After Haaland was injured, Manchester City s winning rate changed from 35% to 85%

Sports Weekly All-Media Report

Is Haaland better or not Haaland better? Now there are some facts pointing to conclusions that are unfavorable to the Norwegian demon child.

In this round of Premier League, Haaland was injured and entered the bench, but did not play. Manchester City defeated Wolves 1-0. He has been away from the team recently. Manchester City, which has only won 11 games in 31 games, scored the most stable record of 6 wins and 1 draw of the season, and 11 players have scored a total of 14 goals. In the nine games before his injury, Manchester City only scored 6 goals. Of course, it should be pointed out that although the opponents in these 7 games cannot be said to be very weak, they are generally not worthy of value: Manchester United is the most famous, and Villa Forest is the strongest.

In these 7 games, Guardiola used Marmush and De Bruyne as a sudden role, and also used a double striker or a completely unstrike style. For example, in the FA Cup semi-finals at Wembley last Sunday, the starting lineup of Blue Moon 4222 is nominally Marmush and Savigno, but it can also be said that the six players in the midfield are all midfielders. Behind the above two are Grilish and Rico Lewis, and B Shi and Kovacic fall to the end. In actual combat, these six people can provide width and can also be inserted behind them. Whether they are pursuing control or creating threats, they all have enough homework.

When we were in the match against Wolves, Guardiola made adjustments to the lineup. For the first time in recent weeks, the winger played the winger position, and Duoku started on the left wing. Previously, the Belgian international has served as a substitute for a long time and has made important contributions in limited playing time, such as the winning goal of assisting Nunes on the wing when playing against Villa.

Guardiola once provided an explanation: "For nine years, I have been letting the winger lean forward and play one-on-one, but recently, in order to stabilize, maybe we need more control, we let the full-back provide width, so Duku has fewer opportunities to play, not because he performed poorly." Faced with Wolves, Duku, who is rare to start, is more active, with 8 attempts and 3 successes, and 3 key passes, all of which are the best in the game. O'Reilly behind him focuses on using Semedo to mark Duku.

Compared to constantly making tricks in the midfield and frontcourt, Manchester City's defense personnel have stabilized in the past month. At the end of March, Guardiola played against Bournemouth in the quarterfinals of 8 in the FA Cup. Guardiola replaced left back O'Reilly with card-held central defender Husanov, and Gvadior moved to the middle of the town. In the following six games, Guardiola maintained its defense combination in the second half of the game in five games: Nunes, Ruben Dias, Guvadior, and O'Reilly. During this period, Manchester City only conceded 3 goals and only 24 minutes behind the score.

Guardiola is satisfied with this defense combination. "This 4-man team brings stability, Gvadior, Nunes and O'Reilly have a speed advantage, while Ruben Dias provides the ball quotient and leadership." Even this defense combination has become the basis of the offense. As mentioned earlier, Guardiola lets two full-backs push up to provide width, playing the role of a winger, and the other players on the court are midfielders.

Haland's comeback is of course good news in theory. However, in the small fast spirit system that has been running smoothly this month, the emergence of the Norwegian big guy will somewhat change some of the team's playing style. At least one thing, Manchester City's "pseudo forwards" had the least bad time in a game, and their participation in the game was very different from Haaland's frequent contacts of only a dozen or twenty times.