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

Chapter 491 I’ll start my performance today with a goal and an unsuccessful slide!
Skopje, Macedonia.

The Philip II Arena, which can accommodate 33,000 people, hosted the final of the first European event.

The final winner of the 2017 European Super Cup will be born in this stadium.

The two teams facing each other are the last Champions League champion Manchester United and the last Europa League champion Manchester City!
After the first overseas Manchester derby in the United States, the second encounter between the two Manchester giants this season moved to the Balkan Peninsula.

Compared to the mutual testing in the preseason, which was very restrained, this time, for the championship, in order to trample the rivals in the same city underfoot, both sides no longer held back!
Accompanied by the cheers of the fans, the red and blue teams entered the stadium.

Ling Feng leads Manchester United, Kompany leads Manchester City!

"Welcome to watch the 2017 European Super Cup, Sky Sports brings you live broadcast"

"The players have entered the field, let us introduce the starting lineups for both teams"

Last season, Manchester United faced Manchester City three times in the Premier League at home and away and in the League Cup.

Then, beat Manchester City 3 times!

It can be said that last season Guardiola was completely trampled under the feet of his old rival Mourinho.

Moreover, compared to Mourinho's achievement of leading the team to win the season's treble, Guardiola only won fifth place in the league and the Europa League in his first season in charge of Manchester City.

Such a transcript can only be described as unsatisfactory.

After all, Guardiola is one of the top head coaches in the world of football today.

Moreover, he won the league championship both at Barcelona and Bayern.

Whether it is the club, the media or the fans, they all have high expectations of him.

Therefore, in order to challenge the Premier League title in the new season and to defeat Mourinho, Guardiola, who has the full support of Manchester City, directly cleaned out a large number of players in the summer window, including Kolarov, Zabaleta, Clichy, Sagna, Navas and other veterans.

Then spent 200 million pounds to improve the squad!
After a large number of signings in the summer window, Manchester City's defense has been completely renewed and the overall age structure is younger.

"Manchester City's starting lineup is as follows"

Facing the strong opponent Manchester United, Guardiola did not dare to do anything and directly used the 4231 tactical formation.

The goalkeeper position is Ederson, who just transferred from Benfica.

The four defenders, from left to back, are Delph, Otamendi, Kompany and Walker.

The two defensive midfielders are Fernandinho and De Bruyne.

Three attacking midfielders, David Silva in the middle, Sane and Sterling on the left and right.

The single arrow is Aguero.

This starting lineup is basically the same as what the media predicted.

It was just that Monaco's newly transferred left-back Mendy was injured during the pre-match warm-up, so Guardiola chose to temporarily put the all-round player Delph in the left back position to increase the control and passing ability in the backcourt.

However, Delph's defensive ability is still far behind that of Mendy, the best Ligue 1 left-back with explosive physical fitness.

Maybe it will become a hidden danger for Manchester City's defense
As for Manchester United, they stick to the 4231 formation.

The entire starting eleven has only two positions changed compared to last season's regular starters:

First of all, Maguire, who transferred from the Foxes in the summer window, replaced Smalling and Rojo and became the starting central defender.

The central defender partnership of Maguire and Bailly performed steadily in the pre-season and the Community Shield.

Secondly, the starting candidate for the right winger changed from Lu Xiaopang to Little Devil!

Even later, he was played with memes by netizens and fans, becoming the king of football memes

However, no one has ever questioned Lukaku's strength.

You can say Kaku is stupid, but you can’t say Kaku is bad!

From Rooney, whose physical function has seriously declined, to Lukaku, who has fierce impact and explosive physical fitness, Manchester United's right-wing attack has been improved by more than one level!
In several pre-season games, Lukaku showed good competitive form, whether facing weak teams in the MLS or strong teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona.

Especially when he was arranged to the wing and paired with Ling Feng, one of the world's top midfielders, Lukaku's lethality increased sharply!
Lukaku finally realized why Ling Feng was hailed as the world's best midfielder by the media and football experts.

There is no other reason, it’s just because being teammates with Ling Feng is so damn comfortable!

Whether he is receiving the ball with his back to the goal or running diagonally, Ling Feng's ball will always be passed comfortably to his feet or in front of him, allowing him to easily get the ball or dribble with the ball to accelerate.

In the national team, he has De Bruyne, the midfield master, to support him.

In the club, he has never met a reliable midfield partner to give himself
Now, he finally found a buddy who can supply him with ammunition continuously.

This also made Lukaku ecstatic:

"Hahaha, I, Kaku, will win the Golden Boot this season! No one can stop me!"

With the joining of Lukaku, Manchester United's classic two-wing flying together can finally be announced.

However, compared to the 442 wingers and cross-fielder tactics of the Ferguson era, Mourinho's Manchester United's two wings fly together, but they mainly cut inside with the opposite foot!

Rashford's dominant foot is right foot and he shoots on the left side; Lukaku's dominant foot is left foot and he shoots on the right side.

Both of them play as inverted wingers.

That is to say, when they get the ball on the wing, they will mostly choose to cut inside to pass or shoot, rather than breaking through from the outside and passing the ball.

The concept of the inverted winger is one of the greatest ideas of this century!

The first person to use this concept was actually Arsenal godfather Wenger.

When introducing Henry and Pires, Wenger also promoted Ashley Cole to the starting lineup and arranged the right-footed Pires on the left.

During the game, Henry and Pires frequently switched positions, making it hard to defend. With Ashley Cole's frequent assists, the three of them built the best "left corridor" in the world.

This is also Arsenal’s biggest bargaining chip to compete with Manchester United at the beginning of this century!
Later, Mourinho, who took over Chelsea, carried forward the tactical concept of the inverted winger.

In 2004, Mourinho moved the left-footed Robben to the right, thus creating an inside-cutting monster!

After joining Bayern, Robben formed the "Robbery" combination with another dribbling master Ribery, the strongest wing combination in Europe, and led Bayern to win one championship after another!
Compared to the last century when the main responsibility of a winger was to cross the ball, there are more benefits and variations for a winger who holds the ball and cuts inside.

On the one hand, the wingers holding the ball can make up for the embarrassment that no one in the middle can hold the ball and pass the ball because the midfielder's core organizer is blocked;
On the other hand, when the winger cuts into the penalty area, the defensive players will become more cautious in their defensive actions, which can also increase the lethality of their breakthroughs.

At the same time, when the winger cuts in from the ribs, the opponent's back line will inevitably focus their defensive attention on him, thereby achieving the tactical goal of engaging the defense and creating space for other teammates.

In this game, Manchester City found it difficult to resist Manchester United's double inverted wingers' attack.

Although Rashford was easily controlled by Walker, the "Premier League's best defender", on the left.

But on the right, Lukaku simply crushed Delph!

With Ling Feng constantly feeding the ball, Kaku ravaged Delph again and again on the right, making the England international miserable.

When the game reached the 22nd minute, Ling Feng got the ball in the middle. After pulling the ball and turning around, the Red Devils captain made a feint and passed De Bruyne who was rushing towards him.

At the same time, Lukaku, a 19-meter-tall and nearly -pound "wing center" wearing the No. jersey on the right, did not hesitate to move towards the left flank of Manchester City!

While sprinting diagonally like a black panther, he did not forget to look in the direction of Ling Feng, trying to make eye contact with him:

"Captain, did you see me moving forward? Here I am!"

However, before he could make eye contact with Ling Feng, a ball was passed to his mouth with surgical precision.

Lukaku didn't hold back either. He used the outside of his left foot to create an angle and shot directly into the far corner of the goal!
Perhaps his vision was slightly blocked by the central defender, or perhaps the shot was too tricky, and when he made a sideways dive, he could only watch the ball get ahead of him and fly into the side net of the goal.

With a "swish", Manchester United scored the first goal!

After scoring the goal, Kaku was so excited that he ran directly to the corner flag area and slid on his knees, imitating his own template!
However, perhaps he did not kneel properly, causing his knees to get stuck and his nearly 200-pound body fell directly to the ground.

However, this cannot ruin his good mood!

"Wa hahaha!"

"I'll start my performance today with a goal and an unsuccessful slide!"

Of course, after getting up, he did not forget to turn around, raised his right hand, and gave Ling Feng, who assisted him, his eighth like of the day!

"Captain, good pass!"

Looking at Kaku with a silly smile on his face, Ling Feng's mind always involuntarily emerged with the magical dubbing tailored for him by a brother from Dalian:
Murmur!

This slide and kneel is not done well!
At the same time, both the Red Devils supporters in the stands and the fans in front of the TV were left in tears and amused by Lukaku's actions.

Although the slide to kneel was not successful, it was a bit funny.

However, this goal was indeed beautiful, fully demonstrating Lukaku's top-notch timing and speed.

Although the transfer fee of 75 million pounds is expensive.

However, judging from Lukaku's current performance, it is still worth the money.

Just the forward impact on the wing and the ability to advance with the ball are things that Rooney and Lingard found difficult to do last season!
Mourinho, who was on the sidelines, also smiled and applauded his disciples' performance.

He began to be thankful that Real Madrid insisted on the price of 90 million euros and did not agree to Morata's transfer.

Compared to Lukaku's speed and impact, Morata may be better at passing the ball.

However, what Manchester United needs least is the ability to pass the ball!

Because the team not only has Ibrahimovic as the fulcrum in the frontcourt, but also Ling Feng, the master of making cakes!

Lukaku adds a firepower point for the team to advance with the ball on the wing, and the team's offensive changes will be more.

In this way, the team's offense will only become more fierce!
Last season, the team scored 90 goals in the Premier League.

This season, it is very likely that the goal mark of 100 goals will be exceeded!

. . .

Although they conceded the first goal, Guardiola's team did not lose their composure.

Instead, he insisted on his passing and controlling tactics, pushing the ball from the backcourt to the midfield, and then attacking the two flanks through a combination of passing and cutting from the flanks to the middle.

For Manchester City, the wingers of Sterling and Sane also need to be fast and capable of breakthroughs.

However, the two play like wingers, which makes them relatively easier to defend against.

Sterling got the ball on the right and made a cross by breaking through from the outside;
Sane got the ball on the left, broke through from the outside and made a direct cross.

However, neither Sterling nor Sane gained much advantage against their national team teammate Luke Shaw and the experienced Valencia.

Even if he forced the cross, it wouldn't get past Bailly and Maguire in the penalty area.

As for D Silva in the middle, he was unable to handle the ball calmly or get the ball into the penalty area due to Kante's defensive entanglement.

This resulted in Aguero having only touched the ball once in the opponent's penalty area for nearly thirty minutes!
In desperation, Aguero had to keep retreating to increase the support points in the middle. Kante and Herrera in the middle were like shadows that followed him everywhere and he could not get rid of them at all.

Even if the attack was handed over to the two wingers, it would be impossible to easily break through Manchester United's two full-backs who had excellent single defense capabilities.

Under Manchester United's tight defensive formation, Manchester City's offense was very frustrating.

They could only keep passing the ball around and stretching the defense, but they simply couldn't find a good time and space to pass the ball.

Even though they had two of the best midfielders in the Premier League at passing the ball, they were unable to pass the ball to the forwards through the layers.

Once a risky pass is made, it will either be intercepted or a mistake will occur, allowing Manchester United to launch a very threatening and quick counterattack!
After Lukaku joined, Manchester United also had one more player to counterattack.

In the first half stoppage time, Lukaku, who was very active in this game, took the ball on the right and directly ate Delph.

The latter couldn't pull it back and could only hold his hands around his waist,
This foul not only resulted in a yellow card, but also gave Manchester United a good free kick on the wing.

It was precisely taking advantage of this set-piece opportunity that Ling Feng assisted Maguire with an English dunk, breaking open Manchester City's door again!

With a two-goal advantage, the balance of victory has already tilted seriously towards the red side.

And so it is.

In the second half, Guardiola swapped positions between Sane and Sterling, and also used the tactical style of the winger cutting inside with the opposite foot.

Such changes have achieved certain results.

However, Manchester United tightened their defense and piled up a large number of people in the backcourt.

Even after Sane and Sterling cut inside, they had space to shoot.

But facing the quick Bailly and the tall Maguire, their shots were blocked one by one.

As time went on, Manchester United became more and more confident in defending, while Manchester City became more and more impetuous in attacking and made more mistakes.

If Rashford and Lukaku hadn't started shooting wildly and wasted several opportunities, the suspense of the game would have ended long ago.

Even so, the score of 2-0 was maintained until the last second of the game.

Beep~beep~~beep~~~
Finally, as the whistle sounded at the end of the game, Manchester United players raised their arms and cheered, welcoming the cheers and applause of the fans.

At the Philip II Arena in Macedonia, Manchester United set a new record again!

Won the first European Super Cup in team history!
At the same time, it is also the fifth championship trophy in 2017!

And the great achievement of winning six championships was standing not far away in December, waving to them!

(End of this chapter)