From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 392 Gundogan

As predicted by the media before the game, Everton launched a strong attack at their home court and played offensive football, while Manchester United was much more conservative and they defended and counterattacked.

When Koeman came to Everton from the south coast, the first question he faced was: Should I establish the team's tactical system according to my ideas, or should the team keep the previous style of play unchanged and let me check for omissions and fill in the gaps?

This question has always troubled him.

Throughout the Premier League, Everton's midfield and frontcourt configuration is undoubtedly the strength of the first tier, and what surprised fans the most was the poaching of Bolasie from Crystal Palace in the summer, and then the introduction of center back Ashley Williams replaces the departed Stones and takes over from Aston Villa's strongman Gueye.

With this kind of staffing, it seems that the goal should be the top four in the league.

But the actual situation is that Everton is in poor shape recently. Since Koeman has been hesitating about the team's style of play and staffing, this has resulted in the team only achieving 9 victory in 12 games from the end of September to the beginning of December. get out of class is about to end.

During this period, Koeman has successively arranged as many as six formations, 4231, 4312, 433, 532, 352, and 442. The wing candidates are wavering between Miralas, Bolasie, and Deulofeu. . The current core midfielder Gueye and his partner have never been able to stabilize. This makes it difficult for him to carry the team although he performs well personally.

In addition, both Miralas and Bolasie are accustomed to attacking from the left, and there is a serious overlap in positions. Although Ross Barkley still has the ability, his playing style is becoming more and more impatient, which makes people feel Golf quotient is getting lower and lower.

As for Deulofeu, many media are reporting that he may leave in the winter window. Regardless of whether it is true or not, you cannot always count on Coleman, the best right back, to attack on the right.

These miscellaneous reasons caused Everton to suffer an embarrassing record of winning only 11 game in 1 games in all competitions after a good start in the league. The situation does not look so optimistic.

Under such circumstances, Everton naturally hopes to reverse the situation early.

Especially in the game against Manchester United, if they can win at home, it will undoubtedly have a very good effect on boosting the team's morale.

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Manchester United also made adjustments. In addition to Kante returning from injury, Gundogan also made an unexpected start. Before that, he had been the team's substitute most of the time, but Mourinho chose Gundogan to start in this game.

This is also beyond the expectations of Everton head coach Ronald Koeman. Because Gundogan has not had many playing opportunities this season, Ronald Koeman does not know much about the German midfielder. The key to the game lies precisely in Gundogan.

Gundogan was snatched from Manchester City last summer. Gundogan, who was playing for Borussia Dortmund in the Bundesliga at the time, almost signed with Manchester City, but Mourinho's personal charm played a key role, so he chose to come to Manchester United.

This season he represented the Manchester United first team in a total of 14 appearances in various competitions, six of which came as a substitute. Most of the time he played silently in the reserve team, following the training plan formulated for him by the coaching staff. Raise your own game.

If you just look at the data, it would make people think that he made a mistake in choosing to move to Manchester United. Compared to Mkhitaryan, who moved to Manchester City, Gundogan's statistics are completely incomparable.

But in fact, he did receive careful training under Mourinho. Occasionally, Mourinho would let him play games on behalf of the first team to see the results of his usual training.

Sometimes he performs well, sometimes he performs poorly, but no matter whether he performs well or poorly, Mourinho does not comment, neither praises nor criticizes, and treats him coldly, thus creating a relatively relaxed environment for Gundogan. environment of.

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In this game, Mourinho felt it was time to put more pressure on Gundogan and see how he performed in such a crucial game.

So Mourinho did not arrange his most commonly used 433 formation before, but changed to a 4231 formation, with Kante and Carrick forming a double midfielder, and Gundogan, Bruno and Rashford forming a forward line.

Before the game, Mourinho told the team and Gundogan that his left wing would become the team's focus, and Rashford would be a feint point.

When Everton's defensive attention is attracted by Rashford, Bruno will transfer the football to Gundogan's feet on the other side.

In the first ten minutes of the game, Gundogan was still adapting to the game, and he quickly passed the ball out without trying the breakthrough he was good at. It seemed that Rashford was still Manchester United's main attack direction.

After he got the ball, he made three breakthroughs, one was successful and two failed.

In fact, Bruno is paying close attention to the situation on Gundogan's side. Once he feels that Gundogan has found the rhythm of the game, he will pass the football without hesitation.

In the 22nd minute, Rashford attracted two Everton defenders on the right wing and passed the ball through the gap.

After receiving the ball, Bruno did not hesitate and moved the football directly to the other side. Gundogan received the ball!

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Gundogan, who is 1.8 meters tall, is not physically strong, but he is fast, flexible and has excellent skills.

Gundogan, who received the ball, did not pass the football this time, but chose to break through with the ball himself.

Everton's right back Seamus Coleman didn't know Gundogan well, and he couldn't tell anything from the previous 20 minutes of the game, so he was caught off guard by Gundogan!

Gundogan, who broke through Coleman, did not pass, but continued to break into the penalty area.

<divclass="contentadv">As soon as he entered the penalty area, the opponent's midfielder Gueye rushed up, made a side body contact, and Gueye stretched out his foot to steal the ball.

But he bumped into Gundogan.

Bruno and Ibrahimovic raised their hands and signaled to the referee that Everton's players had committed a foul.

Sure enough, the referee blew his whistle and pointed at the penalty spot!

"Oh oh oh! Everton's player committed a foul... It was Gueye. He hit Manchester United's Gundogan! He is sentenced to death!"

"How could this be a foul?" Gueye felt that he was wronged. He did not hit anyone intentionally at all. The force he used when leaning against Gundogan was a normal and reasonable collision. He rushed to the referee to defend himself. , hoping to get the referee to change the penalty.

"I didn't hit him... I just touched him. Is such a little bit of physical contact a foul?"

Other Everton players also surrounded the referee and argued fiercely.

Outside the Everton players, the Manchester United players hugged each other. After Ibrahimovic pulled Gundoan up, he gave him a bear hug.

"Well done, Ilkay!" Everyone congratulated Gundogan.

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The protests of Everton players are ineffective, because once the referee makes a penalty, it will be difficult to change it, especially when it involves a goal, he is even more cautious. The final result was that the referee insisted on the penalty and Manchester United got a penalty kick in the away game.

The person who took the penalty kick was Bruno. He kicked the ball hard into the goal guarded by Strömberg.

Everton goalkeeper Strömberg made a misjudgment and threw the ball in the wrong direction.

After taking a one-goal lead, Everton began to try more attacks. The more Everton invests in offense, the easier Manchester United's game will be.

Before the end of the first half, full-back Valencia dribbled the ball from the wing and passed in. After Ibrahimovic leaned on his opponent, he stopped the ball and turned around to shoot. The football hit the inside of the goal post and bounced into the goal, 2:0!

"Ibrahimovic! Ibrahimovic! He scored again! Scored again! Manchester United leads 2:0 away from home!"

After the start of the second half, Everton and Manchester United launched a crazy counterattack in the half, hoping to equalize the score as soon as possible.

Manchester United is hoping that Everton will play like this because it will give them more space to counterattack.

Rashford and Gundogan are both very skilled and fast players, and are very suitable for defensive counterattacks.

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In the 64th minute, Bruno seized the opportunity of the opponent and suddenly made a long pass when the backcourt was empty. The football crossed half of the field and passed directly in front of Rashford.

The ball passed by Bruno was very good. It did not fall directly at Rashford's feet, but more than ten meters in front of Rashford, giving him plenty of room to sprint. Rashford ran forward at full speed, and then rushed the football out in front of Baynes who rushed back to defend, using his speed to throw away Baynes.

Then he looked up at the situation in front of him. Everton goalkeeper Strömberg had already attacked and reached the edge of the penalty area.

Strenberg is not afraid of Rashford passing the ball, because Rashford is already Manchester United's most advanced player, like the tip of a bayonet.

After Rashford saw Strenberg's position, he slowed down slightly, controlled the ball, and then shot!

The football jumped high and passed over Strenberg's head. Although the Dutch goalkeeper tried his best to jump up, it was in vain. He couldn't reach the football in the air at all, and could only watch the football fall towards the goal behind him, while praying in his heart that the ball would go high or miss.

It's a pity that God didn't hear his prayer, and the football missed the goalpost and fell into the empty goal.

"Oh - beautiful lob! Rashford sealed the victory for the team!"

"This goal was scored so easily, there is no suspense! Manchester United's powerful attacking firepower scored three more goals in this game!"

"0:3! Everton is finished. If they want to score points, they must score three goals in a row in the next game. At the same time, they cannot expect Manchester United to continue to score. But look at how Manchester United seizes them and presses hard. Then he scored in the open space? If you can score one goal like this, you can score more goals like this..."

Although Everton used a careless clearance from Manchester United's defense to pull back a point in the final injury time, it didn't help.

No one in the entire Manchester United team cared about the conceded goal, because they had already secured the victory!