Wang Shuai began to study the schedule. Pen @ fun @ pavilion wWw. ｂｉｑUｇE。 ｉｎｆｏ

Although it has been said that the team's goal for the season is to qualify for the Champions League, with seven rounds of the league remaining, only three points away from the top of the table, and Champions League qualification is already worry-free, it is a big joke to say that they don't want to compete for the title.

Therefore, Wang Shuai began to study the possibility of Villa winning the championship.

With seven rounds remaining, Villa are left with only one strong opponent, Chelsea, who are opponents in the 35th round of the league. Liverpool, on the other hand, have one more opponent than Villa, namely Arsenal in the 33rd round of the league and Manchester City in the penultimate round of the league.

Judging from the league schedule alone, Villa's hopes of winning the title are really not small, after all, as long as they are equal to Liverpool's points, Villa have an advantage in goal difference.

It's just that Liverpool are not bound by European competition now, so they are more comfortable in the league than Villa. Villa have now reached the semi-finals of the Europa League, where they face last season's Eredivisie champions Ajax, while the other two semi-finalists are Roma in the same group as Villa and Lyon in Ligue 1. These three teams, no matter who the opponent is, it is impossible for Villa to send a semi-main team to play if they want to win safely. In this way, Liverpool's state in the league is bound to be much better than Villa's.

If you talk about the importance of the Europa League and the Premier League, Wang Shuai himself must put the Premier League first, because if his coaching level wants to improve, he needs a first-tier league champion. And to improve the coaching level, although the reward on the surface is only 2 skill points, Wang Shuai knows that after being promoted to an intermediate professional coach, there will inevitably be a new system. It's like an amateur coach turns on coaching skills, and junior professional coaches start the training system. The rewards under these "unspoken rules" are not comparable to 2 skill points.

It's just that for others, even 'insiders' like David, Ibrahimovic and Franck Ribery, the Europa League is certainly much more important than the Premier League. Although the level of the Europa League is not as good as the Champions League, it is also a European competition, and in the eyes of these people, the domestic league, even the Premier League, one of the five major leagues, is not comparable.

Therefore, if there is a conflict between the Premier League and the Europa League, and one must be abandoned, Wang Shuai must also give up which one must be carefully considered.

However, Wang Shuai doesn't have to worry about these in recent times, because the game between Villa and Chelsea is at the end of April, and the league and Europa League before that are not a problem for Villa at this stage, Wang Shuai just needs to prepare for the game safely. And the only thing that can make the whole Villa team tense is the FA Cup.

……

In early April, Villa were methodically campaigning in the league to knock out Newcastle United, Stoke City and Burnley, while Liverpool had an accident on the other side.

In the 33rd round of the English Premier League, Liverpool challenged Arsenal away. The attacking prowess of both teams is among the best in the Premier League. However, the much-anticipated head-to-head battle did not materialize, and Liverpool's trident was inexplicably dumb, and the game unexpectedly became one-sided.

3:1, Arsenal won at home.

As a result, Liverpool returned the top spot in the standings to Villa due to the disadvantage in goal difference. Manchester City, meanwhile, drew 1-1 away at Southampton to stretch the gap to the top of the table by six points.

After these three games, Villa's league campaign has also come to an end for the time being, and they will fight in the FA Cup and Europa League for the next half month.

Villa's opponent in the FA Cup semi-finals is Manchester United, who have been reformed by Joseph for almost two years.

After Chelsea, Real Madrid and Inter Milan, Manchester United is the fourth team that Joseph has worked hard to build, and now Manchester United is gradually engraved with Joseph's unique brand - defensive counter-attack.

As you can see from this season's games, Manchester United's defensive counter-attacking tactics are becoming more and more adept, and under Joseph's construction, Manchester United's defensive intensity is also increasing day by day, and they are now second only to Villa in the league in terms of goals conceded per game.

Unlike the previous three teams, Joseph has added a new element to Manchester United, which is attack.

In the last season or so, Joseph has increasingly discovered that in the current era of attacking football, defense alone will not work, and the pragmatism of "one goal to win" that he has been pursuing has now lost its usefulness, and the only way to gain a foothold in the league is to strengthen the team's attacking strength.

Fortunately, Manchester United has always been an excellent attacking team, although under Joseph's leadership, the focus has gradually shifted to defence, but the foundation of the attack has not been lost. Although Joseph is famous for his defensive counter-attacking tactics, he is a world-class coach after all, and he has a lot of offensive tactics and playing styles in his heart. In addition, he is very adventurous, and in the early years of Chelsea's coaching, he made extreme tactics of playing "four forwards" or even "five forwards" in order to pursue victory. Now it's just about adding some attacking elements to the counter-attack, which couldn't have been easier for Joseph and Manchester United.

So, when Villa and Manchester United met for the third time this season, it was found that the Red Devils had changed differently.

The first meeting between the two teams was in the first half of the league, when Manchester United, like last season's Carabao Cup final, was in the initial stage of team transformation, and everything was not yet formed, and Villa naturally won easily.

The second meeting was in the second half of the season, when Joseph's counter-attacking tactics had already begun to bear fruit at Manchester United, and under the Red Devils' high-intensity defence, Villa and United drew 1-1.

In the third meeting, the FA Cup semi-final, Manchester United not only improved defensively, but also greatly strengthened their attacking strength. This is also with the help of Wang Shuai's system, so that Villa's young players have grown up like a fly, which has allowed Villa not to fall behind in the game.

But that was all there was to it, and after 90 minutes of normal time, the two teams were again tied at 1-1. When the half-hour extra time was over, the score remained unchanged and the game was dragged into a penalty shootout.

It was only at this point that Villa really had the upper hand.

Manchester United's attacking reinforcement is only a strengthening of the tactical system, not the strength of the attacking players. And tactics, apparently, are not of the slightest use in penalty shootouts.

Villa's side is different, several goalscorers in the midfield, the shooting ability is not what it used to be, which gives Villa the advantage in the penalty shootout.

Except for Wu Shi's shot that was guessed by the Manchester United goalkeeper and saved, the penalties of the other four players were all scored. And Villa finally advanced to this season's FA Cup final with an aggregate score of 5:4.