Star card system.

August has passed, the Premier League has started and the Champions League groupings have settled, and the battle in European football has set off a small climax.

The week in early September is the national team match day. National team members from various clubs leave the team one after another to report to the national team.

Fans' attention is all on the national team events.

Fans from all over the world watched the football with great interest, while the coaches of the wealthy teams were worried and frightened.

Once a player is injured in the national team, it will be troublesome...

For Manchester United, the result was not bad, and the players were basically uninjured.

It's just that my physical fitness is somewhat affected.

It doesn't matter, as long as no one gets hurt.

On September 9, Manchester United visited the Britannia Stadium to challenge Stoke City.

This is the fourth round of the Premier League, and Mourinho attaches great importance to it.

Because in three days, Manchester United will usher in the first round of the Champions League group stage, in which they will challenge Dortmund away from home.

This should be the most difficult game for Manchester United in the group stage.

Before that, we must stabilize the league before we can go all out to deal with our Champions League opponents.

Manchester United sent out a rotating lineup for this game. Basically, the players who played for the national team last week did not play today.

Such as Lukaku, Mkhitaryan, Pogba, Matic, Lingard and other players.

The starting lineup was mainly veterans.

Rooney, Carrick, Ibrahimovic and other players.

These veterans have all retired from the national team and there are no national team games, so they are in good physical condition and are suitable to start this game.

Among them, Xia Xing is the youngest.

After all, he has no national team matches.

Agent Mendes told him that the England national team invited him and promised him a lot of money.

He even has captaincy.

But Xia Xing still refused.

The reason is simple: I have no interest in playing at the national team level.

France, Germany, Argentina, Brazil and other countries have also contacted Mendes to try to dig out Xia Xing to see if there are any opportunities.

Xia Xing is better not to care.

No interest, now I just want to play club matches.

So after a week of rest, he also got the opportunity to continue starting.

Facing Stoke City in this game, Manchester United is bound to win.

This opponent barely managed to avoid relegation last season, but this season is still in poor form. In the first three rounds, they have two draws and one loss, and are struggling to stay in the relegation zone.

Facing Manchester United in this game, they still formed a tight formation.

Coach Mark Hughes is very self-aware.

Playing against Manchester United, it would be good to get one point, but don't expect miracles.

So even though they have powerful forward Choupo-Moting, high forward Crouch, Shaqiri with outstanding personal ability and many other offensive players, they still retreated in this game.

With the 5-4-1 formation, the tactics are very clear.

Manchester United naturally attacked with all their strength in this game.

Ibrahimovic burst forward, with Xia Xing, Rooney and Martial behind him, and Herrera and Mata in the midfielder position, very high forward.

虽然还是4-2-3-1，但是踢起来就变成4-2-4了。

But even so, they still encountered a lot of trouble in this game.

The opponent's captain in this game was Scottish player Fletcher.

He is a native of Manchester United's youth training. He stayed at Manchester United for more than ten years before leaving in 2015.

He moved to Stoke City on a free transfer this summer and quickly became the core of the midfield with his stable performance.

In this game, he was responsible for the team's midfield organization, and the team's defense was in order.

There is also a midfielder, Jese, who is a wide attacker for Stoke City.

He was once a talented player in Real Madrid's youth training, but he never got a chance to play in Real Madrid. He chose to transfer to Paris last season.

But in Paris, he also didn't have many opportunities to perform.This season he returned to Stoke City on loan.

As an attacking player, his task at Stoke City is to counterattack quickly.

The only draw this season was his quick counterattack, assisting Choupo-Moting to score a goal.

He is an important tactical link for Stoke City.

Starting from the first minute of this game, Stoke City retreated decisively.

Manchester United attacked from all fronts, but it was difficult to score.

Until the end of the first half, Manchester United failed to score.

Instead, Stoke City nearly scored thanks to Jese's brilliant counterattack.

This made Mourinho frown on the sidelines.

During the halftime break, he made decisive substitution adjustments.

Two substitutions were used up directly!
Central defender Phil Jones comes off and Fellaini comes on.

Martial goes off and McTominay comes on.

After these two substitutions, Manchester United's formation changed to 3-3-4.

On the front line, in addition to the two veterans Ibrahimovic and Rooney, newcomers Fellaini and McTominay also reached the penalty area.

Both of them have a height of over 1.9 meters, and Mourinho wants them to start bombing mode!

As for Xia Xing, Mata and Herrera in the midfield, as well as Luke Shaw and Valencia on the wings, their goal is to cross!
Decisive cross!

Such a straightforward and decisive change of formation made it difficult for Stoke City to resist.

In the 67th minute of the game, Manchester United finally broke the deadlock.

With continuous crosses, Stoke City has defended very hard.

Even Xia Xing has difficulty finding particularly good crossing opportunities.

This time, he fought his way through the crowd and rushed to the bottom line!
Press on the baseline and pass directly!

The ball found the young McTominay accurately!

The Manchester United youngster leaped high and headed the ball into the goal!
The ball hits the net!

1 is better than 0!

Manchester United finally scored a goal!
McTominay is very happy to score!

He strode towards Xia Xing and hugged Xia Xing tightly!
"Xia! Thank you for passing the ball!"

"Mai, your header was great! Congratulations on scoring your first Premier League goal!"

Mourinho on the sidelines was also smiling.

Yeah, first goal in the Premier League, really good.

When he came to Manchester United last summer, he immediately went to the youth team.

He took a liking to the tall McTominay at first glance.

However, there is no place or opportunity for him in the first team, so Mourinho was not in a hurry to promote him to the first team last season.

This season, the team is under greater pressure to fight on multiple fronts, and Mai finally became a member of Manchester United's first team.

Now, he has proven his hard work with his outstanding performance!

He is not the kind of player with extraordinary talent, but the kind of player who is tenacious and hardworking!

This is Mourinho's favorite characteristic!
Scored the first goal and Manchester United was finally stable!

This is not over yet.

Six minutes later, it was Xia Xing's cross from the left!

This time I found Fellaini accurately!
The Belgian midfielder had already moved forward, squeezed away the defense, jumped high, and headed the ball into the goal!

The ball hit the upper right corner of the net hard!
There is no time for the goalkeeper to react!
2 is better than 0!

Another goal for Manchester United!
They have secured this game!

Magic Bird's magical change of formation allows Manchester United to break the deadlock!

Three points are coming! (End of chapter)