The Young Lion

Before the arrival of the match day at the end of August and the beginning of September, Millwall's Champions League group draw for the new season was released. :3w.

Their signings were pretty good.

The opponents in the same group are: Porto, Inter Milan, and Glasgow Rangers.

With Millwall's height and status in the Champions League, in fact, in the current principle of drawing lots, no matter how the group is grouped, it is impossible for Millwall to be divided into the death group.

Death is only relative to the opponent.

Even if they were drawn to the second, third, and last tiers, they were all recognized as the strongest teams. Originally, such a grouping was an absolute death group.

But in front of Millwall, qualifying should not be a big problem.

It's just that this kind of grouping situation is based on Millwall showing 100% of his strength and not sparing any strength. In the unreserved battle, there is no suspense for Millwall to qualify.

After returning from the match day, Millwall will immediately play the fifth round of the Premier League. They will go to Old Trafford to challenge Manchester United.

Manchester United, who have won four consecutive victories, lead the standings with Chelsea.

In the summer transfer, Manchester United fell into turmoil due to the change of ownership of the club. The actions in the transfer market seem to confirm the outside world's speculation about the Glazer family.

Manchester United only introduced an old goalkeeper, Van der Sar, and an Asian player who is very unfamiliar to England fans: Park Ji-sung.

Ferguson is very clear-headed and has not been dazzled by the temporary advantage in the standings.

Before the game, he talked about Millwall's recent poor league record in an understanding tone, and insisted that Millwall should not be underestimated. It wasn't until the last moment when the dust settled. Never think that Millwall has been kicked out.

Just saying this. He seemed to smooth things over for Millwall, talking about Millwall going to the Far East to pan for gold in the summer.

To put it bluntly, it is satirizing Millwall for sacrificing his summer preparations, and his poor record in the early stages of the league, he deserves it!

Aldridge ignored Ferguson's words, but threw out a statement instead.

Millwall has not been at its best before. This is obvious to all. I will not quibble. If I say that Millwall has tried to do its best. Then we won three rounds of the league.

This is downright self-deprecating! One thing I can be sure of is: Millwall will get better and better and we are on the road to getting back on track! And one thing I'm not sure about is, how long will Manchester United and Chelsea hold on to their lead?

In the game at Old Trafford, Aldridge still did not send the strongest lineup. He let Kaka and Ronaldinho players who traveled from South America across half the world to rest and prepare for the Champions League match.

At the same time veterans. Nedved, Larsson. Schneider fought the whole game for the national team and sat on the bench in case of emergency.

A relatively strong offensive and defensive starting lineup appeared at Old Trafford.

The offensive end is powerful.

With Ronaldo, Henry and Messi as the trident, Villa ambushed behind Henry, the midfield combination remained unchanged, Alonso and De Rossi.

There are hidden worries in the back line. Silva and Nesta have a truce, Barzagli and Neal start together, and Ramos also replaces Schneider and Ram as two full-backs.

Manchester United is waiting for work at home, and the Red Devils, who have won four consecutive league victories, are full of momentum.

The whole team was full of bad breath, and it was hard to say that they were all aimed at Millwall. Even though they were suppressed by Millwall all the year round, they still had the resentment of losing the FA Cup last season.

In Manchester United's starting lineup, veteran Keane has the most aggressive fighting spirit.

But his fighting spirit, in the eyes of outsiders, has become distorted and violent! out of control!

Ferguson and Aldridge shook hands before the game. Today's confrontation will definitely not be a tit-for-tat confrontation.

For a long time, Manchester United has not been a team that absolutely restricts opponents as a tactical foothold, and they are not an extremely offensive team, so that after Ferguson retires in the future, when people who don't like Manchester United slander Ferguson's achievements, they will use this The Scottish old man portrayed the image of the great devil of the Premier League, as if he was the black boss of the Premier League, covering the sky with one hand, in order to achieve glory.

In fact, it's just that Manchester United didn't take an extreme route. It didn't hold high the banner of offensive football like a crazy and aggressive team, and it didn't like the utilitarians who were completely defensive.

Most people don't think that Ferguson's set of tactics and its extended changes are so great. In fact, this kind of thinking is too narrow-minded. If it rises to spiritual temperament, you can understand why Ferguson is the king of the Red Devils. Manchester United injected an unusual temperament.

This temperament made Aldrich envious, and he also expressed in private that he was ashamed.

If you want to visualize this temperament, instead of generally saying it is the spirit inherited by the Red Devils for a century, then it is difficult to see it now, and you have to think about the future.

As the times change, what is the biggest characteristic of Manchester United in terms of lineup?

That is, players come to Manchester United and leave Manchester United, as if they have become two kinds of players.

This kind of spiritual temperament will make the players who play for Manchester United. If you take it out and analyze it individually, you will think that this player is very ordinary. Three or five is not a problem, but it is a combination of many such ordinary players, wearing the Red Devils jersey, showing the team power, which has a qualitative leap and improvement.

For example, Park Ji-sung, who was introduced this summer, most of them would not be interested in saying how awesome he is, and let other giants go. But in Manchester United, he can not only have a place, but also make obvious contributions to the team.

Aldrich doesn't have this kind of magic power, and he wants to have it, but after many years, he feels that Millwall can't create this kind of spirit. It can be said that Millwall is hardworking, brave, tough, and never shrinks back, but he really wants to rise When a second-rate player comes to the team and polishes it for a period of time, he can play the role of a first-rate player in the team. Aldridge thinks he can't do it.

This may be closely related to the club's background, era background, team tradition and so on.

This may be the reason why Ferguson's set of tactics seems insignificant, but it can keep this team from being underestimated in Europe. It has already improved the team's combat ability. Fa, which could bring the team down.

Because anyone who can walk ahead of others on the ultimate road and lead the trend of the times has very strict requirements on the composition of the team lineup.

After fighting with Aldridge for so many years, Ferguson naturally summed up his experience.

You can't compete with Aldridge in a tactical confrontation.

That will only gradually become a disadvantage in the changing competition, because the characteristics of Millwall's players are too rich. In terms of flexibility and changeability, Millwall is the number one in the world. If you fight against them, you will not be able to compete in the field they are good at. Infighting.

Secondly, you can’t compete with Millwall. Manchester United’s offensive speed has always been their magic weapon to defeat the enemy. However, in the rapid back-and-forth see-saw collision, Manchester United’s success rate seems to never be better than Millwall’s. The reason is also Millwall’s offense. The speed of advancement is also very fast, and it seems to be faster than Manchester United!

With enough space to attack each other, Manchester United will lose to Millwall in terms of continuity and success rate.

Ferguson, who was standing on the sidelines, did not know whether he could bring Manchester United back to the throne of the Premier League king or even the European king in his lifetime, because he was not sure whether he could reach the end smoothly on the road of exploring and restraining Millwall.

But he still has an ambition to defeat his opponent and return to the throne.

Manchester United, which has ushered in a new boss, can be said to be roughly in a past era, because the Glazer family will not have any influence on the team's athletic affairs except for paying money, and it is still Ferguson who only covers it sky.

In today's confrontation, Manchester United played a game that made Aldridge wary.

Manchester United's improvement is mainly reflected in the fact that they are more calm when they are playing against Millwall. The midfielders hold the ball stably, and they will not rush to attack, especially when they switch from defense to offense. They will not blindly pursue speed as before. , but will ensure the success rate of the attack. When the teammates absolutely run out of space and can continue the attack, they will send a forward straight pass from the backcourt.

The first element of Millwall's defense is to counter-rob!

Crazy counter-robbery!

In the past, most teams would have been robbed by them!

Even Manchester United is no exception. When the backcourt players pass the ball in a panic when they are counter-robbed, they may not make a mistake at that time. However, the choice of passing may not be the best, especially, the passing line may be in the counter-attack. The snatch was predicted correctly by Millwall in advance, and it was right in his arms!

Thus curbing the opponent's offensive.

Aldridge's vigilance is here. Manchester United is smart, at least they are the first to make the most correct changes among their opponents.

The central and backcourts hold the ball stably, and the backline must not panic. If Millwall dares to rush forward to grab the ball, they don't mind pulling back the backline. In this way, Millwall's frontcourt players will be embarrassed. , the distance between the three lines will be out of touch, the pressure in the frontcourt will be too deep, and the space will be expanded virtually. Then, the opponent will launch a forward speed impact, and the efficiency will be higher!

Manchester United's targeted attack in this way has achieved results in the early stages of the game.

Ronaldo, Henry, and Messi rushed too far ahead in the counter-robbery.

Henry is a team player, and Ronaldo and Messi are the lines for the edge defenders to advance.

But none of them noticed that Manchester United's back line retreated back when they had the ball, waited for them to move forward, and then suddenly played a wave of forward fast breaks when the space in the midfield became larger!

Keane, Scholes, Giggs, Rooney, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Joaquin, the six made a series of quick and effective passes from near the center circle, and finally Ruud van Nistelrooy received Giggs obliquely from a small angle in the penalty area Volley scored.

Old Trafford was boiling with cheers.

There was no smile on Ferguson's face, he just clapped normally.

He knew that this was just a new beginning.

A prelude to his war with Aldridge. (To be continued..)

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