Manchester United legend

Chapter 26: Keys to Defense
In a blink of an eye, in November, Manchester United signed Cantona. At that time, the Premier League did not have a winter transfer period, so players did not have to wait until January to report to Manchester United.

After Jost and his teammates finished training that day, they found that Kidd had been watching their training. Jost didn't care, but Kidd walked towards him.

Kidd said to Jost: "Paul, you lucky boy, the first team suffered extensive injuries, Harrison recommended you to me, your chance has come, and you will train with our first team in the future."

Jost was very happy after hearing that. Although he had trained in the first team, it was just that Ferguson let them experience the atmosphere of the first team and let them improve better.

But this time, Jost finally had the chance to go to the first team. He wanted to stay in the first team and gain a firm foothold in the first team.Joe Stub allowed this to happen!

Early the next morning, Jost did not go to training early, but reported to the locker room at 9 o'clock on time.

Just as Jost entered the locker room, he found that the locker room was full of people, and even the playboy Li Sharp was not late. Everyone saw Jost entering the room, and everyone sighed: "Hey!"

Schmeichel said: "Why are you a rookie?"

Captain Robson greeted Jost warmly: "Come on kid! Kidd and tell me you will train with the first team. I will take care of you. Your locker is still on the far side. Go there and return your clothes!"

Jost asked, "Are you waiting for someone?"

Robson: "We're all waiting for Cantona to see what he's like."

When it was time for training, Cantona did not show up in the locker room. It was time for training, and the whole team had to go out for training.

After the whole team assembled, a figure wearing a Manchester United jersey appeared in front of everyone. He was Cantona.She walked towards everyone with Ferguson.

Jost saw Cantona with his collar upright, his spine straight, his chest up and his head up, inspecting the entire stadium, as if he owned all of this damn place.This is Old Trafford, his stage, and his territory. All the players and the fans watching are like soldiers under his command.

The teammates saw Cantona strutting into Old Trafford, puffed out his chest, held his head proudly, and looked around, as if they were loudly asking this glorious club: I am Cantona, are you good enough?Just relying on you, can you be worthy of me?
Ferguson brought Cantona to the front of the team. Ferguson said: "Introduce a new player to everyone. Maybe some of you already know who he is, have played against him on the field, and know his strengths, but now he is one of us. He is Eric Cantona. Eric Cantona, please say something to your new teammate!"

Cantona said: "Hi everyone, I'm Eric Cantona, and I'm here to lead you to the championship, so follow me to fight."

With just a few words, Jost felt that the man standing in front of him was so domineering.

And the teammates around him think that Cantona is such a bad fart, and he came to lead us to the championship. Who do you think you are?But Cantona has a bad reputation, and no one dares to mess with him.So after Cantona finished speaking, the atmosphere at the scene was a little awkward.

Originally, every new Manchester United player, the team members would give him a greeting, but no one wanted to give Cantona any greeting. Among the players who have transferred to Manchester United over the years, only Cantona has not received such treatment.

As the captain, Robson took the lead in shaking hands with Cantona, breaking the awkward atmosphere, and then the players, led by Robson, received the Frenchman politely and with great distance.

Then the players started the day's training. After the warm-up and jogging, they started the tactical drill of group confrontation. Cantona was wearing a red vest, and he was assigned to the group of main players.Jost was wearing a green vest and was in the substitute team.

The group confrontation began. According to the tradition of Manchester United, it was completely real kicks, flying shovels, and collisions were commonplace in Manchester United training.Jost was also like this in the youth team, so he didn't have any problems getting used to it. Cantona was not used to it at first, but he gradually got used to this rhythm.

Physical confrontation between Jost and the first-team players does not suffer, and even has a great advantage.But in terms of technical experience and intentions, he was a lot worse. He was always caught by his opponent's fake moves and was passed by.In terms of physical confrontation, he can even pick the team's two central defenders.

Jost can only use active running to make up for his own shortcomings.

Captain Robson did not participate in such a fierce confrontation due to minor injuries. He and Ferguson stood on the sidelines to watch the confrontation.

After watching the game for a while, Ferguson asked Robson beside him, "What do you think of Jost?"

Robson: "His physical fitness is very good. He is the best body I have ever seen. He is not good at the technical level, and his experience is not up to standard."

Ferguson: "Very good, you are right, but the former is given by God, while the latter can accumulate experience through competitions, and skills can also be honed. I want you to help him and be his mentor. Do you think it is okay?"

Robson: "I know the team is looking for my substitute, are you very optimistic about him?"

Ferguson: "Yes, I think he has the potential to be a good player."

Robson: "Well, I'll help him, and now I'm on the field, and I'll partner with him."

The group confrontation was suspended, and Robson was replaced on the field with Jost as his partner.Ferguson called Jost to his side: "Robson will play with you, watch how he moves, how he supports his teammates, and how he sees the opponent."

Jost nodded, and the game started again. Jost's green team was attacking, and Jost stayed in the backcourt to defend. He observed Robson and found that Robson always ran to the open space next to his teammates, so that his teammates had more points to get the ball out of, and it was also convenient for him to catch the ball.

Jost faced Lee Sharp in a defense. Today Jost has been shunned by Sharp several times. This time, Jost intercepted Sharp one-on-one on the wing.

Sharp received the ball from the wing. He knew that Jost was very physically fit and inexperienced. He used fake moves to sway the Jost several times today, and he was going to use fake moves to sway him this time.

At this time Robson came up, Robson said: "Paul, you go down, I will defend him."

Since it was a practice match, no one cared about it.After Robson stood up, he said to Sharp, "Come on, kid!"

Sharp laughed: "The captain wants to set an example for that kid. I won't be a teaching material for the intercepted."

Sharp is going to pretend to break to the left, leaning his upper body to the left, but is actually going to break to the right.

But Robson didn't take his feints at all. He lowered his center of gravity, didn't blindly grab the ball, and stood there staring at Sharp. Then Sharp started to pedal the bicycle and swayed left and right. Robson didn't move, which made Sharp's pace a little chaotic. Robson saw that Sharp's pace was a little chaotic.

Robson passed the ball to other teammates and did not step forward to participate in the attack. He came to Jost to explain his defensive skills: "You have to pay attention to the defensive skills in 1vs1."

One is to apply pressure quickly, and the first and most important point is to apply pressure immediately.When the opponent has just received the ball and is not on the ground, quickly step forward to apply pressure so that he cannot fully adjust. The faster you press, the greater the impact on the attacker.The opponent's footing is not stable. This is also the best time for a steal. When the offensive player has his back to the defender, or the opponent passes the ball long distance if you press quickly, it is a good time to steal.

The second is to control the situation. Your running position should be at an angle to induce the opponent to take the ball away from the goal.Go around an arc and move quickly to press up, deliberately luring the opponent away from the goal.The top defenders are always able to control and dominate the game, push the opponent where we want, keep him away from the goal along the touchline, so you have to lure the opponent by running too.

The third is to control the speed, don't pounce, run fast to press up, but slow down after approaching, especially when the opponent is firmly in control of the ball.Don't let them pass you by quickly, they are fast and when you get close they will slow down and start doing tricks, don't wait and follow.If you approach the offensive player too fast, he only needs a small reverse dribble to get rid of your defense, and you will completely lose your defensive position, so remember to slow down and control your opponent when you are 2-3 meters away from the player.

[-]. Lower the center of gravity, body posture, bend the knees and lower the center of gravity, so that you can quickly follow the opponent, stand sideways at an angle that oppresses the opponent, try to force him to one side, and at the same time react quickly at any time.Remember that when you approach him, you have to follow him quickly and keep a distance of about an arm or so from him; move with your toes, move your feet, and don't stand dead; just make sure to keep up with your opponent.

[-]. Patience, be patient, if you're on defense and I'm on offense, I want you to get the ball out so I can get past you.So you have to be patient, patiently wait for him to make mistakes, patiently wait for him to lose control, as soon as he makes a mistake, you can immediately go up and grab the ball back.

Jost: "I think it's a good idea that I can slide him."

Robson: "Yes, many people will say that sliding tackle is a good method, so what? The moment you slip, it means that you have lost control of the game and lost your position. Can you get the ball back again? So we must be patient and wait for the opportunity. Remember that the first purpose of 1V1 defense is to delay the opponent's attack, let him slow down, let our teammates have time to return to defense, and then wait for the opportunity to regain the ball."

Robson went on to say: "These are the five points of 1V1 defense. Having said so much, you need to continue to practice in order to be able to use it flexibly in the game. 1V1 defense is actually not difficult. As long as you master the above five points and practice hard, you will be able to control the situation in the game. Only by controlling the ball can you control the game."

(End of this chapter)