Schmeichel's individual performance could not reverse the decline of the overall situation.

Manchester City had taken the initiative of the game shortly after the opening kick-off and formed a pressure on Leicester City.

While Leicester's players worked hard to turn the tide of the situation, City were able to suppress them on a tactical level.

Pep Guardiola's three centre-backs and central midfield make it difficult for Leicester to threaten City's ball-handlers in the midfield.

They can organise attack after attack with stride, and thanks to their numerical superiority in the middle, City have been firmly in control of the midfield from the start.

This allowed them to play the ball up front again and again, making the most of the gaps in the wide corridor and attacking Leicester from flanks.

Manchester City's style of play made Leicester City very uncomfortable, and the opponent's left wing was okay to say, after David Silva retired from injury, it was Navas or Son Heung-min who appeared in this position.

The duo are much weaker in passing and dribbling than David Silva, so they can only act as a demoman, with little change after the ball, either sending in a low cross or cutting inside.

But Manchester City's right side is the best winger in football, Lin Quan, and once the ball is at his feet, there are too many options.

Therefore, Leicester City attaches great importance to the defense of Lin Quan's side, and does not hesitate to deploy heavy troops here to deal with him.

However, as a result, their formation inevitably shifted a bit to the right, which gave City's players plenty of room to move on the left.

As Manchester City's dealer, Kroos, who had the ball in midfield, saw this and decisively moved the ball to the empty left side in a wide range to create opportunities for Son Heung-min.

Son Heung-min understood, first took the initiative to retreat, lowered the vigilance of the defenders, and then suddenly turned back and accelerated, rushing towards Leicester City's half.

The opponent's fullback was caught off guard, and when he turned around to chase after him, he had already been pulled away by Sun Xingmin.

"Manchester City's one-on-one knife!"

"Opportunity! Sun Xingmin knocks on the door! ”

"Schmeichel Jr. made another contribution, he saved the ball, wait, City's attack is not over, De Bruyne got the ball, Leicester defenders all pounced on him!"

'De Bruyne passed, who did he pass to?

It's Lin Quan!!

The ball went in, the score became 0:1, and the Leicester players made a fatal mistake when defending, and they actually left Lin Quan unmarked, which was a very, very huge mistake! ”

On the commentary bench, the commentators were very speechless at Leicester City's goal.

The reason for being speechless was that Lin Quan was too easy.

He took advantage of his team-mates to attract the attention of the opposition, quietly entered the penalty area, and as soon as he ran out of the gap, De Bruyne's pass came as promised, and all he had to do was to easily receive the ball and push it into the empty net.

Such a comfortable shot, for a top shooter like Lin Quan, is really not the slightest difficulty, give him a hundred chances, and he may not miss a shot.

After the goal, Lin Quanchong De Bruyne gave a thumbs up: Good pass, Tintin!

At least three Leicester City players pounced on De Bruyne just now, De Bruyne was surrounded by the opponent, not only did not lose the ball, but also accurately passed the ball out and handed it to Lin Quan's feet.

De Bruyne straightened his chest proudly: That's it, don't look at who is the person who passed the ball to you?

He was also very proud of the ball just now, in fact, he didn't see if Lin Quan was really here, but when the opponent pounced on him, he judged that there was a gap here.

If you can pass the ball to your teammates, whoever you are, as long as one of them is in place, you will have a great chance to score.

Facts have proved that his judgment is correct, and Lin Quan is tacit enough to really appear here.

On the sidelines, after Guardiola saw Lin Quan's goal, he clenched his fists excitedly.

Lin Quan's last-ditch shot was not impressive, but De Bruyne's handling of the ball made him shine.

This kid can always create some unexpected surprises for himself.

At his feet, there seems to be no ball that he can't pass, and his choice and way of passing the ball is always surprising and surprising.

This guy is a top passer!

As long as you pair him with a few top strikers, his assist stats are absolutely indispensable.

It just so happens that Manchester City has such a striker in the team.

So Guardiola has a hunch in his heart that De Bruyne's data this year may explode.

This made him happy and a little worried.

As the saying goes, people are afraid of being famous, pigs are afraid of being strong, and once De Bruyne becomes famous, there will be more clubs that fancy him.

The thought of these giants waving cheques to poach people makes Guardiola feel a lot of headaches.

Since last year, there have been a large number of offers in the transfer period every year to buy some players from Manchester City.

Cross, Sergio Aguero and even Lin are all among them.

Every year, during the transfer period, just rejecting offers from these clubs makes him feel anxious.

Now there's another Kevin De Bruyne, and the workload has to increase again.

It's easy to turn down offers from other clubs, but it's the player's job that's hard to deal with.

If some players are seduced by other clubs and insist on leaving, it will be difficult for the club to stay.

However, these players, especially the main players, are very important in Pep Guardiola's tactical system, and if they are abducted, Manchester City's strength will inevitably suffer.

After this game, the transfer window of the winter break will begin.

He already had a hunch that there would be plenty of teams asking for De Bruyne's price.

……

Schmeichel Jr. had already realized that something was wrong when Lin Quan was shooting, and was trying his best to defend back, but it was still a step too late.

By the time he made the save, the ball had flown into the goal.

This made him feel very unwilling, unwilling to be so easily attacked by the opponent who was guarding his goal.

Obviously, I have performed very well before, but why did I concede the goal in the end?

In the stands, Schmeichel couldn't help but sigh when he saw his son's depressed expression.

The special thing about the goalkeeper position is that even if you make a hundred and 1,000 good saves in front of you, as long as you make one mistake, it becomes meaningless.

Even before Manchester City scored, the situation on the pitch was already very bad for Leicester City.

At this time, the morale of the opposition was greatly boosted by the goal, while Leicester City's morale suffered a heavy blow.

In this case, the game may be even more unfavorable for Leicester City.

Thinking of this, Schmeichel was a little worried about his son.

In the next game, the goal he guarded will definitely be tested more and more severely than before.

I wonder if he can withstand it?

Right now, his biggest concern is that City played an exaggerated scoreline in this game, and conceding a large number of goals could shatter a goalkeeper's confidence and plunge him into self-doubt.

On the sidelines, Ranieri was clearly aware that the situation was not in his favour.

But he couldn't do much about City's attack, which were too strong in midfield and on the wings.

With the strength of Leicester City, they can only concentrate on one area and have no way to do both, after all, their players' individual strength is not as good as the opponent's, and they can only rely on the advantage of local numbers to limit the opponent.

However, in this way, the forces in other areas will be reduced, and the threat of the opponent's attack will become greater.

But if you don't do this, if you divide the forces evenly, it will leak everywhere and you can't prevent it everywhere.

What to do?

How can we crack City's attacking tactics?

……

"Hehe, it's a bit interesting, Guardiola's tactics are even stronger than I imagined!"

'Manchester City's dominance in the Premier League looks even stronger than we thought!'

In the stands somewhere at the Stade des Regents, Real Madrid coach Zinedine Zidane said to his assistant with a smile.

At this time, it was the winter break of La Liga, and he had nothing to do, so he came to watch the Premier League's focus battle.

Although it is uncertain whether Real Madrid will meet Manchester City in the knockout rounds of the Champions League, Real Madrid cannot afford to be unguarded.

If they do encounter it, and they don't do their homework in advance, then I'm afraid it will be more than lucky.

After all, Real Madrid fell to Manchester City two years ago and missed the perfect chance to win the title.

Every time Real Madrid thinks about this, they are indignant and don't want to repeat the mistakes of the past.

"Would it be better if we gave up the pressure on the opposition back line and cut off the link between City's two wings and the backfield?"

The assistant coach asked a question.

Zidane shook his head: "No, Manchester City's backfield is in the position of central midfield, if they don't press their defenders, then they will be more closely connected with the midfield, and the ball can be passed to the feet of the wide players." ”

In today's football, there is a trend that the position of the team's playmaker is moving backwards.

From the very beginning of the front waist, to the back waist, and now to the middle back.

Now, the classic forward in football has completely disappeared.

The reason for the disappearance of the classical forward is also very simple, the closer the player is on the field, the higher the defensive intensity will be, and it is difficult to effectively organize the attack under the opponent's pressing or even encirclement.

And once the playmaking core is restricted, the team's offense is dumb.

Therefore, in order to make the team's playmaker more comfortable with the ball and handle the ball, their position is placed in the midfield.

In this position, the only thing that can threaten them is the opponent's frontcourt players, and the number is much smaller, and they face much less pressing and pressure, and can handle the ball more calmly.

However, in today's football world, the development trend of football is more and more tactical and holistic.

The tactics of pressing from the top are becoming more and more popular, which makes it possible to put a lot of pressure even if the core of the playmaking is moved to the midfield.

So, in order to alleviate that pressure, someone came up with something weird like a midfielder and a midfielder.

Although it sounds nonsense, this kind of corner position, it is indeed very difficult for the opponent to force it, and it can indeed reduce the pressure on the lower back.

Zidane is not optimistic about Leicester City because they have not posed much of a threat to Kroos so far.

This allows Kroos to command and dispatch very calmly, using his wide vision and big picture vision to move the ball to the opponent's weak defence.

And every time he successfully deflects the ball, he can pose a threat to Leicester's goal.

In the long run, Leicester City has no possibility of turning the tables at all, but will be further opened up by the opponent.

"So what to do?"

The assistant coach is a little helpless, if Real Madrid do meet Manchester City in the Champions League, and Pep Guardiola offers this tactic again, how will Real Madrid respond?

Zidane thought for a while, and had two ways to solve the problem in his heart, but he didn't know if his idea was feasible or not?

"There are only two ways to win: offense and defense!"

"The main threat of City's tactics is on the wings, so the defending side can arrange a back five formation to completely stifle the threat of the opposition on the wing."

"Of course, there is also another option, using the tactic of flying on both wings, taking advantage of the weakness of the opponent's only three defenders and weak defense on the wings, and attacking the opponent's two wings."

Attack is the best defense, the opponent tries to use the wing to attack, then they also use the side to make a fuss, completely suppress the opponent's side, so that Guardiola's tactical system is self-defeating.

Of course, these are just more idealistic ideas in his own heart, whether it will work or not, this has to go back and test it to know.

Claudio Ranieri was quick to make his choice, recognising the activity of City's two flanks, so he asked his team to shrink their formation and strengthen their defence on the flanks.

Once the opponent's attack hits the 30-meter area, let Leicester City's No. 4, that is, the drinking brother, move back and join the back line, forming a back five position.

In this way, the width of the defender's formation is enough to intercept the opponent's wing attack, and the opponent, whether it is down or inside, is watched by someone anytime and anywhere, and will not give them too many opportunities.

After seeing Ranieri's choice, Real Madrid's assistant coach was secretly surprised and couldn't help but peek at Zidane:

was predicted correctly by the head coach, and Coach Zidane's strength seems to be stronger than he imagined.

Sure enough, to be so favored by President Florentino is naturally not a mediocre talent.

It's just that he can't lead Real Madrid back to the throne and win the tenth Champions League trophy they have always dreamed of?

Zidane did not notice these thoughts of his assistant, and when he saw Ranieri make a conservative choice, he immediately cheered up and stared intently at the field, wanting to see if this choice could have an effect.

If the defense of the back five can really limit Manchester City, then Manchester City's life in the Premier League may not be easy!

(End of chapter)