Since the end of their first Champions League quarterfinal match, Solskjaer had fallen into deep thought.

Everyone could see that the Manchester United manager was in low spirits.

They didn't know what was going on.

But they didn't dare to ask.

For Solskjaer, he was indeed facing a big problem.

Because after that match, he suddenly realized he was wrong.

He used to believe that his Manchester United could rely on Nacho to regain the throne they had lost for many years.

But the first leg of the Champions League quarterfinal against Liverpool suddenly woke him up.

Because from that match, he discovered a terrible problem.

That was that Luis Nacho was not as versatile and powerful as he had previously thought.

Before, he had always been nurturing Nacho as a future star striker for Manchester United for the next ten years.

But that match suddenly made him realize that this path wouldn't work.

In that match, his tactics were specifically designed around Nacho, intending to fully utilize Nacho's personal dribbling skills and speed.

And clearly, Liverpool was also prepared, their defense was very targeted. So their defense against Nacho was very successful.

Despite Nacho's best efforts, he still couldn't score.

Nacho tried almost every way to score in the match, but he couldn't break through Liverpool's defense.

When Liverpool packed their defense in front of the goal, when their defensive actions were tough, Nacho's weaknesses of being physically weak and short were exposed.

Then the biggest problem emerged: Nacho was not a natural scorer, he didn't start as a forward, and his specialty wasn't really shooting.

This season's success couldn't hide his inherent flaws.

Of course, Solskjaer could deceive himself and say that Nacho was still young and had room for growth.

And no one would deny that, Nacho was indeed young, and his performance as a center forward in his first season was already very good, and he would definitely have room for improvement in the future.

But the problem was that his height wouldn't increase by dozens of centimeters, and his weight wouldn't increase by more than ten kilograms. Most importantly, the instinct in front of the goal, that couldn't be trained.

Solskjaer had been training Nacho in this area all season.

But Nacho showed no improvement.

This was truly talent, something that couldn't be trained...

Solskjaer believed that even if Nacho trained for a few more seasons, his progress would probably be very limited.

Without a good sense of opportunity in front of the goal, one couldn't become a top scorer.

Manchester United's scoring ability was too poor now, it wasn't feasible to put all their hopes on Nacho, and this match against Liverpool was proof of that.

And Nacho really wasn't a forward suitable for attacking strong defenses… although sometimes he could have occasional flashes of brilliance. But what Solskjaer needed was a stable scorer, not a player who relied on inspiration to score goals from time to time.

So it seemed that Nacho couldn't possibly become a striker that Manchester United could rely on for the next ten years.

Of course, being a leader for the next ten years was no problem.

Leadership had nothing to do with scoring. It wasn't that being a leader necessarily meant being the top scorer.

And Nacho was indeed more suitable as a shadow striker, needing a genuine center forward in front of him… only then could Nacho's energy be maximized.

The above were all Solskjaer's own analyses, and from the current perspective, they were very likely.

But Solskjaer was not willing to accept this, he still wanted to verify it.

The opponent for the experiment was Liverpool.

Because only by playing against strong teams could one get real results. After all, Manchester United in the future would have to compete against strong teams, and the goal couldn't be set on those weak teams.

This made Solskjaer a little uneasy—emotionally, he hoped that he had misjudged, that Nacho could not only be the team's leader but also the team's top scorer. Because since that match, he had grown to like this young man, Nacho, more and more.

At the same time, from an economic point of view, buying an excellent center forward was expensive, and it wasn't guaranteed that you could even buy one.

Besides Chen Hero, there were only a handful of the world's most famous center forwards. Barcelona had a Quique, but they would definitely not come to Manchester United. Barcelona could still compete with Real Madrid in La Liga, taking turns at the top. Coming to the Premier League would be a tragedy.

Another hot prospect was Amoruso from Brazil. But there were too many suitors for Amoruso, the top clubs in Europe were lining up to pursue him, even Barcelona was among them.

Could Manchester United win against those teams?

Solskjaer wasn't sure.

※※※

While the Manchester United manager was frowning, Liverpool was in high spirits.

Liverpool defeated Manchester United 2-0 at home, preventing the opponent from scoring a single goal. They had already stepped one foot into the semifinals.

Liverpool's players knew the team's goal for this season.

This result filled them with enthusiasm.

Those players who had never won the Champions League thought that they could finally catch the last train, they never thought that in this season when Chen Hero was about to retire, they would still have the opportunity to touch the highest honor in European football…

Before, they were very pessimistic, believing that after Hero retired, it would become even more out of reach for them to dominate in the Champions League.

With this high morale, Liverpool swept through the league.

Using only half of their main team, Liverpool defeated Birmingham 5-2 away.

After the match, the local media in Birmingham commented: "...Birmingham did a good job, because they scored two goals in the match against Liverpool. I think that's enough to make their fans happy for a week..."

Liverpool was so strong now that many people felt that being able to score against them was a victory.

In this great victory, Chen Hero didn't go on a killing spree, he only scored one goal.

But that was enough for him to continue to widen the gap with Nacho.

Because Nacho didn't score a single goal in this round of the league.

The entire Manchester United seemed to have fallen into a slump, they couldn't recover from the blow of losing to Liverpool in the midweek. They lost 1-2 to Chelsea at their home ground.

As a result, they fell from second place in the league.

And Liverpool, on the other hand, took their place.

But now Solskjaer's mind was not on this at all.

For him, how could the results of one season compare to the future of Manchester United for ten years?

His mind was not on this match at all, he wished this match had never happened, and he could jump directly to the Champions League match in the middle of next week.

The failure of this match brought him some pressure, but he really couldn't care less about that.

※※※

The Champions League match in the middle of the week came quickly.

In this match, Solskjaer was determined to prove whether his discovery was reasonable, so he made targeted arrangements in terms of tactics.

He didn't give the team the tactic of defensive counterattack, but to attack desperately.

Choosing to attack at their home ground was normal for Manchester United, who had lost the first leg by two goals.

And at this time, everyone realized that Solskjaer had deliberately preserved his strength in the previous league match, in order to fight Liverpool to the death in this match.

After all, only being two goals behind, there was still a chance.

In this context, Solskjaer's choice was understandable.

When the match started, and they saw Manchester United's playing style, those who had been criticizing Solskjaer shut up.

They were all for this final battle…

But who knew that in Solskjaer's eyes, the victory or defeat of this match was not important either?

Solskjaer didn't tell anyone the worries in his heart, after all, this was not a good thing, saying it out would cause misunderstandings and create a rift between Nacho and himself.

So Manchester United's players didn't know this, their thoughts were the same as the outside world, thinking that the manager wanted to fight Liverpool to the death in this match.

As a result, they were full of fighting spirit, and performed more actively in the match. Coupled with being at home, with the cheers and encouragement of tens of thousands of fans, Manchester United's players suddenly felt that they could create any miracle.

※※※

Liverpool had guessed that Manchester United would fight to the death at home, but they didn't expect the momentum that Manchester United would explode with to be so amazing.

For a time, Liverpool was forced into a bit of a panic by Manchester United.

There were constant dangerous situations in front of the goal, as if they could concede a goal at any time.

Solskjaer stood by the field with his fists clenched, his body tense, watching the field nervously.

In his opinion, all the previous preparations were ready, and now all that was needed was a strong final blow.

If they could constantly put pressure on Liverpool's goal, quantitative change would lead to qualitative change, and they could score.

And after scoring, the situation between the two sides would change dramatically. Manchester United, only one goal behind, would have high morale, while Liverpool would be even more at a loss. Manchester United would then take advantage of the situation and complete the reversal!

Of course, the primary premise was to score a goal first.

Therefore, he fixed his gaze on Nacho, Nacho, as the center forward in this match, his only task was to score.

In this match, Solskjaer changed the tactics of the previous leg, not allowing Nacho to retreat too much to get the ball, and then dribble forward.

Instead, he let Nacho run and respond in the frontcourt, and then look for opportunities to shoot.

This was not what Nacho was good at, but Solskjaer just wanted to see if, in such a desperate situation, Nacho could be forced into becoming a completely different Nacho.

But unfortunately, this didn't happen.

Liverpool's panic didn't last for a short time, but Nacho didn't seize the opportunity, he really wasn't good at grabbing points in front of the goal.

Seeing Nacho repeatedly miss his teammates' passes, and miss shooting opportunities—not even missing scoring opportunities—Solskjaer shook his head by the field.

It seemed that Nacho really didn't have the talent to become a center forward, his outstanding performance this season was perhaps just the freshness of changing positions. This could be seen from his performance in the second half of the season.

Although he still scored goals. But he scored fewer goals, and in the match, he had to put in a lot of effort to score a goal, every goal was losing money.

If the team could have a pure center forward who was good at scoring, then if Nacho put in two-thirds of the effort he put in to create opportunities, Manchester United would have left everyone else far behind in the league…

Looking at the scene in front of him, thinking of that possibility.

Solskjaer lowered his head and sighed in his heart.

He knew that the results of the experiment were out.

※※※

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Book number: 2547695

Introduction:

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