Mister Legend

Chapter 523 The Great Showdown
After the game resumed, Arsenal's set-kick tactics did not receive any good results. Since the distance from the opponent's goal was a bit too far, and there is currently no outstanding free-kick expert in the team, they had to choose to hang the ball. After entering the penalty area, let several high points compete for it, but it was easily cleared by Bailey, who has excellent jumping ability.

Similar to when he was coaching the Turin team before, Li Moody does not seem to have the fate of a disciple who is good at setting the ball. The top three players in the Gunners' first team lineup with this ability are Torreira at 14, Mkhitaryan at 13 and Golovin, who is 12, is horribly dismal, which is a big problem for the team's offense.

After Sanchez switched to rival Manchester United, Ozil was purged, and Spanish veteran Cazorla returned to Spain for retirement, the team's scoring rate in this regard showed a clear downward trend. There have been some gains from free kicks, but they were all obtained with the help of a lot of opportunities and a little luck, which is not very reliable in nature.

So when his players wasted free kicks in good positions time and time again, Li Moody still wanted to bring in a master who was proficient in this trip immediately, so a signing that was not in his plan was put in like this In the shopping cart of the winter window, just click the payment button immediately after the time is up.

In the next ten minutes, the two teams failed to create a particularly good chance to score goals. However, due to the very fast pace of the game and the intense fighting, the audience will not be bored. The only It is a pity that no goal was produced.

The referee blew the whistle for the halftime break at the right time, and both sides rushed back to their locker rooms to recover their tired bodies while receiving the latest instructions from their respective head coaches.

In the broadcast signal of Sky Sports, the former Liverpool captain Carragher and the guest Redknapp Jr. analyzed the situation of the first half of the game together, and gave the two teams that seem to have no plans to break the boat and attack. It is difficult to predict a major change in the situation on the court after another battle.

However, as soon as these words were spoken, the slapstick came.

After a quarter of an hour of adjustment and rest, the Gunners, who first got possession of the ball in the second 45 minutes, came up against the goal. Seven players came up and attacked Manchester United's penalty area.

All fans in the world know that Mourinho is best at training the team's defensive ability. Although it has been more than 20 years since his debut, the basic strategy has not changed much, but even in In today's football, his set is still quite powerful.

Whether it was at Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid, or finally at Old Trafford, the number of goals conceded by the team he coached could rank among the top three in the entire Premier League (of course, the lower the number, the higher the ranking) , is a full-fledged defensive master.

However, since the beginning of last season, the Red Devils' previously excellent defense has had a lot of problems. The Swedish international Victor Lindelof, who broke the record for the most expensive central defender in the history of Ferdinand Manchester United, although occasionally he can still take out the world. Level performance, but in most cases, there are still various low-level mistakes, so the head coach of the team who has been supporting him has to choose to give up.

For a short period of time after that, in addition to Bailey's other central defender, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling took turns in Manchester United's defense.This summer, Mourinho once had the idea of ​​introducing a new central defender, but he failed to do so because he failed to find a home for Lindelof and the rare situation of excellent central defenders in today's world football.

So today against Arsenal, in order to cope with the super speed ability of the opponent's striker, Mourinho still chose to let Phil Jones start. After all, the running ability of this native England central defender is still the strongest in the team.

It’s just that the two sides of the matter made the arrangement of the Red Devils coach quite controversial. It took less than a hundred seconds to fight again. After pulling to the left, Mkhitaryan suddenly sent out a small space. A cross close to the ground went straight to the front point of the penalty area.It’s just that due to the deliberate need for concealment, the Armenian’s footwork has not been used well, and the ball’s landing point is a bit too close to the front post. Compared with Aubameyang, who is speeding up and outflanking, he is obviously the home team’s goalkeeper who made an early judgment De Gea will take the first step and control the ball in his own hands.

However, this should not have created any dangerous offense, but because Phil Jones suddenly turned his head 180 degrees, and he was close to the side of the beautiful sheep, and he stretched out his arm inexplicably. Made an obvious action of pulling the opponent's jersey, and was caught by the referee with a good view.

penalty!Friand blew the whistle to stop the game with great determination, and the penalty gave the visiting team an excellent chance to score.

Although the Manchester United players still want to have a final argument, the foul action this time is too obvious, and it is difficult to overturn the referee's decision through simple verbal pressure.

In the end, Mkhitaryan deceived De Gea's center of gravity by using his eyes and fake leg movements, and easily pushed the ball to the left of the goal, helping Arsenal gain a one-goal lead in the away game.

As soon as the goal was lost, the entire Old Trafford stadium immediately turned into a hell field, and almost all the fans of the home team began to roar at their sworn enemy.Combined with the anger of being blown away in the first half, they all vented on the Gunners players who were celebrating.

The camera of the broadcaster is aimed at Mourinho, who has been standing on the sidelines since the second half. From the 20-second close-up of his face, people can easily have an association that the volcano is about to greet him. What is the state of the moment before the outbreak.

With boos and abuse all over the sky, Lukaku, who stood in the center circle, pushed the ball placed at the center of the court to his teammates, and then he accelerated forward and went straight to the opponent's penalty area.

Although Li Moody and his players are ready to face the opponent's immediate attack, Manchester United's decision to equalize the score as soon as possible still surprised everyone. Except for the goalkeeper's two central defenders, the rest All the players on the field have pressed the half court, which is almost exactly the same as the strategy adopted by Arsenal just now.

When the home team striker, who had been unable to open up the situation on the field before, immediately showed the strength of the reason why they were able to get a sky-high annual salary from the club after receiving strong support from their teammates.

With Rashford also pushed up front, United have moved into a 4-3-1-2 with Lingard in his favorite attacking midfield position with three world-class players behind him. The stars escorted him and shared the pressure. His ability in connecting teams and running can finally be released to his heart's content.With the central connection of this local player, the home team finally evolved from a loose set of sand in the first half to an organic whole on the offensive end, and its explosive power is eye-catching.

The specific manifestation is that after the score on the field was rewritten, the first offensive of the trailing side received results. It only took one minute and 20 seconds after they lost the ball to bring the two sides back to the same starting line.

Although Endidi's control range is already well-known in world football, but against Lingard, who is still in good physical condition, the former's advantage is not so obvious.Because as the defensive side, he was born in a passive position, he had to spend more energy to judge the intention of the offensive player, and make an emergency response after the opponent made an action, so in one-on-one The situation did not have much of an upper hand as in the past.

And Lingard is not only able to run, but also has a high golf quotient. Even though it is difficult to get a chance to calmly organize due to the opponent's beastly focus, the team did not let themselves do this alone. He is working on the front line, and behind him are Pogba and Andreas Pereira, two teammates with better passing ability. As long as Ndidi's attention can be attracted away, the head coach gives him the most important The task is completed.

So in this attack, after Lingard knocked the ball to Pogba, he immediately made a sprint forward diagonally to the left, because Bellerin wanted to mark Luke who came up from the edge. Shaw, in order to prevent the home team's possible side attack, Endidi had to choose to retreat with the opponent's front midfielder and give up the defensive position in the middle.

Manchester United's current number one star used his physical advantage to squeeze past his former teammate Mkhitaryan's defense zone and headed straight for the front of the penalty area.After attracting Torreira's supplementary defense, the Frenchman did not choose to be reckless personally, but split the ball to his right side. Andreas Pereira immediately made a through ball without stopping the ball, allowing the ball on the side Portuguese right back Ricardo Pereira, who advanced at high speed, got the chance to cross after a successful anti-offside.

This fellow Mourinho, who just transferred from Leicester City this summer, took a step forward and directly sent a cross with a great arc.The ball flew over Kolasinac who was blocked by a separate body, and then bypassed the visiting team's left center back Mustafi, and then immediately turned to the penalty spot, making Leno, who was just about to attack and pick the ball, give up the plan , Choose to stay in front of the door.

And with the movement of everyone's eyes, the flight trajectory of the ball finally changed dramatically in the middle of the penalty area, but the ball was not touched by the French veteran Koscielny who had already stood in his position, but from behind him. Lukaku rushed over with a blocking momentum.

At this moment, the little monster showed his impact power not inferior to that of Didier Drogba in the past. He kicked his right leg to the ground like a super heavy bomber and appeared at the scene of the incident in an instant. The old central defender overturned, followed by the most classic powerful header.The ball went straight to the dead corner on the upper right of Leno like a cannonball. The speed was so fast that the German could not make an effective save response. When he subconsciously raised his right arm, the net behind him had already formed Intense ripples.

But this time, Manchester United's players did not immediately start celebrating, but together with the visiting team, they locked their eyes on the referee, because according to the situation just now, the Belgian center seems to be suspected of a foul.

Fortunately, this time, Kevin Friand stood on the side of the home team. Although there was a little hesitation in his eyes, he still whistled and gestured to indicate that the goal was valid.At this moment, the boos that filled the entire stadium turned into excited cheers in an instant, and the scoreboard also changed from 0 to 1 to 1 to 1.No matter how Moody Li protested to the fourth official, it could not prevent the Gunners' lead from disappearing as soon as it appeared.

However, before the Arsenal fans had time to vent their anger, the situation on the field changed drastically after 3 minutes.Manchester United, which brought the score back to balance, did not choose to return to the original tactics, but still maintained their investment in the frontcourt, even at the risk of being counterattacked by the opponent's two strikers. He unswervingly exerted his full strength on the offensive end.

With Rashford's containment from the side, Lukaku's defensive pressure has been reduced by at least [-]%, even though he still cannot easily get a chance to face the goal in the penalty area, but in this case as an offensive bridgehead The functions can still be displayed to the fullest.The active advancement of the midfield team gave him more passing options, and he could even use the distraction of the opponent's defense to gain the possibility of his sudden exertion.

As a result, not long after the score was equalized, Little Monster received a low pass from the left in an attack. He then used a fake stop to shake off Koscielny's defense behind him. The smash hit the bottom line, but the latter used a flying shovel to block the bottom line after the horizontal knock.

However, Lukaku's mood did not let the failure of this choice affect for too long, because the special corner kick taken by Pereira did not pass into the already crowded penalty area, but unexpectedly floated to the top of the penalty area. At the center, Pogba, who suddenly retreated, completed a peerless volley comparable to Qi Zu Tianwai Feixian in the 2002 UEFA Champions League final without any interference.The ball passed through the body gaps of many players from both sides at an extremely fast speed, and hit the upper left corner of the goal, stunned the scene and everyone who was watching the live broadcast.

Even Carragher and Redknapp, who were sitting in the broadcast room, were so excited that they didn't know what words to use to describe this great goal, except for all kinds of words that kept coming out of their mouths under the excitement. Apart from the exclamation words from Rotten Street, he couldn't say a complete sentence in a short time.

2 to 1, Manchester United completed the transition from lagging behind to overtaking almost instantly, pushing the atmosphere on the field to its climax.

However, after taking the lead, Mourinho still failed to continue the tactic of mastering the initiative. Although he dared to take risks when he was behind, he was not so courageous when he was ahead. After all, the Gunner's counterattack ability is not If you are a vegetarian, if you are not careful, the opponent may seize the opportunity to score again.

As a result, the home team's formation and style of play quickly returned to the situation at the opening stage of the game. While strengthening the safety factor of their goal, it also gave the Arsenal players who were stunned by this wave of blitzkrieg a rare respite. machine.

Then at No. 603 minutes, Mourinho made another substitution that made him suffer from criticism from the outside world in the future. He replaced the French midfielder Ducoure, who was introduced from Watford, who used to run all over the field. Lingard, who made great contributions to the team by running, advanced Pogba's position.

This series of actions paved the way one after another for this duel that was destined to be titled "great" by later generations, but people at the time didn't realize it.

　Thanks to the book friend Tianya Ziri for voting for the monthly ticket, thank you!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)