Chapter 603： I will never!

Tony Cross stood in the middle circle. As soon as he saw Danilo on the right coming up to meet Vidal, he immediately ran along the center line and ran to the right. Danilo knocked back, the German He knocked back and gave it to Varane.

With this transition, the Stoke City team's press had to be slowed down.

But without waiting for the Stoke City team to catch a breath, Varane passed the ball to Harvey Martinez, who made a long pass to the frontcourt and found Ibrahimovic.

Suddenly, before Stoke had time to breathe, they had to continue to press on.

The Swedish center fought for the ball, and Neymar was the second spot.

After the Brazilian grabbed the ball, he quickly divided to the left. David Alaba had already rushed forward quickly. After receiving the ball, he took advantage of the trend and smashed to the bottom line. With this, Southampton's attack line also advanced to Stoke City. The team’s large penalty area.

But this wave of offense still didn't work. The ball passed into the penalty area and was cleared by Robert Hut.

The ball has landed at Southampton's feet. Modric received the ball and passed it to Tony Cross.

The German turned around, knocked the ball back again, and gave it to Neuer at the front of the penalty area.

Suddenly, everyone on the Saints team knew that this was a little bit of control over the rhythm.

In this game, Tony Kroos's position is relatively late, more of a possession team with Harvey Martinez, Varane and goalkeeper Neuer.

The two full-backs Danilo and David Alaba pressed very high, even more often than Tony Cross, plus Neymar Neche and Gareth Bale. Inserting into the big penalty area makes the two full-backs look more like full-backs, and the whole burden of offensive and defensive wing falls on them.

The ball was skilfully passed back and forth in Southampton's midfield, and the overall formation was slowly pressing forward.

The Stoke City team retreated slowly, but did not have the will to put pressure and pressure on the Southampton backcourt.

First of all, Crouch's height makes it difficult for him to actively participate in pressing and oppression like other players.

And he alone is hard to sing alone.

Another very important reason is that the average age of the Stoke City team in the frontcourt is over thirty.

Needless to say, Crouch has been famous for a long time. He is thirty-two years old this year. Esselington is also thirty-two, Whitehead is thirty-one, and Walters is thirty.

The youngest in the entire midfielder is French midfielder En Zongzi, 24 years old.

But what can one person do?

Therefore, such a high age makes it impossible for the Stoke City team to adopt frontcourt pressure and pressing tactics. To do so, not to mention whether the effect can meet the expectations, but to say that their own physical consumption is probably not Tony Pooley. What Sri Lanka can afford.

Sometimes, everyone knows that high-intensity frontcourt press and pressure are a trend and a trend, but they may not be applicable.

Tony Pulis chose the tactical style that best suits the Stoke City team, which is to give up the frontcourt press and pressure.

But in this way, you have to let Southampton control the ball.

Since the opening, Southampton's possession rate has steadily exceeded 70%, completely dominating the game.

The Stoke City team adopted a compact contraction approach in the midfield and defended patiently.

Regardless of Southampton's control of the game situation and several threatening offensives, either failed to create a threat, or goalkeeper Begovic played well.

Begovic is one of the most outstanding goalkeepers in the Premier League this season. He has not only attracted the attention of Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, but even Barcelona wants him, which shows his strength!

Southampton controlled the ball patiently.

Tony Cross is very smart, he always keeps in mind the arrangements and arrangements of the head coach Bielsa before the game.

That is to not let the Stoke City team have a chance to breathe. They must constantly use the ball tactics to wear down their toughness and consume their physical energy, because they are old, they must be overwhelming.

But as the team's postponement organizer, Tony Cross must also keep in mind at all times, not in a hurry.

Once the team is a little anxious, he must be steady for the first time, remain calm and rational.

In Bielsa's words, as long as you have enough patience, Southampton will definitely win!

…………

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In the Manchester United training base in Carrington, west of Manchester, Ferguson sat in his office, silently watching the TV screen in front of him.

Sitting next to him was a special trip from Liverpool, Everton's coach Moyes.

This little Scottish fellow has come to listen to the admonitions of his predecessors!

After all, he took Ferguson's class, and his biggest task was to continue the country that Ferguson worked so hard to beat.

But I didn't expect that he came not coincidentally, and it happened to be a make-up match between Southampton and Stoke City.

Ever since, after talking for an afternoon, Moyes was left by Ferguson to watch the game.

"Tony Pulis's defense is very targeted. The inside cuts and diagonal insertions for the two sides are very tightly arranged, especially the midfielder, who always maintains protection in front of the defense, which is quite effective!"

Even Moyes has to admit that Tony Pulis is definitely the best defensive coach in England.

It's just a pity that his offensive accomplishments are really unflattering.

Let me ask, how can any head coach who is more normal and sensible will pile up so many veterans in his early thirties in his midfield?

Veterans are prone to injury, not to mention, just say that physical energy consumption and recovery, veterans are definitely at a disadvantage than young players.

The competition in the Premier League is so fierce and there are so many veterans.

Ferguson kept his eyes fixed on the TV screen and didn't want to leave for a moment, but he was muttering to Moyes.

"Bielsa is a cunning old fox, knows Stoke's weakness, anyway, it is the last game of the season, he is not in a hurry, using the ball tactics to fight attrition, the key is to see the second half!"

The first half has been going on for more than 20 minutes, and the score is still zero to zero.

But everyone knows that if this situation continues, the later the game time, the greater the pressure Stoke will face.

Moyes also kept nodding, "Bielsa's team is very good at suddenly exerting force at the last minute, so I guess, before the end of the first half, Southampton will have another wave of mad attacks."

Ferguson nodded his head indifferently. As far as the Premier League coach should have seen, it is nothing unusual.

"In the second half, Bielsa must still be hiding a hand!"

These words made Ferguson's eyes light up and couldn't help but let out a cry.

"The Stoke City team’s performance this season is very interesting. They scored 28 points at home, scored 21 goals, and conceded 22 goals. They scored 14 points, scored 13 goals and conceded 23 goals. It can be seen that the biggest gap between this team's home and away games is not in defense, but in offense!"

Judging from the performance of the entire first half, the Stoke City team almost completely gave up the willingness to attack, thinking about defense.

Tony Pulis put up an iron bucket at St. Mary's Stadium, stating that he wanted to tell Southampton that I was here for peace!

If you refer to Moyes' data, it really fits Stoke's positioning.

Anyway, the away offensive ability is not good, I just don't attack, concentrate on defense.

"But there is another very interesting statistic. This season, Stoke City scored 15 goals and conceded 18 goals in the first half, but in the second half, Stoke City scored 19 goals and conceded 27 goals. , Scored four more goals than the first half, but conceded nine more goals!"

Moyes' words made Ferguson frowned.

He understood what Moyes meant.

There are many Premier League teams in the first half this season, and they are prone to collapse in the second half.

The most typical is Newcastle, which often crashes in the second half.

There are also teams like West Ham United, Queens Park Rangers, Wigan Athletic, Reading, etc., who performed very poorly in the second half.

Manchester United's second-half record was not ideal, and even ranked sixth in the Premier League, behind Southampton, Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.

But in the first half, Manchester United was slightly ahead of Southampton by a slight advantage.

This shows that Manchester United and Stoke have exactly the same problems.

That is, there are too many veterans in the team, which makes it difficult for the team to maintain a high level of performance in a 90-minute game. They always performed well in the first half and began to decline in the second half.

There is no way, unless you are willing to reorganize the team lineup configuration!

"If Tony Pulis's team can defend in the first half, then bite their teeth in the second half, maybe they can hold on, and a draw may not be impossible!"

Moyes said this, glanced at Ferguson, and found that the latter's face was very ugly.

There was a moment of sorrow in my head, what could be done?

Southampton is so strong, is it possible for you to let a mid-range team like Stoke go to fight with them?

He didn't say a word later, that is, if Stoke City loses the ball in the first half, no matter how amazing Tony Pulis is, it will be difficult to get back in the second half.

Therefore, Ferguson's face is so ugly.

It can be guessed that Southampton's attack after the opening did not make every effort. What Bielsa really wanted to score was at the end of the first half and the second half.

Therefore, before the end of the first half, it was the first test of the Stoke City team!

Ferguson was panicked. Looking at the TV screen, Southampton still controlled the ball, and the Stoke City team was still crouching in their own half to guard against the deadly guard. They put out an iron bucket formation, a pair of people who did not show up. Look like.

I don’t know why. I know that Stoke’s defense is one of the best in the Premier League, but Ferguson still can’t rest assured.

After all, the strength of the two teams is too far apart!

Could it be that I really want to end my coaching career empty-handed?

Do not!

I do not!

I will never!

Ferguson gritted his teeth and looked at the TV screen He was very unwilling, very very unwilling!

He absolutely can't allow it, just like this, with such humiliation, to end his coaching career!

This is not fair to him!

Moyes on the side saw Ferguson's reaction in full view, but he was very embarrassed.

The haughty Sir Ferguson was scared. Isn't he?

Southampton is so strong this season, what about next season?

Can he lead such a Manchester United team to fight Southampton?

Even when he reforms Manchester United's tactics and reorganizes the Manchester United squad, he can still keep the top four positions in the league?

Moyes is really not sure!

Just when the two men were thinking about it, they saw Tony Cross on the court getting the ball, facing the press, and quickly passed it to Modric. He suddenly changed his previous lateral movement style and rushed forward.

Modric also knows how to play, and quickly knocked back after receiving the ball, completing a beautiful two-pass and one-way forward coordination.

As soon as Tony Cross moved forward, Southampton’s entire midfielder immediately followed forward.

The German commander finally sounded the horn of Southampton before the end of the first half!

Moyes glanced at the score bar on the TV screen, there were still ten minutes!

It seems that Southampton still captured Stoke's defensive weakness!

In the next ten minutes or so, Stoke City may declare the gates fall at any time!

Ever since, the two people in the office almost held their breath and watched the live TV intently.

*This subtitle is provided by the XY subtitle group, @release*