"Hmm," De Bruyne thought it over seriously for a second and nodded in agreent.
Leroy Sané's tactical suggestion was indeed worth considering.
Because Manchester United's right-back, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, was relatively young and entirely lacked the vast match experience of Professor Young.
Under high pressure, he was prone to making positional mistakes.
Moreover, Wan-Bissaka was notoriously fond of risky sliding tackles, and there was a very good chance he might misti one and receive a red card or concede another penalty.
At that point, Manchester City could essentially secure the victory against ten n.
However, what happened next was sowhat unexpected for the arrogant winger.
When Sané finally received the ball, dribbled at pace, and tried to aggressively break through from the outside, Wan-Bissaka remained surprisingly, unnervingly steady.
He first extended his strong arm to physically slow Sané down and disrupt his balance, then intelligently positioned his body to keep pushing the German outward toward the touchline.
Just as Sané attempted to accelerate forcefully past him, Wan-Bissaka stretched out his incredibly long "spider" leg and cleanly poked the ball out of bounds for a throw-in.
Gary Neville: "A very, very experienced piece of wide one-on-one defending from the youngster!"
Jamie Carragher: "Young players rarely show such absolute composure against a winger with Sané's pace. Wan-Bissaka has improved trendously this season!"
Wan-Bissaka, anwhile, couldn't resist taunting Sané as they reset.
"I usually practice defending against Ling every day in training, mate. The physical pressure you give compared to his... well, it's honestly like the difference between the Premier League and the Championship."
Of course, he exaggerated quite a bit.
But since it was purely ant to provoke and anger the winger, exaggerating the facts made it much more effective.
Sané had always had a notoriously short temper.
By the way, he even had an unflattering locker-room nickna—Mr. Grumpy!
Now, with Wan-Bissaka expertly hitting a sore spot regarding Ling, Sané instantly flew into a blind rage.
"What makes inferior to him?! Besides, you have absolutely no right to say that to , you shitty black man!"
"The fuck did you just said?!"
When standard on-pitch taunting escalates to blatant, vile personal attacks, the nature of the situation changes drastically.
The two imdiately squared up and began aggressively shoving each other.
Beep beep beep!
Urgent whistles sounded imdiately as the referee, Martin Atkinson, rushed over to physically separate them, preventing the conflict from escalating further into a brawl.
"He called a shitty black man! That's blatant, racist discrimination ref!" Wan-Bissaka roared angrily, pointing a finger at Sané.
Sané instantly realized the massive career seriousness of the accusation and stubbornly, frantically denied ever saying such a thing.
After all, there were no direct recording devices on the pitch to prove it.
Without hard audio evidence, there could be no imdiate punishnt.
Atkinson said sternly to both of them, "You'd both better calm down and focus on the match right now. If there's any further violation of the rules or conduct, I won't hesitate to show you both a red card."
Ling ran over and patted Wan-Bissaka on the shoulder, physically pulling him away and advising him to stay calm.
In a heated derby match, it's okay to have emotions, but you must never let them take complete control and lose your basic rationality.
A red card would cost them the title.
To his surprise, Wan-Bissaka winked subtly at his captain. "I was deliberately provoking that arrogant idiot, skip. Now, my defending on the right flank will be much easier because he'll be emotional and predictable."
Ling was stunned for a mont, then smiled wordlessly.
This guy had quite a few clever dark-arts tricks up his sleeve!
"Don't underestimate Sané just because of this outburst, Aaron. He's genuinely talented, especially in high-speed dribbling and breaking through defenders. Stay focused," Ling reminded him earnestly.
"Don't worry, skip, I understand!" Wan-Bissaka nodded firmly.
The match resud.
Sané seed to have a massive personal grudge against Wan-Bissaka now.
Whenever he got the ball, he stubbornly tried to dribble past him alone to prove his superior ability.
But Wan-Bissaka and Ander Herrera were well-prepared for the isolation tactic, constantly positioning themselves at a perfect sixty-degree angle to firmly block both the forward run down the line and the inside-cutting routes.
Even if Sané occasionally managed to get past Wan-Bissaka with pure pace, David Luiz was always there to imdiately cover defensively and clear the danger.
"He's completely forgotten all the pre-match tactical instructions! All he cares about is dribbling forward by himself like a child. What's the point of us playing possession football then?!"
Guardiola hurled his plastic water bottle fiercely at the dugout, splashing a large spray of water everywhere.
It was clear he was absolutely furious with his winger.
After all, in his earlier ticulous plan, he had intended to score another goal between the 60th and 70th minute to completely crush Mourinho's hopes of a coback.
But that selfish bastard Leroy Sané had inadvertently helped Manchester United survive the most difficult, exhausting period by wasting possessions!
Taking advantage of a brief dead ball, Guardiola called Sané aggressively to the sideline and roared.
"If you dare play selfishly like that again, you'll rot on the bench from now on!!"
Sané snapped out of his angry daze, looking shocked, and quickly nodded in fearful agreent.
Manchester City had more than one world-class left winger; he was still far from permanently securing a starting spot.
And while Guardiola might seem like a nice, philosophical guy on the surface to the dia, he rarely gave any warning before ruthlessly dropping a player who disobeyed tactics.
Do you understand what managerial cold violence ans? Sané just found out.
Gary Neville: "In the 67th minute of the second half, Manchester United finally made their tactical adjustnts, using all three of their substitutions at once!"
Jamie Carragher: "Luke Shaw replaces the exhausted Ashley Young, Scott McTominay replaces Nemanja Matic, and Marcus Rashford replaces Paul Pogba!"
Gary Neville: "Wait... I suddenly can't understand Mourinho's tactical intentions here?"
Neville was utterly perplexed by the shape.
In the distance, in the Directors' Box, Sir Alex Ferguson sighed deeply with a knowing smile.
"People always say Jose rigidly prefers pragmatic defending, Ole, but deep down, he's actually quite mad. Do you rember his Inter Milan's 2-3-5 attacking formation?"
Solskjaer thought back carefully to his coaching studies.
The aggressive Mourinho-style 4-3-3 formation!
With it, Mourinho had previously led Chelsea to utterly dominate the Premier League and bravely guided Inter Milan to their first-ever treble in club history against pri Barcelona.
If Guardiola's 4-3-3 was purely about control and possession, Mourinho's 4-3-3 was extre—whether in deep defense or rapid, direct attack!
"Has he completely abandoned the pressing system?" Solskjaer was sowhat puzzled by the personnel.
"Keep watching, and you'll understand," Ferguson said with a wise smile.
Truth be told, even the great Sir Alex hadn't fully expected Mourinho to be so incredibly reckless as to go head-to-head in a shootout with Manchester City, currently the most potent attacking team in European football.
71st minute of the second half.
The fresh legs of Kante and McTominay pressed together aggressively in midfield, forcing De Bruyne to play a rushed pass back to a teammate.
Ling aggressively charged toward Ilkay Gündogan to close him down.
Manchester City's biggest structural weakness was their defensive midfielders—whether it was an aging Fernandinho or Gündogan, their raw defensive intensity and physicality simply weren't up to par against a rapid press!
Ling's pre-match tactical words to Carragher were now coming true.
Under intense physical pressure from Ling, Gündogan's hurried pass went astray and was easily intercepted early by Wan-Bissaka stepping up.
Wan-Bissaka cleverly evaded Sané's angry counter-press and passed early to Ander Herrera.
For a Mourinho 4-3-3 formation to truly succeed, top-tier players are absolutely indispensable, especially the center forward!
Because in this specific attack, the center forward has to shoulder massive physical responsibilities—constantly dropping deep to receive the ball, driving the wingers' attacks with passes, and taking on the opponent's center-backs alone.
Compared to the original, legendary Chelsea and Inter Milan squads, Manchester United's basic defensive lineup fell slightly short, particularly in the attacking choice of full-backs.
So Ling had to draw more defenders to himself to compensate.
He drifted smartly behind Gündogan into the space between the lines, ready to receive a pass from his teammate at any mont.
Instantly, three panicked City players shifted their focus entirely onto him.
Gary Neville: "Manchester United only left three players back in defense; everyone else has charged forward into the box!"
Jamie Carragher: "The 2-3-5 attacking formation—have Manchester United gone completely mad too?!"
Gary Neville: "Guardiola and Mourinho truly are the greatest, most unhinged active managers in football! Just look at the tactical boldness they've both shown in this match!"
Jamie Carragher: "I can't even find the words to describe this chaos!"
Neville roared with sheer excitent.
Herrera seized the chaotic mont to slip a brilliant diagonal pass out wide to Wan-Bissaka, who then combined with Mahrez to completely bypass Zinchenko's defensive zone on the right.
"Cross it over here!" Ling shouted, seeing Wan-Bissaka's hesitation near the corner flag.
The little bulldozer's attacking and crossing ability is notoriously weak; expecting him to organize complex attacks or beat a man is pure fantasy.
Wan-Bissaka no longer hesitated upon hearing his captain's command.
Thump!
The football was rolled hard along the ground toward the center of the box.
Due to the slight hesitation and delay from the full-back, by the ti Ling received the pass, Ilkay Gündogan had already dropped back into a defensive position to block him.
But Ling didn't stop the ball, twisting his powerful body and pushing off the ground to accelerate with his first touch!
The entire process of receiving and driving was completed in an instant.
He knew this specific player well, Ilkay Gündogan.
His defensive awareness was absurdly good, but he had a fatal, exploitable flaw—his raw acceleration speed was simply too slow!
Once beaten head-on with pace, he basically couldn't catch up to recover.
So Ling didn't bother with complex feints, making it abundantly clear with his body shape he would break through quickly with pure pace from the right side! Gündogan could only try to physically block his path with his body.
Thud!!
With the intense, shoulder-to-shoulder physical clash, the German midfielder predictably lost his balance against Ling's strength, shifting uncontrollably to the side.
Ling forcefully squeezed past him.
But before he could link up his next move to shoot, John Stones charged in with a ferocious, sliding tackle to clear the danger!
The timing and aggressive execution were impeccable!
Been waiting for you to commit, Ling thought coldly.
Ling's right foot shot out even faster than Stones' tackle, gently nudging the ball a few inches to the left!
Stones' FG studs completely missed the ball and stomped heavily directly onto Ling's foot.
The sharp pain was instantly indescribable!
A penalty and free kick in this central position wouldn't be bad either, right?
But Ling didn't want to waste this hard-earned, open-play opportunity on a 50/50 referee decision from Atkinson.
Enduring the blinding pain, he stumbled but continued driving into the penalty area, mustering his last ounce of core strength to curl a desperate cross to the far post!
The ball agonizingly grazed Vincent Kompany's outstretched toes, tracing a precise, looping arc over the defense.
"Watch the back post!" Kompany shouted in pure alarm to his full-back.
He turned to see the fresh Marcus Rashford and the exhausted Kyle Walker engaged in a frantic, desperate footrace to the dropping ball.
But the latter had already played 67 grueling more minutes, so his heavy legs and stamina were absolutely no match for Rashford's explosive pace.
Finally, under the tense, breathless gaze of seventy thousand Manchester United fans, Rashford slid in powerfully to volley the dropping ball into the roof of the net!
3-2!!!
Manchester United regained the lead in the Derby!
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