Chapter 538 No More Three-Point Lane

Three days later, Manchester United won 4-0 away against Yeovil Town in the fourth round of the FA Cup with a rotating lineup, and advanced to the round of 16 of the FA Cup. Lingard, Mata, Herrera and McTominay each scored one goal.

The 25th round of the Premier League continued in the last two days of January.

Manchester United's opponent in this round is Tottenham. Although the performance of the White Lily this season is not as amazing as last season, it still beats Arsenal after 24 rounds and ranks fifth in the Premier League standings. The overall performance is still good.

Harry Kane faced his old club for the first time after transferring to Manchester United, but the venue of the game was no longer the familiar White Hart Lane Stadium, but the new Wembley Stadium.

However, facing his old club again, Harry Kane's mood was not so good, because before the game started, he was booed by the home fans.

The scene was full of abuse against Harry Kane.

"Do you remember who trained you? It was Tottenham, Harry! You can't treat us like this!"

"You should follow Manchester United if they pay you more money, you dog who only cares about your mother!"

"Ungrateful villain!"

...

Tottenham fans think Harry Kane has betrayed the team.

The abuse from Tottenham fans made Harry Kane look unhappy.

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At the beginning of the game, Tottenham launched a fierce attack on Manchester United's goal. They got the right to kick off and used this opportunity to continuously attack Manchester United's goal.

Ali was particularly active in the game, frequently raising his hand to ask his teammates for the ball. Once he got the ball, he would use his sharp breakthrough to threaten Manchester United's goal.

Not long after the game started, Ali received the ball on the left side. He did not pass the ball to anyone, but made a fake move to break through the bottom line, suddenly changed direction and dribbled horizontally, and then shot a long shot from outside the penalty area.

De Gea struggled to save the ball, and this shot won warm cheers from Tottenham fans in the stands. They eagerly hope that their team can beat Manchester United, and slap Harry Kane hard: Don't you think Manchester United is stronger and can win the championship? Now we beat you, what do you think?

Bruno is a little worried about the current situation. He is worried that this will stimulate Tottenham players to play beyond their normal performance. Tottenham is a young team. Some people in such a team are crazy. Once they are crazy, even with the strength of Manchester United and Manchester City, they will be in trouble.

Last season, Manchester United suffered a defeat in Tottenham's away game in the final stage of the league, delaying their championship.

Bruno doesn't want to lose again away today. This will not only end their winning streak, but also suffer a losing streak when facing the former gift boy, which will be a shame for the team.

However, Bruno also knows that instead of trying to stop Tottenham from playing, it is better to try to let Manchester United score first.

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Bruno has been playing in the Premier League for almost two years. His strength has given the Tottenham coaching staff a new understanding, and his role in Manchester United is also obvious. In this game, Pochettino asked Tottenham's midfielders to strictly guard Bruno and not let him move freely in the midfield.

When Bruno got the ball, he faced Tottenham's tight defense. Moussa Dembele is a midfielder with both offensive and defensive capabilities, but his main task in this game was to defend Bruno.

In this game, Tottenham's starting lineup arranged a 4231 formation. In the midfield, Eric Dier was responsible for organizing the offense, and Moussa Dembele focused on defending Bruno. Of course, his teammates would also help him in defense.

Bruno and Moussa Dembele fought in the midfield.

When Bruno got the ball, Moussa Dembele came up to press. As soon as Bruno turned around and protected the football in front of him, Moussa Dembele pushed him from behind to prevent him from turning around easily.

Then Eric Dier ran up from the front to complete a front-to-back attack with Moussa Dembele.

Bruno did not compete with these two people in footwork, but passed the football horizontally to the side.

But Ali had already guessed his intention of passing the ball. He moved ahead and intercepted the ball before Mbappe.

Mbappe was a little surprised. He was still waiting for the ball, ready to turn around and break forward. Who would have thought that Ali would be so quick and intercept the ball first.

After Ali intercepted the ball, he looked back at Mbappe.

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Bruno didn't have time to complain to Mbappe, so he turned around and ran back. His target was Ali.

Ali certainly knew what Bruno would do after losing the ball, and he would definitely chase back. So Ali didn't show off his footwork in front of Bruno, and passed the ball before Bruno caught up.

Then Tottenham launched an attack, and Morata's shot was finally held in De Gea's arms.

Bruno soon found that as long as he had the ball, there would be Tottenham players around him, and no matter which direction he passed the ball, it might be intercepted.

In short, he fell into the trap prepared for him by Tottenham.

Moussa Dembele was stalking him, but he was not the main person who intercepted the ball. Someone else was stealing the ball, maybe Eric Dier, maybe Ali, or someone in the Tottenham defender, or even Son Heung-min and Morata who were retreating.

For ordinary people, this is very difficult. But for Bruno, the greater the difficulty, the more opportunities he has.

Why?

Think about it, when Tottenham players are all around him, what will happen to other places?

Empty, empty!

Although Bruno was surrounded, he was still trying hard to find the empty places of the opponent.

Although this was a bit difficult, sometimes his feet would be intercepted because of slow passing, and sometimes he would make a passing error because of hasty kicking. But he still insisted on this approach, he believed that as long as he passed the ball successfully once, it would be enough to threaten Tottenham's goal.

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After seeing the difficulties faced by Bruno, Manchester United players also rushed to support. For example, the other two midfielders consciously moved closer to Bruno, reducing the distance between them, which also reduced the difficulty of Bruno's passing.

They shortened the distance between them and Bruno, which did reduce the pressure on Bruno. However, this led to a disconnection between the midfield and the frontcourt. In order to maintain a close enough connection, Harry Kane and Rashford, as forwards, had to retreat to respond.

Once they retreated, the distance between them and the Tottenham goal would be far away. As forwards, the farther away from the opponent's goal, the less threat they would have.

Manchester United's offense has not improved much during this period, which is also related to the current entanglement between the two sides in the midfield.

After all, Tottenham is also a well-known strong team in European football today. They are equally matched with Manchester United in such a tug-of-war. Sometimes they can launch a counterattack by intercepting the ball in the midfield. However, because Ali, Eriksson and Eric Dier moved closer to the middle, the personnel were too concentrated, and the support for the forwards was actually very limited, so there were not many opportunities to really threaten De Gea.

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The game lasted for 25 minutes, and the two sides were still deadlocked in the midfield. Manchester United could not score, and Tottenham could not break the deadlock.

For the current situation, Manchester United's head coach Mourinho is happy to see it happen, because getting a draw at the new Wembley Stadium is also an acceptable result for him.

Mourinho did not think that Manchester United could keep winning and the winning streak would not be ended.

Being able to win 24 consecutive victories at the beginning of the season is a result he never dared to think of before, even if it was ended by Tottenham today, it would be nothing.

Mourinho just watched from the coaching booth without making any adjustments, or he thought that the current situation did not require him to make major tactical adjustments, and only required the players to make small-scale self-adjustments.

But Tottenham's head coach Pochettino could not sit still, his team was not qualified to continue to waste time with Manchester United in the midfield.

There were only 14 rounds left in the league, and Tottenham, who were competing with Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal for a place in the Champions League, could not afford to make any mistakes in any game.

The tactics he had set up specifically for Bruno now seemed to tie his hands instead. Although it restricted Bruno's performance, it also made his own offense less threatening. This kind of "killing one thousand enemies and losing eight hundred" was too unprofitable.

Seeing that the first half was halfway through, if the game continued like this, they could only hope that luck was on Tottenham's side.

He stood up from his seat, walked to the sidelines, and sent a signal to the field.

He signaled Tottenham's two full-backs to increase the number of assists.

Since the midfield was going to have a tug-of-war with Manchester United, they would use the assists of the full-backs to open up the situation.

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Trippier is a defender with excellent assist ability. Ben Davies on the other side is not as good, but he is also a Welsh international with a long-range shot and a good cross.

As soon as the two full-backs of Tottenham came on, they immediately changed the situation.

While the two sides were fighting in the midfield, the two side attacks made Manchester United's defense a little overwhelmed. De Gea's goal began to be in danger many times, and he became the Manchester United player who appeared most frequently in TV close-up shots.

In the 40th minute of the game, Bruno got the ball in the midfield. As usual, Moussa Dembele was beside him, and Ali was not far away. Eric Dier was also rushing towards him.

Moussa Dembele was still using his feet to interfere with his control of the ball. As long as he was not careful, he might lose the ball.

In desperation, Bruno could only pass the ball back.

The ball was passed back to the central defender Van Dijk. After Van Dijk got the ball, he looked at Bruno's situation and passed it back again. It was probably a back pass.

We can't always rely on Bruno, we must find ways to relieve him of pressure.

The Dutch central defender looked at the wing and passed it to the full-back!