When Ronaldo had the ball on the right wing, a deafening roar of cheers erupted from the sidelines.
However, the cheers weren't for him, but for Maicon and Ribery, who were closely marking him.
Almost five minutes into the game, Ronaldo's previous breakthrough was caught by Maicon who poked the ball out of bounds. This was his second attempt to break through with the ball.
To his surprise, it wasn't just Maicon who came up to defend; Ribery was also constantly harassing him from behind. Not far away, Mascherano was also slowly moving his position towards the right wing.
"Scholes passed the ball to Cristiano on the right wing, and it looks like he's trying to break through again, but we see Ribery following up from behind." Eddie Gray spoke quickly, explaining the situation to the fans. "Very clever defense, Maicon and Ribery are blocking Cristiano's position to prevent him from cutting inside. There's nothing Cristiano can do but pass the ball back to Scholes, who is coming up to receive it. It looks like Manchester United will have to reorganize their attack."
"It seems Lee has thoroughly studied Ferguson's tactics this season," Lineker analyzed in the studio. "Although we haven't seen any concrete effect from Leeds United's midfield adjustments today, they've done a great job at least in preventing their right flank from becoming Cristiano's corridor. In these few minutes, I've hardly seen Ribery push deep into midfield; he's maintained a respectful distance from Cristiano. Leeds United also seem to rarely launch attacks from Ribery's side!"
Even Lineker could understand this strategy, so Ferguson, who was present at the scene, naturally saw that Li Shiguang was determined to defend the right flank today.
What puzzled him was that while Cristiano was indeed Manchester United's main attacking threat this season, it didn't warrant such a defensive effort.
Neither Lineker nor Eddie Gray noticed Mascherano's run, but Ferguson did.
Both times Ronaldo received the ball, Mascherano intentionally or unintentionally moved towards his cutting-in path, so that if Ronaldo made a breakthrough, he could immediately move up to form a second line of defense.
“But isn’t that underestimating Scholes a bit too much? Your focus on Ronaldo on the wing is just freeing up Scholes in the middle, isn’t it?” Ferguson muttered to himself.
He then adjusted his stance, glanced sideways at Li Shiguang standing on the sidelines with an expressionless face, and asked in a low voice that only he could hear, "Your arrangements at halftime today were really strange? What was the reason for that?"
Ferguson and Li Shiguang have faced each other three times, with neither side suffering a loss, each achieving a record of one win, one draw, and one loss.
But for Ferguson, Li Shiguang, who led Leeds United to the Champions League in just one season, was no longer the rookie young man. In these few encounters, Li Shiguang's unconventional on-site command style had deeply impressed Ferguson.
For example, today Li Shiguang didn't use the healthy Modric and Alonso, but instead sent out Toure and Mascherano.
For example, today Li Shiguang abandoned the double defensive midfielder formation that Leeds United had been using all season and, like himself, fielded a diamond midfield formation.
Ferguson still doesn't quite understand the tactical value of Toure's starting appearance today.
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In the 11th minute of the match, the stalemate on the field finally began to change.
Leeds United launched their attacks from the backfield.
As before, after passing the ball around a few times in the backfield, Cannavaro passed it to Bale on the left wing.
Bale, dribbling the ball forward, made full use of his youthful physique when facing Giggs' defense, and simply dribbled past him from the sideline with a simple pass.
However, Manchester United's defensive line was well positioned, and Bale took a slightly long touch on the ball in order to use his speed to get past Giggs directly.
Just as he caught up with the ball, Evra rushed up. Seeing that the ball was about to be cleared out of bounds by Evra, Bale, who was slightly faster than Evra, had no choice but to use his left foot to poke the ball towards Toure in midfield.
Seeing Bale pass the ball to him, Toure leaned against Carrick who was sticking close behind him, pulled the ball back with his left foot as it rolled to his feet, and then made a smooth little turn, passing right in front of Carrick.
Seeing that Toure had sprinted past him in an instant and had already pushed the ball forward, Carrick had no choice but to stretch out his wicked little hand to stop Leeds United's attack from the middle!
But this foul, committed right under the referee's nose, naturally earned him the punishment he deserved. Less than 15 minutes into the game, Carrick received a yellow card!
"Carrick's lost his composure. The game has only just begun, and this yellow card could very well be a trap..." Lineker boldly predicted in the studio. "But Kevin, doesn't Carrick seem a bit too frail against Toure? I just saw Toure easily lean on Carrick simply by lowering his center of gravity. Could it be that Lee's tactical intentions today aren't just limited to the left flank, but that Carrick's position is also a breakthrough point?"
"Hmm... we can't tell much from this breakthrough yet. Bale only managed to kick the ball towards Toure in the middle in a hurry. However, this yellow card came a bit too early. It is indeed a potential problem!" After all the pre-match analysis was proven wrong, Blackwell didn't dare to speak too confidently at this point.
"FxxK!" Ferguson on the sidelines was also not satisfied with the referee's decision. He felt that it was just a simple foul of pulling someone, and there was no one-on-one opportunity, yet the referee gave a yellow card directly. He felt that the penalty was too harsh!
If this were at Old Trafford, the most they would do would be a verbal warning. It's a bit outrageous to issue a yellow card directly!
This annoyed Ferguson a bit, since he, not his opponents, usually enjoyed the home advantage...
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