Chapter 365: Manchester United's No. 7 on the right side reappears
Falling behind by one goal, Cesco kicked off from the midfield. While dealing with the situation on the field, Chen Xiaoliang was thinking about how to deal with the tactics set up by Bayern against him.
He took into account tactics, personal abilities, and even changes in players and formations that the head coach should consider, and even the system.
In the last match against Chelsea, he only got 5 training points (40→45), and he didn't keep a clean sheet, so he didn't get any breakthrough points. However, he was awarded the Premier League Player of the Month for the first month of August. According to the task [Win the League Player of the Month] [Reward: Get breakthrough points equal to the total number of goals and assists this month], he scored 3 goals and made 3 assists in 3 games, and got 6 breakthrough points (21→27)
The problem is that these are of no use at the moment...
However, in the [Big Club Mission], I won a Hazard position card by defeating Chelsea...
Hazard during his time at Chelsea had delicate skills, was adept with both feet, and had sharp breakthroughs. Logically, this should have been a very good card, but Chen Xiaoliang took a look at it at the time and found that this card did not confer any attributes, but only temporarily gave him the ability to play on the wing.
He thought, what's the point? Am I going to be a winger?
He couldn't think of a good solution for a while, and Kimmich was watching him all the time from the sidelines, so Chen Xiaoliang felt a little annoyed when playing.
On the left side, Kva was once again caught in a one-on-one fight. It was not that he did not want to cooperate, but Bayern's right winger Kingsley Coman was in very good form today. Luke Shaw did not dare to press too high for fear that Bayern would counterattack behind him after the offense-defense transition. Similarly, the pressure on the right side was so great that Chen Xiaoliang was always forced to assist in defense on the right side, and Casemiro on the left side did not dare to press too high. After all, once Chen Xiaoliang left, the defensive pressure in the middle would basically be borne by Fat Tiger.
The full-back and defensive midfielder behind him were unable to cooperate, so Kva had to fight alone.
In the 16th minute, Kwa cut in from the wing and shot, but the ball went wide of the post.
In the 23rd minute, Kvadrat cut inside again and passed the ball to Cesco. Sesco leaned against Pavard in the penalty area and headed the ball to Rashford on the right side of the penalty area.
The ball hit the grass and bounced towards Rashford. Just as he was about to catch the ball, De Ligt had already tackled him along the grass.
At that moment, the "Correa Execution Song" seemed to have sounded in the ears of countless fans watching the game in front of the screen. Rashford jumped lightly to avoid De Ligt's fierce but accurate tackle, and the ball went out of the baseline.
De Ligt stood up and jumped a little, both to relax his leg muscles and to encourage himself. Pavard next to him came over and patted him on the shoulder to express his appreciation.
Ten Hag looked at De Ligt with many emotions in his heart.
He trained many players in that Ajax team who are now playing for major clubs. In addition to the most famous ones, Frenkie de Jong, who now plays for Barcelona, and De Ligt, there are also Van de Beek, who fell into a slump after going to Manchester United, and Ziyech, who is now in Newcastle.
There are also Lima, Timber and Anthony who have now been bought by Manchester United.
Regardless of whether these people's development after leaving Ajax is good or bad, as Ajax's CEO and Manchester United legend Van der Sar said, it was Ten Hag who brought this former European giant and Dutch veteran team back to the map of European football.
Every summer during those years, all the big clubs would turn their attention to Ajax. With the continuous sale of players and the addition of youth training, they reached the semi-finals of the Champions League and the Europa League final.
You know, since the Champions League was reformed into its current form in 2003-04, no team outside the top five leagues has won the Champions League. On the other hand, after PSV Eindhoven in the 2004-05 season, the 2018-19 Ajax was the first team outside the top five leagues to reach the Champions League semi-finals again after 14 years.
But today's European football is very different from that in 2004, when Abramovich had just arrived at Chelsea and the term "money-driven football" had just become known to the majority of football fans.
From this point, we can see how difficult it is to lead Ajax to achieve this in the increasingly oligarchic European football world.
But Manchester United is not Ajax. Although the new boss has begun to reorganize the management after his arrival, the halo of a wealthy club and a total investment of over 6 billion pounds have put Ten Hag under pressure hundreds of times greater than when he was at Ajax.
In today's Internet age, if you play a bad game of football, you can go from being praised as a saint to being criticized as a piece of charcoal in an instant.
At Ajax, he could directly appoint 18-year-old De Ligt as the youngest captain in the club's history, but at Manchester United, even though Chen Xiaoliang has won three championships and is a natural leader and the only choice for captain, he still has to consider and strike a balance.
Although his income is hundreds of times higher, he faces greater risks than any adult trying to keep a job in the workplace.
The situation on the field at this moment also gave him a headache. Manchester United's frequent changes of coaches in the past ten years have led to a very bad result, just like Liverpool before Klopp came. Today A came to coach and bought a bunch of people according to his intentions. Tomorrow A was fired and B came to coach, overturned A's team building ideas, and bought a bunch of people B liked.
Later, Manchester United's management also found out that something was wrong, so they started to get involved in team building and directly bought players they thought could be used and gave them to the head coach.
The problem is that Ed Woodward is not Van der Sar, not Begiristain, not Rummenigge, and not Kahn. He is a super talented business master and accounting elite, but he doesn't understand football at all.
Who paid 80 million pounds for Maguire? Or buying Maguire is not a problem, but who negotiated the highest transfer fee for a central defender in history?
Coupled with the Glazer family's revenue-oriented assessment system, club management is focusing on the number of fans, number of broadcasts, sponsorship contracts and team market value.
Does it look familiar?
Just like once upon a time, when GDP was the only guiding assessment factor, local officials in a certain Eastern country would carry out major renovations and construction when they arrived at a place, and then be transferred to other places at the end of their term, leaving behind a pile of municipal bonds and environmental pollution.
Yes, I’m talking about you, India.
However, not many people pay attention to these things behind the scenes. Take Maguire for example. What they paid attention to was that after Maguire made an embarrassing mistake on the court, they watched the funny dubbing clips on the short video platform after the game and fiddled with the keyboard to mock why Ten Hag let Maguire play.
Or when the game was lost after Maguire did not play , and without even bothering to watch the game highlights and only taking a look at the lineup, they angrily criticized Ten Hag for not playing Maguire.
People always imagine that things close to life have no threshold. As a result, there is a strange phenomenon that when they need their parents or wives to help cook for three meals a day and they even have difficulty stir-frying vegetables, they think that the head coach of a wealthy club is so stupid that he cannot understand that he can succeed immediately by doing this or that.
Now that the owner has changed, the Qatari royal family doesn't care how much money Manchester United can make for them. What they care about is how many championships the team can win after they take over. They spent 330 million pounds in the summer, giving Ten Hag a chance, but also putting more pressure on him.
The team is still lacking a reliable central defender, a defensive midfielder, and two excellent full-backs.
He must hold on until the winter transfer window and next summer transfer window to continue to complete the task, otherwise everything will be in vain.
A few minutes later, the clock on the field had reached the 38th minute, and Wan Bissaka had already started warming up, ready to replace the embarrassed Dalot at any time.
However, Kingsley Coman rushed all the way from the right side in the counterattack, shook off Luke Shaw and then dealt with Casemiro who was defending, until he reached the right baseline. He passed the ball back to Cancelo who was in the right corner of the penalty area. Cancelo shot directly with a stroke of genius. The shot was not at a tricky angle, but De Gea made a mistake in slipping the ball. The wrong hand shape meant that the ball was not blocked after touching his hand, but still rolled into the goal line.
2-0, Bayern extended their lead, and the red Allianz Arena turned into a sea of declaration of the wealthy club. Just like the jokes posted by Bayern's official media on the Internet before the game, the Bundesliga giants are truly red.
The most stable link in the past, mistakes have increased in recent seasons, with De Gea’s ups and downs making the already shaky defence even more demoralising.
[Chelsea lost unfairly. If Leo had been substituted earlier, Chelsea would definitely not have lost]
[Penalty League, can they win without penalties? 】
[Our team almost reversed and entered the Champions League last season. Do Manchester United still have such good luck this season? ]
[After playing against three weak teams at the start and winning against Chelsea by penalty kicks and home whistle, do you think you have returned to the Ferguson era? Today Bayern will let Teng Hai know his own weight]
[I've said it before, the Little Treble is Manchester United's highest honor in the past 30 years, absolutely no one can break it, Bird fans stay]
…
When a wall collapses, everyone pushes it; when a drum is broken, everyone beats it.
With Bayern's skillful and concise operation in the middle, the ball moved back and forth between the two flanks steadily and quickly. In order to suppress Alphonso Davies and Sane, Chen Xiaoliang had no time to take care of the left side where Cancelo and Kingsley Coman were the main attacking forces.
He also attacked from the flank once or twice, using his strong forward ability to force Sane to return to defense and Alphonso Davies to retreat, trying to stay away from his own penalty area.
But as soon as he left, Kimmich and Gravenberch in the middle were no longer under defensive pressure and became active again.
In a moment, it is difficult to take care of both the beginning and the end.
“Beep! Beep!”
The referee Osato's halftime whistle gave both sides 15 minutes of rest and also gave Manchester United a chance to catch their breath.
When Chen Xiaoliang passed by him, even the Italian referee patted him on the back.
During the two years in Rome, he had never seen Chen Xiaoliang so embarrassed and helpless.
Chen Xiaoliang turned around and smiled back, then left quickly. Now was not the time to reminisce or exchange pleasantries, but the time to solve the problem.
He just glanced at the system. The team was two goals behind, so [Big Heart] added 2 points for dribbling, which temporarily increased his dribbling from 18 to 20.
Looking at the Chelsea player Hazard who he regarded as a useless card, he caught up with the frowning Ten Hag in the player tunnel, and then with a gesture, the two walked to an empty corner outside their own locker room.
Chen Xiaoliang: "Coach, we have to change players and positions in the second half."
Ten Hahe's frowned brows twitched for a moment, and Chen Xiaoliang could see that this was not a sign of happiness, but now was not the time to worry about the words, the gradual progress, and the slow talk.
Ten Hag was very restrained: "What do you think?"
Chen Xiaoliang: "After Wan-Bissaka was substituted in, Dalot could no longer hold on, and Rashford couldn't play as a right winger. He kept retreating to defend but couldn't help much, making it impossible for him to attack effectively and lost in his own half."
Ten Hag: "Who? He is our fastest right winger."
In fact, these were discussed in the tactical meeting before the game. Sancho, who has a weak defensive intention, was ruled out first. Although Anthony is active in defense, he is not fast and his breakthrough ability is relatively weak. Facing Alphonso Davies, even if he succeeds in breaking through, the opponent can turn around and catch up with his powerful speed.
Not to mention B Fee, he is often a disaster when playing as a right winger.
Who else? Who else can I get?
Chen Xiaoliang's next word stunned Ten Hahe for a second: "I."
Ten Hag touched his bald head. It was obvious that Chen Xiaoliang was not joking, but he seemed to think that the 19-year-old kid in front of him might still be too young. He would say something without thinking when he got impulsive: "Chen, I understand your good intentions, but you are a professional player, and I used to be one too. The requirements for players in different positions are completely different..."
He is right, the position tests not only ability, but also habits, proficiency and way of thinking.
For example, for full-backs, it is more common to play with the left foot. Cancelo, who is right-footed, often plays as a left-back, but Luke Shaw, who is left-footed, is much less effective as a right-back.
Take defense as an example. On the left side, the left back defends the opponent's right winger from the outside by stepping sideways to the left, with the left leg behind and the right leg in front.
No matter dealing with overtaking on the wing or cutting inside the middle, the left leg dragging behind is the force leg and supporting leg when responding to emergencies.
When you reach the right side, turn sideways to the right and drag your right leg back. Not only your defensive habits need to be adjusted, but also your force habits, turning direction and way of thinking.
It sounds easy to say, but this kind of habit and thinking that we have practiced since childhood day after day cannot be adapted to simply by changing it.
This is just the personal aspect. When it comes to cooperation with other teammates around the position, it becomes more complicated.
The simplest example is that a left-footed right winger and a right-footed right winger will have quite different attacking methods. The former will cut inside more and the latter will go down the flank more. This also means that teammates in the middle will have completely different tactical arrangements in terms of cooperation, running routes and receiving positions.
However, Chen Xiaoliang was very calm: "Coach, maybe it didn't work yesterday or tomorrow, but I promise that I can do it tonight and in the second half!"
Ten Hag: "Who will take over the middle?"
Chen Xiaoliang: "McTominay."
Ten Hag: “Are you sure?”
McIlroy has been a regular starter since Casemiro joined the team, and even after Sabitzer came to the team last season, he has become a regular substitute.
Chen Xiaoliang: "His positional sense is a little poor, and he is always unclear about the priority of defense. But today's problem is not in the middle, but in the two sides. We must push them back on the sidelines, otherwise it will be useless no matter how well we defend the middle."
"Mai Mai can run and fight. In my position, he doesn't need to consider so many routes and positions. He just needs to mess up the three midfielders of the other side. Besides, Kimmich and Gravenberch also consumed a lot of energy in the first half to deal with me. When they sent Musiala on, the defensive strength in the middle naturally dropped."
These words made Ten Hag realize that the man in front of him wearing the captain's armband was not acting impulsively, but was really using his brain to play football.
He asked one last time: "Are you sure?"
This is asking him, have you really decided to play as a right winger?
Chen Xiaoliang nodded firmly.
Ten Hag knew in his heart that this was a very good idea. The reason why the right side was not exposed for the second time in the first half was that Chen Xiaoliang was there to help Dalot defend again and again. If he could play as a right winger, with his running ability and defensive ability, Wan Bissaka would only have to stay behind, and Chen Xiaoliang would have to take care of the going and coming tasks alone. Maybe he could even do something in the wing attack.
He stretched out his left hand, patted Chen Xiaoliang, and turned back to the locker room.
When both sides re-entered the field in the second half, Rashford was already wearing a sports jacket and sitting on the sidelines, while McTominay, who had not played for a long time, appeared.
[What? McTominay for Rashford? Is Tennis playing tricks again? ]
[What kind of trick is this? Have you given up? How long has Xiaomai not been on the court?]
[It seems that they knew they couldn’t win, so they were prepared to fight for 2-0 to avoid being forced to drink 7-Up]
…
"Beep!" Referee Osato blew the whistle, and Cesco pushed the ball to his unfamiliar new teammate McTominay behind him. The latter did not hesitate, adjusted himself, and kicked the ball directly to Chen Xiaoliang who was waiting on the right.
【Chelsea Hazard position card used】
[Effect: Get the "like a fish in water" effect of left and right wingers within 30 minutes]
"oh?!"
As the 75,000 fans from both sides in the stands exclaimed together, the whole world noticed that the red number 7 actually started playing as a right winger, and the moment he received the ball he made a fake move without the ball and deceived Sane who was sticking to him!
When Chen Xiaoliang received the ball with his back to the goal, he pretended to turn left and retreat with the ball. Seeing this, Sane immediately took a step to the left. In an instant, Chen Xiaoliang pushed off the ground with his left foot, received the ball with his right foot, and instantly turned back with his left foot, starting towards the right front court.
Tuchel was also surprised. In all the scout reports, Chen Xiaoliang had never played as a right midfielder or right winger in his life. Not even a single game, but not even a minute or a second!
Bayern's team conducted a very detailed study, even recording in the report which side Chen Xiaoliang liked to dive to when he played as goalkeeper in the Italian Cup semi-final. The only thing missing was any record of him playing as a winger!
Mourinho, who was looking at the computer screen in the office and preparing to watch the game before going back to the hotel to rest, narrowed his eyes and smiled happily, cursing: "You kid, you actually have something hidden from me?"
A second later:
"Or have you made great progress again?"
He was very proud of winning the French Super Cup in his first game as the team leader and winning four consecutive games in Ligue 1.
Director M scored 6 goals in 5 games. In addition, the summer window has passed, so there is no chance of transferring to Real Madrid. He can only accept his fate. So his attitude towards the new coach has changed from looking forward to cooperation to praising him.
Their first round of the Champions League group match against the underdog Genk kicks off tomorrow night, and it’s at home, so they are determined to win.
On the field, Chen Xiaoliang faced Alphonso Davies. He did not try or dribble towards him. He just ran straight to him and then rushed towards the kicked ball, just like he took the baton from his teammate in the Budapest 100-meter relay!
Alphonso Davies turned around, and the two speed maniacs were shoulder to shoulder, flesh to flesh, fighting against each other while running at full speed!
Who is faster? Of course it's Chen Xiaoliang!
But it is only applicable when you are accelerating without the ball. After you rush to receive the ball, you cannot run at full speed like you would when you are running wildly in order to protect the ball.
At this time, Chen Xiaoliang had already walked along the right side line and came to the position on the right side of the penalty area where he was about to cross the penalty area line.
He raised his right foot again, and Alphonso Davies thought he was going to explode again, so he stepped back a step to gain position.
Chen Xiaoliang shook his right foot lightly, and the ball rolled lightly under Alphonso Davies's crotch, then landed perfectly on Chen Xiaoliang's left foot as he stepped forward. He cut inside and passed the Bayern left-back in one step!
"Wow!"
Although the fans in the stadium had different feelings, they all couldn't help but exclaim.
I've seen fried meatballs before, but this is the first time I've seen someone making fried meatballs under someone's crotch!
For Chen Xiaoliang, who was dribbling 20 times at the moment, this was a natural and subconscious choice.
Alphonso Davies quickly turned around and chased after him, but there was no way he could catch up.
Chen Xiaoliang cut into the penalty area diagonally, facing De Ligt who was coming over, and without waiting for him to get close, he pushed the ball hard with his right foot!
The ball passed in front of the old Neuer, crossed the small penalty area and rolled towards the back post in a flash!
Zhan Jun: "Low cross! It's at the back post!"
"Sesco!"
"Shoot into the empty goal!"
“The ball goes in!”
"Wow!!!"
"Manchester United caught Bayern off guard after the opening. Xiaoliang passed two players on the wing and broke into the penalty area to make an assist!"
"All attention in the penalty area is on him!"
"This goal seems to remind us of the scene when Bale at Tottenham took over the entire right side of Inter Milan!"
"Manchester United has changed its formation! They have also started to focus on the flanks. It depends on how Tuchel responds next!"
