Chapter 373 What? There is a team stronger than the one that has won all nine league games?
Eindhoven, Philips Stadium, October 12, 2023.
33,000 people versus 2,000 people, this is the comparison between the home and away fans.
212 million euros versus 930 million euros, this is the comparison of the total value of the first teams of both sides.
130 million euros versus 590 million euros, this is the comparison of the starting values of both sides.
In addition, there is a series of technical statistics.
Possession 46% vs. 54%;
Shots 13 to 19;
Shots on target 4 to 6;
Passing 484 to 532;
The final score was 1 to 1.
That is to say, in an away game where Manchester United was behind in terms of the number of spectators, but was tied by Eindhoven despite being ahead in almost all other objective and subjective factors.
Manchester United scored a goal in the 12th minute of the first half. B Fee took a corner kick, Casemiro headed the ball to the first point but it went straight up and down. In the next two points, neither side headed the ball correctly, and the ball fell to the ground, causing chaos in the penalty area.
In the end, Sancho took advantage of the chaos to score the goal.
But a goal resulting from a set-piece in a chaotic game cannot represent Manchester United's offensive slump in this game.
Since Kva was sent back to Manchester for examination and it would take time to confirm the examination report, and the team needed to rush to Eindhoven without stopping, Kva did not travel with the team in this game.
Ten Hag sent out the wing combination of Sancho and Anthony, with Rashford in the middle.
But it is obvious that Sancho, who has proved to be useless on the left wing countless times in previous seasons, once again performed at a "normal" level.
Regular disappointing level.
His ability to advance in depth is average, with no breakthroughs in the entire game. His ability to break away from the opponent after cutting inside is poor, and there is no performance in either through passes or direct attacks on the goal.
The worst thing is not being proactive.
Compared with Anthony on the other side, although not much better, the Brazilian compass is really very active on the field. When he needs to defend, he can retreat all the way to the edge of the penalty area, and he never holds back and jogs when he needs to counterattack.
Not only was the left flank unable to launch an effective attack, but Sancho's careless cross pass error when he retreated to receive the ball for the first time in the 49th minute of the second half allowed PSV Eindhoven midfielder Gus Till to intercept the ball and launch a counterattack.
He first completed a back-and-forth wall pass with right winger John Bakayoko to move to the middle, then made a precise diagonal pass, which went behind Varane and reached the feet of left winger Xavi Simmons who had entered the penalty area.
Xavi Simmons took a few steps towards the near post, but without being greedy for credit, he made a simple cross pass to the middle, and main striker Luuk de Jong followed up and pushed the ball into the goal.
The entire counterattack route was clear and concise. Although this was only Manchester United's only major mistake in the game and the only truly threatening attack by Eindhoven in the entire game, it still allowed Van Nistelrooy to get the 1 point he wanted.
After the game, Ten Hag could not hide his disappointment. It was not because he was disappointed with the team's overall performance, but because there were a few players who really disappointed him, with Sancho being the first to suffer.
Van Nistelrooy was very satisfied with his team's performance, and even said at the press conference that they could have won with a little more luck.
Bayern, who is in the same group, had already beaten Lazio 3-1 at home in an earlier match. As a result, Bayern ranks first in the group with 7 points, Manchester United is second with 5 points, PSV Eindhoven is third with 2 points, and Lazio is at the bottom with 1 point.
Theoretically, the final outcome of the four teams has not yet been determined, but the situation is basically clear.
In this match, Chen Xiaoliang failed to win and failed to shut out the opponent. He only gained 1 skill point for his poor appearance (62→63).
Quan Du rushed back to Manchester the next day to prepare for the league game which would start three days later on Sunday afternoon.
During the break in training, Ten Hag specifically found Chen Xiaoliang and asked for his opinion on two things.
The first thing is naturally rotation, because according to the routine test results of the club's sports science director, Chen Xiaoliang's physical condition has been "excellent". However, this is incredible in the eyes of Ten Hag and the coaching staff, whether as a former professional player or a head coach who has coached for many years.
They even thought at one point that the testing team's data was wrong, but after rechecking, it was clear that the scores of other players were all high and low, and were absolutely accurate.
Looking through Chen Xiaoliang's past game records in Rome, Mourinho would more or less rotate him, so Ten Hag simply asked Chen Xiaoliang directly how he felt about his physical condition and fatigue level.
Chen Xiaoliang thought, this is right. Previously, I had to use a Stamina Recovery Card to restore my Stamina, but now it will automatically restore to full once a day...
I'm a damn fool if I can get tired...
He told Ten Hag very confidently that his physical strength has always been like this and he almost never feels tired.
Every time Ten Hag talked with Chen Xiaoliang, he had to correct his mindset, that is, not to use the inertia of thinking to see the player in front of him as a 19-year-old young player, but a top star who has led the team to win the treble and has very mature knowledge and thinking.
Especially after the welfare schedule is over, there will be a series of tough games, and he especially needs the team's top star to maintain continuous motivation.
After the first thing is confirmed, the second thing is how to solve the problems of players such as Sancho and Maguire.
One of them earns 350,000 pounds a week and the other earns 200,000 pounds a week. Given their current performance, although there are plenty of clubs willing to buy them if they really want to be sold, they will definitely require a significant pay cut. It is obvious that these two refuse to accept this and still want to save their careers.
In terms of mental formation, Ten Hag has seen the core factor of the rumored transformation of the Roma locker room from chaos and depression to unity, and he wants to ask the team captain if he has any good ideas.
This is probably the biggest problem Chen Xiaoliang has encountered in his career...
In fact, Ten Hag mentioned not only these two people, but also Brayden Williams, McTominay and others. The sluggish performance is like a vicious cycle. When it hurts the players' self-confidence and the trust of their teammates, it will only make the next performance on the field worse.
Chen Xiaoliang: "Coach, I know what you mean, but when we have extra practice, everyone comes to participate on their own initiative. To do anything, including a professional player, you have to have a strong inner motivation to do it well."
Ten Hag does not think that Chen Xiaoliang's extra training team will be more effective than regular training. He just hopes that Chen Xiaoliang's strong competitive spirit and infectiousness can have a positive effect on those players and help them get out of the predicament to a certain extent. Even if it is only a temporary performance recovery, it will help the team improve its strength and increase the possibility of selling in the transfer window.
Seeing that Chen Xiaoliang had guessed his intention, he also said bluntly: "Maybe they didn't come to you because they were too shy to express it? As the captain, you can take the initiative."
Chen Xiaoliang laughed: "Okay, I'll find them after practice this afternoon."
Sure enough, after the afternoon training, Chen Xiaoliang called Maguire, Sancho, McTominay and Williams over to participate on the grounds that there were not enough people for extra training.
The four people had different feelings, but seeing that such a strong captain wanted to invite them, they did not dare to refuse.
With so many people joining in at once, everyone simply started a 5-on-5 penalty area offense and defense drill.
After two days of training, they had to stop on the third day to prepare for the competition. Ten Hag asked Chen Xiaoliang again what he thought of several people.
Chen Xiaoliang did not beat around the bush at all.
He told Ten Hag that Sancho suffered a great psychological blow. In this situation, the more he starts and the stronger the opponent is, the worse his performance will be and the worse his psychological state will be. He is so stuck in the quagmire that it is difficult to save him at the club level. After all, Manchester United is not a team like Dortmund. In order to create stars and make money, they can develop tactics around a certain player to help him improve his statistics. Manchester United's top priority is the results of the competition.
The only way to save him is to sell him, let him go to an upper-middle level team, play as a main player, and then gradually regain his confidence in the game.
Maguire and McTominay still have strong inner desires, but due to their personalities and the team's current embarrassing situation, they are not very active in communication, so they are a little discouraged. However, with positive motivation, proper training and tactical position arrangements, the two can play a positive role in helping the team.
Maguire also began to prepare to lose weight and strengthen his ability to turn and defend because he was frequently stumbling due to Kwa, who was checked and confirmed to be healthy during extra training.
As for Williams, although he is a product of the team's youth training, his ability is really limited, so it is recommended to sell him.
Seeing that Chen Xiaoliang's summary was very logical, Ten Hag didn't say much and went to discuss with Van der Sar that night.
To put it bluntly, Chen Xiaoliang's words coincided with his.
The next morning, before the game against Brentford, Manchester United officially announced a transfer notice. Luke Thomas, a member of Leicester City's England U21 team, confirmed that he would transfer to Manchester United in the winter window for a transfer fee of 45 million pounds.
Football director Mutaf also told Williams that the team has started looking for a new club for him, which could be a sale or a loan.
On the other hand, the 15-year-old Ibragimov, who was fearless like a newborn calf, was beaten badly by Lima and Timber in the extra training, but he still marched forward courageously. Chen Xiaoliang felt that he was somewhat like Enzo when he first arrived in Rome, who repeatedly challenged him after being intercepted by him.
It feels good to be back at Old Trafford, but the players are still physically exhausted.
Three days of training brought 12 training points (103→115). Although it still could not improve the position attributes of the right winger, the training and extra practice over the past two months still yielded results.
With the bonus of [Passive Skill: Double the speed of establishing tacit understanding with teammates] , the tacit understanding between Chen Xiaoliang, Rashford and Ganacchio has reached the maximum value. Although Casemiro only participates occasionally when he has sufficient physical strength, he has started with Chen Xiaoliang in almost every game, and his tacit understanding has also risen to LV3 dark green, only 1 level away from the maximum value.
Although the team will face Championship team Blackburn at home in 4 days after today's game in the third round of the League Cup, the opponent is relatively weak and Ten Hag is ready for a full rotation, which means the main players will have a week to recover before facing the Manchester derby.
So tonight he still sent out all the main players.
But Brentford showed no sign of giving up. Their fixed 5-3-2 formation when facing strong teams fully demonstrated their philosophy of not caring about appearances but only about efficiency.
The two teams met twice last season, and both teams won at home. In the second Premier League game that Ten Hag took over, Brentford beat Manchester United 4-0 at home, which shocked everyone and made Ten Hag's odds of being fired suddenly increase to the top three among all Premier League coaches after only two official games.
Danish coach Thomas Frank rejected Tottenham's coaching invitation three times, but chose to stay this season and continue to build his own "Little Bees". The team is currently ranked 11th this season without spending much money, which is completely in line with the expectations of the outside world.
Kva returned to the starting lineup and formed a forward combination with Cesco and Rashford again, with Chen Xiaoliang behind them.
Casemiro and B Fee play in the defensive midfielder position, with Luke Shaw and Dalot on their left and right.
Now when facing a team with greater threat from the flanks, Ten Hag will send out Wan-Bissaka, while when facing mid- and lower-level teams, Dalot, who has better offensive ability, will start.
The central defender combination is Lima and Lindelof.
Goalkeeper De Gea.
In this game, facing Brentford's dense defensive formation of eight players retreating, Manchester United seemed to make people feel that they had returned to the Moyes era. The team kept crossing the ball on both sides, but unlike the "81 crosses" game, where they only kicked high balls, the crosses in this game were very three-dimensional.
When Chen Xiaoliang moves to the right and makes a cross, not only will Rashford move inward, but Bruno Fernandes behind him and Luke Shaw, the full-back on the other side, will also move forward to participate in the attack.
After the breakthrough, the side pass, inverted triangle, and low ball, these changing routines sandwiched between the high balls made Brentford unable to defend.
This is because although their three central defenders, captain Pontus Janssen is 196cm tall, left central defender Eitan Pinnock is 194cm tall, and right central defender Matthias Jorgensen is 189cm tall, seem to have good air defense capabilities, but all three of them have a huge weakness, which is slow turning and poor burst. In short, there are three weakened versions of Maguire crowded in the penalty area.
Once the width of the field was opened up and crosses were played from both sides, the only two remaining small and agile full-backs Rico Henry and Aaron Hickey could only dive outside and would be unable to help clear ground balls and second-penalty kicks in the penalty area.
In addition, even if there are three tall guys gathered together, once the attacking team presses forward, the three central defenders can only defend one by one. Therefore, the fulcrum Cesco only needs to win a one-on-one in the header to form an attacking opportunity or create a second attack opportunity for his teammates.
Who is the best person in the world to pass the ball to him?
Without a doubt, it was Chen Xiaoliang.
Although the cross attribute is still less than the full value of 18, but with the bonus of tacit understanding, the two of them can be said to be in sync with each other in grasping the timing and landing point of the pass.
In the 28th minute, after receiving the ball on the right, Chen Xiaoliang suddenly started from a restricted state, rushed in two steps to create space, and sent a cross to the penalty area for the third time. This time it was a half-high ball at an extremely fast speed. Cesco suddenly jumped forward and headed the ball backwards, rubbing the ball from the front point to the back point.
Brentford's biggest transfer this summer - former Leicester City goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, who was bought from Nice in Ligue 1 and returned to the Premier League, knew that once the ball flew to the back post, he would definitely not have time to rush over to save it, so he jumped forward directly on the goal line and reached out to touch the ball as it passed in front of him.
But he is about to turn 37 years old after all, and Brentford coach Thomas Frank bought him in order to play the key role of the veteran in important games. So this touch, his explosiveness and jumping ability were a little lacking. He touched the ball but not completely. The ball was not hit out of the penalty area, but changed direction slightly and flew to the left side of the penalty spot.
Casemiro, who was lying in ambush nearby, reacted the fastest. He rushed forward and jumped to head the ball. The Danish midfielder Jensen who was defending him was 180cm tall but weighed only 68kg. Although he was in good physical condition, he reacted a beat too late and it was obviously too late to interfere with the strong Casemiro.
Schmeichel, who had just moved forward, watched the ball go into the goal he was guarding.
Manchester United 1-0!
But just as the fans and players were about to celebrate the score, Casemiro fell to the ground and called for the team doctor to come in in pain.
It turned out that after he rushed forward and headed the ball, his calf hit the buttocks of Brentford captain Pontus Janssen who was defending Rashford when he fell.
Pontus Janssen, who had his back to Casemiro, didn't know what happened. He just felt a sudden hit on his butt. When he turned around, he saw Casemiro shouting in pain.
Slow-motion replay showed that Casemiro's right leg lost balance and his foot shape changed after the collision. After landing, the outside of his foot touched the ground and his ankle twisted severely.
This is particularly common in football and basketball, especially basketball. There are even players with low sports ethics who deliberately use the method of tripping to "disable" the opponent's main players.
Obviously, Pontus Janssen made an unintentional mistake, while Casemiro was desperate to score a goal.
After he was carried off the field on a stretcher, Ten Hag and the Manchester United players, who had been so happy just now, were no longer in the mood to celebrate.
After Casemiro was unable to play several times last season due to various reasons, everyone knew how important he was to the team. Including the new player Chen Xiaoliang, he also knew that if it weren't for Fat Tiger taking on a lot of defensive tasks in the back, he would not have had so many opportunities to attack this season.
Fred came on as a substitute and the game continued.
Taking advantage of Manchester United's slight disarray, the Little Bees launched several well-organized attacks.
In the 31st minute, Onyeka dribbled the ball forward in a counterattack on the right side, and made a cross to the middle on the right side of the penalty area.
The main striker Ivan Toni followed up and shot directly from the penalty area line, but the ball went over the crossbar and did not test De Gea.
In the 43rd minute, Ivan Toni received the ball on the wing and cut inside to shoot, but the ball was not shot very fast and was directly caught in De Gea's arms.
In the 56th minute of the second half, Chen Xiaoliang received a pass from Kva who broke into the penalty area on the left. When two people rushed to block him, he made a lob pass to the back post, but Cesco's header was saved by Schmeichel.
In the 71st minute, Chen Xiaoliang controlled the ball from the midfield and was trapped by three people 2 meters outside the top of the arc. He gently pushed the ball to the right and sent it to Rashford who quickly cut into the penalty area from the right. The latter shot at a 45-degree angle, but was again saved by Schmeichel at the bottom line.
Although they were ahead in the score, the team was a little annoyed by the fact that they couldn't score no matter how hard they attacked.
After all, the tactics were implemented and the defenses were penetrated, but either the shots were inaccurate or were saved by Schmeichel, who was getting more and more brave.
If we take into account Casemiro's injury and the possibility that he will be out for a while due to injury, then scoring only one goal in this game seems a bit of a "loss".
Fortunately, unexpected people created unexpected surprises.
As his physical strength declined, Fred, who was called "unpredictable" by fans, stepped forward to face Brentford's gambling final counterattack.
Chen Xiaoliang received a back pass from Kvadrat on the right side of the penalty area line. Faced with two people blocking him, he flicked his right foot to the left and passed the ball to Fred who was unguarded on the other side of the arc. The Brazilian midfielder swung his left foot and shot.
The ball... I don't know how it was hit, but it was so fast that Aaron Hickey, the right back who was defending Kwa, didn't even understand why the ball hit him standing outside the goal frame before it hit his head and bounced into the goal...
Schmeichel was stunned, Aaron Hickey fell to the ground in pain holding his head...
Manchester United's teammates were stunned for half a second and then raised their arms to celebrate, but they still had an unkind smile on their faces when they ran towards Fred.
What’s interesting is that the goal was finally credited to Fred by the Premier League officials… and Chen Xiaoliang also got an assist…
Do you accept it? You have to accept it...
As for whether to serve Red or Fred, that depends on one's own opinion.
In the end, Manchester United won 2-0 and achieved the feat of winning nine consecutive games at home at the start of the league season.
However, the real test is coming a week later. Manchester City, who defeated last year's runner-up Arsenal 2-0 at the Emirates Stadium, has achieved eight consecutive victories and continues to rank second in the standings with 8 wins and 1 draw.
But in these 9 games, Manchester City drew with Newcastle away, beat Tottenham and Chelsea at home, defeated Arsenal away, and defeated Aston Villa coached by Emery. They also achieved three consecutive victories in the Champions League group stage and defeated Inter Milan 1-2 away.
So even though Manchester United ranks first in the standings, Manchester City is ranked first in the Premier League and Champions League championship odds list, and Manchester United can only rank behind.
On one side are the Red Devils who have won nine consecutive games against mid- and lower-tier teams last season, and on the other side are the Blue Moons who have performed strongly no matter who they play against.
Coupled with the duel between Chen Xiaoliang and Haaland in last season's Champions League final, whether the sky in Manchester and even the whole of England will be red or blue will be revealed next week.
