After entering February, York City's schedule has been relaxed compared to before, which has also eased the physical pressure on the players to a certain extent, and this has immediately allowed York City to gain results.
In the four English League One games held in February, York City also achieved a record of four wins and successfully scored 12 points!
In these four games, Baker continued to maintain his stable scoring rate this season, scoring 5 goals, and also continued to lead the League One scorer list.
Such stable performance has also enabled York City to distance itself from the teams behind it with 22 wins, 8 draws and 1 loss, with 74 points after 31 rounds in the English League One!
Sheffield United is currently ranked second, but their results are only 19 wins, 6 draws, 6 losses and 63 points, while Bolton, who is third, has 18 wins, 6 draws, 7 losses and 60 points. Scunthorpe only had 58 points.
This is mainly due to the fact that the English League One itself is a chaotic mess, and few teams can maintain a stable state.
Let’s just talk about Pan Yi’s several English League One matches in his previous life.
The English League One champion in the 2022-2023 season is Plymouth, who ended up losing seven games;
Going a little further back, the champions of the 2021-2022 season are Wigan Athletic, who have lost more, eight games;
The most exaggerated thing is that in the 2020-2021 season, this year's champion Hull City actually lost a whopping 11 games!
This is rare to see in the top leagues.
If we use the Premier League champions in the same period for comparison, the teams that have won the championship in recent years are Manchester City. They have lost 5 games, 3 games and 6 games respectively.
The year before, Liverpool won the championship, and they only lost 3 games.
This shows that it is often more difficult to establish a "overlord" status in low-level leagues, because the league level is relatively low, there are more games, the team's performance is more unstable, and "upsets" are more likely to occur. .
But now York City has stabilized, and they have only lost one game so far. Their lead has suddenly become apparent.
After playing four English League One games, York City rushed away to challenge Wrexham, a team from the National League.
This is the fourth round of the FA Cup!
At this time, Lakepim does not have "Deadpool" Ryan Reynolds as the director, so it is not very eye-catching now.
Since being relegated from League Two to the National League in 2008, they have been working hard in the fifth-level semi-professional league, and sometimes even almost fell into the sixth-level North and South League.
During this period, the team also experienced the disgusting incident of a greedy owner trying to sell the stadium to make money after acquiring the team, so their fans united to gain actual control of the team.
In other words, Wrexham currently does not have a real owner. They are managed by the Wrexham Supporters Trust.
The employees inside, from the chairman to the health workers, are all volunteers and do not receive any compensation from the team.
After Ryan Reynolds later acquired the team, he basically retained all the volunteers in the club, paid them wages, and made them full-time employees of the club, and then slowly the team got on the right track. , and finally returned to Yingyi.
And why did Ryan Reynolds choose Wrexham instead of other teams?
In addition to its story, of course there are also attractions.
First of all, this is a club with a lot of history. Founded in 1872, Wrexham is the oldest existing football team in Wales and the third oldest professional football club in the world.
Yes, it is still a Welsh team, but like Cardiff City and Swansea, it participates in the English league.
Secondly, the price of buying a club that is struggling in England's National League will never be as high as that of a Premier League club.
In fact, Wrexham has experienced two bankruptcy crises in recent years. The ownership of the club is in the hands of the fans, and they have been looking for reliable investors, and the conditions given are also quite attractive.
Because the acquisition itself does not cost a penny, only after the acquisition is successful can financial resources be invested in team building.
Additionally, due to its long history, Wrexham’s infrastructure is actually pretty good.
Their home stadium, the Hippodrome Stadium, can accommodate more than 15,000 spectators, and it is also the oldest international stadium in Wales. It is even now one of the home venues of the Welsh national team.
However, this history does not help Wrexham go further in the league.
They are still at a mediocre level in the National League this season, and have been ranked in the top ten in points.
The reason why Wrexham was able to reach the fourth round of the FA Cup can only be said to be blessed by luck.
They played against Oldham in the first round and Farbarov in the second round, both teams from the lower leagues.
That is to say, the third round match against Coventry from League One was a test, but at this time Coventry was still struggling to avoid relegation in League One and had no intention of playing.
In the end, in a goal battle, Wrexham narrowly defeated their opponents 4:3 and entered the last 16.
Then, they drew another English League One team.
But this time, their opponent is York City!
Although both are League One, the two teams are completely different.
Coventry is ranked 24th in the standings, which is the last place. It can be said that they have already stepped into the second league.
York City is first in the standings and can be said to be a quasi-English Championship team!
The difference can be imagined.
——
February 21st.
The atmosphere at the racecourse, which was filled with more than 15,000 spectators, was very solemn. Thick cumulonimbus clouds were pressing in the sky, and it seemed that a heavy rain might pour down from the sky at any time.
The 45-minute first half of the game was over, and only the substitute players from both sides were left on the court to warm up.
The cheers of the fans in the stands also subsided, and they all needed to take a breath and wait until the second half to continue.
At this time, the score on the courtside scoreboard was the same as 45 minutes ago, and it was still 0:0.
When facing the dominant team in League One, the Wrexham team's style of play was defense, almost life-threatening defense.
It's the same as setting up the bus, but today York City's role has been reversed, from setting up the bus itself to trying to break the bus.
This allowed York City to experience how Tottenham felt when they faced themselves in the last round of the FA Cup.
In fact, Wrexham's buses are quite well arranged.
York City's center Baker, who has performed well this season, has almost no performance in this game. He is watched closely by the opponent's two central defenders. Once York City gets the ball and enters Wrexham's defensive area, Wrexham Players will rush forward to cover him one after another, making it difficult for the ball to pass comfortably to Baker's head or feet.
Judging from the performance of the entire first half, York City firmly grasped the initiative, but failed to get too many opportunities. Especially after Baker, the strongest firepower point, was restrained, York City's offense lost most of its power.
These were all tactics used by York City to restrain their enemies, but now they are used by their enemies on themselves, which also makes the York City fans watching the away game very dissatisfied.
What’s interesting is that when York City deployed the Iron Barrel Formation for Arsenal and Tottenham, the fans were overjoyed to be able to defeat powerful enemies, but now that they are being restrained by Wrexham’s Iron Barrel Formation, they feel very unhappy. They may even mock the opponent for only being defensive.
Well... one moment and another moment, the nature of human beings is double standards...
Of course, York City fans are mainly a little anxious.
I thought that after defeating Arsenal and Tottenham, facing Wrexham would be as easy as chopping melons and vegetables, but I didn't expect to encounter such a big difficulty.
They worry that if their players are unable to score the opponent's goal for a long time like Tottenham, they will easily become impatient, and then be seized by Wrexham, who are weaker than themselves.
"We can see that York City's powerful offensive power was completely suppressed by Wrexham United in the first half. York City felt a bit cornered by their opponents. From the final stage of the first half, we can even see that, York City's players clearly showed their irritability, and we have reason to believe that Wrexham will have more chances in the second half than in the first half. This is just like the second half of York City's game against Tottenham..."
Although today's game is in the top 16 of the FA Cup, since there are no top league teams participating, Sky Sports only arranged for a young commentator to explain.
From this commentator's point of view, it may be supporting the weaker Wrexham.
This is human nature. When faced with a game between two teams with no emotional tendencies, people tend to prefer to support the underdog.
"Judging from the data in the first half, York City had a total of 13 shooting opportunities, but they were all far away from the goal, and only 3 shots were on target. Looking at it this way, Wrexham's defense in the first half was very successful. Yes, York City’s offensive efficiency is actually very low.”
"In addition, York City's two wings were also tightly restrained by Wrexham. In addition, high center forward Baker was suppressed, which completely destroyed York City's offensive firepower in this game. At the same time, their defense line He is also constantly moving forward, leaving a large space for Wrexham to counterattack behind him. This is an excellent opportunity, and I believe Wrexham’s head coach will definitely see this!”
"Okay, the second half is about to begin. Players from both sides have already entered the field. We can see that Wrexham's lineup has not made any changes. The team's fastest forward No. 18 is on loan from Botswana. Enli's Ntuba Masanka is also still on the field. It can be seen that Wrexham team is going to use his speed to fight on the counterattack, and also threaten York City's defense."
"Huh? On the other side, York City is about to make a substitution. Huh? This substitution..."
When the commentator said this, the assistant referee on the sidelines had already shown the number cards. No. 11 Thomas Amon was at the bottom and No. 31 Jonathan Parkin was at the top.
Apparently, even the commentators were surprised by York City's substitution at the start of the second half.
The main reason is that Jonathan Parkin is 34 years old this year. Although he played for English Championship teams such as Hull City and Stoke City in the early years, Lian Po is now old and can only play in the team. I can safely play as a substitute and rarely have the chance to play.
Now Scaloni actually replaced Armand, the strongest and fastest player in the team, and replaced him with such a veteran. What kind of trouble is this going to cause?
However, when all the York City players stood on the field and the new formation appeared in front of everyone, all the Wrexham fans at the scene, including the TV commentator, gasped.
Standing at the front of the team now are Mark Baker who is 197cm, Jonathan Parkin who is 194cm, and... De Ligt who is 189cm!
Yes, Scaloni even pushed center back De Ligt to the front line and directly started a three-tower tactic!
It was obvious that York City was preparing to use indiscriminate bombing tactics in the next half of the game to attack Wrexham's iron barrel formation.
The fans were stunned, while Scaloni on the sidelines crossed his arms on his chest and smiled confidently at De Zerbi beside him: "There is no other way, I can only try the boss's suggestion to see if it works." .”
De Zerbi also smiled bitterly and shook his head.
Before the game, Pan Yi once approached them. If they couldn't open up the situation during the chat, they could try such a simple and crude way of playing.
Pan Yi said: "Have you ever thought about how we should respond if they also use the iron barrel formation to defend? At this time, we use the tactics of three high center forwards, how will they respond?"
However, both Scaloni and De Zerbi believed that their team could break the deadlock through skilled passing and control.
Especially De Zerby, he believes that as long as the players execute the high pressure in place, a team like Wrexham will surrender in less than ten minutes.
But Wrexham's tenacity exceeded their imagination.
For forty-five minutes, there was no fatal opening, and York City was unable to find a good opportunity to score.
There is no other way but to try this traditional English long pass and lob play.
Pan Yi is like this, eclectic in tactics. When he was coaching, he defeated many strong teams with this seemingly simple style of play!
After Jonathan Parkin came on and pushed De Ligt to the front, York City's formation also changed to a 3-4-3, and Alphonso Davies' position was pushed forward to the midfield. , while Rice retreated to the back line and formed a three-centre defender with Westerman and Tomiyasu Kenyo.
In the midfield, Alonso is still in the defensive midfield position to conduct overall scheduling. Lin Liangming moves to the front midfielder position to form a diamond midfielder. Alphonso Davis is on the left and Kulusevski is on the right, facing the striker. The "Big Three" provide artillery support.
In this way, York City's defensive thickness has not decreased, but the offense is obviously more threatening.
This is also a very targeted change in Wrexham’s defensive tactics.
York City only played one bridgehead in the first half, Baker, and ended up being targeted by the opponent's two central defenders.
So, now in the second half, we simply go up to three bridgeheads to see how they can keep an eye on them!
Whether it is Baker, Jonathan Parkin or De Ligt, they are all tall, strong players with excellent heading skills, and York City also played long passes very resolutely.
They completely gave up on the area between the center line and the penalty area where they were stalking Wrexham in the first half. York City's three forwards kept pushing into the penalty area, while Alphonso Davies and Alphonso Davies on both sides Kulusevski, as soon as he got the ball, made a long pass to the opponent's penalty area.
The height advantage, coupled with the strong body, allows York City's three forwards to basically grab the first point, and then it depends on whether it is a direct header shot, a pass to Lin Liangming who is always following behind, or a shot from another side. The full midfielder who runs sideways to respond depends on the specific situation at that time.
The Wrexham players who were originally deployed to defend near midfield looked up and saw the ball flying over their heads but not touching the ground.
They were really uncomfortable because there was no such option in the preparation before the game!
In their understanding, York City is a team that insists on playing pass-and-control football even in lower-level leagues. They usually attack on the ground. Only in the final pass can they find Baker's head. .
So whether it was the coach or the players, they really didn't expect that the second half of the game would suddenly turn out like this.
And it was under such a long-passing tactic that was very traditional in England that York City really blasted Wrexham's goal!
In the 51st minute of the second half, De Ligt received a long pass from the backcourt and headed the ball to nearby Jonathan Parkin. The latter swung his long legs deftly and knocked the ball to Baker next to him, who met the ball and fired furiously. , 0:1!
After scoring a goal, York City was like a hungry tiger that smelled blood and continued to charge towards Wrexham with its teeth bared.
In the 54th minute, it was a long pass from the backcourt. Baker's header was saved by the goalkeeper. Lin Liangming caught the ball and passed to the far post. Jonathan Parkin, who had already been waiting there, came close. A header from the distance, 0:2!
Conceding two goals in less than 5 minutes, Wrexham was in chaos.
After York City took the lead, they did not weaken their offensive at all and continued to attack like crazy. This made Wrexham head coach Dean Kitters a little panicked and immediately replaced a midfielder and a defender with the intention of filling in. Loopholes in defense.
The substitutions did work to a certain extent, but they failed to stop York City from continuing to attack.
Alonso played the role a core player should play at this time.
Seeing that Wrexham's defense had regained order, he immediately slowed down the offensive pace and even began to pretend to be casual in the backcourt, slowing down the pace of the game.
York City's slowness immediately relieved the worried Wrexham players, and they also began to slow down.
But just when they thought York City was going to slow down, Alonso suddenly made a long diagonal pass to the opponent's left wing.
Alphonso Davies accelerated to catch up, stopped the ball, and passed the ball. De Ligt, who transformed into a powerful center, smashed the ball into the goal near the near post, 0:3!
Three centers each scored a goal!
This conceded goal caused the Wrexham players to completely lose hope of equalizing the score.
Their morale was completely shattered, but York City became more and more courageous. In the 87th minute, Alonso scored a direct free kick, ending the FA Cup match with a four-goal victory. !
——
Authentic English football victory!
This was the title of a match review written by the Yorkshire Journal the day after the Wrexham game, which appeared prominently on the front page of the sports section.
In this report, the reporter objectively pointed out that York City clearly underestimated Wrexham’s iron barrel strategy in the first half. In particular, Scaloni was hesitant in reacting on the spot. If they had been decisive in the first half, Some, perhaps, would not have gone into midfield with a draw.
But after the halftime break, Scaloni became very determined and directly replaced high center forward Jonathan Parkin, who had been away from the team for a long time. He also ingeniously pushed center back De Ligt to the front line. The result was that It works wonders.
Regarding this somewhat unexpected change of formation, in an interview with reporters after the game, Scaloni also mentioned the proposal of boss Pan Yi.
"The boss said that this is indeed a bet, but if you don't bet, you probably won't win!"
Yes, York City's typical English-style long pass in the second half was to use the maximum number of passes into the penalty area in order to achieve a low-probability goal rate.
But football is all about victory. It is obvious that Pan Yi and Scaloni won the bet this time.
"Pan Yi was famous for his flexible and eclectic tactical style when he was the head coach. Now it seems that this style has been completely inherited by the York City team."
"In the second half of this FA Cup round of 16 match, we saw the style of English football in the 1980s."
"If you had told me before that this was a game played by a team led by an Argentinian coach owned by the owner of Dragon Country, I would not have believed it..."
In the latter part of the report, the "Yorkshire Daily News" also analyzed York City's next game situation.
York City currently has a huge advantage of 14 points in third place in English League One. It can be said that the possibility of directly advancing to the English Championship is very high.
Under this premise, they can really shift more focus to the FA Cup in order to create a miracle.
However, newspaper reporters also raised some concerns, that is, York City is currently the only English League One team that can enter the FA Cup quarter-finals, which means that they must play more games than other teams.
In the coming March, York City's schedule will be relatively tight.
It is precisely because of concerns about the intensive schedule that the "Yorkshire Daily News" believes that the next two months will become a watershed in the league.
If York City can maintain its current lead at the end of March, there will not be much suspense about York City winning the league title in April when the league ends.
Of course, this still depends on who York City's opponents are in the FA Cup. After all, different opponents bring different intensity and pressure to York City.
And soon, all the teams that entered the quarterfinals were formed.
At this point, they are basically all Premier League teams.
The three big6 teams of Manchester City, Manchester United and Chelsea lead the way, followed by Middlesbrough, Bournemouth and Swansea.
There are also Fulham from the English Championship and York City from the English League One.
This time, York City's luck was neither good nor bad.
It’s hard to say because it failed to draw Fulham, which is relatively the weakest among the remaining seven opponents;
It's not bad, because they also didn't draw the strongest BIG6.
York City's opponent will be another team from Wales, Swansea!
Although this is a home game, Swansea is obviously much stronger than Rotherham, and this will be a tough battle!
(End of chapter)
