Chapter 389 A Small Victory

Last week in the Premier League, Manchester United narrowly defeated Bolton away from home, paying the price of Rooney and Giggs not being able to play with both injuries.

The second round of the Champions League's visit to Mestaria was a key battle in the group. In the first round, Manchester United was particularly cautious about challenging La Liga. Ferguson also gave up commanding the League Cup and went to Spain to scout the enemy, and by the way, he inspected Atletico goalkeeper De Gea. In the 53rd minute of the game with Bolton, Giggs was replaced by Park Ji-sung. The camera quickly captured him discussing the injury with the teaching assistant. After the game, it was confirmed that he had a thigh strain. "Rian was absent for at least two weeks", and Mestaria would definitely not be able to go.

Giggs won't go. The saddest thing is not Ferguson, but the Spanish international Mata in the opponent's battle. He is still waiting to exchange his shirt with Giggs.

Mata is also a left-handed person. At the age of 13, he watched Manchester United's visit on the spot and was convinced by Giggs' skills. From then on, he took the Welsh elf as his idol: "I always said at school that Giggs is powerful, and Scholes is also my idol."

Park Ji-sung is most likely to replace Giggs, but he is not in much form. He played three games in the Premier League, and both substitutes were away. After he came on the court, Manchester United conceded three goals, scored only one goal and lost four points. Although there is no direct responsibility for losing a goal, at least there is no contribution. At the beginning of the season, fans were worried about when Giggs would fall due to injury. Unexpectedly, he would come so soon.

People talk about Rooney the most. He was also removed less than 10 minutes after Giggs left the court. At first, people thought it was a muddle-headed dissatisfaction with him. Soon, the camera cut his fat left foot and saw a large piece of ice on it. It was the sprain at Allianz Stadium last season. Rooney's injury had not recovered, and he was kicked again in the game. The so-called "no It's Rooney's bad, and his ankle hurts too much."

Manchester United's deputy coach Philan hesitated after the game: " Rooney should be fine and can play the Champions League," the inspection results showed that Philan was too optimistic. Ferguson said, "I will be absent for two to three weeks."

There is no state on the court, and there is no peace off the court. Before being a guest of Bolton, Rooney went to Taishan's house to visit Colleen's adopted sister. Rooney's embittery happened when she had a heart attack. Now her condition is getting better. Rooney took the opportunity to visit her and admitted her mistake to her mother-in-law: "It's my nonsense to make you have no face."

Although the second old man is still angry, for Colleen's sake, he doesn't blame the past and hopes to calm down as soon as possible. But the media refused to give up. Former England coach Keegan criticized Rooney in the Daily Mail, saying that the latter's current low self-resistence is well deserved. "You can't turn on a faucet and take advantage of the media (selling the wedding inside story to a magazine). Turn around and blame others for exposing your privacy. Turn off the other faucet? "

The first playboy star in English football is Best, and then the person of the same level is Keegan. At that time, he also served as the captain of England and Liverpool. Compared with Best Yushu, Keegan, known as "Mickey Mouse", is closer to today's Rooney, but he is more talented than Rooney and better at social media. Shao Rouney didn't have the opportunity to kiss the iron lady Mrs. Thatcher's cheek in front of the media, and he didn't have enough to make himself out of the record.

Ferguson was worried before: "This child is not confident. He may finally realize that he is a mortal and is not used to the media staring at him all day." The teammates sympathized: "He is still the same on the training ground. If he can't score, he is really distracted by things off the field." Keegan disagreed. After seeing Rooney's performance in Reebok, he said bluntly: "The child's self-confidence has collapsed. He is not the Rooney last season. He doesn't play, and Manchester United plays one less. This is a matter of onion mixed with tofu.

Without Rooney, Owen is most likely to partner with Li Yu. Ferguson didn't see it when he scored two goals in the League Cup. He immediately scored as a substitute when playing Bolton, scoring 200 goals in his career. The media urged: "This time Ferguson will not turn a blind eye, will he?" Owen was a little annoyed that he didn't win: "Going a goal is part of my career, but this milestone didn't bring victory."

Except for Rooney and Giggs, Scholes did not go to Spain with the team. Due to a calf injury, ginger will also have a 10-day truce. Manchester United's midfielder broke Giggs and lost ginger. Maybe they really rely on Gibson's help. Carrick's timely comeback may alleviate the dilemma of Manchester United's midfield delivery. After the first game of Bulgaria in the European Cup qualifiers, his ankle tendon was injured, and he once had to rely on closure to relieve the pain. Last Friday, Ferguson revealed that he had recovered from injury and resumed training.

In all eyes, Manchester United's departure to Spain will become a watershed in its Champions League, which will affect the next Premier League games.

Many teams now do not hesitate to give up the domestic league to ensure the qualifying situation in the Champions League. Manchester United is not immune to everyone. The biggest difficulty now is the serious absence of midfielders.

If you can't get the ideal score in Valencia, Manchester United's later league results are likely to be affected.

The media agreed that the Champions League against Valencia is a game that Manchester United must win. It will press the largest opponent in the group with a victory and firmly grasp the favorable situation of the group's first qualifying.

The Spanish team itself is aware of this. After the start of the game, they played with extra caution.

It seems that Valencia is more willing to accept a draw at home. They are not in a hurry to attack. On the contrary, Manchester United must strive for victory, but this also gives the Spanish team more opportunities to fight back. In terms of threat, Valencia's attack is more dangerous.

Manchester United have met Valencia twice in the group stage of the Champions League, with 1 win and 3 draws, two of which were tied. In the 1982/83 UEFA Cup, Manchester United lost 1-2 to Valencia. Manchester United has only won one game in 18 previous visits to Spain. Ferdinand and Vidic partnered with a central defender for the first time this season. The injured Carrick started for the first time since the community shield. Rafal, Anderson and Park Ji-sung also rotated into the starting lineup. Valencia, the leader of La Liga, also rotated six players to start in one fell swoop. They were unbeaten in 11 consecutive European home games.

Li Yu will be the single arrow on the front line of Manchester United in this game, and will definitely become the focus of Valencia's whole team.

There is no slack against Manchester United No. 9, which has become a common practice for all teams to play against Manchester United.

A single arrow also means that the offensive pressure on Li Yu will be very high, and the opponent will not easily give him any chance.

From the first half of the game, it can be seen that Li Yu had to face more than two defensive players when she turned around.

The most heard communication between the home team players is, "Don't let him turn around!"

"Ceal his angle!"

"Don't let him shoot!"

The game has become a court that restricts Li Yu. It seems that not allowing Li Yu to score goals is the goal of Valencia's game today.

Li Yu is limited by strict defense, but Manchester United No. 9 has more or less adapted to such treatment. There is no chance that he can make the ball for other teammates and create opportunities for his teammates with his running position.

The game was very silent, and the two side attacks in Manchester United's original tactics were also successfully restricted by Valencia.

Seeing that a dull draw was about to occur, Manchester United staged a final kill in the 85th minute. Nani broke through on the right side. Li Yu had no intention of stopping the ball at all, but crossed Javier Hernandez on the edge of the penalty area. The little pea shook Navaro and flashed from the angle, and shot into the lower right corner before Maduro blocked at 14 yards.

Li Yu used an assist to help the team take a one-goal lead away.

Little Pea also scored his first goal in the Champions League.

With this goal, Manchester United scored three points away from home.

Valencia's Mestaria Stadium has never been a blessed place for Manchester United. From the first time the two teams met in 1982, Manchester United had never conquered Valencia's home court.

Before the game, Valencia started with 4 wins and 1 draw in La Liga, leading the table and was in a very good state. And they held an unbeaten record of 11 consecutive home games in Europe. Even until 2007, Valencia had never lost to England at home, with 7 wins and 4 draws in 11 games. But in the 06-07 and 07-08 seasons, Valencia was defeated by Chelsea at home for two consecutive seasons.

Valencia has always had a good experience playing against the England team. In the League Cup final of the 1979-80 season, Valencia beat Arsenal in a penalty shootout to win the cup; in the 1980-81 season, Valencia defeated Nottingham Forest in the European Super Cup to win the championship; in the 2000-01 season, the Bats defeated Arsenal and Leeds United in a row on the road to promotion, the most Finally, he made it to the Champions League final.

In contrast, Manchester United, first of all, they are not doing well recently. They have lost 7 goals away from home in the last three leagues. In the last round of the league, they only relied on Li Yu's savior and narrowly defeated Bolton 3-2.

And the historical record is also very unfavorable to Manchester United. In the previous 18 away games against the Spanish team, the Red Devils only won one poor victory, specifically 1 win, 8 draws and 9 losses. The only victory was the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals eight years ago, beating A Coruña 2-0 away. What's more embarrassing to Manchester United is that in the last three visits to Spain, Manchester United has not even scored.

Before the game, 26-year-old Manchester United midfielder Fletcher said that the possession rate was the king against the Spanish team. Ball possession is important. If you easily lose the ball when visiting Spain against La Liga, they will punish you. Or you can't see the ball in at least a few minutes, because they control the ball very well.

In this game, in the face of Valencia, which is famous for its technical flow, Manchester United's possession rate in the away game reached 46.6%, which is not low. In terms of pass success rate, Manchester United's pass success rate reached 76.0%. Although it is not high, Valencia's pass success rate is controlled at 79.6%. This figure is relatively low among La Liga teams. That is to say, in the restraint and counter-restraint of the two teams, Manchester United basically played at a normal level, but failed to make Valencia normal.

The 1-0 away victory over Valencia is of great significance to Manchester United. This is not only the first time that Manchester United has conquered the Mestalia Stadium in the past 28 years, but more importantly, this victory has reversed the qualifying situation of Manchester United.

Manchester United has regained the initiative in their own hands, and the first place in the group is undoubtedly Manchester United's first goal.

On October 21 and November 3, Manchester United will play against Turkey's Bursa sports team first and then away.

Judging from the situation in the first two rounds, the Bursa sports team did not score a goal and conceded 5 goals, and its strength is really limited.

Under normal circumstances, there is great hope for Manchester United to get 6 points at home and away. In this way, Manchester United, which has got 10 points after 4 rounds, will occupy the most favorable position for the group to qualify. In contrast to Glasgow Rangers and Valencia, the two teams will continue to fight for the qualifying. Manchester United will play Valencia at home in the last round. At that time, with the favorable schedule, Manchester United may qualify in advance. The Red Devils can even decide which of Valencia and Rangers will join hands to qualify with them.

Manchester United beat La Liga leader Valencia 1-0 away, Chelsea beat Ligue 1 defending champion Marseille 2-0 at home, Arsenal beat Belgrade Guerrillas 3-1 away, Tottenham Hotspur beat Dutch defending champion Twent 4-1 at home, the Champions League group stage entered the second round, England surpassing the four teams in the whole line Red, which is not common in the group stage of the UEFA Champions League in the past two seasons.

Carrick finally appeared. In today's Manchester United away game against Valencia, Ferguson sent England midfielder to play in a relatively important game for the first time. Previously, Carrick only played a total of 96 minutes for Manchester United this season: 80 minutes on the Community Shield, and the performance was not bad; the other 16 minutes was to replace the veteran Scholes, who needed a break, when the victory against West Ham United in the league had been decided.

As the top minister of Manchester United's three consecutive Premier League championships and the top of Europe two years ago, even in the middle of last season, the midfield combination of Carrick, Scholes and Fletcher is still majestic and energetic, and is one of the indispensable trump cards in Ferguson's hands. However, since Manchester United eliminated Bayern at home in the UEFA Champions League last season, the state of the former Tottenham general has begun to decline, and the speed is amazing. He was quickly abandoned by Ferguson and Capello at the same time, and even did not get a minute to play in the World Cup in South Africa.

If you watch today's game, I believe that the fans will remember Carrick's several obvious mistakes in the first half, two of which almost directly caused the team to conceal the goal.

In the 16th minute, Carrick, who did not pay attention to the situation on the field, picked up the ball near his own penalty area and turned around and found that two Valencia players had gathered around. He hurriedly chose to cross the ball. The ball was just at the foot of the home team Pablo Hernandez, who made a powerful shot from the penalty area and shocked Van der Sar. In a cold sweat.

In the 28th minute, "Carth's mistake" reappeared. His careless pass gave the Valencian a chance to attack directly into the hinterland behind him. Fortunately, the Spaniard did not form the final goal.

In the 41st minute, Carrick's random straight plug ball was a little aimless and sent directly to the opponent's feet. At this time, the commentator of the broadcast party sighed that the accurate direct transmission was Carrick's previous unique skill, which was what Ferguson valued him most. In the 45th minute, Van der Sar made a world-class save, because Carrick slowed down by half a beat at the front of his penalty area. Although the referee on duty thought that the Valencia team members fouled online, this detail also showed Carrick's current poor physical condition.

Doesn't Carrick, a defensive midfielder, have an outstanding defensive shot today?

In fact, Carrick's successful tackles today are indeed 0. According to OPTA's post-match statistics, Carrick has only one tackle, and it is still an unsuccessful tackle. I don't know if it's infected by him. The other two first-time defensive midfielders Fletcher and Anderson tackled 0 times in this game.

Three Manchester United blockers, none of them successfully shoveled in 90 minutes! This also reasonably explains why the Bat Legion's offensive has prevailed for most of the game. Carrick himself is to blame for this situation.

Although Ferguson explained to the Daily Express before the game that Carrick was absent from the team's training for a period of time because of an ankle injury. He just returned to the team last Friday, and Manchester United's midfielder also missed England's recent European Championship qualifiers, but it is obvious that Carrick has not only been treated coldly recently. The injury is so simple.

In the whole game, the English midfielder ran 11.5 kilometers long, nearly half a kilometer more than the immortal Fletcher, but the poor game state made him too inefficient and made frequent mistakes. After the game, Carrick scored the lowest score in the team, whether it was the official score of Sky Sports or the spontaneous score of the fans. In other words, Carrick in this state is no longer worthy of Manchester United's starting lineup.

If Ferguson looks at another field, the excellent performance of Tottenham Hotspur player Bell will definitely be unhappy. The Welshman not only scored a goal today, but also made a penalty.

When competing with Tottenham Hotspur for the former Southampton player, Ferguson lost for various reasons, but finally bought Carrick from his competitors at a high price of 18.6 million pounds.

Compared with Bell, the latter's downturn today is underground and one in the sky. If Carrick is affected by injury as Ferguson said, then the Lord may still have the patience to give him a chance; but if the time and one appearance can't cure the sleepwalking of the English midfielder, then the sufferer, who has been troubled by the sound of the transfer recently, has only one choice left.

How does Ferguson solve the defensive problem in the midfield?

Do we really have to wait for the rumored Snead? Now everyone knows that Sneid is not a defensive expert, and the defensive midfield is the most serious missing part of Manchester United at present.