Full-level pass, please call me the speaker of the Three Lions

Chapter 381: Lineup Review, Basic Operations

Soon, as Mourinho, wearing a black training suit, walked into the locker room, the Manchester United players who were talking suddenly quieted down.

At this time, Ling Feng smiled at the Magic Bird like a conspicuous person, and raised his hand to greet him:

"Good morning, boss!"

"Good morning!"

Mourinho raised his lips, looked around, and said in a deep voice:
"Guys, you should be familiar with our new recruits. Let's welcome our number seven, Ling Feng, with applause!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Mourinho and the coaching staff applauded.

The Manchester United players also applauded at the same time, giving Ling Feng a warm welcome.

"Thank you for the welcome, I am very happy to be a member of Manchester United and I look forward to fighting side by side with you on the field!"

"Okay, let's go out and start training!"

After changing into his favorite Magista Obra combat boots and wearing an indigo training suit, Ling Feng followed Lingard to the training ground.

However, this pair of boots that has accompanied him for two seasons is definitely not his main boots for the new season in the Premier League and the Champions League.

Because, as one of the global ambassadors of Nike Hypervenom Phantom 3, Nike is already creating a pair of exclusive boots for him.

Maybe tomorrow, Nike staff will hand over this pair of exclusive boots to him.
Arriving at the first-team training ground at Carrington, Ling Feng had his first training session at Manchester United.

Of course, as a new recruit, Ling Feng had already learned about Manchester United's current first-team lineup before the transfer.

In the goalkeeper position, Manchester United's number one goalkeeper is naturally David De Gea, the most stable link in the post-Ferguson era.

Also on the bench is Argentina goalkeeper Romero.

These two people are enough to support the multi-line operations in the new season.

There are eleven defenders, namely Bailly (new signing), Smalling, Phil Jones, Rojo, Blind, Luke Shaw, Valencia, Ashley Young, Damian, Mensah, Tuanzebe;
There are nine players in the midfield, namely Ling Feng (new player), Kante (new player), Carrick, Mata, Schneiderlin, Carrick, Herrera, Fellaini and Schweinsteiger;
There are six forwards, Ibrahimovic (new signing), Rooney, Martial, Rashford, Lingard and Januzaj.

The entire first-team lineup has exactly twenty-six people in total.

At first glance, this lineup, coupled with the tactical ability of Mourinho, one of the world's top coaches, is definitely capable of competing for the championship!

However, the team's lineup still has a lot of room for improvement.

In fact, long before Ling Feng joined, Mourinho had made drastic changes to Manchester United's lineup.

Especially in the pre-season of the International Champions Cup, he was able to conduct a comprehensive inspection of the team lineup.

Some media even revealed Mourinho’s nine-man cleaning list!

In the list, in addition to young players such as Wilson, Keane, Pereira, Jackson, Blackett, Mensah, McNair and others, the most famous ones are naturally Januzaj, who was once Van Gaal's favorite disciple, and former German international "Little Pig" Schweinsteiger!
After Januzai's brief shine during Moyes' coaching period, his development in the past two years has been unsatisfactory.

Mourinho felt that he had no potential or possibility to become a star.

Schweinsteiger was plagued by injuries last season, and with the arrival of Kante this season, the midfield position has long been overcrowded.

However, in Mourinho's 4231 formation, there are only two spaces for defensive midfielders.

Kante, the "Premier League steals king", as the strongest sweeping machine in the midfield, will inevitably occupy a main defensive midfielder position.

This means that Schneiderlin, Carrick, Herrera and Fellaini will compete for another starting defensive midfielder position!

You can play mahjong at a table, and whoever wins gets to start!
Schweinsteiger's appearance order will not be before Schneiderlin, Carrick, Herrera and Fellaini.

Therefore, in order to streamline the lineup, Mourinho also plans to clear out this legendary German star who has just retired from the German national team.

Although "Piggy" has decided to stay and prove himself.

But Mourinho's attitude is very tough and cold!
A few weeks ago, Mourinho demoted Schweinsteiger to the U23.

Moreover, his personal equipment was moved out of the first team locker room by Manchester United and stored in the U23 locker room.

From the outside, Schweinsteiger's Manchester United career has come to an end ahead of schedule.

According to media reports, Schweinsteiger has many suitors among Premier League clubs.

However, his high salary of 16 pounds has deterred these teams.

However, it is said that the MLS is also keeping a close eye on the German legend and hopes to sign him.

However, Schweini personally believes that he is still capable of playing in the top five European leagues and does not want to go to the Major League Soccer to earn money for retirement so soon.

So, this is also the reason why Mourinho had a conflict with him.

In addition to the overly bloated midfield, the lack of ability of the backcourt players is also the key problem that troubles Mourinho in building a defensive system.

In the central defender position, Bailly and Smalling are the partners that Mourinho trusts more.

In addition, there are Blind Jr., Phil Jones and Rojo as substitutes.

The main left and right full-backs are Luke Shaw and Valencia.

The substitutes include Ashley Young, Damian, Tuanzebe, Mensa and others.

Looking at the starting lineup alone, it is still at the upper-middle level in the Premier League.

However, the depth of the bench does not match the configuration of a top club.

Although Manchester United did very well in defense last season, they only conceded 35 goals in the league, second only to the championship-winning Leicester City.

However, this does not mean that Manchester United's defense is good enough.

That's because last season Manchester United paid great attention to ball possession under Van Gaal's "big circle tactics" system.

If you don't attack too easily, there will be more people defending in the backcourt and you will naturally lose fewer goals.

For Mourinho, who has always attached great importance to defense, the average number of goals conceded per game is far from meeting his standards!

However, the summer transfer fee prepared by Manchester United's top management has been spent, and he can only deal with the upcoming new season with the current lineup.

Fortunately, the team has made great reinforcements in offense!
Last season, Manchester United's games gave people a lethargic and weak offensive feeling.

Therefore, in order for the team to be able to send the ball into the opponent's goal in every game and to increase the team's offensive creativity, Mourinho personally brought in his old player Ibrahimovic and selected Ling Feng to join!
The duo of Ling Feng and Ibrahimovic, who look so powerful, will definitely become the most anticipated frontcourt combination for Manchester United and even the Premier League in the new season!
In addition, the team captain Rooney, the "new Henry" Martial, the emerging Rashford, the excellent passer Mata and the "substitute surprise" Lingard
Mourinho and many Manchester United fans believe that Manchester United's frontcourt attack will definitely be completely renewed!
The arrival of Ling Feng not only gave the team a trustworthy frontcourt organizer.

It also makes Manchester, which is usually rainy at this time of year, sunny and bright.
While Ling Feng was warming up and getting familiar with his teammates with Jesse Lingard beside him, Mourinho was discussing the team's lineup structure with his long-time assistant Faria on the training ground.

One of the most difficult questions to decide is whether Ling Feng should start as attacking midfielder or right winger.

To be more precise, is Rooney playing as an attacking midfielder or a right winger?

As early as during the European Cup, Mourinho, who watched England's games, deeply sympathized with Hodgson's distress about how to use Rooney.

Because, whether it is attacking midfielder or right winger, Ling Feng just has a different playing style and his personal ability is not affected at all.

The key is how to use Rooney so as not to affect Ling Feng's performance!
Even in the most special case, Mourinho did not dare to risk the huge risk of the locker room exploding by kicking captain and locker room leader Rooney out of the starting lineup.

Unless Rooney's condition is really bad, or he has affected the team's performance on the court, he has an excuse and reason to put Rooney on the bench.

Before that, Rooney must start every game!
Just as Mourinho was frowning and distressed, his assistant gave his own advice:

"How about we change the formation to 4312?"

Mourinho is no stranger to the 4312 formation.

When he won the treble at Inter Milan that season, he used the 4312 formation!

The characteristic of the 4312 formation is actually the diamond-shaped positioning of the four midfielders.

A defensive midfielder lags behind, two central midfielders are on the left and right, and the attacking midfielder rushes forward to support the two forwards.

This lineup will allow Manchester United to arrange more people in the midfield, thus achieving the tactical effect of controlling the midfield.

Moreover, the attack can be concentrated on the middle, which can better bring out Ling Feng's personal ability in the attacking midfielder position.

They can even push Rooney to the front line to form a sixty-year-old forward combination with Ibrahimovic, solving the problem of "how to use Rooney"!

However, there is a critical problem in this tactical formation, that is, there is no position for winger.

The two superstars that Manchester United is focusing on training, Martial and Rashford, are both wingers!
If the formation changes to 4312, Martial and Rashford will either play as central midfielders or as forwards.

However, they are not suitable for these two positions at all!
In addition, Manchester United has always had a tactical tradition of flying on both wings, so abandoning the winger position is almost impossible!
The biggest flaw of this formation is that the space exposed on the wing is too large, which can be easily exploited by the opponent.

In order to fill this gap, the two central midfielders and the defensive midfielder can only defend by making large lateral movements.

The opponent will frequently take advantage of this weakness by having the defensive midfielder make long passes back and forth to mobilize the entire defense line.

Over time, the team's midfielders will become exhausted due to the frequent movement back and forth.

This requires the team's midfield and defensive midfielder to have excellent running ability.

Although Manchester United has short midfielders with excellent running ability such as Kante, Herrera, Snyderlin and Lingard.

However, neither Fellaini nor Carrick have sufficient mobility.

Carrick, in particular, has almost zero running ability and is completely unable to provide the coverage area required by the formation.

Of course, Fellaini, who is good at frontal air defense, or Carrick, who has organizational skills, can also be allowed to move back, with Kante and Herrera on the left and right. In this way, the team's defensive coverage area on both sides can be maximized.

Moreover, as long as Ling Feng, who is standing in the front midfielder position, can put pressure on the opponent's back midfielder, the opponent's back midfielder will not be able to dispatch his own midfield line through long passes, thus saving energy for his midfield teammates.
After weighing the pros and cons again and again, Mourinho and his assistants still felt that the 4231 formation was more suitable for this Manchester United.

Of course, it is impossible for a mature head coach to use only one tactical formation throughout the entire season.

The 4312 formation can be used as a second tactic and can be changed according to different opponents.

There is also the 433 formation that is most favored by today's giants, which is also one of the changes on the tactical board.
"Okay, guys, let's get started!"

With a long whistle from Mourinho, Ling Feng’s first training session after joining the team officially began!
Since the opening match of the Premier League will be in three days, and Ling Feng just joined the team today.

Therefore, in today's training schedule, Mourinho only carried out tactical drills with a smaller amount of training.

The main purpose of today is to conduct tactical drills, so that the players can further get used to each other and the new players can be integrated into the tactical system as soon as possible.

Ling Feng's performance in training made everyone understand why Mourinho chose him as the core of the team and why Manchester United spent a record transfer fee to introduce him!
Ling Feng, who was assigned to the main team, immediately brought about a drastic change in the main team's offense simply by running in the midfield and frontcourt.

Wearing an orange vest, Ling Feng roamed around the empty spaces in the team's frontcourt, giving commands with confidence, catching and passing the ball, all smoothly!
Under his command, the main team's offense became visibly smoother.

As opponents before, they had experienced how terrifying Ling Feng was.

And now, as teammates, they have personally experienced how strong Ling Feng is up close!
Rooney, Kante, Lingard and others who had been teammates of Ling Feng in club and national team looked calm.

Basic exercises, don't be six!
Soon, under Ling Feng's coordination, the main team played a smooth passing and cutting cooperation that they had not seen in the past few years!

Furthermore, in the team competition after group confrontation, within just twenty minutes, they defeated the substitute team without any chance of fighting back!

There were ripples in the hearts of many Manchester United players.

They can actually play tiki-taka passing football? !

And in the eyes that all looked at Ling Feng at the same time, there was only admiration and respect!

In addition to organizing the team's offense in an orderly manner during mobile warfare, Ling Feng's huge role in set-piece tactics is also a significant improvement for Manchester United.

Previously, Rooney was the first person to take corner kicks in Manchester United.

However, compared with Ling Feng's passing accuracy, Rooney's corner kick quality is really shameful.

Every corner kick taken by Ling Feng was like a guided artillery shell, accurately finding the high point among the crowd in the penalty area.

Either Smalling, Ibrahimovic, or Fellaini.

During a corner attack, Ling Feng's curved ball once again found Ibrahimovic's head.

The latter only needed to shake his head easily, and the ball hit the goal guarded by Argentina goalkeeper Romero!

Ibrahimovic, who scored with a header, also took the initiative to come to Ling Feng, high-fived him, and then put his arm around his shoulders:

"Hahaha man, your pass is damn accurate! We can definitely dominate the Premier League together!"

Feeling Ibrahimovic's joy, Ling Feng also smiled slightly:
"I have no doubt of that!"

(End of this chapter)