Manchester United legend

Chapter 99 The Powerful Juventus

On September 9th, Manchester United challenged Derby County in an away game and had another draw.Like the last two draws, Manchester United fell behind at the beginning. The Red Devils gave their opponent a free kick on the right side while defending. As a result, this free kick of about 4 yards broke Schmeichel's ten fingers.However, Manchester United soon responded.Giggs grabbed the ball in the midfield and passed it to Beckham. Beckham dribbled the ball all the way in and kicked a long shot from about 30 yards outside the penalty area.

After three consecutive draws, Manchester United ushered in the challenge of Leeds United at home.At this time, Manchester United is already several points behind the top players in the list, and there is no room for loss in this battle.

Ferguson also sent a new main starter for this.First, Andy Cole recovered from his illness and returned to the main striker. Poboski also got the chance to start, and Cruyff and Beckham, who played well in the early stage, also got the chance to start.

In this game, Manchester United directly crushed Leeds United. The former overlord in white has long lost his air. Manchester United first assisted Johansen with a corner kick from Poborski. The Norwegian central defender scored the first goal with a head kick.

Cantona, Manchester United's most trusted captain, came to take the penalty, but a strange thing happened. Cantona actually missed the penalty. Although his dangling and powerless penalty completely fooled the goalkeeper, he missed the target and the ball slid out of the goal.

Despite this, Manchester United’s offensive did not stop. Jost shoveled the ball in the middle and passed it to Popowski. Then Popowski led the offensive and rushed to the corner of the penalty area.

Poborski's performance was not over yet, and Manchester United soon had a chance to counterattack. He received a pass from Cantona in the middle, ran all the way for 30 yards, and shot a strong shot single-handedly, which once again blasted the opponent's goal.

The final goal came from Cantona. Depressed for most of the half, the Frenchman responded to a teammate's baseline cross from 2 yards in front of the goal and blocked the ball with his feet, helping Manchester United to finally lock the score 4-0.

After the victory over Leeds United, Manchester United traveled to Turin, Italy to challenge Juventus.

Meeting Juventus is Manchester United's biggest gain in the Champions League this season.

Manchester United's road to the Champions League is actually a way to learn from the continental giants: this game with Juventus opened up a new tactical world for Ferguson, which belongs to the new world of European football: pay more attention to formations and teams, rather than relying on quickness, simplicity and bravery.

In the summer, Ferguson had already started preparations for Manchester United's Champions League journey.

He is constantly recruiting troops, the main purpose is actually to get ahead in the Champions League.

When he achieved the goal of the Premier League triple crown in four years, completed the suppression of Blackburn and Newcastle, and led Manchester United to firmly stand on the top of the British Isles football, when he was almost able to achieve dominance against the Premier League team, Ferguson finally set his sights on the Champions League.

The Champions League has always had a special meaning for Manchester United. Sir Busby led Manchester United to the glory of the year, and the goal he has been pursuing and fighting for is the Champions League.

And now that Manchester United has won the Premier League many times, it is always time to think about the impact of the Champions League.

With a lot of accumulation, he just waits to become famous in one day.Ferguson is determined to increase investment and impact on the Champions League this season, and strive to achieve new breakthroughs.

After all, as a giant who once won the Champions League, it is inappropriate to play soy sauce at the highest level of European clubs at the highest level for a long time.

Although Ferguson himself admits that he has no right to speak about the Champions League and does not dare to speak boldly, but as the overlord of the Premier League and the Red Devils who have inherited Busby's tradition, it would be wrong to say that Ferguson has no ambition at all.

In order to win a league championship, Ferguson tried hard for 6 seasons and worked hard for 6 years before he finally got what he wanted.

Now, in the face of more difficult and more contingent Champions League matches, Ferguson is willing to spend more time, more energy, more sweat and struggle.

For Ferguson, the two Champions League soy sauce experience is not a particularly failure and humiliation.

Ferguson and Manchester United have great ambitions, and they are still in the stage of earnestly learning and absorbing, and constantly growing themselves.

In this year's Champions League, Manchester United was placed in Group C in the group stage.In the same group, there are the previous champion Juventus, the Turkish powerhouse Fenerbahce and the Austrian overlord Rapid Vienna.

Manchester United's first group game is away to last season's Champions League champions Juventus.

In that game against the Old Lady, Ferguson and Manchester United changed the tried-and-true formation and style of play in the league, which surprised people.

Facing the opponent at home and the famous Marshal Lippi, Ferguson’s starting lineup and formation were incomprehensible, which immediately aroused constant criticism and attacks from the on-site football critics, “What is Ferguson trying to do? Doesn’t he know that he should be more cautious against the defending champion?”, “Why did he send as many as five attacking players, but only one Jost as a defensive midfielder?”

Ferguson sent 4 young Red Devils youth players, sent 433 players who had just joined, and tried a [-] formation at the same time.Indeed, no one knows what Ferguson thinks. He sent Cruyff, Poborski, Cantona, Jost, Giggs, Beckham and other players.

Moreover, leaving pure shooters like Solskjaer and Cole unused, the task of tackling tough tasks was given to Poboski and Cruyff, and two right wingers, Poboski and Beckham, were allowed to play at the same time!

The result was of course disastrous. Cantona had no chance to find a shot, and he fell directly into the opponent's tight chain defense.

Giggs and Poborski couldn't find the distance to sprint at all. They fell into the quagmire of melee in the midfield. The bigger trouble was that Cruyff and Poborski, both wingers and midfielders, had no sense of position in this game.

Ferguson's 433 was actually a disaster. The Italians used their rich experience, tight defense and calm post-strike tactics to finally defeat Manchester United 1-0. Boksic easily scored a single goal. The defender who chased back and the goalkeeper who attacked seemed to be like air. Before this goal, Manchester United did not actually get any good chances. Messy.

This is also the first time that Manchester United, as a football powerhouse in the British Isles, met Juventus, the Italian super giant in its heyday.

In this match with the old woman, from the scene to the result, from the opponent's individual to the whole, from the body, technology to consciousness, from the change of rhythm to the adjustment of intensity, from the degree of investment and the change of the battle, Juventus gave Ferguson a strong shock.

In fact, all the arrangements made by Ferguson for this game were, to be precise, an adventure.In fact, no one knows how long Ferguson prepared for this encounter.

When the league just started, Ferguson was thinking hard about how to let Bart treat his serious knee injury to catch up with the game, while his important assistant Kidd flew to Italy to watch the training and games of various teams whenever he was free.

At the end of August, Ferguson personally led Kidd to fly to Bari to observe a Juventus Serie A game on the spot, and inspect the strength of the opponent up close.

At that time, Ferguson had already proposed to use 5 defenders to fight against the Italian giants.

That was before the match against Derby County on September 9, Ferguson began to think and plan specific formations and tactics, how to compete with Juventus.

According to Ferguson's own game diary records, he had great respect for Italian football at the time.

He analyzed the opponent in this way, "What surprised me especially was the attitude of the Juventus players, each of them played extremely seriously.

It made me think about how the center of gravity of European football has shifted from England to Italy in the last 15 years.Our club has been out of European competitions for a long time, but the Italians have figured out our game, blending our power style of play into their well-organized and prepared technical style of play. As a result, the two most powerful teams in European football: AC Milan and Juventus.

In addition to high-level game skills, they rely on work ethic and physical fitness.

I've seen footage of a cup game between these two teams before the league kicks off and the work ethic is unbelievable.Juventus lost that game 0-1, but it was a very good and very difficult battle between us anyway. "

Out of the "awe" of Juventus, Ferguson's idea at the time was to strengthen the defense, so he used the 532 formation with three central defenders: "According to Italy's style of play and their amazing speed, we must add a player in the midfield. I want to give the players the opportunity to practice this formation.

I made arrangements carefully and drew a sketch of our line-up: two forwards, with Cruyff playing left-forward and Cantona in his usual right-hand position; three forwards, Beckham, Jost and Giggs; three centre-backs, May, Johansen and Pallister.

Irvine and Gary Neville assisted as full-backs. "In fact, such a 532 formation and style of play made Manchester United players extremely uncomfortable. The draw by the Derby and the subsequent injury of Pallister, as well as the big victory against Leeds United with the 442 formation, completely made Ferguson shelve this idea.

And because Pallister recovered in time, there was finally a new formation that oscillated between 451 and 443 before the battle.

The awe of Juventus has always existed in the moments before the game, and Ferguson still clearly remembers the scene at that time: "In the player tunnel before the game, I looked at the Juventus players and saw the gap between us and them.

They are well-prepared athletes, they are super confident, they exude charisma, they are Juve, the kings of Europe, and I told myself: this is where we want to be. "

In actual combat, Juventus did not actually bombard Manchester United indiscriminately. The Serie A giants still deal with Manchester United according to their own ideas.

It's just that Ferguson's strange formation of 451 or 433 caused his players to fall into chaos.

In the stalemate and defense, the retreat of Poborski and Cruyff did not make Manchester United's midfield indestructible. On the contrary, the two of them, Giggs and Beckham completely became headless chickens.

Not only that, they did not share the responsibility for Cantona in the frontcourt, and there was no series and effective penetration.It was not until the second half, when Ferguson changed the formation to a more familiar 442, that Manchester United regained its vitality.

But even if Manchester United saved some scenes in the second half, the score was still firmly locked than the opponent.

Gary Neville's memories are like this: Juventus was unbelievably good that year, tall, strong, top-notch, and full of talents and dazzling stars.

I have never faced such a difficult team: Ferrara and Montero in defense, Didier Deschamps, Conte and Zidane in midfield, plus Del Piero, and two big and dangerous forwards Boksic and Vieri.

They are far more famous and better than us in every sense of the word - just standing next to them in the tunnel is scary.

Recalling that game, Gary still has lingering fears, "We lost 0:1 in Turin, but it should have been 0:10, if they were not so kind and generous, not so kind and kind.

It was the biggest blow I've ever had on the pitch - they beat us back to school, to the youth teams, it was really boys against men.

We didn't have a decent chance the whole game.We played 90 minutes without a shot, without a single chance.This is the only time in my 602 games.

Del Piero was so exceptional, so sharp, so elusive, so smart and quick-witted.

There are many players in this world who seem to be talented when the ball is at their feet, who can protect the ball and shoot it, but lack a real understanding of where to move and how to best interface with their teammates.

And every Juventus player knows what to do!Zidane seemed to be born out of nowhere, he was an absolute superstar.

The style on his body let you know early on, it is best to keep enough vigilance against him.Juventus, with them both, was commanding the United game condescendingly - you are never to blame.

These are the people who have turned the Champions League into such a difficult test, they have survived with such intensity and heights, they know how to play, they know how to win, and they know how to adapt to the lights of the city.

Not only are they excellent in technique and awareness, they are also very strong physically.Even Del Piero or Zidane, they also have a hard bone like Montero to provide protection. "

The defeat even made Manchester United almost infighting. Gary told us, "Cantona's face was blue in that game. I knew he couldn't take it. This defeat couldn't be worse. It was probably the worst night for Giggs.

When the manager criticized us at half-time, Giggs turned on him.The old man would never be offended like this, let alone let it go.He reacted immediately and replaced Giggs directly.

It was an unusual move for the boss, who rarely made adjustments in midfield and completely overturned previous plans.But the boss is generally more patient and trusts the players more.

He doesn't like to spend an entire halftime slamming players, and he doesn't like to overthrow the game plan altogether.But talking back, as Ryan Giggs did that night - as I later found out - he would never tolerate.

So Giggs watched the second half from the sidelines while Juventus continued to play like a duck to water.

They were in complete control of the game, we were outnumbered in every area, and except for the shot they wasted so freely that day, Schmeichel was still scrambled and scared.Walking off the field at the end of the game I thought: 'We're not even close yet. '"

This encounter made Ferguson unforgettable, and this game impressed Ferguson deeply, "Catch up with Juventus, surpass Juventus!" Ferguson outlined a great vision in his heart.

Ferguson later said, "The Juventus team led by Lippi is an example and template for Manchester United to learn from.

I often pull players up to watch their game tapes and analyze their tactics, formations and changes.

I said to them: There is no need to study their skills too much. We almost have what they have, but we must learn from their persistence in winning and unbeatable fighting spirit, which is often the key factor in determining the outcome of a game in the football world. "

Returning from the Apennine Peninsula, after being played by Juventus at Juventus' home court.Manchester United hosts Nottingham Forest.

Manchester United, who lost the first game of the Champions League, just took out their anger on their opponents, especially when their opponents scored a goal first in the game!
Soon Manchester United scored 4 goals like cutting melons and vegetables, and reversed their opponents with a score of 4-1.

Cantona scored twice, first received a cross pass from Giggs' left free kick, bent his bow and nocked an arrow, elegantly hit the left post into the net, and then scored a penalty kick.

After this game, many Red Devils fans believe that Cantona, who was frustrated in the European Cup, has fully recovered.

随后的三场比赛中，曼联先是0比0客场打平维拉，回到主场后分别以2比0和1比0击败热刺和利物浦。

After entering October, Manchester United hastened to catch up in the standings.During this period, Cole was injured and missed many games, but Solskjaer's sudden emergence made people no longer worry about Manchester United's firepower.This calm killer from Norway has scored consecutive goals, his state is hot, and he has also won the love of the fans.

(End of this chapter)