The match day arrives in no time!
In the 7th round of the Premier League, Manchester City visits the Brighton Stadium to face the Black Cats Sunderland.
In this match, Pellegrini continued with the previous round’s strategy of having Tang Long play as a defensive midfielder.
Even though Tang Long excelled in the Champions League as a defensive midfielder, the Chilean veteran coach still wants to see what effect Tang Long has in the Premier League playing this position.
Of course, this tactical experiment presupposes that the opponent isn’t too strong.
Whether it’s Mönchengladbach or Sunderland, Manchester City is confident they can firmly handle them~
Starting line-up for the match:
Home team Sunderland: 4231
Johnson/Toivonen/Luns
Holt/O’Shea/Kos/Yedlin
Away team Manchester City: 4231
Kolarov/Otamendi/Demichelis/Sagna
When the live DJ at Brighton Stadium began announcing Manchester City’s starting lineup, boos erupted!
Sunderland, a team located in the northeast of England, has a fierce local population.
This team is also a traditional mid-lower tier Premier League team, often playing the role of a relegation elevator, retaining the traditional style of Championship teams with high pressing.
Among the erupting boos, two people received the warmest "welcome":
Though there were only 40,000 people at the Brighton Stadium this match, the booing was like 40,000 shrill whistles, screeching in the ears of Manchester City players.
Tang Long only felt a buzzing in his ears.
"So noisy!" He said to Toure next to him.
Toure replied with a smile, "Haha, teams from the north of England are . But it doesn’t matter, the louder they scream, the more they’re afraid of us!"
Facing the strong visiting team Manchester City, Sunderland’s little thoughts were revealed in the ball boy segment at the start.
It stands to reason that ball boys should be kids, many of whom are six or seven years old, including both boys and girls.
But perhaps to deliberately mock Manchester City players, Sunderland put considerable thought into the arrangement of ball boys.
Sterling, Silva, Navas—these three players, all just over 1.7 meters tall, each led a "gigantic" ball boy onto the pitch.
From the perspective of the broadcast camera, the height of these ball boys was nearly up to the noses of Manchester City players.
These ball boys were generally older, while the smaller ones were intentionally arranged for taller players like Yaya Toure and Kolarov.
Especially Yaya Toure, who is over 1.9 meters tall, was assigned a 4-year-old little girl.
Toure had no choice but to bend over, hunch, and carefully lead the little girl forward, afraid of tripping her.
Kolarov simply carried the little ball boy in his arms, striding forward.
Of course, the funniest was Agüero!
For Manchester City’s leading striker, Sunderland later made special arrangements.
A chubby kid about 1.75 meters tall was Agüero’s ball boy.
Agüero himself is only 1.72 meters tall. Standing in front of this chubby kid, Agüero felt as if a mountain-like shadow was looming.
"Chubby kid, how old are you and how heavy?"
Agüero looked at this child wearing a Sunderland jersey with a face full of surprise.
"Uncle Agüero, I’m in fifth grade, 11 years old, and my weight is 180 pounds!"
The chubby kid grinned as he rubbed his plump belly.
Beside him, Tang Long also listened with a startled expression!
pounds, that calculates to over 160 pounds. Chapters first released on novel fire.net
Oh my, only 11 years old! Are youngsters in the United Kingdom developing so well nowadays?
Agüero, having fought in the Premier League for many years, naturally realized this was a deliberate ploy to mock his height.
But he wasn’t angry, continuing to joke with the chubby kid.
As a result, when both teams lined up, the referee standing in the middle performing the opening ceremony, the lens swept across horizontally—
You could see on Manchester City’s side, either the players were visible without the ball boys, or the ball boys were obscuring the faces of the players.
Overall, this very strange scene caused Sunderland fans watching the big screen to laugh out loud.
"Hahaha, so funny, is this a circus performance?"
This clumsy trick also made Manchester City’s head coach Pellegrini shake his head helplessly.
Sigh, is this necessary?
The more you laugh now, the more you’ll cry later.
Football competition is never handcuffed by these antics; it’s the disparity in strength that determines victory or defeat!
The match had nothing to say, from the first minute Manchester City firmly controlled the situation.
Although both teams are good at physical confrontation, there’s a gap between Sunderland and Tottenham.
Tottenham’s several front and center strong players, like Gualin, Dale, Ali, Son Heung-min, etc., have height, weight, speed, and strong impact but also possess certain footwork skills.
Whereas Sunderland, it’s a bunch of rough players!
The Premier League is a league that emphasizes fast pace and physical confrontation, but solely having physicality without footwork skill still won’t work.
No wonder Sunderland can always be an elevator team in the league.
At the 21st minute of the first half, Manchester City’s series of skillful coordination with their small and nimble players in the front field baffled those rough players from Sunderland.