[Octopus perspective] After the 4-1 elimination of Arsenal, Manchester City successfully advanced to the semi-finals of the League Cup this season. If they can aspire, they will win the tournament for 4 consecutive seasons.
The last time Manchester City was eliminated in the League Cup, was the president of the United States or Obama, the iPhone 7 was just released, and Mourinho was still the coach of the city's rival Manchester United.
It was 4 years, 1 month and 27 days ago. On Wednesday, October 26, 2016, Guardiola lost the League Cup for the only time in his Manchester City coaching career.
It was only 10 weeks after Guardiola picked up the Manchester City pointer at the time, and his 11 starting players at Old Trafford have now all changed. Z2z Mata scored the only goal of the game that night, helping Manchester United win 1-0.
Since then, Gua's Manchester City have won the League Cup three consecutive championships, at this time they are only 2 wins away from the fourth consecutive championship. If they can win these two games, will become the second team in history to complete the League Cup four consecutive championships after Liverpool in 1981-1984.
Can Guardiola, who has won three consecutive League Cups, achieve four consecutive championships?
Why can Manchester City be so strong in the League Cup? In order to cope with the dense schedule of modern football, Blue Moon’s main opponents in the Premier League often send teenagers to participate in the League Cup. Although Manchester City has to participate in many games, Guardiola will still take this event seriously.
The 49-year-old Spanish coach is eager to win every game. No championship trophy is unimportant in his eyes. Before faced Villa in the League Cup final last season, he said: "Whether in Manchester City, Bayern or Barcelona, there will be no opponents saying that when they meet my team, we don’t want to win, try to win all the games. It takes courage." In addition to the perceptual reason of "I want it all", the rational Guardiola also believes that the championship title midway through the season can give players more motivation to continue to seek honor. For example, in 2019, the League Cup champion kicked off the unprecedented domestic triple crown for Manchester City.
Like many non-British coaches, will regard the Community Shield as the first important trophy of the season. Although is a friendly match, fans and commentators will not take it too seriously. In this case, how could he not pay attention to the League Cup?
Guardiola once emphasized to reporters that the Community Shield champion is also the champion
. Under normal circumstances, the League Cup champions will be produced in February (this year was postponed to April due to the epidemic), and the Premier League’s Christmas schedule will be extremely tight, so most balls After the team broke into the quarter-finals or semi-finals of the League Cup, they felt it was okay, and did not want to increase their workload during the busy winter.
But Guardiola doesn't think so. He said after defeating Chelsea in the 2019 League Cup final: "Only in this country you can win a championship in February. I think this is very good for boosting morale. "Z2z
Although Guardiola will do his best in the League Cup, this does not prevent him from giving the opportunity to the star of hope in the youth training camp. Phil Foden started from the League Cup and gradually became the blue moon. A firm foothold in the first team.
In September 2018, Foden, who was only 18 years old, scored his first career goal in the away game against Oxford United in the third round of the League Cup; last season's League Cup final, he was able to play the entire game. Assists Aguero to break the deadlock and was named the best player in the final.
Foden holds the trophy for the best player in the League Cup final last season.
In the past three and a half seasons, Guardiola has given 16 Manchester City youth teenagers the first opportunity to fight alongside the first team in the League Cup.
In the third round of the League Cup this season, Manchester City is suffering from injuries, players infected with the new crown, and incomplete pre-season preparations. They encountered Bournemouth, who had just been relegated from the Premier League. The 17-year-old England young center Liam Delap ushered in his career debut and first goal in this game. Z2z also started with 5 other Manchester City youth training players, and finally Blue Moon 2 1 Eliminate the Cherry Corps and advance to the next round.
In the 4th round a week later, it was the 18-year-old midfielder Cole Palmer, who was a Manchester City fan since childhood, to make his debut in the professional arena, he andTogether, De Bruyne, Sterling and other big brothers helped Manchester City beat Burnley 3-0.
Liam Delapp (left) and Cole Palmer (right)
counted 4 penalty shoot-out wins, Manchester City have won 21 of the past 22 League Cups, is the only one The loss was a 0-1 loss to Manchester United at home in the second round of last season's semi-finals. The premise was that they had already won 3-1 away in the first leg.
After winning the previous 3 League Cups, Manchester City won 2 Premier League titles and 1 FA Cup title. Faced with Arsenal, after avenging his defeat in the FA Cup semi-final five months ago, there are not many strong enemies left for Blue Moon. Regardless of the results of Tottenham and Manchester United, Manchester City will be the biggest favorite to win the League Cup this season.
This article was first published on the public account: Octopus Emperor
Public Account ID: zhangyusport
Competition data comes from Octopus Emperor
Some pictures are from the network
