Chapter 381 Lineup Inventory, Don’t Be Six-Face
Soon, as Mourinho, wearing a black training uniform, walked into the locker room, the Manchester United generals who were talking suddenly became quiet.
At this time, Ling Feng smiled at the magic bird like a conspicuous bag, then raised his hand to say hello:
"Good morning, boss!"
“Good morning!”
With a raised corner of his mouth, Mourinho then looked around and said in a deep voice:
"Guys, you should be familiar with our new signing. Let us welcome our No. 7, Ling Feng, with applause. !”
As soon as he finished speaking, Mourinho and the coaching staff applauded.
The Manchester United generals also applauded in unison and gave 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 court!”
"Okay, let's go out and start training!"
Ling Feng, who changed into his favorite Magista Obra boots and dressed in indigo training clothes, followed Lingard to the training ground.
However, these boots that have accompanied him for two seasons are definitely not his main boots for the Premier League and Champions League in the new season.
Because, as one of the global spokespersons of Nike Hypervenom Phantom 3, Nike is already creating a pair of exclusive boots for him.
Probably tomorrow, Nike staff will hand this pair of exclusive boots into his hands.
Arriving at the first team training ground in Carrington, Ling Feng ushered in his first training session at Manchester United.
Of course, as a new arrival, Ling Feng had learned about Manchester United's current first-team lineup long before the transfer.
As for the goalkeeper position, Manchester United's number one goalkeeper is naturally David De Gea, the most stable link in the post-Ferguson era.
The substitute is Argentina goalkeeper Romero.
These two people are enough to support multi-line operations in the new season.
There are eleven defenders, namely Bailly (new aid), Smalling, Phil Jones, Rojo, Blind, Luke Shaw, Valencia, Ashley Young, Damian, goalkeeper Sa, Tuanzebe;
There are nine people in the midfield, namely Ling Feng (new aid), Kante (new aid), Carrick, Mata, Schneiderlin, Carrick , Herrera, Fellaini, Bastian Schweinsteiger;
There are six forwards, Ibrahimovic (new aid), Rooney, Martial, Rashford, Lingard, Jared Nuzai.
The entire first team lineup adds up to exactly twenty-six people.
At first glance, this lineup, coupled with the tactical ability of Mourinho, the world's top coach, is definitely capable of competing for the championship!
However, relatively speaking, the team's lineup still has a lot of room for improvement.
In fact, Mourinho had drastically cleaned up Manchester United's lineup long before Ling Feng joined.
Especially in the pre-season games of the International Champions Cup, he also conducted a comprehensive inspection of the team's lineup.
Some media even broke the news about Mourinho’s nine-person purge list!
On the list, in addition to youth players Wilson, Keane, Pereira, Jackson, Blackett, Mensah, McNair and other players, the most famous one is naturally the former love of Louis van Gaal Disciple Januzaj, and former German international "Little Pig" Bastian Schweinsteiger!
After Januzaj's brief flash during Moyes' coaching period, his development in the past two years has been really unsatisfactory.
Mourinho felt that he had no potential or possibility to become a star at all.
Schweinsteiger suffered from injuries last season, and with the arrival of Kante this season, the midfield position has already been overcrowded.
However, in Mourinho's 4231 formation, there are only two defensive midfielders.
"Premier League Stealing King" Kante, as the strongest sweeping machine in the midfield, will inevitably occupy a position as the main defensive midfielder.
This means that Schneiderlin, Carrick, Herrera, and Fellaini will compete for another starting midfielder position!
You can put together a table of mahjong, and whoever wins will be the starter!
And Schweinsteiger will not be ranked before Schneiderlin, Carrick, Herrera and Fellaini.
So, in order to streamline the lineup, Mourinho also plans to clean up the legendary German star who has just retired from the German national team.
Although "Little Pig" has decided to stay and prove himself.
But Mourinho's attitude is very tough and cold!
A few weeks ago, Mourinho sent Schweinsteiger down to the U23s.
And his personal equipment was also moved out of the first team locker room by Manchester United and transferred to the U23 locker room.
In the eyes of the outside world, Bastian Schweinsteiger's Manchester United career has come to an end early.
According to media reports, Bastian Schweinsteiger has many suitors in Premier League clubs.
However, his high salary of 160,000 pounds has deterred these teams.
However, it is said that the American Major League Baseball is also paying close attention to the German legendary star, hoping to get him.
However, Xiaozhu personally believes that he is still capable of playing in the five major European leagues, and does not want to go to the American Major League to make money and retire so soon.
So, this is also the reason why Mourinho clashed with him.
In addition to being too bloated in the midfield, the lack of backcourt players is also the key to Mourinho's defensive system.
At the central defender position, Bailly and Smalling are Mourinho's more trusted partners.
In addition, there are also Blind, 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, Mensah and others.
Looking at the starting lineup alone, it is still at the upper-middle level of the Premier League.
However, the depth of the bench is really not in line with the configuration of the giants.
Although Manchester United did very well defensively last season, conceding only 35 goals in the league, second only to Leicester City who won the championship.
However, this does not mean that Manchester United's defense is good enough.
That's because Manchester United placed great emphasis on possession of the ball under Van Gaal's "big circle tactics" system last season.
If you don’t attack easily, you will have more defenders 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 his own standards!
However, the summer transfer fee prepared for him 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 offensively!
Last season, Manchester United's games gave people a feeling of lethargy and weak offense.
So, in order to allow the team to send the ball into the opponent's goal every game, and to increase the team's offensive creativity, Mourinho personally brought in the old player Ibrahimovic. And Ling Feng was appointed to join!
The seemingly fierce duo of Ling Feng and Ibrahimovic will definitely become the most anticipated frontcourt combination for Manchester United and even the Premier League in the new season!
Coupled with team captain Wayne Rooney, "New Henry" Martial, the emergent Rashford, Mata who is excellent in passing and controlling, and "substitute wonder" Lingard
< br>Mourinho and many Manchester United fans believe that Manchester United's frontcourt offense will definitely take on a completely new look!
. . . Ling Feng's arrival not only gave the team a trustworthy frontcourt playmaker.
It also makes Manchester, which has always been rainy and rainy during this season, become sunny and bright
While Ling Feng was warming up and getting acquainted with his teammates with Lingard next to him, Mourinho was on the sidelines of the training ground. Discussing the team's lineup structure with long-time assistant Faria.
One of the most difficult decisions to make is whether Ling Feng will start as an attacking midfielder or as a right winger.
To be precise, should Rooney play as an attacking midfielder or as a right winger?
As early as during the European Cup, Mourinho, who watched England games, had the same feeling about Hodgson's troubles with how to use Rooney.
Because, whether he is an attacking midfielder or a right winger, Ling Feng only has a different playing style, and his personal ability is not affected at all.
The main thing is how to use Rooney so as not to affect Ling Feng's performance!
Even the most special one, Mourinho did not dare to take the huge risk of an explosion in the locker room and kicked captain and locker room leader Rooney out of the starting lineup.
Unless Rooney's condition is really bad, or has affected the team's performance on the court, he will have an excuse and a pretext to put Rooney on the bench.
Before that, Rooney must start every game!
While Mourinho was frowning and feeling distressed, the assistant on the side gave his own suggestion:
"How about we change the formation and play the 4312 formation?"
Mourinho is no stranger to the 4312 formation.
The season when he won the Triple Crown at Inter Milan, he used the 4312 formation!
The characteristic of the 4312 formation is actually the diamond-shaped positioning of four midfielders.
A defensive midfielder drags back, the two central midfielders are separated on the left and right, and the attacking midfielder pushes forward to echo the two strikers.
This lineup allows Manchester United to arrange more manpower in the midfield, thereby achieving the tactical effect of controlling the midfield.
Moreover, being able to focus the offensive in the middle will further bring out Ling Feng's personal ability in the attacking midfielder position.
You can even push Rooney to the front line and form a 60-year-old striker combination with Ibrahimovic, solving the problem of "how to use Rooney"!
However, there is a very critical problem in this tactical formation, that is, there is no winger position.
The two supernovas that Manchester United focuses on training, Martial and Rashford, are both wingers!
If the formation changes to 4312, Martial and Rashford will either delay and play as a central midfielder, or rush forward and play as a forward.
However, the two of them are not suitable for these two positions at all!
In addition, Manchester United has always had a tactical tradition of flying both wings together, so it is almost impossible to abandon the winger position!
The biggest flaw of this formation is that the space exposed on the wing is too large, which can easily be exploited by opponents.
In order to make up for this gap, the two central midfielders and the deep-lying midfielder can only make up for the defense through a wide range of lateral movements.
Opponents will also frequently take advantage of this weakness, using the midfielder players to make long passes back and forth in a wide range to mobilize the entire defense line.
Over time, the team's midfielders will become physically exhausted due to frequent movement back and forth.
This requires the team's midfielder and midfielder to have excellent running abilities.
Although Manchester United happens to have short midfielders with excellent running abilities such as Kante and Herrera, Snedlin and Lingard.
However, neither Fellaini nor Carrick have enough mobility.
Carrick, in particular, has basically zero running ability and is completely unable to provide the coverage area required by the formation.
Of course, you can also let Fellaini, who has frontal air defense, or Carrick, who has organizational skills, stay behind, and Kanter and Herrera are separated. In this way, the team can also maximize the balance between the two. The defensive coverage area of a wing.
Furthermore, as long as Ling Feng, who is standing in the attacking midfielder position, can press the opponent's defensive midfielder, the opponent's defensive midfielder will not be able to dispatch his own midfield line through long passes, thus leaving space for his midfield teammates. Physical strength
After repeatedly weighing the pros and cons, Mourinho and his assistants still feel that the 4231 formation is more suitable for this Manchester United.
Of course, a mature head coach cannot only use one tactical formation for the entire season.
The 4312 formation can be used as the second tactic and can be changed according to different opponents.
There is also the 433 formation that is most loved by today's giants, which is also one of the changes on the tactical board
"Okay, guys, let's start!"
With Mu With a long whistle from Rinho, Ling Feng's first training session after joining has officially begun!
Since the opening game of the Premier League will be ushered in three days, and Ling Feng just joined the team today.
So, Mourinho only conducted tactical drills with a small amount of training in today's training schedule.
The purpose of today is mainly to conduct tactical drills to allow the players to further adapt and integrate the team's new players into the tactical system as soon as possible.
Ling Feng’s performance in training directly made everyone understand why Mourinho would appoint him as the core of the team and Manchester United would spend a record transfer fee in football to introduce him. !
Ling Feng, who was assigned to the main team, immediately changed the main team's offense with just a series of movements in the midfield and frontcourt.
Wearing an orange vest, Ling Feng roamed the team's midfield and frontcourt in various spaces, shouting with determination, catching the ball and passing the ball with ease!
Under his command, the main team's offense became much smoother visibly to the naked eye.
As opponents before, they had experienced Ling Feng's terror.
And now, as teammates, they have experienced up close and personal just how strong Ling Feng is!
Rooney, Kante, Lingard and others who have been club and national team teammates with Ling Feng, however, looked calm.
Basic practice, don’t be six!
Soon, under Ling Feng's guidance, the main team actually played a smooth passing and cutting cooperation that had not been seen in the past few years!
And in the intra-team match between groups, within just twenty minutes, the substitute team was beaten to the point where they were unable to fight back!
Many Manchester United players felt ripples in their hearts.
They can actually play tiki-taka passing football? !
And in the eyes that looked at Ling Feng in unison, there was only admiration and reverence!
In addition to organizing the team's offense in an orderly manner during sports battles, Ling Feng's huge role in set-piece tactics has also significantly improved Manchester United.
Previously, Manchester United's leading corner kick taker was Rooney.
However, compared to Ling Feng's passing accuracy, the quality of Rooney's corner kicks 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.
Or Smalling, or Ibrahimovic, or Fellaini.
During a corner kick attack, Ling Feng's curve ball found Ibrahimovic's head again.
The latter only needed to flick his head easily, and the ball hit the gate guarded by Argentina goalkeeper Romero!
After completing the header, Ibrahimovic also took the initiative to come to Ling Feng. After high-fiving him, he hugged his shoulders:
"Hahaha, man, you can pass the ball well. We’re really on target! We can definitely win in the Premier League together!”
Feeling Ibrahimovic's joy, Ling Feng also smiled slightly:
"I have no doubt about this!"
(End of this chapter)