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

Chapter 436: Injury and Failure in Winter Window

Finally, with Oliver's long whistle, the game ended.

Even though both head coaches were not satisfied with the course of the game, Manchester United defeated Liverpool 3-1 at home!

Ling Feng and Ibrahimovic passed the ball and shot to each other, continuing to show the world the power of the strongest combination in the Premier League.

It is worth mentioning that Ibrahimovic scored his 20th league goal in his Manchester United career in this game, becoming the first player to score 20 goals in the Premier League this season!
He also scored 20 goals in 19 games at an astonishing speed, surpassing Aguero, Alan Shearer, Torres, Kevin Phelps and other Premier League strikers to become the fastest player to reach 20 goals in the Premier League.

This record also allowed Ibrahimovic to briefly overshadow Ling Feng and become the focus of the media.

The 35-year-old Ibrahimovic has also proved with his achievement of 20 goals in the league that he is still one of the best forwards on the planet!

After completing this record, Ibrahimovic also showed off on his personal social media:
"The fastest player to score 20 goals in the Premier League? Interesting! The record for the fastest 30 goals should also be mine!"

In addition to the "one-zero" combination that continued to perform fiercely, Lingard, who was recently selected for the Three Lions' roster again, also demonstrated his excellent sense of goal and scored a goal with a follow-up shot.

This is also his fifth goal in the league this season!

This season, Lingard still plays the role of a rotation in the frontcourt. With limited playing time, he has demonstrated the attributes of a plug-and-play super substitute.

Whenever he comes on as a substitute, he is able to quickly integrate into the team's offensive rhythm in the frontcourt and score goals or assists.

Red Devils fans can clearly see that this "Dancing King" who likes to dance to celebrate after scoring a goal and never repeats his celebration moves has obviously improved!
And being called up to the national team is the best proof!

Seeing the team now thriving and full of enthusiasm, all the Red Devils legends and fans are very pleased.

Although in the past two seasons, Manchester United under Van Gaal has often had the upper hand against Liverpool.

However, the league double victory over Liverpool is still of great significance to Manchester United fans.

What's more, this is only Mourinho's first season in charge of the Red Devils, and he has already accomplished the feat of "defeating the rival twice in the league"!

Moreover, the team scored the most goals in the first half of the league, conceded the second fewest goals in the league, and had the highest average number of shots per game in the league.
Liverpool, the team whose offensive firepower is second only to Manchester United this season, only scored one goal at Old Trafford.

And it was a penalty.

From the statistics of the teams ranked at the top of the league, it can be seen that Mourinho's transformation of the team has achieved initial success!

After the game, Manchester Evening News started to blow the whistle immediately.

Big boast!

You know, since losing to Chelsea in the ninth round, Manchester United has achieved an astonishing 12 games unbeaten in the league!

If it weren't for the lineup rotation and the unexpected draw with West Bromwich Albion, they would have achieved an amazing record of twelve consecutive wins.

Even so, the terrible record of 19 wins, 1 draw and 1 loss in 21 games still made the media and fans exclaim:

The Red Devils that once made the entire Premier League tremble are back!
Who can resist this Manchester United? !
This issue quickly became a hot topic and became a hot topic among major media and football experts.

So far, Manchester United has almost maintained an undefeated record in all head-to-head confrontations with the other five BIG league giants!

The only team they lost in the league was Chelsea, their strongest rival for the title.

Under Conte's 343 formation, Chelsea's dominance in the Premier League is no less than that of Manchester United!

The team won 13 consecutive league games, following closely behind Manchester United and preventing them from widening the gap.

For a time, under the media's hype and promotion, Chelsea, which has been fighting on a single front this season and has shown amazing fighting power, has become the demon-slayer that the other 18 Premier League teams and many Manchester United haters have placed their hopes on!
Many media and celebrities have even predicted that the second round match between the two sides in mid-April may become a crucial battle to determine the league championship!
Of course, before that, Chelsea must continue to catch up with Manchester United in the standings and put pressure on them.

Then hope that the latter will make mistakes and lose points, thus narrowing the points gap between them.

After all, in the first league game of 2017, their -game winning streak was ended by Tottenham.

The points gap between them and Manchester United was widened by three points again.

If we don’t work harder to catch up, we will only be left further behind by Manchester United!

Of course, the English Football Association does not want the suspense of the league title race to end so early.

However, because it was too obvious last time, Manchester United directly
What's more, even if they blow the whistle wrong, most teams in the league will not be able to defeat the current high-spirited and powerful Red Devils.

They can't award three penalties to Manchester United's opponents in one game.

Can?

Maybe, maybe not.
Of course, they don't need to be so blatant. Just a slight favor towards Manchester United's opponents in a strong confrontation will be enough to change the direction of the game!

Therefore, after holding a meeting to discuss the matter, the English FA also plans to sit on the sidelines for the time being.

Anyway, in February, Manchester United will participate in the League Cup final and the Champions League knockout rounds, which will inevitably lead to distractions and perhaps some performance drops.

As for the performance of Premier League teams in the Champions League, it has never been within the consideration of the FA.

The Champions League is a tournament organized by UEFA. What does it have to do with the English Football Association? !

From the fact that there is no winter break every year and the schedule arrangements for the Champions League teams, it can be seen that the FA does not care about the life and death of Premier League teams abroad.

They only care about whether the Premier League games are exciting and whether the scripts are good.

The schedule of the Premier League and domestic cup competitions, as well as the fierce competition between clubs, have a huge impact on the players of Premier League teams.

Playing in the Premier League is definitely more tiring than playing in other leagues.

Especially the Christmas schedule, a means of ensuring ratings and appeal, means that Premier League players cannot get enough rest time, and their physical fitness and competitive state cannot be maintained at their best, so they naturally cannot be competitive in European competitions.

This is also an important reason why Premier League teams have lacked competitiveness in European competitions in the past few years.

In the past four seasons, the only Premier League teams that reached the Champions League semi-finals were Manchester City in the 15-16 season and Chelsea in the 13-14 season.

The 14-15 season was the worst, with no Premier League team making it to the quarterfinals of the Champions League!
Against the backdrop of attaching great importance to the commercial development of the league, Premier League teams have not won the Champions League, the highest club competition, for four years.

And in the past four years, La Liga has won three times!

This is also the reason why the Premier League, which is touted as the "world's number one league", is repeatedly ridiculed by La Liga fans as just a "bully in its own backyard".

However, Manchester United hired Mourinho at a high salary and spent nearly 200 million to introduce strong reinforcements, of course not just to return to the top of the league.

Of course they hope to make a difference in the Champions League as well!

The generous bonuses and exposure brought by the Champions League will surely keep the team’s stock price rising.

Especially after seeing Manchester United’s outstanding performance in the first half of the season, Manchester United’s senior executives who didn’t understand football thought that Manchester United had completed its revival!

Therefore, in the mid-season high-level meeting, the club's complacent head "San Dezi" also clearly proposed to Mourinho that the club's Champions League goal this season is to reach the semi-finals! In the face of this goal from the club's top management, Mourinho just frowned and gave an ambiguous answer:

"I will try my best and the team will do its best too!"

. . .

1 month 21 number.

Manchester United extended their unbeaten league run to 13 games after beating Stoke City at Trent.

However, the tight schedule and high-intensity competition finally led to injuries!

Ibrahimovic, the team's top scorer and the league's top scorer, strained a muscle during a confrontation with his opponent.

After the post-match examination, it was found that the hamstring was injured and he needed to rest for at least four weeks!
Fortunately, Ibrahimovic should be able to catch up with the first leg of the Champions League knockout match next month.

It is no coincidence.

Just a few days later, in the second leg of the League Cup semi-final, Manchester United eventually won by one goal and advanced to the League Cup final with a total score of 2-0.

However, the price paid was the loss of another great general!
When the opponent's forward pressed high, Smalling's toe was stepped on hard.

Although I still insisted on finishing the game in the end.

But after the game, it was diagnosed that he had a fracture in the toe of his right foot.

A month's truce!

Mourinho was very angry about losing two main players in a row. At the post-match press conference, in front of many media, he directly criticized the referee's penalty standards:

"I don't know why? My players have to be treated like this!"

"Those rough movements, are they playing football?"

"I can't say too much, I'll just get myself into trouble"

You know, this season Mourinho made full use of the rotation strategy to keep the team's injuries under control.

Half a season has passed, and basically no player has suffered serious injuries lasting for several months.

However, they still could not escape the peak injury period after the Christmas schedule.

Moreover, every team that played against Manchester United was extremely rough and fierce in their actions.

Especially as the player who was violated the most times in the league, Ling Feng's jersey was covered with grass clippings in almost every game.

Fortunately, the English Football Association also knows the importance of Ling Feng to the Three Lions, and has specifically instructed the referees to be more severe when calling fouls on him, so as not to let those reckless men hurt the British top star.

But other Manchester United players don't have this kind of treatment.
As the team's main central defender, Smalling and Bailly's central defender combination is relatively stable in the league this season.

However, with Smalling injured and Bailly still participating in the African Cup, the central defender combination that had been used for half a season collapsed in an instant!

Mourinho not only has to choose two suitable candidates to replace the two, but the entire defensive system will also change accordingly.

Fortunately, there are no strong opponents in the league for the next month.

However, it is unknown whether Smalling can catch up with the Champions League knockout round in a month, and what his condition will be after recovering from injury.

If Smalling can't play, who should replace him?
These are among the many questions Mourinho has to ponder.

Of course, everyone has to pay a price for their behavior.

Mourinho received another fine from the FA for criticizing the referee's decision-making after the game.

A ban and a fine of tens of thousands of pounds!

Of course, for the wealthy Manchester United, this is nothing.

However, Manchester United executives still privately told Mourinho to be careful with his words in front of the media.

Mourinho, who likes to fight with the media, disagrees with this.

I can say whatever the fuck I want to say!
. . .

As winter gets colder, the Premier League winter window is also lacking in passion.

Throughout the winter transfer window, league giants like Manchester United, Chelsea and Manchester City basically did not spend money on recruiting players, and the huge storm that was expected on the deadline day did not appear.

Even according to statistics from the Transfer Market website, the net income of all Premier League teams in this winter window is actually positive!
You know, the last time the Premier League made a net profit in the winter window was 20 years ago!
On the one hand, all the major Premier League giants seem to be very satisfied with their current squads and have not made any signings.

Even Chelsea, who always like to make things happen in the winter transfer window, did not make any signings.

Instead, they sent two key players, Oscar and Mikel, to the Chinese Super League, which ushered in the era of money, and made a lot of money.

On the one hand, they are also afraid of buying parallel imports.

The most requested player in this Premier League winter window was actually the Brazilian young striker Jesus, who was signed by Manchester City in the summer and joined the team from Palmeiras in the Brazilian league for 27 million pounds!

It is conceivable how quiet this winter window is.
As the top team in the Premier League, Manchester United's only two deals in the winter window were selling Schneiderlin to Everton and loaning out youth goalkeeper John Stones.

However, due to the slow progress of the transfer department and the target players' lack of willingness to transfer, Manchester United failed to sign either Van Dijk, the first choice winter window target, or Lindelof, the second target.

Even the backup center and backup winger on the list, none of them entered the final negotiation stage!

Such a talent for recruiting players made Mourinho complain directly to his assistant in private:

"This is a failed winter window!"

Although no players were introduced in the winter window.

However, with Manchester United's current squad structure and morale, it still ranks first in the league title odds.

Even the media and fans are wondering whether this Manchester United can win the championship ahead of time.

On the closing day of the winter transfer window, the Red Devils won a perfect 3-0 victory at home, showing all their opponents what it means to be at the top of the league!

It is worth mentioning that when Ling Feng was interviewed after the game, he suddenly reacted after being reminded by the reporter.

In the next round of the league, he will return to the King Power Stadium!

(End of this chapter)