Chapter 722: The Red Devil's Past
Some people say that from the moment Wenger took over the Arsenal, the Premier League launched a vigorous Europeanization reform.
Ferguson was the first to respond to this trend and reaped the rewards. The arrival of players such as Stam made great contributions to Manchester United's victory in the 1999 Champions League. So at the beginning of the new century, he brought in Veron from Lazio at a sky-high price.
This is a gamble aimed at revolution.
As the world's top midfielder at the time, Veron was known for his passing and organizing ability, and was a role that Ferguson had high hopes for. He hoped that Veron's arrival would inject more European elements into Manchester United, so that this runaway horse of Manchester United could be controlled and achieve sublimation at the technical and tactical level.
In 1999, they won the treble, but whether it was against Juventus or Bayern Munich, Ferguson clearly saw the obvious gap between Manchester United and the European giants, and he wanted to do his best to make up for it.
When Veron first arrived at Manchester United, he showed excellent strength for a while, but soon fell into a slump.
He couldn't adapt to Manchester United, and Manchester United couldn't adapt to him.
In addition, Manchester United's lineup was built based on Class 92 at the time, so they naturally felt hostility and resistance towards the high-priced superstar Veron who was parachuted in. He would definitely take away the cheesecake of the old team.
Although Ferguson had always protected Veron, in the end, he had to give up.
At this time, Arsenal, relying on the French gang and European elements, was invincible in the Premier League and even won the championship in an undefeated season.
Chelsea, which was taken over by a Russian tycoon, also ushered in the Mourinho era after the Ranieri era. The Portuguese madman not only brought the most advanced European technical and tactical concepts, but also brought the most advanced training concepts.
Under the strong pressure from Arsenal and Chelsea, Ferguson continued to struggle and grope for a way out for Manchester United. Class 92 gradually fell apart in this groping, marked by Keane's departure from the team.
Veron was an outsider who could not perform the duties of the Premier League, so Ferguson chose Carrick, a local monk.
Carrick is a very alternative English player, or it should be said that he is one of the few English players who plays in a very European style. His distribution and dispatching of the ball are quite rare in the English midfield, and are also what Manchester United urgently needs. Therefore, he was chosen by Ferguson as the core of the midfield organization of the new generation of Manchester United lineup.
But Carrick also has very obvious problems as England's midfielder. The first is his poor ability to pass the ball forward. In other words, he can hardly pass many threatening balls. Compared with Veron, the gap is even more obvious.
So, Ferguson chose veterans Giggs and Scholes to assist Carrick. Carrick was responsible for distributing the ball and scheduling, while Giggs and Scholes were responsible for passing threatening balls forward.
Secondly, Carrick's defense was weak, so Ferguson arranged Fletcher and even transformed Anderson to cooperate with Carrick.
Originally, Ferguson had the highest hopes for former Bayern midfielder Hargreaves, but unexpectedly, the English midfielder was seriously injured and missed the game after just half a season at Manchester United, and he has never been as brave as he used to be.
Finally, there are the shortcomings in Carrick's own technical characteristics. His ability to get rid of the opponent is considered to be the best in the English midfield, but in continental Europe, his ability is still seriously insufficient. This will be exposed very obviously in the Champions League, especially in the knockout rounds, so Carrick's position can only be to fall back and avoid the opponent's midfield stranglehold.
This style of play helped Ferguson win his second Champions League, but the core problem has not been solved and the hidden dangers have always existed.
Manchester United is still like a wild horse that has broken free from its reins, unable to control the rhythm skillfully.
Rhythm is a metaphysics, an art of competing for time and space.
Manchester United is on this side of the English Channel, but it is on the other side of the channel.
…
When Ferguson adopted a 4-3-3 formation, took off Scholes, and arranged Carrick, Fletcher and Gibson in the starting lineup, Manchester United was destined to attack at the beginning, and to attack desperately.
The two goals are the best reward for Manchester United's courage and determination to fight to the death.
But at the same time, Manchester United's rhythm was like a kite with a broken string, flying higher and higher, and farther and farther.
Especially when Heynckes on the sidelines realized this and began to ask Modric to press forward and press Carrick like he did against AC Milan, Manchester United's rhythm became disrupted.
Carrick and Ferdinand are the two most European players in Manchester United, one a midfielder and the other a central defender. However, Ferdinand was suppressed by Su Dong and could hardly lend a helping hand. Once Carrick was pressed by the opponent, especially when Modric alone was not enough, Heynckes simply let Ribery move to the middle to increase the pressure on Carrick.
This immediately made Carrick unable to cope with it.
He is not good at holding the ball, and after being pressed so tightly by Bayern, he began to feel overwhelmed.
Unfortunately, Scholes and Giggs were not there, Ferdinand could not run away, and suddenly there were no supporting points around him.
Be it Fletcher or Gibson, they are not very good points for passing the ball, let alone asking them to get the ball.
So, gradually, Manchester United's pace couldn't slow down.
Rhythm is something that is wonderful, but it is also very simple.
How simple is it? You want to go slow? Yes, as long as you can hold the ball and control the ball under the opponent's pressure, then you can go slow.
Otherwise, if the opponent presses you a little, you will just kick the ball. How can you be slow? Manchester United can't hold the ball at all. When Bayern reacts and presses, Manchester United can only maintain a fast pace. But this is really a double-edged sword for Manchester United.
In the first twenty minutes or so, Bayern didn't even have a single shot on goal, putting all their energy into pressing and oppressing the opponent.
Manchester United's possession rate was getting higher and higher, even reaching 65 percent.
But only Ferguson on the sidelines knew that this was a hot potato.
He dreamed of Manchester United having such a high possession rate against Bayern, but not in this way.
The only thing Ferguson could do was to constantly remind the players on the sidelines to stay focused, and at the same time let Rooney retreat more often to support the midfield and increase the number of passing points.
He could only wait.
When Bayern's speed-up campaign is over and they need to rest, then they will have survived.
After all, football is a 90-minute game, and any team needs to allocate their physical energy reasonably.
But Ferguson was still very worried and he had no idea.
…
Murphy's Law says that the more you fear something, the more likely it will come.
When Ferguson repeatedly reminded the players on the sidelines and worried about Bayern's pressing pressure, problems indeed arose in Manchester United's midfield passing.
When Carrick received the pass from Fletcher, Modric had just rushed to him as soon as he stopped the ball.
The England midfielder was taken aback, fearing that he would be entangled by Modric, and wanted to pass the ball forward to Rooney directly, but Modric took a step ahead and blocked it with his foot.
The ball hit Modric's leg and refracted, landing at the feet of Schweinsteiger not far behind him.
After stopping the ball, Schweini took two steps forward and quickly passed the ball to Ribery who was running over to ask for it.
Ribery ran from the left to the middle. After receiving the ball, he quickly sent a diagonal pass with his right foot without waiting for Gibson to get close.
The ball was passed diagonally from the left rib to the right side of the penalty spot in the penalty area.
When everyone's eyes followed the trajectory of the football and fell on the right side of the penalty spot in the penalty area, they saw Su Dong suddenly move forward quickly.
Vidic tried desperately to stop him, using every possible means, even using his hands and feet, to stop him, but Su Dong suddenly stopped and accelerated, broke free from Vidic's entanglement, and rushed into the penalty area with his right foot raised high.
Once in the penalty area, Vidic didn't dare to move anymore. Su Dong was tall and had long legs. He kicked the ball down from mid-air. The ball fell to the ground close to his instep like a shot put.
This stop skill is enough to shock people! As soon as Su Dong stopped the ball, he also stopped, which made Vidic beside him stop quickly, fearing that Su Dong would change his feet and shoot with his left foot. Unexpectedly, as soon as Vidic stopped, Su Dong suddenly started forward with the ball.
The two men just passed each other. After Su Dong moved half a body distance away, he didn't wait for Vidic to react, and didn't care that Van der Sar had already attacked near the small penalty area line, Su Dong kicked directly.
This sudden shot caught both Vidic and Van der Sar off guard. The ball passed directly from Van der Sar's right side, hit the right post and flew into Manchester United's goal.
"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"
"In the 26th minute, Bayern had their first shot of the game!"
"Su Dong scored for Bayern, 1-2!!!"
After scoring the goal, Su Dong did not run out of the field to celebrate the goal as usual. Instead, he ran straight to Manchester United's goal, picked up the football with his feet, turned around and ran towards the center line.
“It was a very exciting offensive combination.”
"The Bayern players completed a beautiful cooperation, intercepted Carrick's pass, and Ribery passed the ball behind him, creating a great opportunity for Su Dong."
"Look at this stop, it reminds me of Bergkamp's stop, very, very good."
"The subsequent shot was also very calm, with Van der Sar scoring after halfway through his attack."
"Su Dong seemed to have a strong desire to win. He did not intend to celebrate his goal, but directly returned to the midline with the ball, signaling to restart the game quickly."
Bayern players also responded to Su Dong's call, quickly returned to their positions, and signaled the referee to restart the game.
Right now, Bayern's morale is high, while Manchester United has suffered a heavy blow. This is a perfect time to strike while the iron is hot.
Manchester United scored two goals in the first six minutes of the game. Couldn't Bayern change their game? Ferguson was obviously aware of this problem and immediately shouted at the players on the sidelines, telling them to calm down and not to rush or panic.
But at the beginning of the game, when Rooney kicked the ball back to the midfield, the Bayern players led by Su Dong had once again pressed in front of Manchester United's defense line.
This once again reminded Ferguson of his idea at the beginning of the century when he was determined to reform Manchester United's tactics. He felt sad, as if he had returned to the miserable situation in 1999 when facing Juventus and Bayern.
If you can’t hold the ball, you can’t play in the Champions League!
(End of this chapter)
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