counterproductive, and at this time, after nearly 20 games of running-in, the cooperation between the main forces has basically been run-in, so there is a feasible place to use rotation.

What's more, one of the characteristics of rotation is that some key players cannot be rotated - Dick also has such key players, although Torres is injured, but Samuel in the back line and Yaya Toure in the midfield are all able to play the whole game, such players do not rotate, and the overall framework will not change much.

In this Carabao Cup game, Dick fielded a mixed line-up.

The goalkeeper is still Hart, the goalkeeper position Dick will basically not rotate, and Hart now needs the game to improve, in the backline, the right back sent Sun Jihai, the left back is the Irishman Hart, the central defender is Samuel and Joel Luka, the midfield is sent Haman, Yaya Toure and Vidal, the forward line is hidden Di Natale, but let Ribery, Ashley Young and Sturridge partner in the front.

Such a set of lineups is simpler than usual in terms of tactics, Sturridge is at the front, the two wingers have become the main force of the attack, their dribbling breakthrough and cross-cutting is the biggest guarantee of Manchester City's attack, Yaya Toure and Vidal are taking turns to attack forward, including Hamann has a certain ability to attack forward, this tactic seems to be more secure against Premier League teams.

Tottenham's fluctuating results this season actually have something to do with the fact that they have a large number of young players, Lennon, Defoe, Darren Bent, Jenas and other good local players make them play very energetically, plus they have just beaten Manchester City once, so this time at Manchester City's home stadium, they are still not afraid at all, and they launched a quick attack from the beginning!

This bold attack paid off shortly after the start of the game, as just seven minutes into the opening period, Jenas crossed to the right side of the box, Lennon forced his way through Hart's defense with his speed and sent the ball into the box, Defoe also used his speed to get rid of Joel Luka's defense and slotted home into the far corner close to the small box!

Speed, the speed of this Tottenham team is quite fast, although Bale was intercepted by Dick halfway, but the other players are fast and agile players, which happens to be a bit of a restraint for Manchester City's defence......

Dick shook his head, this back line is still not very good, Sun Jihai is old, and the strength is slightly weak, Joel Luka still needs to grow, although Samuel is experienced and strong, it is difficult to deal with this kind of fast attack, and then he needs to slowly build this back line.

However, although they conceded the goal, Manchester City did not panic about it, Tottenham's attack is fast, but this also makes them unable to slow down, compared to speed, Manchester City's attack will not be much worse than the opponent!

Ten minutes after Tottenham scored a goal, Manchester City also immediately relied on a quick counterattack to score, Hart made a long pass from the backfield, Sturridge grabbed the ball in front of the opponent's central defender and went down, Vidal received the ball and did not pass it to the feet of Ribery, who was guarded by the opponent, but passed to Ashley Young, Ashley Young began to run with the ball from the right side, broke through to the near the bottom line and then passed the ball to the penalty area, Sturridge pulled the opposing defender to the back point, and Yaya Toure, who followed up in the middle, met the ball and rushed directly to the top and equalized!

After the equaliser, Manchester City's attack became faster and faster, and the two sides sprinted back and forth, playing extremely lively.

City's basic attacking routine now is to split the wings and hand them over to the two wingers, who create chances through the break and then pass the ball down the middle for Sturridge or Yaya Toure and Vidal to get the final shot on target.

Jose Mourinho, who returned to Portugal, was also watching the game and couldn't help but smile when he saw it now – wasn't that the original tactic he used at Chelsea? Dick, this guy is really welcome, you can use it if you take it......

But then again, there is no strategy to win, only the tactics that suit you, Manchester City's lineup has wingers who can break through with excellent skills, a center forward who can top up in front, and two midfielders who can push forward quite well, playing this set of tactics is indeed very suitable, although it is only a weakened version of the Chelsea-style attacking mode, but it also has good power!

To add insult to injury, in the 28th minute of the game, Tottenham defender Jokola fiercely tackled Vidal in the midfield, and was directly sent off by the referee with a red card......

In the 39th minute, Manchester City took the lead after continuous attack, and it was another beautiful midfield forward, Ribery broke through and gave it to Hart, who stepped forward to assist, Hart sent a left-footed curling ball to the front of the penalty area, and Vidal, who followed up, took the ball into the penalty area, and then scored for the first time, overtaking the score for Manchester City!

There is an advantage in numbers, there is an advantage in the score, in the second half Manchester City is much better, Dick replaced Ribery with Ireland, more to increase the possession of the midfield, when the game went to the eighty-second minute, Manchester City played a beautiful counterattack, Ireland straight behind the Tottenham defense, Ashley Young successfully countered offside, the ball was slammed past the attacking goalkeeper Robinson and then pushed the empty goal, 3-1, Manchester City defeated Tottenham and entered the League Cup semi-finals!

'I'm happy with the results of the rotation system, the players at Manchester City have shown that they are top players and I need to bring out the quality of all the players in a game like the Premier League...... However, I still have an opinion, England can only play five substitutes is too little, after all, in modern football, there are so many games, there are naturally more substitutes, and only 16 people can be brought into the squad, which is a waste. I'd like to be able to expand the bench to seven or more, because there's no need to follow that old and meaningless rule. ”

After leading the team to the semi-finals, Dick began to be unwilling to be lonely, but in fact, his proposal can be said to be proposed by all managers, and many coaches in the Premier League have made such a request before him, but the FA, which has been procrastinating, has always said that it wants to study and study, but it has not been able to study any effect.

This time the FA once again said that it wanted to study and study, and at this time, the League Cup semi-finals also came out, Chelsea ushered in a weaker opponent after eliminating Liverpool, their semi-final opponent was Everton, and Dick's Manchester City met Arsenal, the League Cup semi-finals are two-legged battles, which is also one of the strongest opponents Manchester City has encountered in the League Cup this time, if you want to win a title, then at this time, you must beat Arsenal, This will make it possible to win the League Cup.

The League Cup is not so easy to win, especially when the strong teams have basically not been eliminated this season......

Dick continued to use his rotation and for the next round of 18 away to Aston Villa, he fielded a huge change from the previous game, with goalkeeper Hart, defenders Richards, Kompany, Cahill and Barnes, midfielders Barton, Yaya Toure and Parker, and Ribery, Sturridge and Di Natale in attack.

In this game, Parker, who had a week off, performed very well, taking over the entire Manchester City playmaking attack in midfield, and with Yaya Toure and Ribery both a little tired, his performance made City's attack stronger, and Sturridge received a cross from Barnes in the 11th minute and headed home from inside the box to break the deadlock for Manchester City!

"Sturridge's second goal! Scored two goals in two consecutive league games! I don't know if Sturridge will be a regular for City in the next games, but it's a wonderful situation for the young Sturridge! Keep it up, Daniel! You will definitely have a bright future in the future! ”

The commentator shouted in an emotional voice, and it has to be said that they still prefer local players......

However, at this time, Sturridge did show his value, and in terms of tactical role, he was able to make up for the loss caused by Torres' absence to a large extent, which is extremely important for Manchester City at this time!

Aston Villa want to equalize at home, but Manchester City's defense in this game is much stronger than the last game, although Samuel was put into the rotation by Dick, but Kompany and Cahill, the two tall central defenders, are still very strong in the head-to-head confrontation, Aston Villa does not have any excellent fast forwards, there is no problem behind them, and they will not have a problem defending head-on.

Shortly after the start of the second half, Parker scored City's second goal with a forward strike, beating them 2-0 at home and quickly making it two wins in a row after the defeat to Tottenham Hotspur, continuing to catch up with Arsenal – and after the New Year, the two teams will be the first to meet in the Carabao Cup, a game that everyone is looking forward to.

When the final whistle blew, Dick waved his fist, and he was very satisfied with the two rounds of the league, because in the case of the beginning of the rotation, most of the players showed quite good form, and this kind of performance has the ability to attack the championship!