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

Chapter 409 Repaying others with their own methods
When the Manchester United bus arrived at Old Trafford, the spotlights outside the bus windows flashed. Reporters and fans waited on the roadside to cheer for Manchester United.

When Mourinho led the Manchester United players out of the car, cheers rang out.

He is one of the biggest stars on this team.

Among the many Manchester United players who subsequently got off the bus, the person who received the most attention from the media was their midfield core Bruno.

After getting off the bus, Bruno did not accept interviews from reporters, but ran into the locker room first. It could be seen from his face that his expression was very serious.

This game is a double red event, so of course he will be more serious.

For Manchester United's players, they don't have much time to laugh and joke around. The game is imminent, and Liverpool is definitely coming with bad intentions.

The Old Trafford Stadium was already packed an hour before the game started. Despite this, there were still many fans outside the stadium, and they all had one thing in common - they were all holding signs asking for tickets.

The opponent in this game is Liverpool. Whether they are Manchester United fans or Liverpool fans, it is the biggest wish of these fans to enjoy a double red match at the scene.

When the players came out to warm up, the stands were filled with flags of both teams and various cheering slogans.

The enthusiastic atmosphere in the stadium made each of them feel excited, and they carried this emotion into the locker room.

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"This is a war between us and Liverpool! It is also a real battle of life and death!" Bruno shouted to everyone in the locker room. Head coach Mourinho has finished what he has to say, and there is still some time left for the players themselves.

Bruno is jumping into the emotions of his teammates and following him into the game. He doesn't want his teammates to find the rhythm of the game slowly during the game.

Against Liverpool, this is very dangerous and stupid. Because Liverpool under Klopp is a team with a fast pace. This "fastness" is not only reflected in the speed of dribbling and attacking on the court, but also in the speed of the team entering the game. .

If you don't want to be beaten through the goal by them from the beginning, or be beaten very awkwardly from the beginning, it's best to follow and get into the rhythm of the game as soon as possible.

Fortunately, Manchester United also has a lot of experience in this regard. In many competitions, they have scored from the beginning, which fully demonstrates that they enter the game faster than most teams.

But can it be faster than Liverpool?
"We beat them by a big score at their home court last time. There is no reason to return to our own home court and it will be worse. So everyone must play this game with the belief that we must win! We must Show your courage and let them have a taste of our football!!”

In the Liverpool dressing room, Klopp was speaking to his players: "I remind you once again how important this game is for us. This is not only a battle of life and death for us this season, but also a battle of dignity. !Revenge battle! At home, we suffered the most painful defeat in recent years. I don’t want that to happen again today.”

After speaking, he glanced at everyone in the locker room. Klopp is a master of psychology. He can detect the inner thoughts of players from some of their external performances. When he saw that everyone was ready, he waved his hand to signal them to come out.

"Remember, we are Liverpool. Against Manchester United, Liverpool will never fight for a draw!"

………………

When the players from both sides walked out of the tunnel under the leadership of the referee, the Old Trafford stadium erupted in huge cheers.

The moment they have been waiting for has finally arrived!
"Players from both sides appeared! Klopp made large-scale adjustments to the starting lineup for this game. Even the core midfielder Coutinho was temporarily placed on the bench by Klopp. League Cup semi-finals Coutinho did not start. Everyone thought that Klopp was saving his strength for this double red meeting, but today Coutinho still did not start. This arrangement is really unexpected. For Manchester United, this is It must be good news!”

Putting the core midfielder on the bench is indeed a very unexpected arrangement. Some people may even think that this is because Klopp knew that he could not beat Manchester United, so he simply stayed at Old Trafford and tried to get a place here. point.

But in fact, Klopp will never let the team let go, and his pride will not allow him to do so, so this game is not as easy and casual as the commentators thought.

For Manchester United, as Bruno said, this is a real battle of life and death.

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This is also true. The game between the two sides entered a fast-paced confrontation from the beginning. Whether it is Liverpool or Manchester United, both teams are characterized by speed. When two fast teams meet together, they will naturally speed up.

There were exciting scenes in the first minute of the game.

Bruno launched an offensive, and Manchester United quickly reached the opponent's hinterland. Ibrahimovic shot from outside the penalty area, and the football missed the post and flew out of the baseline, making the Manchester United fans in the stands happy in vain.

"Oh! Judging from this shot, Manchester United are in good condition! The game only started for one minute, and they had a threatening shot!"

In this game, Mourinho's tactical instruction to the team was to press the whole court and use rough fouls or big defensive actions to contain Liverpool's performance. For this reason, Mourinho sent Kante, Gundogan and Herrera, who have super running ability, in the midfielder position. These three people plus Bruno and Lingard in the frontcourt, Mourinho obviously It is intended to lock Liverpool in the midfield position.

And the Manchester United players faithfully executed it on the field. As soon as Liverpool kicked off the ball, Manchester United's players pounced on it and were inseparable.

Even if there is a kick in the backcourt, Bruno, Lingard and others will press forward.

Even if the opponent passes the football, they don't give up, they just change the target of the press.

It looks like the Liverpool players are teasing monkeys, but the Liverpool fans watching the game will definitely not think this is good. They are on tenterhooks every time the ball is passed. I was afraid that the pass would be too big, so I didn't stop and let the opponent seize the opportunity to steal the ball directly in the frontcourt.

………………

To be honest, Manchester United's full-court pressing strategy did bring some troubles and troubles to Liverpool's players.

You know, this was originally their strategy to deal with their opponents, and it was also Klopp's best tactic, but unexpectedly it was used by Manchester United to deal with them today, and it had a very good effect.

Under the almost mad-dog pressing of Manchester United players, they had to increase their passing and receiving speed.

On several occasions, when Firmino and other players dropped back to catch the ball in the frontcourt, Bruno, Kante and others immediately rushed behind them and stole the ball, making them unable to turn around and could only move the football. Passed it back again.

As a result, Liverpool's most proud rapid attack couldn't operate.

Later, Liverpool simply made a long pass from the backcourt to the teammates in front, intending to rely on the personal abilities of the frontcourt teammates to break the deadlock.

This does have some effect, because without passing through the midfield, Kanter, Herrera, Gundogan and others can basically only directly return to defense and act as a central defender. But Klopp's Liverpool is not the kind of team that is good at long passes. Basically only Origi can win the header in the frontcourt. Firmino and Lallana are not good at headers.

After playing for a while, I found that the effect was not good, so Liverpool replaced it again.

Seeing that Liverpool's offense was contained by their own pressing defense, Manchester United began to pursue goals.

Their offense became sharper and they created some opportunities. But none of their forwards were sure.

………………

In this game, Manchester United deployed a 433 formation, with De Gea at the goal, Valencia, Maguire, Van Dijk and Darmian forming the back line, and Herrera, Kante and Gundo in the midfield. With these three defensive midfielders, Bruno was pushed up front to form a trident with Lingard and Ibrahimovic.

However, when the game started, Manchester United's formation was more inclined to the 4321 Christmas tree formation. Ibrahimovic was at the front as a single arrow. Behind him were Bruno and Lingard. Behind these two were Herrera and Can Te and Gundogan form a defensive back three.

Bruno got the ball in the midfield, and Wijnaldum immediately came up to grab his ball.

Bruno knows the power of this Dutch midfielder. As a Surinamese descendant, he has strong physical fitness, excellent flexibility and foot skills. His outstanding dribbling ability and extraordinary speed are his characteristics, and his personal attack He has strong ability and extremely high scoring efficiency, especially his unique ability to shoot long shots in front of the penalty area.

Bruno understood Wijnaldum's ability, so he didn't give the opponent a chance to steal the ball. He passed the football when he came up, and then he ran.

Wijnaldum did not give up and continued to follow him.

It seems that just avoiding the ball is not enough. After receiving the ball, Bruno did not choose to pass the ball out immediately, but resisted Wijnaldum's defense.

He felt that if he didn't teach this kid a lesson, he would definitely end this game with him.

Bruno doesn't want to organize the offense with a drag bottle.

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Wijnaldum came up to grab the ball, but Bruno turned around and stuck him behind him. Wijnaldum had short legs and could not reach him, so he could only harass him from behind.

Bruno supported Wijnaldum with one hand and balanced with the other, and then he looked up.

Perhaps he felt that Bruno, who was observing, would definitely relax the control at his feet and take advantage of the opportunity, so Wijnaldum planned to go around and steal the ball.

Unexpectedly, while Bruno was observing, he was still thinking about Wijnaldum behind him. Feeling Wijnaldum leave his body, Bruno knew that he was going to go around to defend.

So he knocked the football behind him with his right foot, and at the same time turned around with his left foot, blocking Wijnaldum behind him in the entire process.

Wijnaldum went around from the left, ran a circle, ran to the front, and found that he was still behind Bruno.

Blocking Wijnaldum behind him, before he could get close to him, Bruno pushed the football away and dribbled the ball horizontally!
Bruno, who got rid of Wijnaldum, did not give the opponent a chance to come back to entangle him. He transferred the football to Lingard on the right with a long diagonal pass.

After more than half a season, Lingard and Bruno have developed a tacit understanding after many contacts. Seeing Bruno dribbling the ball sideways, he went to the side and sure enough he caught the ball from Bruno.

………………

Taking off the football, the person Lingard faced was left back Milner.

Milner runs actively on the court, which reflects his professionalism and good character as a player. In addition, Milner can also play as a winger, central midfielder, and full-back. He can be called the "universal oil" in football. .

Milner, who was born as a winger, is strong in offense and weak in defense. Although he has made great progress in defense under Klopp's training this season, he is still far from the first-class level.

Milner's fancy fake moves are useless against Milner because he has rich experience and strong entanglement ability. However, as a 31-year-old veteran, his speed is not as fast as when he was young. Therefore, when facing Milner, it is better not to waste time making fake moves, and it is best not to slow down, just rely on speed to change direction and force a breakthrough.

Past actual combat has proven that Milner has no problem dealing with players with delicate footwork. What he is afraid of are speed players. He will rely on speed to overwhelm you from the beginning, and will not play with you at all with any footwork, nor will he judge the timing for you to make a move. When it's time to steal the ball, if you dare to take a shot, I will go straight over you.

In fact, many defenders are afraid of such unreasonable and fast opponents, because as defenders, they need to turn around, and their turning speed is not very fast. By the time they turn around, their opponents will have already beaten them. All they can do is to defeat them. All he saw was the other person's back.

Lingard's speed is not weak, although he does not rely on speed. However, he was still happy to show off his speed when facing Milner.

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After receiving Bruno's pass, Lingard used his speed to break through Milner and then sent a cross, but the ball was pushed out by Klavan.

Klavan pushed the football out and it landed at the feet of Bruno outside the penalty area.

Bruno didn't hesitate at all. He adjusted the football and took a long shot directly from the spot!

The football roared towards the goal. This time Mignolet made a wonderful save and flew to shoot the football!
Corner kick!

"Manchester United won a corner kick! Bruno's shot was very beautiful, and of course Mignolet's defense was also very good! Just ten minutes into the game, Manchester United continued to threaten Liverpool's goal!"

While speaking, Herrera put the football away and the Manchester United players were also in position.

Both central defenders Maguire and Van Dijk ran up to join the attack, ready to head the ball.

Bruno stood on the line of the penalty area, ready to attack.

Liverpool's players basically returned to the penalty area, except Lallana who was wandering outside.

(End of this chapter)