Chapter 31: The Invisible Man
"Manchester United made a change and replaced Richardson with Yu Liang. Chadson's performance in this game is really not good enough! During this time, the Manchester United team was in a hurry to attack and lost its rhythm, I don't know if Yu Liang can bring a refreshing feeling to the Manchester United team! ”
Looking at the substitution sign held up on the sidelines, Richardson frowned with some dissatisfaction.
Since joining the first team of Manchester United in the 2002/2003 season, which coincided with the rise of Chelsea, he rarely got a chance in the first team! In two seasons, he made just four appearances for Manchester United.
He opted for a loan spell at West Bromwich Albion, where he was given a new lease of life, making 12 appearances in half a season and scoring three goals in total. In the final round of the Premier League, Richardson broke through the opponent's door in the second half and helped West Bromwich Albion succeed in relegation and became famous!
Richardson's outstanding performance at West Bromwich Albion was not only recognized by Manchester United, but also by national team manager Christian Eriksen, who made his international debut against the United States in May '05, and Richardson, who made his first appearance for the national team, scored twice to help England win over the United States.
In his first season back at Manchester United, he made 22 appearances for the Reds, and although he had good performances, he still faced considerable competitive pressure. He can't get the main position, and he still needs to fight for a rotation position with Park Ji-sung and others.
The return of Yu Liang in the new season has further compressed his playing time.
It was his first Premier League start of the season and he will be hoping to impress Ferguson.
But I didn't expect that in the face of Reading's promoted polo team, they would fall behind.
Impatient, he made two mistakes just now.
When he walked to the sidelines, he didn't look at Yu Liang, so he walked directly to the bench.
This made Yu Liang, who stretched out his hands and was about to high-five, embarrassed.
Ferguson, who saw this scene, frowned even more. The last thing he wanted was a gap between the players, so the look at Richardson was even more gloomy.
Yu Liang, who was embarrassed, lifted the ball up, made a stretching movement, and ran into the court.
After getting on the pitch, Yu Liang quickly communicated Ferguson's intentions to his teammates.
Manchester United made immediate adjustments.
Scholes appeared on the wing. It was also a last resort, just like he was in England, because of the presence of Shuangde, he could only be pushed to the wing.
Control the tempo.
Although Yu Liang's instructions are very clear, the effect of the changes in the Manchester United team is also very large. But Yu Liang was depressed and found that there seemed to be nothing to do with himself.
The tempo, Scholes himself can control.
Although he was pushed to the side, it did not prevent him and his teammates from controlling the tempo.
"Give it to me!"
Both attacks in a row came from Paul Scholes' feet.
This allowed the Reading players to step up their defence against Paul Scholes, and when the ball was at his feet again, he was immediately caught in the middle of Reading's tight defence.
Looking at Scholes, who couldn't advance on the side, Yu Liang immediately ran over to answer.
Scholes glanced at Yu Liang, and when he thought of the last round of the game, he felt a trace of dissatisfaction in his heart. If it weren't for you Yu Liang, the selfishness of the last game, would we have been able to lose the game?
Thinking of this, Scholes did not pass the ball to Yu Liang, and after withstanding the pressure exerted by the opponent, Scholes directly passed the ball back to the Argentine Heinze.
Scholes's action made Yu Liang, who went to answer it, feel a little worried in his heart.
Sure enough, in the next few offensive balls, Manchester United's ball did not pass through Yu Liang's feet.
"It seems that Yu Liang has encountered a crisis at Manchester United! It's been ten minutes since he got on the court, and Yu Liang hasn't touched the ball once! ”
Standing on the sidelines, Ferguson had a clear picture of the situation on the pitch.
Watching the players deliberately not pass the ball to Yu Liang, Ferguson knew that this was Yu Liang's own sin in the last game. But the past game is over, is it because of the last game that we are losing this game?
Definitely not!
Suppressing the anger in his heart, Ferguson walked to the sidelines.
Stopped Gary Neville, who was on the sidelines: "I don't want to reiterate again, the commander on the field now is Yu Liang!" ”
Gary Neville listened to Alex Ferguson and knew he was unhappy with the situation on the pitch right now.
Gary Neville, who understood it, rushed to the front court to complete this attack, and directly called Scholes: "Pay attention to the occasion, it's the game!" The old man is already dissatisfied! ”
Although Gary Neville didn't say it explicitly, Scholes knew what he meant.
After nodding his head to show that he understood, he immediately returned to the left side.
After being pushed to the wing, Scholes had a heavier task to do, not only attacking but also defending.
Because Reading is the main attack on the right side.
South Korea's Xue Qixuan was particularly good in this match. After the opening, he cut inside on the flank and set up a chance to shoot from a tight angle, but it was saved by Van der Sar. And the penalty made after the opening of the second half was caused by Xue Qixuan's cross.
Before the game began, it was widely reported by the South Korean media and called it the Korean Derby. Unfortunately, Park Ji-sung was not able to follow Manchester United to Reading in the end. A Korean derby fell through, and the match became a one-man show for Xue Qixuan.
Reading's attack was again on the right and the ball reached the feet of Xue Qixuan.
In the face of Scholes's interference, Xue Qixuan turned around and protected the ball in a half, and then passed directly over Jiang Tou.
The 27-year-old's battle to fame began at the 2002 World Cup in South Korea and Japan, when in the quarter-finals against Italy, Xue Qixuan turned and volleyed from the edge of the penalty area to help South Korea equalize at the last minute, and won the golden goal in extra time to reach the semi-finals. Of course, there were a lot of tricks in that World Cup, but I have to admit that Xue Qixuan's goal was very beautiful.
After passing Scholes, Xue Qixuan was just about to accelerate when one foot lay in front of him, and Xue Qixuan immediately stopped.
Although Xue Qixuan stopped moving forward, he still rushed forward because of inertia.
Taking advantage of Xue Qixuan's failure to stabilize his center of gravity, Yu Liang directly stretched out his foot and stabbed the football at his feet.
"Yu Liang steals in the midfield, Manchester United counterattacks!"
Scholes immediately rushed towards the front court when Yu Liang broke the ball.
However, he didn't wait for Yu Liang's pass, and when he stopped to take a look, he found that Yu Liang was on the wrong foot with his teammates in the midfield. Yu Liang's choice this time made him dissatisfied again.
Of course, on the pitch everyone has their own choices.
As the commander of the team, Yu Liang's role is to command the whole team to attack.
Handing the ball to Scholes just now is able to form a counterattack, but in Yu Liang's opinion, the effect will not be too good. Because the Reading team's formation is still relatively backward, the formation completes the defense and is solid, and it cannot achieve the purpose of the raid. The second is because Manchester United does not have many attacking players in the front, Rooney and Ronaldo have retreated to near the halfway line, even if Scholes completes the cross, there is no point in the middle.
After settling the rhythm in the middle of the road, Yu Liang began to direct the team's attack.
However, he did not choose Scholes on the left side of the attack this time, because he felt the distrust from Scholes from the moment he came on the pitch. So he distributed the ball to the feet of Fletcher on the right.
Fletcher and Gary Neville on the right combined to push the attack into the heart of the opposition, but did not completely tear apart the opposition's defence.
After seeing this situation, Yu Liang directly reached out to ask for the ball.
The ball came to the middle again.
After Yu Liang made a bit of a transition here, the ball passed directly to the left side.
Yu Liang did not hand it to Scholes, but passed to Heinze, who inserted the assist. This made Scholes, who had been preparing to catch the ball, frown. As the boss of the Manchester United team, he didn't expect to be scorned by a new little guy, although he was a little unhappy in his heart, but Scholes did not attack on the spot.
Because Heinze is looking for cooperation.
After receiving the ball, Heinze tried to break through, and directly made a one-two-one cooperation with Scholes, and after bursting into the penalty area, Heinze crossed the middle, and the inserted Ronaldo shot missed the post.
Although they were unable to score, United's attack did threaten Reading's goal.
However, Reading did not shrink their defence because of this, they did not seem to be satisfied with the one-goal advantage, and still attacked Manchester United, frequently attacking from the right to create danger.
This left Yu Liang in defense to support Scholes on the left.
When the Manchester United team is attacking, it is still fully organized by Yu Liang, and when he has the opportunity, he will come back to continue to control the ball and compress the space for the Reading team.
Such a pressing style of play requires two full-backs to provide frequent assists.
For a while, Gary Neville and Heinze became the most frequent players in the United squad. As for Yu Liang, who organized the attack, because his role was only transition and cohesion, he rarely left the country, and almost became an invisible person on the field! (To be continued.) )