Birmingham and Manchester City.

The two teams are similar in many ways, as are the two cities of Manchester and Birmingham. For example, if both teams have "CITY" in their names, for example, both teams have a city rival, and if both teams have been "bullied" by their respective city rivals for many years, the fate of the two teams is even so similar. Because in the summer of two years ago, both teams were bought by capital from Asia, with Hong Kong businessman Yang Ka-shing taking a stake in Birmingham City as the largest shareholder, while former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra bought Manchester City.

Just when Birmingham fans thought that they could finally turn over and become the masters, they didn't know that the fate of the two teams quietly turned around at this time, only the second season, that is, last year, Manchester City was bought again, and Birmingham was relegated at the end of the season, and when Birmingham returned to the Premier League this year, Manchester City has become a team that dares to aim for the league title.

In just two years, the two clubs, which were once at the same starting point, are now on different paths.

The same people don't have the same fate.

As a witness who accompanied Birmingham to the Championship nirvana, coach McLeesh could only stand on the sidelines at this time and envy Linsen's life was really good, and his life was really bad.

Ten games, three wins, one draw, six losses, and 10 points, ranking 17th. Birmingham, who have returned to the Premier League, are not aiming for a high level this season, just based on the Premier League, but with such a result, McLeesh is clearly not much better. And McLeish didn't expect that in this game, he would meet a hungry Manchester City.

Sending five attacking players at the same time, this kind of thing that often occurs in ancient times, is relatively rare in modern football, and even if there is, most of them appear in the final stage of the game without retreat, and now, Lin Sen has made such an arrangement in the starter.

Standing at St Andrews. Listening to the cries of the visiting fans, Lin Sen knew what kind of controversy his "crazy" move would cause, but the truth was that he already felt that he had no way back. Before that, Linson racked his brains to search for his own memories, and he didn't come up with the slightest memory of Manchester City's consecutive draws this season, so he wasn't sure if he was going down the "old path", but it was certain that he would not accept his team suffering a fourth draw. To put it bluntly, he would rather lose than see that damn draw again.

Facing Manchester City, who made a desperate posture away from home, McLeish's first reaction was to be stunned, and the second reaction was to smile bitterly. Look at the five people in the front court of Manchester City, they are worth more than 100 million yuan together, if he also has such five people in his hands, then he also wants to send these five people on the field. But now, what he needs to think about is how to deal with these five people.

Manchester City's formation looks a lot like four-one-three-two, but. A few minutes into the game, McLeash could see that this was not a top-heavy four-one-three-two at all, but more like a three-two-three-two. Because centre-back Vincent Kompany's positioning is quite flexible in this tactic, he has often been involved in the midfield position. Of course, this will reduce the risk factor of increasing the defensive line, but at the same time, McLeash also saw that the reason why Linson dared to do this was that he decided that Birmingham would not play against Manchester City, so he dared to play this kind of "technical work" in the midfield.

The simple explanation for this is that since you don't have a lot of offense, then I don't need to "idle" so many defenders in the defense, rather than just adding an offensive player. But in fact, Lin Sen was forced to "borrow" Guardiola's moves in this game, of course, this Guardiola is the Guardiola in memory.

Since Barcelona's "TIKI-TAKA" has been unique in the world, Guardiola in the later period often experiments with various formations on Barcelona's body, and people who like Guardiola say that this is Guardiola taking precautions and striving for excellence, and those who don't like it say that this is Guardiola pretending to be X and dying, in short, Guardiola is indeed seeking change, and one of the positions he moves the most is the backline. Why? Quite simply, because Barcelona's possession flow is often "idle" at the back, so a lot of the time, you can see a good Pique turning into a striker. In addition to Pique, one of the more familiar moves of Pep Guardiola on defense is to let the midfielders play the central defender position.

This change was considered to be forced at the time, because at that time, due to Puyol's frequent injuries, Barcelona often made trouble in the position of central defender, so Mascherano, who had excellent defensive ability at that time, was often pulled to the "top cylinder", but later, Mascherano often appeared in the backline, but his work was not just the work of central defender.

And Linson's current role is to let Kompany, who often played in the back last season, play this role.

If it was against a strong team, Lin Sen definitely didn't dare to "die" like this, but in the face of Birmingham, Lin Sen was not afraid that McLeash would see it at all, because if he could see it, what could he do?

McLesh still didn't dare to play against Manchester City, or rather, it wasn't that he didn't dare, but he couldn't. To use a popular analogy, people have aircraft and artillery in their hands and dare to assault the whole army, you are millet plus rifles, even if you know that the opponent's whole army is attacking, the rear must be empty, so what? Do you dare to go up? Therefore, the best way is still the old way, guerrilla warfare, sneak attack.

It should be said that Manchester City's new formation did not play smoothly at the beginning, Manchester City piled up attacking players in the frontfield, correspondingly, Birmingham also had to hoard heavy troops in the backfield to defend, which caused Birmingham to be crowded in the backfield, leaving little space for Manchester City's attacking players, not to mention playing with cooperation, being able to control the ball and pass it out smoothly, all thanks to their excellent personal ability.

However, when City's attacking players get used to this kind of "crowding", the benefits of this formation are real, because although it is crowded, the number of troops invested by Manchester City is real, and the handler is almost not alone, as long as you can pass the ball, you basically have no trouble not having a connection point.

After a series of dizzying short passes from Gareth Gareth Gardo, Luis Suarez and David Silva to move the ball from what looked like it was almost a wet market defence to Arjen Robben on the right, when had Sky TV commentator Charles seen Manchester City perform like this, in the Premier League, it was almost Arsenal's patent, and even the same Arsenal team a few years ago, so he barely praised Manchester City. And then even with Lin Sen also followed, what Manchester City finally chose the right coach, what Lin Sen's change of formation in this game is a wonderful stroke......

Just when Charles was in a state of flux, Lin Sen, who was standing on the sidelines, was not as leisurely and wonderful as Charles said? It's just a helpless move.

Manchester City on the field is still very good-looking, in the face of weak teams, strong teams always have the right to pretend to be X, Manchester City is just fulfilling this right, relying on the advantage of piling up with money, but if this advantage does not bring goals, then it is still in vain. Charles said that if City continued to play in this way, it would only be a matter of time before City scored because the ball had been "wandering" on the edge of the Birmingham box for so long that it seemed like a fraction of a millimeter had been scored.

But Lin Sen knows that this millimeter, not counting the game against Aston Villa, has already pitted himself for two games.

Things looked much smoother today as City knocked on Birmingham's door in the 27th minute. The foreshadowing was a nearly two-minute pass from Robben to Suarez, the Uruguayan striker's fourth goal of the season. Four goals in seven games, as the arrowhead of Manchester City, the effectiveness is not very high, but it is already a passing result.

This is another Goal of the Round candidate. The essence is not in the shooting, but in the foreshadowing.

After the goal, Manchester City did not give up attacking and continued to maintain attacking pressure against Birmingham. But what made Lin Sen a little helpless was that after that goal, the game entered the kind of scoreless cheating mode.

In the 34th minute, Arjen Robben had a one-on-one chance, but the Dutchman sent the ball into the arms of the opposition goalkeeper.

In the 41st minute, David Silva's free-kick went around the wall and around the opposition goalkeeper, but was denied by the crossbar.

In the 68th minute, in the face of an empty goal, Suarez Leng gave the ball to the fans behind the goal.

In the seventy-first minute, it was Suarez, and this time his shot was tricky, but he met the magic moment of the opposing goalkeeper.

Three minutes later, McLesh made the second substitution of the game, replaced by a face that Linson was no stranger to, Russ Bender.

After the Bend brothers were loaned to Birmingham by Linson this season, the two brothers did not get McLeesh to be reused all of a sudden, but started from the bench, and Sven Bender, who had better defensive ability, got a little more opportunities, but he did not start this game, of course, there was no circumvention clause in the loan agreement between Manchester City and Birmingham, it was purely McLeish's choice. And Russ Bender's chances of playing will depend on the physicality of veteran Barry Ferguson, as is the case with this substitution.

Before the game, he couldn't talk to the Bend brothers about the old Linson, and soon received a "greeting" from Russ Bender, a goal.

In the eighty-third minute, a "routine" counterattack in Birmingham, McFadden's ball just took his own half of the court and couldn't take it, because Zabaleta, who seemed to have reversed roles with him in this game, had already entangled him, and in desperation, McFadden could only pass the ball to Carsley in the midfield, and in the face of Manchester City's siege, Carsley did not control the ball much, and directly passed the ball to the feet of Russ Bender, who had just come on the field.

Russ Bender, who received the ball, originally wanted to organize an attack, but when he looked up, he couldn't find the village in front of him, and the ball was brought to a distance of more than 30 meters from the opponent's goal.

Russ Bender's shot on goal was a routine even for him.

But the truth is that the shot drew a strange arc in the air, and then, in the sad eyes of Given, who had just returned from injury, flew into the top left corner of the goal.

Then, amid the sudden roar of cheers at the St Andrews Stadium, Lin Sen, who was sitting in the coach's box, slammed his right fist on the plastic baffle next to him.

Damn it! (To be continued......)

PS: If I'm looking for the right information, this season, the real Manchester City is ...... Seven consecutive draws. So, the magic of football.