League Cup final. Pen × fun × Pavilion www. ｂｉｑｕｇｅ。 ｉｎｆｏ

Manchester United vs Aston Villa.

One of the four traditional giants of the Premier League vs the Championship champions.

Any one of these three points is enough to make a game extremely intense. Today, however, when these three factors came together, the game was uneventful.

Let's start with Manchester United, where new manager Joseph's trademark tactical counter-attack has lost its shine this season. For no other reason, United's current squad is far from Joseph's requirements. Whether it is all-out attack and defense, or quick counterattack, or zone defense, these tactical plays that Joseph is good at, Manchester United's players can't adapt to it at all, and they can't keep up with Joseph's rhythm from strength to awareness. That's why Manchester United didn't perform well in the first half.

In desperation, Joseph had no choice but to lower his tactical requirements, and the corresponding tactical complexity was reduced considerably. Joseph's approach quickly fits into the current state of the team, and in this case, Manchester United suddenly exploded, winning eight in a row. However, before Joseph came to Manchester United, he played "high" tactics, and now the tactics have suddenly become simpler, and Joseph is not very adaptable. It's like asking a college student to do elementary school math problems, but he may not be able to do it.

This made Joseph very entangled, the complex tactics team did not adapt, and the simple tactics did not adapt to himself. Until this League Cup final came, Joseph did not find any good way, so he could only play according to the style of play for two months.

In fact, this also exposes one of Joseph's weaknesses, that is, he can only make the strong team stronger, but he cannot change the fate of the weak team. Although Manchester United still holds the title of "the Premier League's four traditional giants", the Red Devils have gradually withdrawn from the ranks of the strong teams since Eddie's retirement. Can a team that has failed to qualify for Europe for two years in a row be considered a strong team? Apparently not.

And then there's Aston Villa.

Whether it's a strong team or not, Manchester United is Manchester United after all, and the name alone is enough to thunder. Although Wang Shuai has been in this world for more than five years, and although Manchester United has become more and more obscure in the past five years, Wang Shuai still can't help but feel a little apprehensive after knowing that his opponent is Manchester United.

It's like playing live or FIFA and other football games, when you meet top teams like Barcelona or Real Madrid, you can't help but start playing the drums, which is a normal psychological function of human beings.

So under such a psychological effect, even Wang Shuai knows that objectively speaking, the current Villa is not necessarily worse than Manchester United, but he still arranges conservative defensive counterattack tactics.

In this way, the two teams that played defensive counter-attacking tactics collided together, and Joseph could not come up with any advanced tactical cooperation, and the intensity of the game can be imagined.

……

Joseph stood on the edge of the court, watching the game with a blank face. In the past six months or so at Manchester United, it has been the most embarrassing period since he became a manager, not only because the team's results have not improved, but also because his own tactical concepts have not been implemented. And Joseph himself knows that his tactical philosophy does not suit United's current squad.

And there are only two ways to solve this problem. Or give the team a blood, as Eddie did when he first came to Manchester United. Or change your tactics and adapt to this Manchester United team that is no longer a strong team.

Joseph's approach was straightforward and in keeping with his arrogant nature, which was a two-pronged approach. On the one hand, he submitted a long list of players to the club that he needed, and the club also understood that the team's current squad was not ideal, so they readily agreed to Joseph's request. While not every player on the list will be able to come to United, the Reds spent £30 million on a winter transfer window, which is a huge amount of money for a transfer off-season. What's more, Manchester United's transfer moves are not limited to this season.

On the other hand, Joseph was trying his best to change his tactics, but it didn't go so well. After all, the original tactics have been in use for almost two decades, and it is not easy to suddenly make a change now. Coupled with the fact that Joseph wanted to make complex tactics simple, this was even more difficult. The so-called road to simplicity, many things, are often simple and more difficult than complex.

It's like the same tactical adjustment, Wang Shuai has been adding things to his own tactics, and what Joseph has to do is to delete the already plump tactics little by little. So what to delete first and then what to delete, what can be deleted and what can't be deleted, these are all questions.

Fortunately, Joseph is also a legendary coach who has won countless championships after all, and defensive counterattack is his best tactic, so he directly made the simplest and crude choice, that is, to abandon all his original tactics, leaving only the most primitive defensive counterattack tactics. As the name suggests, defense is in front of the counterattack, and the most basic part of this tactic is to defend, and then seize the opportunity to counterattack. Joseph's first tactical adjustment was to emphasize the team's defense.

Joseph has done well, as evidenced by his previous eight-game winning streak. After that, the team's record suddenly fell, which is just an inevitable process, after all, no tactics are perfect, and it is normal for the opponent to find weaknesses and hit them, not to mention that Manchester United's current tactics are so simple. Joseph also believes that when he integrates the attacking philosophy of defensive counter-attacking tactics into the team, Manchester United's results will take another leap forward.

Unfortunately, just before United's next tactical adjustment was completed, the Carabao Cup final came.

Although the final came at a particularly bad time, Joseph had no choice but to bite the bullet. Joseph knew that he had won a top-three finish in the league every year, and the season was about to come to an end. But he also has another impressive record, which is winning at least one top-flight title every year, and the current League Cup is one of them. It can be said that if Joseph wants to keep his "legendary" experience, this championship today must be fought for.

But apparently, Joseph's ideals are plump, but the reality is skinny. Manchester United, who can only defend now, will not be easy to win the Carabao Cup. Because their opponent, Aston Villa, is no worse than them, both offensively and defensively.

Joseph can only hope that his team can hold on to the net for 90 minutes, and it would be perfect if they could find the right opportunity to score a goal.