In the northwest suburbs of Birmingham, a black Audi passed an overpass, turned from the southbound M6 highway onto the M5 highway, and sped quickly towards the western suburbs of Birmingham.
The M5 motorway passes through the two large West Midlands towns of West Bromwich and Handsworth, but the Audi exits from the motorway north of the two towns.
Just after exiting the expressway, go around the roundabout to the east and drive over the ground bridge above the expressway. Less than a hundred meters to the east of the expressway, there is a professional football field on the south side of the road, and a school and a football field on the west side of the football field.
training base.
Since there is a game in the afternoon, the road is quite crowded at this moment, with a lot of traffic.
There is a small parking lot to the east of the stadium, but it is already blocked.
"Boss, why don't you go down and have something to eat first, and I'll find a place to park in front." The driver leaned over and said to the two people sitting in the back seat, his tone sounding very respectful.
Sitting in the back row were a bald middle-aged man and an old man with a red nose. After listening to the driver's words, the bald middle-aged man put a thick cotton hat on his head and a scarf that covered half of his face.
, as if he didn’t intend for anyone to see his appearance clearly.
The same was true for the red-nosed old man. Before getting out of the car, he even pulled the brim of his hat down.
In November, the temperature drops sharply.
The Audi found a gap on the side of the road and pulled over. The two of them got out of the car, one on the left and the other on the right. They looked around at the lively scene of people and cars passing by. No one paid any attention to the appearance of two ordinary-looking outsiders.
The two of them didn't hesitate and went straight to the McDonald's across the road from the stadium.
They drove south from Manchester after having lunch, a nearly two-hour drive. When they arrived, there was still more than half an hour before the game, which was the peak time for fans to attend.
Walking into McDonald's, the bald man went over and ordered two cups of hot coffee. The old man with the red nose sat facing the window. He could just see the Hawthorn Stadium opposite and could clearly see the Manchester City bus parked in the parking lot inside the stadium.
.
The sky blue body is still easy to distinguish.
"Boss, actually I can come alone. You don't need to make this special trip." The bald man sat down next to the old man with a red nose and persuaded him when he saw the old man's nose that was obviously even redder from the cold.
"I don't have any impression from just watching the video or your reports. I have to see Manchester City's football with my own eyes." The red-nosed old man's voice was slightly trembling. I don't know if it was because of the cold or the long journey.
Although his appearance is no longer discernible, if someone familiar hears the red-nosed old man’s voice, he will be able to easily recognize him as Manchester United’s head coach Sir Alex Ferguson.
The bald man is his assistant coach, Mike Perrin.
Ferguson, who is nearly 70 years old, has lost his energy as before.
Everyone knows that as early as Queiroz's period, he basically ignored daily training and only formulated tactics for opponents and made various important decisions. As for the team's daily routine, he basically defended the assistant coach.
Queiroz's departure was a big blow to Ferguson, so he divided Queiroz's duties into two parts, one to assistant coach Mike Perrin, and the other to Dutch coach Meulensteen.
The person who accompanied him this time to spy on the military situation was Mike Perrin.
"Mike, you are a very talented person, but you must remember that those high-tech means can only be auxiliary. They are indeed very convenient, but they will also create new information barriers."
"No matter how clear the video is, no matter how detailed the report is, it is impossible to perfectly restore the feeling of the scene. When our players participate in the game, they need to compete face-to-face with their opponents in the stadium, rather than through video and reports.
Those are two very different things."
Mike Perrin nodded, but it was obvious that he was not particularly listening.
He didn't feel any difference, he just felt that there was no need to make this trip south in such cold weather.
It’s already 2010 and we have already entered the Internet era. Why can’t we keep pace with the times?
But Ferguson is the boss, and as an assistant coach, he can only obey.
If you want to change the rules, you can wait until you become the boss.
The Hawthorn Stadium has dozens of doors around it, and fans can go to any corner of the stands through these entrances.
The most important thing is that the capacity of the stadium is actually not large, only more than 20,000 people, and the game is approaching, so the entry speed is very fast. They just sat in McDonald's for more than ten minutes, waiting for the driver to park the car and come over
By then, the fans had almost arrived.
After the three of them tidied up, they left the McDonald's and went directly to the gate where they were standing to check in and get in.
…
In the stands of the Hawthorn Stadium, which can accommodate 26,000 people, if three people are thrown in, they are like a small drop of water in the ocean or a small grain of sand in the desert. They are inconspicuous at all.
The three of them all put on some disguises, and no one recognized them when they entered the venue.
I found my seat and as soon as I sat down, I saw players from both teams coming out under the leadership of the referee.
"Lee Probert, this guy is too soft on the law. Manchester City is going to suffer a lot." After Ferguson saw the referee clearly, he couldn't help but laugh.
West Bromwich Albion has never been a clean team, or it should be said that no team in the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League is clean, including the previous Manchester City.
If you want to gain a foothold in a highly competitive and cruel league like the Premier League, you must work hard.
Manchester City was like this before, and they were even more aggressive than anyone else. However, in the past two years, they have stepped up their recruitment efforts and Guardiola has reorganized the team's skills and tactics. As a result, Manchester City has now transformed into a young and artistic young man in the Premier League.
As everyone knows, Manchester City's style in the past was also outrageously dirty.
This chapter is not over yet, please click on the next page to continue reading! Otherwise, why would Keane choose revenge when facing Manchester City?
Of course, Ferguson has never denied that Manchester United's style of play is also dirty. Even players like Scholes play dirty. This should be regarded as an important part of the traditional English football culture.
In other words, this is the mainstream, and what Wenger and Guardiola do is considered non-mainstream.
…
After the game started, Manchester City controlled the ball as always.
West Bromwich Albion's overall strength is difficult to compete with Manchester City, especially when facing Manchester City with all their main players.
Ferguson's eyes kept lingering on the Manchester City players and he kept saying something. Mike Perrin sat aside, took off his gloves, and kept recording Ferguson's words in a small notebook, for fear of fear.
Wait and forget about it.
Ferguson was interested in many things about Manchester City, and one of them was the right back player named Trippier.
Guardiola has let him play for the third consecutive game. This is such a huge amount of trust and cultivation.
But judging from the scene, Ferguson was quite disappointed with Trippier.
Or should I say, it didn't bring him any surprises.
His footwork is good, his passing is good, and he works hard, but that's all, and he doesn't see much aura.
Maybe it's because of the youth training.
Ferguson thought to himself.
Manchester City's Trippier is far inferior to the two Brazilian teenagers in the Manchester United team in terms of talent, talent and strength. Ferguson is really a little disappointed.
If such a player were at Manchester United, he would only be loaned out for training.
"If Guardiola still lets Trippier play in the next game, we will attack Manchester City on the right!" Ferguson said loudly.
Obviously, he already has an understanding of Trippier's strength.
At this time, less than ten minutes had passed in the game.
…
In the midfield, Guardiola hid Toni Kroos and sent Gareth Barry. Milner replaced Sanchez on the right side of the frontcourt. This was obviously Guardiola's deliberate attempt to create doubts about the formation before the game.
After the opening, West Bromwich Albion has been scrambling to defend and the players are actively running. Manchester City has not been able to win the opponent in one go.
But when the game reached the 20th minute, Manchester City's left wing completed a beautiful offensive coordination.
After Marcelo dribbled the ball through the center line, he quickly passed the ball to Di Maria.
The Argentine winger chose to dribble the ball horizontally, but it failed to work and could only pass it back to David Silva.
David Silva chose to run on the left wing and completed a collision with Marcelo. After David Silva got the ball on the left wing, he was already standing on the outside of the left corner of the penalty area.
As soon as the ball was stopped, David Silva sent a diagonal pass, bypassing the defensive player and sending the ball to the left side of the penalty area.
I saw Su Dong running over to catch the ball, blocking the central defender behind him with his body, turning around after stopping the ball, and sent a cross with his left foot to the left side of the front edge of the small penalty area.
Di Maria, who had just cut inside, suddenly reached the edge of the small penalty area and swept Su Dong's cross into the West Bromwich Albion goal with his left foot. One to zero!
"pretty!!"
Ferguson clapped excitedly.
Many fans at the scene also felt like him that the goal was very beautiful.
The most important thing is the passing and cutting cooperation between the players, which is very smooth.
"Manchester City is getting more and more slippery with this kind of continuous cross-positioning. As long as one defensive player fails to keep up, everything will be messed up immediately. This will be very troublesome." Ferguson frowned.
Guardiola's team did not play so skillfully last season, but it has clearly slipped this season.
The biggest change is actually the scene where Su Dong leaned on the defensive player in the penalty area, stopped the ball, turned around and made a pass. Without it, Manchester City's attack would not have been able to enter the penalty area and catch the ball.
Santa Cruz just couldn't keep the ball last season.
Ferguson couldn't help but weigh in his mind, if it were Manchester United's defensive players who came to guard, would they be able to defend Manchester City's passing and cutting cooperation?
He actually didn't know what to do.
…
Just five minutes after the goal, Manchester City stole the ball near the center line and quickly handed it to David Silva.
The Spanish midfielder directly launched a long pass attack. This long pass had a strange arc and accurately landed on the side of Su Dong who was advancing.
