Football giants

Chapter 642 There is trouble!

It's a frustrating summer transfer!

David Moyes stood uneasy in the western suburbs of London, in front of the coach's bench at Wembley Stadium, staring forward with a frown. There were black fans everywhere around him, which was enough to make people shudder.

It turns out that being the head coach of a wealthy team has to bear so many burdens!

Moyes is only now starting to understand why Ferguson would say such a strange thing to him a few months ago.

"I don't doubt your ability on the court at all, what I worry about is off the court!"

In Moyes' ears, it seemed that Ferguson's appearance when he said these words to him sounded again.

At that time, he had just watched Southampton's defeat of Stoke City through live TV, and cruelly received a death sentence. In the last season of his coaching career, after leading for more than half a year, he lost the league championship at the last moment!

At that moment, what he saw was a very old man who was dying.

He had never seen such an old feeling in Ferguson's body, but at that moment, he felt it.

I'm afraid that when Ferguson walks into the grave, he will never forget the humiliation he encountered that day!

And now, as Ferguson's successor, he has been crowned with a lot of titles by the media.

The originally tasteless Community Shield match was hyped by the British media into a Hamlet-like revenge battle.

This invisibly put even heavier pressure and burden on Moyes.

From the beginning of this summer's preparations to now, Manchester United's overall performance is not convincing, especially in the International Champions Cup, Manchester United suffered a three-game losing streak in the group stage and was disgracefully eliminated.

After returning to the UK for the two warm-up matches, the performance can only be described as disaster.

The performance on the court is unsatisfactory, and the turmoil off the court is even more worrying.

With Ferguson's retirement, Moyes brought in the coaching team he had cooperated with for many years, including former chief assistant coach Mike Phelan, and the coaching staff of Ferguson's period, including the famous Dutch coach Meulensteen, naturally had to vacate their positions.

Scholes, the most creative core in the midfield, retired. Although Giggs continued to stay in the team, strengthening the midfield has become the focus of Manchester United's transfer.

If it is said that the transfer of professional football in Europe is a soap opera, then the unlucky and tragic Manchester United is playing a dishonorable role in this soap opera.

From buying Cesc Fabregas to fill the vacancy after Scholes left, to Vidal, and then to Thiago, the players Manchester United looked at were crossed by their opponents one after another, and missed again and again.

When he was at Everton before, Moyes' signings were usually considered economical and practical. Sometimes, for a transfer fee of only a few hundred thousand pounds, Moyes would allow the Everton team to wrestle with the opponent for several months.

But things are clearly different now!
Manchester United is a giant, and the players they are eyeing are all in high demand. You don't have enough courage to make a move as soon as possible. When you turn your head, you will be snatched away by others immediately. You don't even have time to cry.

Vidal is so, so is Thiago!

Moyes felt that he was completely unsuited to Manchester United's transfer operation method. What he was used to and was good at was slow and time-consuming, but this style was obviously not suitable for the transfer of a wealthy team that was staging an arms race all the time.

Now, Fabregas announced to stay in the team, Thiago went to Bayern Munich, Vidal went to Real Madrid, and none of the players Manchester United was eyeing came.

Not only in the midfield, but also in the defense line, the problem is more serious.

Full-backs, central defenders, Manchester United's entire defense needs to be reorganized, but now they don't even have a locked target.

Moyes was very busy, but he failed to produce any results. Instead, he made all the Manchester United fans and the British media very dissatisfied, thinking that his performance was quite poor and unqualified!
In this case, the pressure on Moyes' shoulders is so great that outsiders can't imagine it!

He very, very much needs a championship trophy to prove himself and relieve the pressure on his shoulders, even if it's just a tasteless Community Shield, he can breathe a sigh of relief.

Thinking of this, he couldn't help turning his head and glanced at Southampton on the court.

The performance of the Saints this summer is not convincing either. After the loss of Gareth Bale, Neymar and Vidal, the introduction of Suarez and Sanchez is still in the process of adaptation, and the team's offense is lackluster.

So, yesterday, at the last press conference before going south to London, Moyes made it very clear in an interview with the media, "I will try my best to make the Community Shield Cup a good start for me to coach Manchester United!"

In order to be more certain, Moyes did not make a move on the team's tactics and starting lineup, and still used the lineup and tactics of Ferguson's period.

The goalkeeper is De Gea, the defense is Evra, Vidic, Phil Jones and Rafael, the midfield is Giggs, Cleverley, Carrick and Valencia, and the double striker is a combination of Van Persie and Rooney.

Southampton also did not dare to be careless in this game.

The goalkeeper is Neuer, and the defense is David Alaba, Javi Martinez, Varane and Azpilicueta.

The double defensive midfielder is still the partner of Modric and Toni Kroos, but after the transfer of the previous Vidal, he was replaced by James Rodriguez.

The front trident has also been adjusted. Hazard performed well in the International Champions Cup and firmly occupied the position of the left winger. The center forward is Zlatan Ibrahimovic. The right wing is a bit surprising. Bielsa chose Sturridge.

The two new aids Suarez and Sanchez were both placed on the bench by the Argentine lunatic.

From the start of the game, Southampton showed their intentions.

That is to use the left flank formed by David Alaba and Hazard to attack Manchester United's right flank.

The first shot of the audience was Hazard who took the ball in from the left and then passed it diagonally to the right to find Sturridge. The latter completed it. Although it was not dangerous, it was surprising.

After that, Southampton still did not change its fierce nature in the past, and insisted on attacking from the left.

Although Moyes has coached Everton for many years, there has never been a game as tense as it is today.

He stood on the sidelines, frowning like a mountain, staring at the court without moving.

"We're in trouble on the right!"

Assistant coach Steve Round came over, shook his head, and said worriedly.

"Southampton has a lot of routines on the left. Hazard's dribbling ability is quite strong. Whether it is going down or inside, he is very threatening. Rafael is already struggling to deal with it, and David Alaba is added. David Alaba!"

Southampton's current tactic is that the attack on the left is very resolute. Once David Alaba gets in, Harvey Martinez, Varane and Azpilicueta are a bit like a three-back configuration.

"Phil Jones loses his position so easily, it's pretty damning!"

As soon as Steve Round's words fell, Southampton once again organized an attack on the court.

After Hazard cut into the middle, he received a pass from Modric and played a delicate two-for-one cooperation with James Rodriguez in a small area. It went straight into the penalty area. Zlatan Ibrahimovic followed up and hit the goal, slightly wide.

This wave of attack made everyone in the entire Wembley Stadium break out in a cold sweat, and Qiqi let out a sigh.

Almost scored!
Moyes also sighed, Manchester United's midfield is very weak, but isn't the defense even worse?
Ferdinand was sitting in the stands in this game, and Phil Jones was known as a parachutist. He was very fierce, but he was just unreliable.

Vidic and Evra are very old and have long lost their courage.

It can be said that Manchester United's midfield is very poor, but it is not as good as the defense!
"David, do you want to let all the frontcourt players come back and stabilize the situation first?" Steve Round suggested.

Moyes was a little hesitant. Will someone scold him for being conservative this time around?
You know, Manchester United and Southampton are both strong teams in the Premier League. If the Red Devils are beaten by the Saints, where will the face of the Red Devils fans be put?Will the fans turn their anger on me by then?
But just when Moyes was hesitating, Southampton on the court launched another attack.

Toni Kroos poked the ball quickly to Modric after a midfield interception, and the Croatian got rid of the defender and passed it to Eden Hazard.

The Belgian faced Raphael with the ball, and resolutely chose to cut inward with the ball.

The Brazilian right-back had to keep up, only to have Hazard suddenly pass to James Rodriguez who ran in behind.

The unguarded Colombian midfielder kicked a pass and transferred the ball diagonally to the left.

David Alaba rushed in from the left. On the left side of the penalty area, he steadily unloaded the pass from James Rodriguez, rubbed his left foot, made a pass, and hoisted the ball into the penalty area.

Seeing the middle of the penalty area, Ibrahimovic quickly followed, blocked Vidic with his body, faced the ball, shook his head directly with a lion, and pushed the ball to the lower left corner of the goal.

The ball bounced off the bottom and hit the goal line!

Facing this close shot, De Gea is powerless!

And after Ibrahimovic finished shooting, Phil Jones, who should have been stuck in front of Ibrahimovic, was long overdue at this time!

"GOALLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL!!!!!!"

"In the 9th minute, just 9 minutes into the game, Southampton swung away and knocked on Manchester United's goal!"

"Left-back David Alaba set up Zlatan Ibrahimovic to score with a header, what a brilliant combination!"

"From the slow-motion playback, Southampton quickly launched a counterattack after stealing the ball from the midfield. After a continuous pass, it reached the frontcourt. James Rodriguez gave the ball so well. The field of vision is really wide. I saw David Alaba who came in behind!"

"Phil Jones lost his position too easily. He should have restrained Ibrahimovic with Vidic on the left and right, but after he left the position, Ibrahimovic seemed to be unguarded!"

"Manchester United's defense is still a problem with the defense!"

"Actually, as early as last season, when Ferguson was in charge of Manchester United, defensive issues have always been the focus of everyone's doubts, because among the top seven teams in the league, Manchester United's number of goals conceded ranks second to last, only slightly better than Tottenham Hotspur. This is completely inconsistent with Manchester United's goal of winning the championship!"

"Since Moyes took over the team, there has been a lot of calls to transform the defense, but no matter from the International Champions Cup or from this Community Shield game, Moyes failed to improve Manchester United's defensive problems."

When the on-site commentator analyzed this point, the camera happened to give a close-up of Moyes with a serious face in front of the coach's bench.

This made the on-site commentator sigh with emotion: "Last season's outstanding performance has exhausted Manchester United's last sliver of energy. When Scholes retired and the team's offense was in trouble, if the defense problem is not resolved, Manchester United is in danger this season!"

I believe that everyone who has seen Moyes' expression at this moment will find that this conclusion has already been written on the face of the Scottish coach!

(End of this chapter)