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

Chapter 538 No More Three-Point Lane

Three days later, in the fourth round of the FA Cup, Manchester United defeated League Two team Yeovil Town 4-0 away with a rotation lineup and advanced to the FA Cup round of . Lingard, Mata, Herrera and McTominay each scored a goal.

In the last two days of January, the 1th round of the Premier League continued.

Manchester United's opponent in this round is Tottenham. Although Lily Bai's performance this season is not as amazing as last season, after 24 rounds, she still surpassed Arsenal and ranked fifth in the Premier League standings. Her overall performance is still good.

This was the first time Harry Kane faced his old club after moving to Manchester United, but the venue of the game was no longer the familiar White Hart Lane, but the new Wembley Stadium.

However, Harry Kane's mood was not so good when facing his old club again, because before the game started, he was booed by the home fans.

The scene was filled with insults directed at Harry Kane.

"Do you remember who trained you? It was Tottenham, Harry! You can't do this to us!"

"If Manchester United pays you more, just go with them, you bastard!"

"Ungrateful villain!"

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Tottenham fans feel Harry Kane has betrayed the club.

The abuse from Tottenham fans made Harry Kane look unhappy.

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At the beginning of the game, Tottenham launched a fierce attack on Manchester United's goal. They got the right to kick off and used this opportunity to continuously attack Manchester United's goal.

Ali was particularly active in the game, frequently raising his hand to ask his teammates for the ball. Once he got the ball, he would use his sharp breakthroughs to threaten Manchester United's goal.

Not long after the game started, Ali received the ball on the left. Instead of passing the ball to anyone, he made a fake move to break through the baseline, suddenly changed direction and dribbled sideways, and then took a long shot from outside the penalty area.

De Gea made a great effort to save the ball, which won warm cheers from the Tottenham fans in the stands. They were eager for their team to beat Manchester United, and slapped Harry Kane hard: "Don't you think Manchester United is stronger and can win the championship? Now that we have beaten you, what do you think?"

Bruno is a little worried about the current situation. He is worried that this will stimulate Tottenham players to play beyond their normal level. Tottenham is a young team. Some people in such a team are crazy. Once they are allowed to play crazy, even with the strength of Manchester United and Manchester City, they will be in trouble.

Last season, Manchester United suffered a defeat away from Tottenham in the final stage of the league, which delayed their championship.

Bruno doesn't want to lose again on the road today. Not only will it end their winning streak, but they will also suffer a losing streak against their former easy-to-scoring team, which will be a shame for the team.

However, Bruno also knows that instead of trying to stop Tottenham from playing, it is better to try to let Manchester United score first.

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Bruno has been playing in the Premier League for almost two years. His strength has given the Tottenham coaching staff a new understanding, and his role in Manchester United is also very obvious. In this game, Pochettino asked Tottenham's midfielders to strictly mark Bruno and not let him move freely in the midfield.

When Bruno got the ball, he faced Tottenham's tight defense. Moussa Dembele is a midfielder who can play both offense and defense, but his main task in this game was to defend Bruno.

Tottenham's starting lineup in this game formed a 4231 formation. In the midfield, Eric Dier was responsible for organizing the attack, while Moussa Dembele focused on defending Bruno. Of course, his teammates would also help him in defense.

Bruno and Moussa Dembele battled with each other in the midfield.

When Bruno got the ball, Moussa Dembele came up to press. Bruno turned around and protected the ball in front of him, and Moussa Dembele pressed him from behind to prevent him from turning easily.

Then Eric Dier ran up from the front and tried to complete a double team attack with Moussa Dembele.

Bruno did not compete with the two men in footwork, but passed the ball horizontally to the side.

But Ali had already guessed the intention of his pass. He moved in advance and intercepted the ball before Mbappe.

Mbappe was a little surprised. He was still waiting for the ball, ready to turn around and break forward, but he didn't expect Ali to be so quick and steal the ball first.

After Ali intercepted the ball, he looked back at Mbappe.

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Bruno didn't have time to complain to Mbappe, so he turned around and ran back, his target was Ali.

Of course, Ali knew what Bruno would do after losing the ball, he would definitely chase back. So Ali did not show off his footwork in front of Bruno, and passed the ball before Bruno caught up.

Then Tottenham launched an attack, and Morata's shot was caught by De Gea.

Bruno soon discovered that as long as he had the ball, he would be surrounded by Tottenham players, and no matter which direction he passed the ball, it would be intercepted.

Simply put, he fell into the trap that Spurs had set for him.

Moussa Dembele was pestering him, but he was not the main person who intercepted the ball. Someone else was stealing the ball, maybe Eric Dier, maybe Ali, or someone among the Tottenham defenders, or even the retreating Son Heung-min and Morata.

For most people, this is very difficult, but for Bruno, the greater the difficulty, the more opportunities he has.

why?

Think about it, when Tottenham players are all around him, what will happen elsewhere?

Emptiness, emptiness!

Although Bruno was surrounded, he was still trying hard to find the empty spots of the other side.

Although this is a bit difficult, sometimes his feet will be intercepted because of slow passing, and sometimes he will make a pass error because of hasty kicking. But he still insists on this approach, he believes that as long as he passes successfully once, it will be enough to threaten Tottenham's goal.

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After seeing the difficulties Bruno was facing, Manchester United players also rushed to support him. For example, the other two midfielders consciously moved closer to Bruno, reducing the distance between them, which also reduced the difficulty of Bruno's pass.

They shortened the distance between them and Bruno, which did reduce the pressure on Bruno. However, this led to a disconnect between the midfield and the frontcourt. In order to maintain a close enough connection, forwards Harry Kane and Rashford had to retreat to support.

Once they retreat, the distance between them and Tottenham's goal will be far. As a striker, the farther they are from the opponent's goal, the smaller the threat they pose.

Manchester United's offense has not improved much during this period, which is also related to the current entanglement between the two sides in the midfield.

After all, Tottenham is also a well-known strong team in European football today. They are equally matched with Manchester United in such a tug-of-war, and sometimes they can launch counterattacks by stealing the ball in the midfield. However, because Ali, Eriksson and Eric Dier moved closer to the middle, the personnel were too concentrated, and the support for the forwards was actually very limited, so there were not many opportunities to really threaten De Gea.

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Twenty-five minutes into the game, the two sides were still deadlocked in the midfield. Manchester United could not score, and Tottenham could not break the deadlock.

Manchester United head coach Mourinho is happy with the current situation, because a draw at the new Wembley Stadium is an acceptable result for him.

Mourinho didn't think that Manchester United could keep winning and the winning streak would not end.

Being able to win 24 consecutive games at the start of the season was a result he had never dared to imagine before, so it didn't matter even if it was ended by Tottenham today.

Mourinho sat in the coaching booth and just watched without making any adjustments, or he thought the current situation did not require him to make major tactical adjustments, and only required the players to make small-scale self-adjustments themselves.

But Tottenham head coach Pochettino couldn't sit still. His team was not qualified to continue to waste time with Manchester United in the midfield.

There are only 14 rounds left in the league, and Tottenham, who are competing with Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal for a place in the Champions League, cannot afford to lose any game.

The tactics he had set up to target Bruno now seemed to tie his hands. Although it limited Bruno's performance, it also made his own attack less threatening. This kind of "killing one thousand enemies and losing eight hundred of your own" thing was too unprofitable.

As the first half was halfway through, if the game continued like this, Tottenham could only hope that luck was on their side.

He stood up from his seat, walked to the sidelines and signaled to the field.

He signaled to Tottenham's two full-backs to increase the number of assists they made.

Since the midfield has to engage in a tug-of-war with Manchester United, use the assists from the full-backs to open up the situation.

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Trippier is a defender with excellent assist ability. Ben Davies on the other side is almost there, but he is also a Welsh international. He has the ability to shoot from long range and is also good at crossing.

As soon as Tottenham's two full-backs came on, the situation changed immediately.

While the two sides were engaged in a tug-of-war in the midfield, the attacks from the two wings overwhelmed Manchester United's defense. De Gea's goal began to be in danger many times, and he became the Manchester United player who appeared most frequently in TV close-up shots.

In the 40th minute of the game, Bruno got the ball in the midfield. As usual, Moussa Dembele was by his side, Ali was not far away, and Eric Dier was also rushing towards him.

Moussa Dembélé kept using his feet to interfere with his control of the ball, and he might lose the ball if he was not careful.

In desperation, Bruno could only pass the ball back.

The ball was passed back to the central defender Van Dijk. After Van Dijk got the ball, he looked at Bruno's situation and passed it back, which was probably still a back pass.

We can't always rely on Bruno and we must find ways to relieve the pressure on him.

The Dutch center back looked at the wing and passed the ball to the full-back!