Chapter 832 Crimes Other than War

In the past fifteen years, Tottenham has always occupied a seat among the top teams in the Premier League. However, White Hart Lane is the most backward, smallest and has the fewest seats among these top teams.

This North London team has always maintained the characteristics of being stronger in offense than defense, even in the two years when Guardiola, Sun Wu, Hazard, and Sanchez were there.

This is one of the reasons why Van Gaal came to Tottenham. In the past summer, the Dutch team led by Van Gaal played fascinating offensive football in the World Cup in Brazil.

However, Van Gaal has had a tough time in the past month. In five games from December to now, Tottenham have only won one game and have dropped to eighth place in points.

When Sun Wu, wearing the captain's armband, walked out of the tunnel, there were applause and boos in the stands.

Among the clubs that Sun Heung-min has played for, the one with the weakest relationship is Tottenham. This North London team has a large number of racist organizations among its fans. Sun Heung-min has experienced everything he met in advance.

This is also one of the reasons why Sun Wu rejected the invitation of Chelsea, also a London team, before moving to Manchester United.

"Manchester United's main players are all out in this game. Rojo and Phil Jones both played. Rojo took a break mainly to play against Tottenham. He already has four yellow cards." Zhan Jun explained this late at night. The highlight of the game, "However, Sun Wu's partner today is a bit surprising. Pochettino chose Lingard."

"Tottenham have been having a hard time recently. Van Gaal and Balotelli had a complete falling out. The team's atmosphere and record have declined rapidly. Today they formed a 4141 formation. Negredo advanced forward, with Eriksen and Eriksen behind him. Mata and Lame ***Bele are lined up, and the defensive midfielder is Fellaini, the former Manchester United player."

"Okay, the game has officially started... Oh, Manchester United attacked immediately, and Lingard stole the ball!"

"Sun Wu broke through Fellaini...foul!"

"Only 8 seconds into the game, Manchester United stole the ball in the frontcourt and Sun Wu made a free kick... Ah, Fellaini also received a yellow card!"

Van Gaal waved his hands on the sidelines to express his dissatisfaction, and was issued a yellow card just a few seconds into the game!

However, the Dutch coach also reflexively sensed Lingard's role. He is a blue-collar player with strong running ability and no expense for physical strength. Although he is not as good at defense as Fletcher, he has a wide coverage and can provide more support to his teammates.

For the next free kick, Griezmann tried his hand, but the shot was a bit off, missing the target by at least five meters.

The high-position press at the start seemed to work well;

But he didn't score a goal in the next ten minutes, not even a shot on target. Sun Wu turned his head and glanced at Van Gaal. This guy took this game a little too seriously.

After a few more minutes of attacking, Manchester United still made little progress. Instead, Eriksen sent a very penetrating through ball. Lamela broke through Phil Jones at high speed and finally blocked Rojo. The next shot barely hit the side netting.

Sun Wu frowned and carefully looked at Tottenham's midfield position. He said it was a 5-man midfielder, but in fact Lamela would rush forward to close the distance with Negredo. Mata was responsible for threading the needle behind them, and Eriksen Both Dembele and Dembele dropped deep to assist Fellaini in defense.

The most important thing is that Manchester United's high press did not gain much possession of the ball. Lukaku kept running inside and outside the penalty area, but never had the opportunity to bully Blind.

"Recycled?" Jesus looked back at Pochettino, "Best wants to take it easy."

"Yes." Pochettino nodded, "The effect is not very good, there are physical factors."

A large number of games in a short period of time have affected the physical fitness of Manchester United players. Except for Lingard, the other frontcourt players are a bit heavy-footed, and high-position pressing has become "pressing but not grabbing".

Sun Wu decided to switch to plan B.

After the 25th minute, Sun Wu directed Manchester United's formation to retreat, abandon the high-position press, and instead start a pressing defense, and let Griezmann move in to try to beat Tottenham's counterattack.

However, Van Gaal also kept his composure. Tottenham's offense had the charm of an old lady, slowly advancing forward.

Tottenham puts safety first when passing and receiving, and will pass back if there is any sign of trouble. Basically, there is no luck-based routine such as crosses from the wing. Instead, they try to find breakthrough opportunities in the ribs. Lamela and Mata became the most active person.

On the one hand, Tottenham's tactics are limited by the strength of the players, and on the other hand, they are also Van Gaal's tactical choices.

Van Gaal wanted to keep the ball at his feet, which is why he asked Blind to play as a central defender. The defender's ability to play the ball is very important in this tactic.

Van Gaal, who has been in charge of Barcelona twice, is no stranger to Barcelona's passing and controlling system. After calmly passing and controlling, he suddenly changes his rhythm and speeds up the passing and receiving to look for opportunities.

But he was limited by the player's ability. He tried to make Lamela a weakened version of Messi or Iniesta, but it was obvious that Lamela was a bit far away from Messi.

This directly leads to the advantage of Tottenham's passing and controlling tactics now reflected in the defense...the pace is slow, passing safety comes first, and cross passes and back passes are very frequent.

Controlling but not attacking has become the most prominent feature of Tottenham's tactics today.

Hearing the boos from the stands, Sun Wu felt a little sympathy for Van Gaal. This poor guy...

However, Tottenham players worked hard... Sun Wu's eyes fell on Belgian midfielder Dembele.

This is a role that can be exploited.

After Manchester United was recycled, Eriksen's position was improved, but Dembele did not. He always stayed with Fellaini because the speed of the afro was a weakness.

But Dembele was born as an attacking midfielder, and his characteristic is his strong ability to dribble the ball...

In the 38th minute, Sun Wu deliberately opened the angle to get out of the way. As expected, Dembele picked up the ball and started dribbling from the center. However, Schneiderlin and Lingard, who were prompted by Sun Wu, closed the door and intercepted the ball.

"Manchester United's counterattack!" Zhan Jun shouted: "This is an opportunity!"

Sun Wu, who was holding the ball, knew he couldn't get rid of the 194cm, 88kg explosive head behind him. He immediately volleyed the ball back with his heel!

Behind Fellaini, Lukaku was forced by Vertonghen to directly use his chest to stop the ball to Griezmann, who flicked the ball to the right with his toes.

Valencia, who was driving forward at high speed, took the ball away before Rose. The two competed for speed on the wing, causing a commotion in the stands.

Sitting in the commentary box, Mortensen saw clearly that after Sun Wu volleyed the ball backwards, in addition to Lukaku and Griezmann in the center, Valencia and Thomas Muller on the right accelerated at the same time. The difference is that the Ecuadorian accelerated on the sideline to attract Rose's attention, while the German cleverly ran inside.

Sure enough, after entering the 30-meter area, Valencia slowed down but suddenly poked his toe, and the unguarded Thomas Muller accelerated to catch up with the ball and crossed the ball.

When Manchester United launches a counterattack, Sun Wu is always the one who attracts the most attention from opponents. He can not only send exquisite passes, but also insert into the penalty area to grab points, can shoot long distances from the outside, and can suddenly organize the second team immediately. Wave offensive, and even show off his breakthrough and escape skills that are rarely used in positional battles.

Therefore, when Sun Wu ran around Fellaini, Vertonghen, the commander of Tottenham's defense, focused on Sun Wu.

When Sun Wu was about to receive Thomas Muller's pass and shoot at the front point, Vertonghen cautiously but extremely oppressively resisted Sun Wu.

But he finally found this opportunity to counterattack, and he attracted Vertonghen's attention again. How could Sun Wu be willing to do so... He clearly saw in the "God's Perspective" that Trippier moved in and stared at Gerry. Zman.

And Lukaku is near the penalty spot, with only Blind beside him.

Sun Wu wanted to pass the ball back to Erwa, so that the latter could cross again... but it was too late. Eriksen, Mata and Fellaini were all returning to defend, and Eriksen had even reached the penalty area line. On.

The next moment, Mortensen's roar echoed at White Hart Lane.

"Goooooooooooooooooooooooooooal!"

"Romelu Lukaku, the fifth goal in three league games, he opened the scoring for the team in three consecutive games!"

"Pochettino made the right choice. The Belgian center can do what a center should do most, score goals, score goals!"

Behind Lukaku running to the sideline, Thomas Muller and Sun Wu were running and high-fiving in celebration.

But Vertonghen lowered his head and touched his nose. He felt that he had not made any mistakes. This was really "a crime not caused by war"...