Chapter 1 Manchester United's Tactics

While the Manchester United players were celebrating, Martin O'Neill was considering who to substitute.

On the field, Liverpool’s attacking lineup consisted of Chen Hero at the forefront, Bale and Sanchez on the left and right wings, Gotze, the German genius, organizing the attack in the middle, and Inler and Gerrard as the two defensive midfielders behind them.

This attacking lineup was perfect in terms of personnel and had no obvious weaknesses. It was also very balanced.

But the more it was like this, the harder it was for him to make a substitution.

Replacing anyone could disrupt this balance.

Yet he had to make a change.

There was only Pepe as a center-back.

This was definitely not going to work. He had to ensure the integrity of the defense.

Agger had already been sent out to warm up and would be ready to come on in a few minutes.

Manchester United’s morale was high, and if Liverpool's defense remained like this, it was only a matter of time before they conceded another goal.

After much deliberation, O'Neill felt that only Gotze could be moved. Gerrard and Inler were untouchable.

Inler was a dedicated defensive midfielder. If he was taken off, the midfield would be virtually undefended.

And what about Gerrard? Although his physical qualities were not as good as before, his mental contribution was now greater than his actual performance. As long as he was on the field, Liverpool had a backbone and a spiritual leader.

Only a team with a spiritual leader could win in the face of adversity.

If Gerrard was substituted now, Liverpool would lose their spirit.

Although Chen Hero was the biggest star, Gerrard's prestige in the team was still unmatched by Chen Hero.

Neither of these two could be replaced, and the wingers were even more untouchable. Liverpool's wings were the lifeline of their attack. Bale and Sanchez kept attacking, supplying Chen Hero with ammunition.

These two wingers were like Liverpool's two legs. Would a normal person cut off one of their legs? With two legs, you can run, but with one leg, you can only crawl on the ground. Running is obviously faster than crawling.

So, the wingers couldn't be replaced either.

And Chen Hero was even more irreplaceable.

Without Chen Hero, Liverpool would have no chance of winning, let alone equalizing.

So, after thinking it over and over again, only Gotze could be sacrificed.

Although Gotze's role was also important. He was the source of inspiration for Liverpool's attacking front. With him, Liverpool's attack was more varied.

But Liverpool had been able to win games without Gotze before, so sacrificing Gotze was the only option.

And so, five minutes after Manchester United took the lead, during a break in play, Liverpool made a substitution.

Gotze was taken off and Agger came on.

Martin O'Neill knew that this substitution was a reluctant one, but he had to make it. In order to prevent Gotze from having any negative thoughts, he took the initiative to hug Gotze, patted him on the back and praised him: "You did a great job, Mario. But unfortunately, I have to take someone off…"

To his surprise, Gotze was quite understanding.

"I know, boss. As long as we can win, it doesn't matter to me."

Satisfied with the answer, Martin O'Neill breathed a sigh of relief, patted Gotze on the shoulder again, and sent him back to the bench.

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"Liverpool has made a substitution. Gotze has been taken off and Agger, a center-back, has come on… This substitution is completely passive… Gotze's contribution to Liverpool's attack is significant. This is a forced substitution."

The Manchester United players could also see this, and they felt even more confident about winning the game.

The Liverpool fans, on the other hand, were worried and frowned.

Now they would have to play with ten men for more than seventy minutes of intense, high-intensity competition. How long could these ten men last…

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After taking the lead, Manchester United did not immediately retreat. They still wanted to score another goal against Liverpool while they had the chance.

But they were still quite calm, knowing that now was not the time to get carried away.

After attacking for a while and seeing that Liverpool's defense had not fallen apart and was still very tight, they gave up on this idea.

They retreated and played cautiously with Liverpool, waiting for Liverpool to attack and then looking for opportunities to counterattack.

Liverpool, who were best at counterattacking others, were now experiencing the taste of being counterattacked.

This taste was really unpleasant…

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Chen Hero was now the most eager to score a goal, because even he had been deceived by Ferguson's statement.

Before the game, he had also thought that Ferguson was really getting old and had been frightened, which was why he had said such submissive words.

He looked down on Manchester United and Ferguson a little in his heart.

Who would have thought that he had been tricked!

It was when Ferguson rushed down from the coach's seat to celebrate wildly that Chen Hero realized that he had been deceived by this old fox.

The thing Chen Hero hated the most was being deceived.

Because it made him feel like he was being played. If anyone dared to flaunt their intellectual superiority in front of him, Chen Hero wouldn't mind showing off his sandbag-sized fist.

He wanted to make Ferguson understand one thing: that provoking him wasn't just about taunting him before the game.

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In fact, Ferguson himself had some reservations about revealing his intentions so early. But what could he do when the goal came so early? If the goal had already been scored and he remained indifferent, the team's morale would really be severely affected, so he had to come out.

At the same time, he also felt that Liverpool were a goal behind and had one less player. Even if they knew they had been tricked and fooled, so what?

Could Manchester United not win the game in such a good situation?

As soon as he thought of this, he rushed down and celebrated in an exaggerated manner.

And the effect was very good. Manchester United's morale soared, while Liverpool's morale declined at a visible rate.

With this ebb and flow, Manchester United now had the advantage even if they contracted their defense.

After the goal, Ferguson did not return to his seat on the bench. He stood on the sidelines, hands in his pockets, watching the game on the field.

He said nothing and did nothing, but just stood on the sidelines, bringing infinite power and confidence to the players.

This was the highest realm of a coach. The ability of a legendary coach who had coached a team for thirty years.

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But today, Chen Hero was going to fight this legendary coach to the death. Who told him to treat himself like a monkey?

He really couldn't swallow this anger.

Chen Hero began to frequently raise his hand to signal his teammates to pass the ball to him.

Before, he would only do this occasionally when he ran into a shooting position. In fact, as everyone became familiar with him and understood him, he didn't even need to raise his hand anymore, and the ball would naturally be passed to him.

Now he was raising his hand to ask for the ball no matter where he was.

This showed that he was really angry.

The teammates also listened obediently, passing the ball to his feet one by one.

Anyway, Gotze was off the field, and the frontcourt lacked someone to organize the attack. Liverpool's attack had become very simple: the defense passed the ball to Chen Hero, or to the wings, and then launched a strong attack.

Chen Hero didn't go into the penalty area anymore either. He retreated to ask for the ball.

He wanted the ball, and they gave him the ball.

Then, after receiving the ball, he didn't dribble or pass the ball. He just shot.

He didn't care where he was, he just took a shot.

This was very unreasonable, but over the years, the Liverpool players had long been used to it.

Even the new players who had only joined the team this season had gone through the steps of "surprise" to "unease" to "calm" and finally to "habit."

Chen Hero has the ability and the qualification to do this, so what else can we say?

In fact, Chen Hero rarely gets this violent anymore.

Most of the time, he still cooperates with everyone like a normal player, creating opportunities for others.

You won't see him being this unreasonable and just shooting on his own more than twice in a season.

This was the first time this season, and he used it on Manchester United.

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Manchester United had no idea what Chen Hero was doing.

In their opinion, Chen Hero must have been so angry that he had turned to individual play after becoming impatient.

Not only were they not afraid, but they also hoped that Chen Hero would do this more often.

Because this would alienate Chen Hero from his teammates. He would lose the support of his other teammates. No matter how great he was, what could he do alone?

Chen Hero's wasteful way of creating opportunities was actually draining Liverpool's morale.

After a long time, everyone would naturally lose their fighting spirit. Anyway, Chen Hero wasted all the balls in the end, so what was the point of the others trying so hard?

But the game did not develop as they thought it would.

No matter how unreliable the balls Chen Hero shot out were, the Liverpool players were constantly supplying Chen Hero with ammunition. At this time, even the biggest names were willing to be the supporting cast for Chen Hero, because Chen Hero was an even bigger name than them.

Manchester United gradually felt the pressure.

And what worried them the most was…

Chen Hero was doing this, which meant that Liverpool was reducing the pressure on their attack. They didn't need to invest too many people in the attack, so naturally they could leave more people in the backcourt to defend against Manchester United's attack.

The numerical disadvantage was completely invisible…

Anyway, Manchester United hadn't managed to launch a single counterattack in the past ten minutes or so. Even if they managed to cross the halfway line a few times, they were quickly faced with Liverpool's superior forces and then wiped out. Even Rooney couldn't do anything, let alone anyone else.

But Manchester United's strict defense had indeed taken a lot of effort.

Relying on Chen Hero alone, at most, he could only shoot from long range, but he couldn't completely break through Manchester United's goal.

You have to know that the goalkeeper and the defenders are not vegetarians either.

To break through their goal with a long shot, it has to be a world-class goal.

But unfortunately, Chen Hero had taken twelve shots so far, and none of them had been world-class goals. Either they were too straight and were saved by David de Gea, or they hit Manchester United's defenders and bounced out, or they were simply off target.

The two sides were deadlocked until the end of the first half.

The score was still 0:1, with Manchester United leading as visitors.