Chapter 603 I Will Never!

Toni Kroos stood in the center circle. As soon as he saw Danilo coming up from the right to meet Vidal, he immediately ran along the center line and ran to the right. Just as Danilo kicked back, the German Taking advantage of the situation and knocking back, it was given to Varane.

For this transition, Stoke City's pressing had to be slowed down.

But before the Stoke City team took a breath, Varane passed the ball to Harvey Martinez, who made a long pass and came to the frontcourt accurately, finding Ibrahimovic.

Immediately, Stoke City had no time to take a breath, and had to continue to press hard.

The Swedish center fought for the ball, with Neymar on the second spot.

After the Brazilian grabbed the ball, he quickly assigned it to the left. David Alaba rushed forward quickly, and after catching the ball, he took advantage of the trend to kill the bottom line. With this, Southampton's attack line also advanced to Stoke City. The team's big penalty area.

But this wave of offense still failed to work. The ball passed into the penalty area and was cleared by Robert Huth.

The ball was down to Southampton, Modric caught it and passed it to Toni Kroos.

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

Immediately, everyone on the Saints team knew that it was time to control the rhythm a little bit.

In this game, Toni Kroos's position was relatively low, and he formed a ball-holding phalanx with Harvey Martinez, Varane and goalkeeper Neuer.

The two full-backs, Danilo and David Alaba, pressed very high, and even pressed higher than Toni Kroos in many cases. In addition, Neymar cut inside and Gareth Bale slanted. Inserting a large penalty area makes the two full-backs look more like full-backs, and the burden of attacking and defending the entire wing falls on them.

The ball was skillfully 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 press and press Southampton's backcourt.

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

And it's hard for him alone.

Another very important reason is that the average age of Stoke City's frontcourt is over 30 years old.

Needless to say, Crouch has been famous for a long time. He is 32 years old this year, Etherington is also 32 years old, Whitehead is 31 years old, and Walters is 30 years old.

The youngest in the entire midfield is the French midfielder Nzongzi, who is 24 years old.

But what can a person do?

Therefore, such a high age makes it impossible for the Stoke City team to adopt frontcourt oppression and pressing tactics. In doing so, let alone whether the effect can meet expectations, let alone the physical consumption of their own, it is probably not Tony Pooley. what S can afford.

Sometimes, everyone knows that high-intensity frontcourt pressing and oppression is a trend, a trend, but it may not be applicable.

Tony Pulis chose the tactical play that is most suitable for the Stoke City team, that is, to give up the pressing and oppression of the frontcourt.

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

From the start, Southampton's ball possession rate has steadily exceeded 70%, completely dominating the game.

The Stoke City team adopted a compact and shrinking midfielder and backcourt, and patiently defended well.

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

Begovic is one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League this season. Not only has he attracted the attention of giants such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, but even Barcelona wants him, which shows his strength!

Southampton patiently controlled the ball.

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

That is to not give the Stoke City team a chance to breathe. They have to use ball possession tactics to wear down their resilience and consume their physical energy, because they are old and they will definitely not be able to bear it.

But as the team's late organizer, Toni Kroos must also keep in mind at all times, not in a hurry.

Once the team is a little anxious, he must stabilize the first time, keep calm and rational.

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

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

Sitting next to him is Moyes, the head coach of Everton, who came all the way from Liverpool.

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

After all, he took over from Ferguson's class, and his biggest task is to continue what Ferguson has worked so hard to achieve.

It's just that he didn't expect that he came by coincidence, 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 together.

"Tony Pulis's defense is very targeted. The inward cuts and oblique penetrations against the two sides are arranged quite tightly, especially the midfielder, who always keeps in front of the defense line to protect, which is quite skillful!"

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

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

Let me ask, how could any normal and rational head coach have so many veterans in their early thirties in their midfield?

Not to mention the fact that veterans are prone to injuries, but just talking about physical exertion and recovery. Veterans must suffer more than young players.

The competition in the Premier League is so fierce, with so many veterans, it must be too much.

Ferguson's eyes were fixed on the TV screen, unwilling to leave for a moment, but he was muttering what Moyes said in his mouth.

"Belsa is a cunning old fox. He knows the weakness of Stoke City. Anyway, it is the last game of the season. He is not in a hurry. He uses the ball possession tactics to fight the war of attrition. The key is to look at the second half!"

More than 20 minutes had passed in the first half, and the score was still zero to zero.

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

Moyes also kept nodding, "Bielsa's team is very good at making a sudden effort at the last moment, so I guess, before the end of the first half, Southampton will have another wave of mad attack."

Ferguson still nodded his head indifferently. Any Premier League coach should be able to see this. It's nothing unusual.

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

These words made Ferguson's eyes light up, and he couldn't help but groan.

"Stoke's performance this season is very interesting. They scored 28 points at home, scored 21 goals and conceded 22 goals. They scored 14 points away from home, 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 their willingness to attack and just wanted to defend.

Tony Pulis put up an iron barrel formation at St. Mary's Stadium, making it clear that the horses and horses wanted to tell Southampton that I came here for peace!

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

Anyway, the offensive ability of the away game is not good, so I simply don't attack and 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 in the first half, but conceded nine more goals!"

What Moyes said immediately made Ferguson frown.

He understood what Moyes meant.

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

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

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

Manchester United's second-half record is not ideal, 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 with a slight advantage.

It can be seen that the problems of Manchester United and Stoke City are exactly the same.

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 perform well in the first half and start 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 hold on in the first half, then if they grit their teeth in the second half, they might be able to hold on. A draw may not be impossible!"

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

There was a sudden sigh in my heart, what can I do?

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

He didn't say the last thing, that is, if Stoke City conceded a goal in the first half, no matter how amazing Tony Pulis was, it would be difficult to get back the situation in the second half.

That's why Ferguson's face was so ugly.

It can be guessed that Southampton's attack after the opening did not go all out. 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 wave of tests for the Stoke City team!

Ferguson was in a state of trepidation. Looking at the TV screen, Southampton was still in control of the ball, and Stoke City were still huddled in their own half to guard against death. look.

But I don't know why, knowing that Stoke City's defense is one of the best in the Premier League, but Ferguson is still worried.

After all, the strength gap between the two teams is too great!

Could it be that he really wants to end his coaching career empty-handed?

No!

I don't!

I will never!

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

He absolutely cannot allow himself to end his coaching career just like this, with such humiliation!

This is unfair to him!

Moyes, who was on the side, had a panoramic view of Ferguson's reaction, but he was very sad in his heart.

The proud Sir Alex Ferguson was scared, and why wasn't he?

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

Can he lead such a Manchester United team against Southampton?

Even, can he reform Manchester United's tactics and reorganize Manchester United's lineup while maintaining the top four positions in the league?

Moyes is really not sure!

Just when the two were thinking about each other, they saw Toni Kroos in the field after getting the ball, facing the pressure, and quickly passed it to Modric. He suddenly changed his previous lateral movement style and rushed forward quickly.

Modric also understood it, and quickly knocked back after receiving the ball, completing a beautiful two-to-one push and cooperation in the middle.

As soon as Toni Kroos moved forward, Southampton's entire midfield immediately followed suit.

The German commander finally blew the horn of Southampton's mad attack before the end of the first half!

Moyes glanced at the points column on the TV screen, ten minutes to go!

It seems that Southampton still seized Stoke City's defensive weakness!

In the next ten minutes or so, Stoke City may declare that the city gate has fallen at any time!

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

*This subtitle is provided by XY subtitle group, x-on:Publish*