Chapter 7: Seeing the Wind Makes the Rudder
Tick, tick, tick......
When the three final whistles were remembered, cheers rang out at Anfield. Pen, fun, pavilion www. biquge。 info
Looking at the Liverpool players who hugged each other to celebrate the victory, the faces of the United players were full of disappointment. This is the second time they have lost at Anfield since last season. It was also their third defeat this season.
2-0, although the score is not particularly glaring, but it describes the fact that the Reds Liverpool's improvement in recent seasons is very obvious. Once upon a time, they struggled to win at home against Manchester United, but now they have beaten Manchester United at home for two consecutive seasons, and last season they almost beat Manchester United twice.
While Liverpool are clapping their hands, Chelsea and Arsenal are also clapping, and no one wants their opponents to be long-lasting. After winning the treble in 1998/1999, the Reds embarked on a period of tumultuous rebuilding, during which time the Reds were still strong contenders for the league title, but they were not as dominant as they once were. With Chelsea getting a lot of money in charge, the title fell out of the way. Chelsea are also starting to slump after winning the Premier League title for two consecutive seasons. In addition, Arsenal, which won the championship undefeated in the past, quickly fell into a trough and has not been able to win the league championship so far. It turns out that no team can last forever. Now Manchester United has reached the top of Europe for two consecutive seasons, winning the treble, and has reached the peak of its strength. After reaching the top, it is naturally downhill. Many people firmly believe that Ronaldo's departure is the beginning of Manchester United's decline.
Ferguson denied this: "His departure will indeed have some impact on the team. But it doesn't matter, we're still a strong team and our goal is still the title! ”
Berbatov's joining is to prepare for Ronaldo's transfer. For a lot of last season, United's attack was driven down the middle, with Dimitar Berbatov playing up front. While it is true that Berbatov was very efficient in scoring goals last season and was very good on the pitch, the fact that he was not compatible with United's overall style cannot be concealed. That's why in many cases last season, Manchester United's attack was not in ideal shape, and in the end the responsibility of attacking had to be handed over to Cristiano Ronaldo.
Therefore, Ronaldo's transfer and departure has a great impact on Manchester United.
Once they can't open up the middle this season, who will attack them on the flanks? The aging Ryan Giggs, or the slightly immature Nani, or the new Valencia?
So when Ronaldo left Old Trafford, many media were waiting for Manchester United to step down. When the right moment comes, they will trumpet the narrative of Manchester United's decline. The defeat to promoted Burnley was a fitting opportunity, the defeat to Shakhtar Donetsk was a fitting one, and now the defeat to Liverpool is even more opportune.
Talk of Manchester United's downturn has flooded the entire British Isles.
Amid the gloomy rhetoric, Manchester United travelled to Barnsley in the Carabao Cup. Even against a Championship side, Ferguson still fielded an all-out squad. In addition to Barnsley's strength to be reckoned with, his behaviour seems to be proving to the world that Manchester United is not a one-man team.
However, after the start of the game, Manchester United showed strong dominance, but the attacking link up front did not go well, especially when the ball reached Berbatov's feet, and the whole team's attacking rhythm was sluggish. It's like a smooth machine that has been running smoothly all along, and suddenly there is a stump.
To match Berbatov's chic and delicate style of play, Manchester United will have to play with a few players with delicate feet up front, which is not an impossible task. But as a result, the team's style of play will be very different. It's hard to imagine a team with very different styles in front and back, and it's even harder to imagine how the players in tandem in midfield can survive in these two different styles. So Ferguson did not make a change specifically for Berbatov. As a result, Manchester United launched an attack on Barnsley's defence.
In the face of Manchester United's not particularly smooth attack, Barnsley's defence was at ease. Two seasons ago, they knocked out Liverpool and Chelsea in the FA Cup to reach the last four. Like the FA Cup, the League Cup is a hotbed for dark horse miracles, and it is not impossible to beat Manchester United to reach the quarter-finals.
When the United captain was unable to open up the situation in the middle, Ferguson began to shift the direction of attack, and the United attacked more aggressively when they returned to the wing, and finally relied on Ryan Giggs's cross to assist King Dong to score, and beat Barnsley 1-0 away to advance to the quarter-finals of the Carabao Cup, avoiding an embarrassing defeat.
Such a game seems to prove that Berbatov and Manchester United's overall style is very different, but it also proves that Ferguson's choice of Berbatov to replace Cristiano Ronaldo's attacking core concept was unsuccessful.
No one denies Cristiano Ronaldo's role at Manchester United, but no one admits that Ronaldo's departure has had a big impact on Manchester United.
After beating Blackburn Rovers 2-0 at home, Manchester United beat CSKA Moscow 4-3 at home in the Champions League to qualify for the group two rounds ahead of schedule.
The pessimistic rhetoric that three consecutive wins swept away Manchester United's resignation, and all the media were there touting Manchester United overnight, and as for Cristiano Ronaldo, no one wanted to mention it at this moment.
"See the wind and rudder!"
Although it is not strange to be surprised by the virtue of the media, such a rapid change still makes Yu Liang a little unhappy.
Ronaldo successfully won the best player in Europe, and when he was interviewed, Yu Liang was not able to enter the top three, so that more people began to look forward to Yu Liang's performance, but Yu Liang's performance after the start of the new season was not amazing, and it could not even be compared with last season. Yu Liang's performance naturally cannot meet the standards of fans and the media. If they can't meet the standard of their hearts, they can't avoid the fate of being sprayed.
On the Internet, newspapers and magazines are all questioning Yu Liang's voices. Just as they question whether Manchester United will continue to go strong.
But in the 4-3 win over CSKA Moscow, when Yu Liang won the best player of the game with a perfect performance of three passes and one shot, the media also began to praise Yu Liang, and they affirmed that it was indeed unfair that Yu Liang did not make it to the top three of UEFA's best players last season.
"Isn't that what the media does? Haven't you seen the wind make the rudder? ”
This season, a team of Dong Wang, who is playing against criticism, has become numb to the media.
"Maybe in the next game you will play badly and scold even harder!"
King Dong said it.
With three wins in a row, Manchester United have endured a hard-fought battle away from home against Chelsea. Ninety minutes later, they lost 1-0 at the top of the league table, and Yu Liang was slumped in the game and was slammed by the media after the game.