Old Trafford on Boxing Day is in the Christmas spirit.

There are not only Santa Claus dresses, but also children who make their own championship trophies as if they have received Christmas gifts.

Manchester United host Newcastle United.

Having fallen to second place in the table, Manchester United are naturally looking to win the game.

At least the captain Ye Yifeng is full of fighting spirit.

You have your Christmas.

I win my game.

Newcastle United are provisionally ninth in the league and look to be under no pressure to relegate this season, and it is inevitable that there will be some relief as it coincides with Christmas.

It's fair to say that the pressure on Manchester United is definitely much greater than that of Newcastle United.

Romelu Lukaku was not in the starting line-up today and was on the bench.

Jose Mourinho is worried that his emotions will affect the performance of the game.

Now Sandezi is negotiating with Inter Milan, and it will definitely be negotiated in the end, Manchester United will inevitably sell people in order to bring in reinforcements, and now only Lukaku can sell at a good price.

Therefore, from the perspective of team development, Mourinho also needs to re-run in the striker.

If Pogba were to be sold, all United would need to change was the replacement of the attacking role and the change of formation.

Now it is Lukaku who is sold.

Here's the problem.

Who plays center?

Marcus Rashford? Anthony Martial?

It doesn't seem to be reliable to think about it.

Judging by the likes of Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Dimitar Berbatov and others, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford are both struggling to match their level in the centre-forward position.

So today at Old Trafford, Mourinho let Manchester United fans see a Ye Yifeng who appeared in the center forward position.

Awareness, running, technique, ability to capture opportunities, ability to grasp opportunities, and shooting skills are all Ye Yifeng, who is at the top level of the team, and he finally left the midfield and returned to the front line.

It's just a whole new location.

Up front are Mason Greenwood and James.

During the Christmas Express, rotation was a certainty and he was also a way for Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford to ease the most festive extremes of the past two days and prepare for the next game.

Jesse Lingard, Paul Pogba and McTominay play in midfield.

The main force of the back line is exhausted.

Ye Yifeng, who came to the front line, will definitely need some time to adapt to his style of play.

Since the game started, he was caught between the back line and the midfield line, so he had to constantly run and watch his surroundings frequently, and the space was even tighter, and even if his teammates passed the ball to him, he often kicked the ball out.

There are many passes in the back and forth run, and most of them are also back passes or splits.

Looking at his performance, he is still at ease.

It's just that it's hard to have space to control the ball and make a show.

Mourinho put aside his distractions for the time being and carefully observed the team's performance in the game.

When Ye Yifeng adapted to his position and gradually improved, Manchester United's midfield performance could still give them an advantage, but Newcastle United's form was a bit stretched.

Although it is a dense defense, the joint defense effect is not good.

When James and Greenwood fly together, Ye Yifeng will take the initiative to run to respond, unless the opponent plays an offensive advantage, then he will run in the penalty area to grab points.

The quality of the crosses of the two is not high, and the pass to Ye Yifeng lacks the effect of space utilization and opportunity prediction.

So Ye Yifeng began to try to control the ball at the edge of the penalty area.

Turning around and breaking through the dense defense of the joint defense was cut off, it is still difficult to hit the center.

As a winger, even if he has his back to the wing, there is probably only one defender behind him, and when he plays as a center forward, he is easily defended by the opponent when he is closely marked.

Coupled with the compression of maneuverable space, he realized that the success rate of forcing a breakthrough in a positional battle in the middle would be very low.

So he took a step back and created opportunities for the two wingers who cut inside while keeping the defence in check, or for his team-mates who cut in behind, while also turning forward quickly to get the ball out and stealing the spot.

It's a bit similar to his thinking when he played the front midfield, maybe he hasn't completely completed the role transformation from the consciousness.

But the effect is extraordinarily explosive!

In the 29th minute of the game, Ye Yifeng received a direct pass from Pogba at the front of the penalty area, and before he touched the ball, the two defenders closed the door and defended from behind, and the back also turned back to defend and pounced on him.

Ye Yifeng took the initiative to retreat and took a step to hit the ball back to find Lin Huang, who sent a straight plug to the right rib of the penalty area.

Ye Yifeng restrained the strategy, and Lin Huang delivered the threat ball.

Greenwood quickly cut inside into the right rib of the penalty area, stopped the ball and adjusted it before starting to shoot in one go.

The soccer ball flies straight to the bottom left corner of the goal.

The hand rises and falls, and the whole thing is broken!

Manchester United 1:0 Newcastle United.

After scoring a goal, the Aoki Hall owner took the initiative to run to high-five Ye Yifeng, and then ran to the sidelines to enjoy the cheers of the fans.

Lin Huang, who had swiped the assist, also ran to Ye Yifeng's side quickly, smiling with his eyebrows.

Mourinho applauded, but also realized that Ye Yifeng playing as a center forward on the field can create more space for wingers and forwards.

Because he has his own aura of "group ridicule"!

No opponent will despise him!

If there is anything missing, it is expected that after the run-in, Ye Yifeng's terrifying finishing ability can be brought into play.

Newcastle United are really not in good shape, maybe it's because Christmas is too high.

If there is any obvious change in Ye Yifeng's feeling, it is that he is in the front of the penalty area, which is completely within his long-range range, and the opponent does not dare to foul him easily.

For fear of giving Manchester United a dangerous free-kick opportunity.

In the 44th minute, Pogba suddenly returned the ball diagonally in the forward dribble, and Lingard followed up with a through ball.

Ye Yifeng ran horizontally to drive the defender to follow, but he seized the opportunity, stopped the ball in the response and turned in the opposite direction, the person turned over, but the ball was knocked into the right rib of the penalty area by his heel.

Two Newcastle United defenders were keeping an eye on him, and as a result, Greenwood once again threatened the right rib of the penalty area, but Ye Yifeng's sloppy action of turning and knocking the ball in the heel made him slow to react, and if he had started early, he could have copied the previous goal.

This time, when he caught up with the football, the goalkeeper had already attacked, but the owner of Aoki decisively chose to poke the ball towards the middle of the goal.

Ye Yifeng couldn't catch up, and there were defenders in front of him.

But James sprinted like a bolt of lightning to the back of the goal, flying and shoveling the ball into the empty goal!

The cheers and applause at Old Trafford were deafening!

Jose Mourinho stood up and applauded his team's performance.

The idea of a fast player playing as a winger doesn't seem wrong.

Ye Yifeng seemed to be lonely.

No goals, no assists.

But the fans could see that he activated two wingers!

Let Greenwood and James be able to better play their own characteristics and strengths!

At half-time, United led Newcastle United by two goals.

Back in the dressing room, Jose Mourinho asked his side to play conservative in the second half.

Focus on defending and counter-attacking.

After all, this is only the first game of the devil's schedule.

Don't look at Manchester United with one less game and one less League Cup, but they didn't go on vacation to Qatar, they also played two games after all.

Add to that the cost of traveling across Eurasia, all of which need to be taken into account.

In the second half, the two sides changed sides and fought again.

Newcastle United did not fight back, and United became conservative again, so it turned into a positional battle for James and Mason Greenwood to attack alone.

Ye Yifeng followed up at an average speed in the middle, and when the side breakthrough was successful, he would start decisively.

The two youngsters each made a contribution, their confidence skyrocketed, and the success rate of the breakthrough was also quite high, Ye Yifeng frequently sprinted into the penalty area to try to respond.

But the quality of their crosses suddenly became a bit miserable.

Maybe there is only one point of Ye Yifeng, and the requirements for the accuracy of crosses are very high.

As a result, Ye Yifeng rushed to be lonely.

It wasn't until 60 minutes after the game that Newcastle United began to fight back, and they had to work hard.

After all, it wasn't with the intention of giving Manchester United three points for Christmas.

What if the counterattack succeeds?

Didn't Manchester United send them Christmas bags?

In the 64th minute of the game, Manchester United successfully defended at the back, and Pogba sent a through ball smoothly at the back.

Ye Yifeng led the ball in the run, made a quick stop, changed direction, smashed the ball past the back midfielder, Sean Longstaff, and then rushed forward to the middle, James and Greenwood rushed up, closed their eyes, and passed the ball to the left.

The Newcastle United defenders quickly returned to the defense, James dribbled inside into the penalty area and saw the defenders rushing towards him to block his shooting line, so he crossed the ball back to the middle to find Ye Yifeng, who followed up.

Centre-back Fernandes turned and pounced on Ye Yifeng, who slammed his shoulders and shook, and then smashed the ball at his feet and broke through the backcut line.

The moment Fernandez was passed, he turned around and tried to catch up again, which was already a fool's dream.

Ye Yifeng, who was close to a single knife, calmly hit a push shot and sent the ball into the bottom right corner of the goal.

Goalkeeper Dubravka was powerless.

Old Trafford is thunderous!

This Boxing Day is a very satisfying day for them!

Ye Yifeng scored his 25th Premier League goal of the season.

Manchester United 3:0 Newcastle United.

Seal the win.

Mourinho is in a good mood, at least seeing the effect of Ye Yifeng switching to a center forward.

If Ye Yifeng struggles to play center, he will definitely let Ye Yifeng go back to play winger.

Romelu Lukaku is in a different mood.

Watching Ye Yifeng celebrate his goal in the corner flag area, the frenzied cheers of the Red Devils fans echoed in his ears.

Alas.

I'm not gone yet!

It's as if Manchester United have adapted well to life without him.

Newcastle United are completely out of action.

Confessed.

If you continue to fight back, you will most likely continue to be overwhelmed by the Manchester United track and field team.

The tempo of the game slowed, but James and Greenwood watched as Newcastle United's slightly tighter defence broke through and began to be less efficient.

In the 74th minute of the game, Ye Yifeng opened the prize pool.

Cowell, who popped out of Liverpool, made him a little sore.

A minute later, Jose Mourinho made a punctual substitution to get him clocked out.

Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Romelu Lukaku came on.

The front trident was all replaced.