Chapter 292 From the first battle in 2008!

Before the first race of the new year, the analysis report of the last round of races, which Ricciardo unreasonably asked to work overtime on, was released. Of course, the report involves a lot of data and line analysis. Since the author has not obtained the copyright, it is not convenient to disclose it, but the subjective summary content can be shared:

First of all, the most direct reason for the loss came from both offense and defense. The main reason for the loss was that Ronaldo's penalty kick didn't go in...

But, since Ronaldo joined Manchester United, who has ever seen him miss a penalty in an official match? In fact, among the 68 goals Ronaldo has scored for Manchester United, he has scored 9 penalties, which means that his previous penalty record was 9-9! Unfortunately, in the last round of the league, Ronaldo missed the tenth penalty.

However, the report believes that this is a low-probability event. It can only be said that Manchester United is indeed unlucky, and Ronaldo really needs a rest.

In addition, the Premier League's top defense this season was thwarted by West Ham United, which was not at an advantage in height, with two set-pieces scored in a row...

It is true that Manchester United's first central defender combination was distracted, but obviously Manchester United does not have more reliable central defenders than Vidic and Rio Ferdinand, so in order to improve this problem, the first is to strengthen the defensive support in the penalty area, and the second is to reduce the chances of giving the opponent corner kicks and set pieces in dangerous positions.

The report believes that the real factor for the result of the last round of games is not the forward line or the defense line. Even if it is a problem with the penalty taker and the central defender combination, Manchester United has no way to solve it in the short term. Therefore, what Manchester United really needs to improve in the next round of the league is the midfield!

In the match against West Ham, Manchester United's central midfield was the freshest combination of the season, with Hargreaves partnering with Fletcher. Although the two had played on the same field before, as a marginal substitute, Fletcher often appeared on the wing, and his style did not match Hargreaves's.

For some reason, Manchester United chose to arrange these two players to start in the center of the midfield, and the result was fatal... The rotation and organization of the midfield were completely disordered. Although Giggs could assist in organizing the offense on the wing, there was a lack of a key metronome that could connect Manchester United's backcourt and the midfield and frontcourt.

Anderson and Park Ji-sung who came on later were obviously not the answer either. The former played more of a shadow striker role, which conflicted with Giggs's function, while Park Ji-sung, who returned from injury, tried hard, but the Korean star is more suitable for playing on the wing or sweeping the field, rather than retreating to organize.

Manchester United has an answer in this position. Scholes, Carrick and Li Qi are all standard answers, but for various reasons all three of them were absent in the last round of games.

This resulted in Manchester United's passing from midfield to backfield being completely aimless. Evra, Vidic, Wes Brown, and even Anderson in the attacking midfield position, all passed the ball into no-man's land many times, because there was a lack of a metronome to connect and organize the ball in the middle of the midfield as the first transition point for the ball!

For the next round of matches, although Scholes has not yet had a definite date for his return from injury, Sir Alex Ferguson can easily solve the problem of disorganized midfield as long as he sends in Carrick or Lizzie; and once this problem is solved, the report believes that Manchester United's offensive and defensive efficiency will return to normal.

At the end of the report, perhaps because it was written too hastily or the staff who worked overtime were very resentful, there was actually not much substantive content in the text, the analysis was a bit rough, and the conclusion was obvious to Ricardo, and there was not much new and eye-catching stuff.

Therefore, the report writing team also knew that if they just did this to get the job done, they would probably be criticized by their sponsors, so they specially added some season statistics at the end of the article.

根据官方统计数据，07/08赛季的英超在进入新年之前的199场联赛中共奉献了了554个进球，平均为每场2.78球，比去年同期的199场比赛增加了88球。

Judging from the average number of goals per game, since the establishment of the Premier League, only the 99/00 season can be compared with this season. By the New Year of that season, there were 193 goals in 540 games, an average of 2.80 goals per game. The total number of goals in 380 games throughout the season was 1060, which was the season with the most goals since the number of participating teams in the Premier League was reduced from 24 to 20.

What is more worth mentioning is that not only has the Premier League's goals increased significantly in vertical comparison, but it is also the best compared with other top European leagues: the average goals per game in La Liga, Serie A and Bundesliga so far this season are 2.59 goals, 2.57 goals and 2.54 goals respectively.

曼联自从新赛季首轮主场被雷丁0比0逼平后，接下来的10个主场取得全胜，而在对阵西汉姆联队输球之前的9个主场中，曼联的得失球之比高达26比3！

Therefore, this report has reason to believe that when Manchester United's midfield is restored to order, Manchester United will get back on the right track in the next home game...

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2007年1月1日下午15时，07/08赛季英格兰足球超级联赛第21轮，红衣白裤的曼联与白衣蓝裤的伯明翰在老特拉福德球场展开争夺。

伯明翰上次取胜曼联还是1978年11月11日，红魔在客场1比5惨败。但其后近30年来的20场比赛中，曼联14胜6平保持不败；伯明翰上次在老特拉福德取胜也要追溯到1978年1月。双方英超历史交锋9场，曼联7胜2平；双方历史交锋97场，曼联45胜27平25负，曼联占据绝对的心理优势。

However, Manchester United's expectation that all the main players would win the first game of the new year and celebrate Sir Alex Ferguson's birthday still had an unexpected event, because Rooney has not recovered from his cold and will still be absent.

So Sir Alex Ferguson simply waved his hand and pushed Ronaldo to the front line, reorganizing the front line with Tevez.

The experienced Sir Alex Ferguson was able to see clearly the problems that the Wyscout analysis team could analyze in a hurry, so compared with the previous round, the starting four in the midfield were all changed, with Carrick, Anderson, Li Qi and Park Ji-sung starting, with Li Qi and Park Ji-sung on the two wings. This is a combination with obvious offensive implications, and it seems that Sir Alex Ferguson is determined to win this game!

There are not many changes in the defense, except that O'Shea replaced Wes Brown as the starting right back. The other four are still Vidic, Ferdinand, Evra, and goalkeeper Kuszczak.

After the kick-off, Manchester United, playing at home, played with an unstoppable momentum. After all, who wouldn't want Sir Alex to train for another week? In the middle of winter, they have to fight hard!

Moreover, in the past 32 league games in the past 101 months, Manchester United has never had a record of two consecutive defeats in the league; therefore, everyone at Old Trafford has full confidence that the team can beat Birmingham. The only thing to be revealed is how many goals they can win in the end!

Just one minute into the game, Cristiano Ronaldo, who was playing as a center forward, took advantage of a pass from his good friend Li Qi to try out the center forward skills he had practiced for several months: he leaned against the defensive player with his back to protect Li Qi's diagonal pass from the wing, followed by a fake move with his upper body, and then turned around and volleyed the ball near the sideline of the penalty area!

Although the shot was powerful, the ball was too straight and was caught by goalkeeper Mike Taylor. However, it was still a warning to the goalkeeper.

And 5 minutes later, Manchester United's offensive came back with a greater threat, still from the left wing where Li Qi was. After receiving the ball from Anderson, Li Qi pretended to make a wall-like cooperation with the latter, and after deceiving the center of gravity of the defensive players, he sent a straight pass to the wing.

Evra made a high-speed run, went down the flank, broke through the defense, and broke into the penalty area at the left bottom line and sent a half-high cross!

Tevez headed the ball from 6 yards in front of the goal! Unfortunately, the ball hit the outside of the left post with a bang and bounced out of the bottom line... Birmingham escaped, but Manchester United's players and fans all made a gesture of holding their heads with their hands, which was a pity.

The subsequent games were always dominated by Manchester United, especially on the left side where Li Qi was playing very well; however, it was always Li Qi who instigated the attack or made the final pass, and the two players in the middle who were responsible for flanking and finishing the shot seemed to have not found the right point, and there was no way to get the ball into the opponent's net.

However, when the game reached the 25th minute, Manchester United's offensive strategy changed, and the people responsible for the ball and the finisher were swapped...

Ferdinand made a long pass from the backcourt, and Park Ji-sung on the right side headed the ball to the left side of the opponent's penalty area. Tevez, who made a diagonal run, chose not to stop the ball in the face of two Birmingham defenders, and made a volley hook pass!

The ball fell at the feet of Ronaldo at the top of the penalty area. This time Ronaldo did not choose to shoot directly, but chose to show another skill that a center should have - passing the ball.

After receiving the ball, Ronaldo made a slight adjustment and pretended to use his right foot to shoot towards the defender. However, after deceiving the defender's center of gravity, he deftly pulled the ball behind him with his right foot and knocked it with his heel, sending the ball into the empty space on the right rib of the opponent's penalty area!

And that position was exactly the route for Li Qi to cut inside at high speed! Li Qi pulled and led the ball with his feet, and dodged the last defensive player, facing the goalkeeper who was attacking alone.

At this moment, Li Qi was thinking about whether to pass the ball to Tevez at the far end for a nanny-style assist, but he glanced and thought: Damn, the Argentine beasts don’t have the tacit understanding of double ghosts knocking on the door, so I can only do it myself!

So Li Qi shot into the far corner from outside the small penalty area, 10 yards away from the goal!

Manchester United broke the deadlock first, 1-0! Li Qi also scored his 12th goal in the league, only one goal behind Ronaldo...

So, after the third of the Magic Sound Quartet finished their obscene performance of non-physical instruments, Ronaldo hugged Li Qi and whispered: Ricardo, you know, you owe me a goal, no matter what, give me an assist in this game!

Li Qi, who enjoyed the cheers of fans at home, was in a good mood and naturally agreed happily: Yes, Sir!

But soon, Li Qi regretted it, because as analyzed in the report, Ronaldo really needed a rest, and he was not in good shape today and tomorrow; and he had to play in the center position, which was not very familiar to him. Although he had practiced it for several months in training, he still had little actual combat.

But Li Qi thinks it’s mainly because Ronaldo had bad luck today and his feet smelled bad. He missed a lot of shots: his right-foot shot from the left side of the penalty area was blocked, his left-foot shot from the right side of the penalty area was blocked, his header from the middle of the penalty area went over the crossbar, and his shot from the edge of the penalty area went wide. He created three free kicks in the middle with excellent positions, but he couldn’t find the goal frame with all his shots…

Especially in the 51st minute, Li Qi cut inside and cooperated with Manchester United in the middle to completely break through Birmingham's defense, and then clearly passed the ball to Park Ji-sung who was in the open space on the flank; the latter also understood the hint, attracted the last defensive player to defend, and made a decisive cross, but his footwork was not very good and the ball was a half-high ball.

But Ronaldo was completely unmarked in the middle! But what was far from the truth was that Ronaldo's dive bombing at the edge of the small penalty area - the header from 6 yards in front of the goal was magically kicked out of the bottom line by goalkeeper Mike Taylor's calf...

Li Qi felt that it was more difficult to assist Ronaldo today than to score a goal himself!

So after Ronaldo's low-angle shot from 8 yards on the right side of the penalty area hit the right post, Li Qi decisively decided to change his mindset. After all, the little mule had been blocked by the goal frame for the third time in this game; and the Sir Alex Ferguson, who was watching the game on the sidelines, had a gloomy face and was chewing gum hard. If he didn't score the winning goal, he would probably be scolded and trained more after the game. For the collective welfare of the team, little mule, you should be patient for a while and sacrifice your ego for Daju!

In the 69th minute, Li Qi suddenly cut inside and made a cross-position switch with Anderson, successfully disrupting Birmingham's central defense; then Li Qi received a precise through pass from Carrick, half turned sideways and pretended to fire a heavy shot!

He didn't fool everyone, he just tricked the defensive midfielder into stretching his legs early; then Li Qi made a slight adjustment, pretending to shoot and then passing the ball to Ronaldo who was ready to receive the ball in the middle of the penalty area with his back to the goal according to the previous routine.

This time, Li Qi's eyes fooled the movement of the two defensive players. Then, Li Qi pulled the ball back with his foot, and with an outside kick, he sent the ball behind the loosened defense line...

Because Li Qi, who had just triggered the breaking point, had clearly seen that the Argentine beast on the right wing was ready to start cutting into the penalty area. As long as Li Qi gave it in time, it would definitely not be offside!

As expected, Li Qi and Tevez's straight passes and diagonal runs were just right, but the little mule was used as a cover. But we can only ignore him for now, the task of dealing with Sir Alex Ferguson comes first!

After successfully countering the offside trap, Tevez cut into the middle of the penalty area and had a chance to score half-on-one, but the only Birmingham defender who could interfere with his shot, Kudrou, had been left behind by the Argentine beast...

Of course, Tevez, who is also a striker, is unlikely to pass the ball to Ronaldo again. After all, he is already in a half-alone situation in the middle, and there are not many idiots like Li Qi who would choose to pass the ball as their first choice.

After receiving the through ball from Li Qi, Tevez immediately made a fake shot, pretending to push the ball into the far corner; this deceived the defensive focus of two people, and while goalkeeper Mike Taylor fell to the ground to block the ball, Kudrou also chose to make a tackle to intercept.

Tevez watched them perform the move, then he easily pushed the ball into the near corner and scored! This was Tevez's 10th goal of the season and his 8th in the league!

However, after scoring the goal, Tevez was unable to continue the performance with Li Qi and Ronaldo, because after dodging the goalkeeper and shooting, Tevez was knocked down by Birmingham center back Ridgewell. Ridgewell certainly didn't do it on purpose... It shouldn't be intentional, right?

Anyway, the referee believed that Richwell, who was eager to return, could not stop the car, and did not make any threatening defensive moves. He just bumped into Tevez who was shooting with his left foot.

However, Tevez sprained his right ankle due to the collision; and according to the team doctor's initial diagnosis, he was unable to continue the game and had to be carried off the field on a stretcher...

Sir Alex Ferguson, who was on the sidelines, saw the team doctor making circling substitution gestures and couldn't help but curse inwardly: "Fuck!" Then he could only quickly replace the injured Tevez with Saha.

Tevez's departure seemed to be a turning point in the rhythm of the game. Manchester United seemed to have suddenly lost power, lost its indomitable momentum and sharp rhythm, and began to play more conservatively...

Li Qi couldn't help but curse inwardly: Damn, this debuff came so suddenly? Should I switch positions with Anderson to block the defense in the middle?

Sir Alex seemed to have quickly discovered the clues and the atmosphere was not right. Three minutes later, taking advantage of Li Qi's foul to interrupt Birmingham's attack wave, Manchester United made the second substitution adjustment, replacing Park Ji-sung, who was not in the best physical condition, with Hargreaves, moving Anderson to the wing, and using mad dog Owen to defend in the middle!

Well, Mad Dog Owen was the nickname that Li Qi secretly gave to Brother Hargreaves, and it was only known within the small group of dozens of people...

Owen Hargreaves: Mmmm, you scumbag Lee, just wait for me during the team match or I will kick you to death!

……

[Ps. This book finally has a rating, but it's terrible, T_T

The author fainted in the toilet from crying many times.

The author browsed some of the book reviews and found that most of the low-scoring reviews were from people who read the book for less than an hour...

Those of you who have read this chapter and haven't given it a five-star rating, could you please help improve the rating of this book a little bit...

The author humbly begs his family members for help. 】