"Manchester United lost!"

“united-lost！”

This was the front-page headline of all print media in the UK that included sports content on December 16, 2013, and even sports media in Italy, Spain, Germany, France, Portugal and other countries directly typed such headlines. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info

The bleak red, the silent players, and the unhappy look of coach Gary Neville......

Wait, why ...... Gary Neville?

'If you're following Manchester United for the first time, you think they're at the end of their rope, they're desperate and defeated, but it's actually their first defeat of the season and it's already in the 16th round of the league.

On this day's BBC ace show, Matchday, ace host Gary Lineker was smiling.

'I'm sorry, as a neutral presenter, I shouldn't have laughed, but maybe everyone in front of the TV is like me and wants to laugh out loud at this moment, except, of course, the United fans.

"Yes, it's United's first defeat and United's first winless run of the season!" The big screen behind Lineker quickly played out United's record so far.

"That's right, as of 16 rounds of league games, 15 wins and 1 loss, 45 points, as many as 9 points ahead of second-place Arsenal, although they lost, they have already confirmed the halfway title in advance, because they have scored too many more goals than Arsenal, and the relationship between victory and defeat is more favorable." Lineker shrugged, "If they continue to win like this, I'm worried that they will break their record of winning the championship in advance again." ”

"While it may not be a pleasure for some fans to say that, it's not a good thing for the league as a whole if the Premier League becomes a dominant league......," said his partner Mark Lawrenson, a former Liverpool legend, in a muffled voice...... They want to see a competitive league where they don't know where the title belongs until the last second, not the stage of a team that makes other opponents desperate 20 rounds ahead. ”

"That's right," coughed Alan Shearer, a special guest and Newcastle legend who returned to the TV screen after the "Magpies" Newcastle defeated Manchester United at home. Compared to the host, the legendary player's mouth obviously does not need to be too scrupulous, he said directly, "Why is Bayern so strong, but the level of the Bundesliga is never as good as the Premier League?" Because Germany has only one Bayern Munich, while England has more than one team of the big level. In the Premier League, it's hard to imagine a foreign manager who has just landed in the league and can still maintain absolute dominance after taking over, but in the Bundesliga, Bayern Munich is almost like that - I'm not disrespectful to Pep Guardiola, he's a first-class coach, but that's the level of competition in the Bundesliga, and when Dortmund's magical aura faded away, Bayern Munich regained overwhelming dominance. ”

Due to historical reasons, the British generally do not want to see the Germans, and in football, the British, as the birthplace, think that their league is the first league deservedly, and it is normal to look down on a dominant Bundesliga.

Perhaps United's defeat gave a glimmer of hope to the other 19 teams, but it should not be overlooked that they surpassed Arsenal, who had won 13 games in a row in 2001-02, to set the longest winning streak in the Premier League - 15 games! It was also the best start in the history of the Premier League! Lineker's bright red captions kept popping up behind him, "If you count the cross-season wins, their winning streak is ...... 19 games! This record broke Inter Milan's record for the longest winning streak in the top five leagues held in 2006-2007 (17 games), and I don't know if anyone else can match this terrible record at a time when the competition in the major leagues is getting fiercer! ”

"I'm sorry, boss, I lost the game, and your winning streak can't be continued......"

Ferguson received a call from Manchester, and the voice on the phone was low.

He comforted the other side: "Gary, don't take it personally, of course it will be difficult to play the league with the reserves and the youth army, and you have already performed very well after losing only one goal at the home stadium of the Magpies." ”

Gary Neville's mood seems to have calmed down a bit: "The next round is at home to West Ham United and I want to listen to your advice......"

"The Hammers...... They won't be polite to us......" Ferguson frowned slightly, "I think you should teach those U21 kids how to protect themselves, instead of having them fight each other with broken legs and blood all over the ground......"

Gary Neville looked at the phone that had hung up, and he exhaled thoughtfully.

The old man used to talk like that.

Is the lead too big, so you don't have to care about the wins or losses of these two games?

Still not willing to put too much pressure on yourself?

Or...... Just because of your age?

Although the BBC hosts and special guests tried their best to ignore it, as long as they are not blind and stupid, they know what the reason for Manchester United's defeat is......

Alex Ferguson took most of his first-team squad to Morocco in Africa for the Club World Cup, leaving only a few injured players at Old Trafford.

The Club World Cup is held in mid-to-late December, and although you only need to start from the semi-finals to win the Champions League, even if you are eliminated in the semi-finals, it will take four or five days to go back and forth and adjust, and a week if you reach the final. This is a serious clash with the Premier League's Christmas schedule, which is in full swing - they will miss at least two league games.

Manchester United could certainly have asked the FA to postpone the two or three rounds of conflicting league games, but to everyone's surprise, Ferguson did not do so.

He handed the next three league games to the development squad manager and former Red Devils captain Gary Neville, without leaving him with a first-team player to play......

Nei Wenhao, who is known as the best example of "contemporary Zhao Kuo" and "Talking on paper", and the strongest mouth cannon emperor in football, started his dangerous Christmas schedule with a group of reserve team + youth team children who have almost never shown their faces in the first team in the icy British Isles......

And his mentor Alex Ferguson led the bigwigs of the first team to start preparing for the game while vacationing in the warm North Africa.

If it was 30 years ago, the Club World Cup, or the Toyota Cup, South American teams were often not inferior to European teams, and even could often beat European champions, but in the late 90s, European football gradually became the absolute mainstream, and the gap in strength between South American champions and them began to appear huge, not to mention those teams in Asia, Oceania, and Africa......

When Neville was at Old Trafford for his pre-match press conference against West Ham United on 17 December, Alex Ferguson was taking his first team to the Marrakech Stadium.

Manchester United's opponent in the semi-finals is the AFC Champions League champions from the Chinese Super League, Guangzhou Evergrande QQ. (To be continued.) )