(Addendum 2)

'Never since I left the Anglo-African United [the English non-professional league, the fifth tier of the English FA] I have never headed so many balls in a single game. Former Fulham centre-back Dan Byrne, who is 196 tall, said after witnessing the whole process.

That game was also the lowest point of David William Moyes's 10-month spell at Manchester United, for which he was dubbed the 'Crossing Maniac'.

There is no detailed attacking routine, and blindly passing from the side is no different from trying your luck. It's like scratching a lottery ticket that doesn't exist at all, and it's not destined to end well. And that's what the defenders are most happy to see.

'Defenders like to be involved in games like this. Rio Ferdinand, who was already on the bench at the time, said: "I enjoyed the games where I only had to deal with high balls and crosses. ”

Keown agreed: "I'm not a boastful person, but to be honest, I'm pretty good at handling crosses. ”

Speaking after the game, Moyes said: "The players should be more attentive when handling some of the passes. (Ashley Young, Wayne Rooney and Rafael only found their team-mate in one cross each, but they made a total of 38 crosses) but he also believes the team "should win by 100 miles", Mok genius was really imaginative when describing the strength of the team, and he also stressed that "United played wide and created a lot of crosses – that's in the club's DNA." ”

Like the footwork of his wingers, Moyes is unreliable.

Yes, Sir Alex Ferguson once said that Manchester United like to use wingers, yes, he used to have Ryan Giggs, David Beckham, Andre Canchelski, Lee Sharpe and other wing talents, but the difference between Ferguson and Moyes is that the former knows how to be flexible.

Ferguson's last dynasty boasted Cristiano Ronaldo, Carlos Tevez and Wayne Rooney, and he made it 4-3-3.

Amazingly, Moyes lamented: "We need luck to change." "Yes, luck is an essential factor when it comes to crossing, but if you're on the side with the upper hand, it's tantamount to ruining your martial arts if you play luck with your opponent.

Again, 2-2, both of United's goals were the product of such a collision of great luck, and the ball collided like a pinball machine in the box to cause the goal.

A lot of old-school football people like to create chaos. Earlier this season, Manchester City legend and winger-turned-winger David White commented on the Spanish winger Jesús Navas in the Blues: "He always wants to deliver a perfect cross. ”

'He's thinking too much,' White said, 'you might as well kick the ball straight into the box and see how it goes.' There used to be times when the coach would criticize me, but whenever I made a good cross, he never criticized me for it, even though there was no one in the box. ”

But Pep Guardiola is coming, and he may have a different idea about crosses.

Keown says times have changed.

"In the past," he explained, "there were more teams willing to kick the ball into that hallway of uncertainty. Even if there was no one in the box, they would pass the ball there and ask questions. Graham Taylor will ask our wingers questions like: 'How many crosses did you make in the first half?' He asked every winger to make at least 10 crosses a game. ”

"But you don't really have to follow anyone's head. Sometimes you see the ball flying over the box and you say, 'Somebody should be there to grab this point', but how do you get them to grab it? So all I can say is: 'This ball is not a good pass. ’”

Football is also improving, and it's going fast, and we say crosses are giving way to passing.

Spain won Euro 2008 with an average of 450 passes per game, and by Euro 2012 15 of the 16 participating teams were averaging more passes per game, but Spain defended their title with not only no centre-forward, but not even any striker of any kind.

In the Bundesliga, the number of crosses has dropped by 25% in seven years, and the Premier League has seen the same trend, albeit not as quickly.

If you control the ball and the game, you control your own destiny.

More and more coaches feel that crosses are too many chances wasted.

But as someone said: "Passing is undoubtedly more deadly, but if the pass is just going around in front of the opponent's goal, then your passing tactics are meaningless and it is much easier for the opponent to defend." ”

Who said this? Sir Herbert Chapman 90 years ago. Maybe football hasn't evolved so fast.

Perhaps looking at it this way, Roy Hodgson, who wants to transform England into a pass-and-control game, is not wrong.

But what is a tiger not an anti-dog? The English, whose English style of play is deeply rooted, want to learn the transmission and control flow of Germany and Spain at once, not to mention the effect, just say that the current staffing, compared with the opponent Belgium, is not looking for abuse?

In the trident, the two forwards Harry Kane and Jamie Walty, who stand on both flanks, are mainly tasked with pulling away the opposing defenders and creating a gap for the middle of the line, and it is the two full-backs who are really responsible for the wide crosses.

And the cooperation of the three centers is very flexible, often transposing each other, making the opponent very difficult to defend, and everyone has a strong scoring ability, so since the start of the European Cup, except for the third game of the group stage, England has the upper hand in other games, and the number of shots on goal is several times that of the opponent.

Hodgson made amends and re-sacrificed the Trident, but I don't know if it's too late.

Half an hour into the first half, and with the score down 2-0, Belgium also retreated after England's substitution, and set up buses in the backfield, obviously trying to hold the two-goal advantage to the end.

The Three Lions had to score a goal in the first half to narrow the score and shift the pressure to their opponents, otherwise a 2-0 first-half would have been a big blow to the morale and confidence of the young England side.

So, it has to be a goal, not only Hodgson thinks so, the commentators in the stands, the England fans, are all calling in their hearts. Their eyes were all fixed on the body of the white-clothed No. 9. (To be continued.) )