609: A head start in the EFL Cup quarter-finals

Before this game, the Football Association of England announced the Premier League Coach of the Month for November in the 2017-2018 season.

Crystal Palace's Tong Yi won the award.

Although both Manchester City and Crystal Palace achieved four consecutive victories in November, Crystal Palace's results were significantly better, ranking first in the league, and having a higher goal difference. Tong Yi truly deserves this award.

To be honest, at this time, Crystal Palace fans are still worried about the Coach of the Month award in October.

It stands to reason that October's Best Coach of the Month award should also belong to Tong Yi. The FA gave it to Guardiola, which means that Tong Yi cannot win all the Coach of the Month awards. The FA is really not a human being. .

Crystal Palace fans are actually very angry.

However, Tong Yi didn't particularly care about this.

Anyway, he cannot monopolize the best award this month, and this will not affect Crystal Palace's defense of the Premier League championship.

Indeed, there is really no way for Tong Yi to monopolize the Premier League Coach of the Month award this season.

Because Tong Yi cannot win the Coach of the Month award for December no matter what.

After all, in December, Crystal Palace will play two fewer Premier League games. How can it compare with those teams that have full attendance in December? Besides, Manchester City is in such good shape now that the Coach of the Month award for December is almost locked in advance by Guardiola of Manchester City.

Therefore, Tong Yizhen didn't particularly care.

Compared to this, Tong Yi is more concerned about whether he can win the English League Cup quarter-finals with Manchester United?

Therefore, Tong Yi's thoughts are now focused on this game.

In this game, the starting lineups of both sides are as follows:

Home team Crystal Palace, head coach Tong Yi, formation 4213

goalkeeper Maignan

The back four from left to right is Cancelo, Upamecano, Van Dijk and Carvajal.

Double midfielder Llorente and Kante

Single attacking midfielder De Bruyne

The front three from left to right Salah, Giroud and Mbappe

Visiting team Manchester United, head coach Mourinho, formation 433

goalkeeper Romero

The back four from left to right Luke Shaw, Ginter, Lindelof and Darmian

Midfield three from left to right Pogba, Blind and McTominay

Three forwards from left to right Martial, Morata and Rashford

Seeing the starting lineups of the two teams, media reporters felt that Manchester United had a great chance in this game. Because Crystal Palace did not play with all the main players, Ronaldo and Casemiro were really slightly injured and did not appear in the starting lineup for this game, and they were not even included in the squad.

Rudiger also did not start, which has a huge impact on Crystal Palace.

On the Manchester United side, all the main players played, except for De Gea, who did not start.

Because at this time, De Gea started to act like a monster again. At this time, he was connected with Juventus, Paris Saint-Germain and Atletico Madrid. De Gea hoped that this winter or after the end of the season Leave Manchester United.

Yes, De Gea still doesn't want to stay in Manchester United.

Now he is still bitter about the fact that Manchester United forced him to keep him, causing him to miss the golden opportunity to return to Real Madrid.

And if he stays at Manchester United, he still has no hope of Manchester United returning to the top, so he really doesn't want to waste his youth at Manchester United. He wants to seek a transfer and get more wages. We can also compete for the UEFA Champions League title.

However, Real Madrid has previously introduced Alisson from Crystal Palace, and Barcelona has the Lions. These two traditional La Liga giants do not need goalkeepers at all, so De Gea has no chance to go to these two teams. De Gea actually hates Manchester United in his heart, because if Manchester United hadn't blocked him, he would have been a Real Madrid player.

Without these two teams, De Gea is now linked with Atletico Madrid, Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain.

These teams still need goalkeepers, especially Juventus and Paris Saint-Germain.

It is said that the offers from both teams are now on Mourinho's desk.

Therefore, Mourinho will directly exclude De Gea from the squad in this game.

Mourinho is knocking De Gea.

However, De Gea did not play in this game, which is a good thing for Crystal Palace.

However, except for the goalkeeper position, Manchester United is full of main players in other positions. Manchester United is full of confidence in this game, especially after seeing the starting lineup of Crystal Palace.

Toot, referee Taylor blew the whistle to start the game.

The first to kick off is the visiting team Manchester United.

Manchester United still has a defensive and counterattack tone from the beginning, but his current tactics are very different from those when Chelsea dominated the Premier League and won the Triple Crown at Inter Milan. He has also been absorbing nutrients and enriching His tactical system.

The overall tactical style has not changed, and it still has the foundation of the bus.

However, he followed the trend of history. He strengthened the number of players in the technical midfield and frontcourt, emphasized the ball on the ground, and also strengthened the ball-playing ability in the midfield and backcourt, striving to quickly tear apart the opponent's defense at the moment of transition between offense and defense. .

In the current game, their tactics are more like Mourinho's tactics before.

It is still mainly about setting up buses.

After all, Crystal Palace is very strong, and more importantly, Crystal Palace is good at high-position pressing. In this case, Crystal Palace's backcourt will have the space for a quick counterattack that Manchester United needs. Therefore, he made tactical adjustments to Crystal Palace, with the intention of luring Crystal Palace to press heavily.

Therefore, after the game started, Crystal Palace took the initiative and played at home.

This was not beyond everyone's expectations.

In Mourinho's words - everything is under control!

Mourinho also believes that as the game progresses, Crystal Palace's backcourt will become increasingly empty. This is their opportunity for Manchester United. Of course, before

The key is that they have to hold on to the goal and prevent the Crystal Palace people from breaking through their Manchester United goal during this period.

And Mourinho is very confident in his bus tactics.

Therefore, he firmly believes that Manchester United will win this game.

With a bang, Pogba suddenly took a long shot thirty-five meters away from the goal. The football roared out and went directly over the crossbar. This was Manchester United's first shot of the game, and it was not a big threat. But this also relieved Manchester United's defensive pressure, and Mourinho still applauded.

However, he still reminded Pogba to release the ball as soon as possible at the moment of transition between offense and defense and not to delay.

Pogba waved his hands slightly to show that he understood.

This goal actually had a better chance from the wing, but Pogba chose to believe in himself, so he took a long shot, but unfortunately he did not score.

Pogba immediately turned his head and glanced at Llorente. This guy came up in time. If he hadn't interfered just now, Pogba would have been very confident to send the football into the Crystal Palace goal.

Boom, Maignan in front of the goal kicked the football away, and the football flew into the Manchester United half.

Gentle rushed out quickly, jumping high to compete with Giroud for the top.

With a bang, Gentle pushed the football out.

Mourinho on the sidelines was very satisfied. This Ginter is really worth the money. It was indeed recommended by Tong Yi. Ginter should be the most satisfying part of this Manchester United team's defense besides De Gea, and his performance this time was also very good.

Unfortunately, Blind in the midfield did not control the ball, and the ball was instantly stabbed out by Kanter who rushed up from behind him.

Kanter really came up too fast, and the area covered was too big, right?

Blind was unprepared, so he was intercepted instantly.

Mourinho looked a bit ugly. He allowed Blind to appear in the defensive midfielder position in the middle today but he trusted him. But what are you doing, Blind?

Danger, Manchester United is in danger!

The Manchester United fans who came from afar became nervous.

Because the football that was stabbed rolled directly to De Bruyne's feet. The moment De Bruyne stopped the ball, the talented man boldly pulled the ball and turned around, directly facing the Manchester United goal.

Blind didn't think about it, and McTominay didn't make up for it at this time.

To be honest, McTominay is still too young.

After all, Blind rushed forward and Pogba took charge of the offense. You McTominay should have retreated to cover the position immediately. It is obvious that he was slow this time, too slow.

That's why De Bruyne can pull the ball and turn around so unscrupulously.

Once De Bruyne faces Manchester United's goal, Manchester United will be in danger.

Giroud immediately turned around and moved forward quickly.

Salah on the wing immediately pulled back and came up to meet De Bruyne. Mbappe, like Giroud, moved forward quickly, and even Cancelo, who came up from the side, was catching the ball.

In response to De Bruyne.

Crystal Palace's offense was very strong, and it put a lot of pressure on Manchester United's defensive players.

Because there is no defensive midfielder to clamp down, De Bruyne has many ball release points, and every ball release point is very dangerous. This makes Alexander, the Manchester United defensive player, a bit unable to let go.

Mourinho on the sidelines was also very speechless, and he had already cursed Blind and McTominay bloody.

The fact that Manchester United fell into passivity this time was entirely due to the fatal mistakes of these two guys.

Especially Blind!

At this moment, De Bruyne suddenly made a diagonal pass and passed the football directly to Salah who was pulling out to meet!

Suddenly, Manchester United fans breathed a sigh of relief.

Because in their opinion, De Bruyne made the worst choice. After all, if you pass the ball to Salah who is pulled out to respond, then Salah is the only offensive player among the Crystal Palace offensive players with his back to the goal. The Manchester United defensive players will definitely not let Salah turn around easily. So even if Salah catches the ball at this time, the threat is minimal.

If De Bruyne passes the ball to Giroud or Mbappe who are facing the Manchester United goal head-on, then the threat will be very strong, and Manchester United's defense will also be more difficult.

Moreover, these two men also entered the penalty area. At that time, Manchester United's defensive players did not dare to make too many defensive moves.

In this way, Crystal Palace's offensive players will be able to gain more space.

Therefore, in their opinion, passing the ball to Salah is the worst choice!

However, Manchester United's full-back Damian didn't think about this. He rushed out immediately, followed Salah, and even wanted to stick to Salah from behind immediately. Give Salah a chance to turn around.

Damian is still very confident in his defensive ability.

However, when he rushed out, he did not expect that Salah did not stop the ball at all, but directly missed the ball. Damian didn't react in time. When he subconsciously moved his legs to block the football, the football had already rolled past his feet. At the same time, a red and blue shadow flashed past his outside wing!

Damian's heart thumped, it's over!

Damian immediately turned his head and looked over, and he saw Cancelo quickly making an diagonal move, catching up with the football, and quickly entered the ribs of Manchester United's penalty area.

Danger, the Manchester United fans screamed in horror.

Giroud, who was advancing in the middle, suddenly stopped and turned around, quickly rushing forward to meet Cancelo.

Lindelof immediately turned around and quickly pounced on Giroud, putting pressure on Giroud while preventing Giroud from grabbing a shot from the front.

With a bang, Cancelo, who entered the penalty area, swept directly in an inverted triangle, and the football rolled towards Giroud. But Giroud spread his legs and missed the football. Lindelof did not react and missed the football instantly.

Mbappe, who was detouring towards the center, didn't stop the ball and directly swung his legs to shoot. He swept out a kick that was close to the ground. The football quickly soared into the lower left corner of the goal. Romero reacted quickly, but did not touch the football!