Chapter 561 Successor

Ferguson's Manchester United is always good at making efforts after Christmas, which is something that everyone familiar with the Premier League knows.

Manchester United and Arsenal are like two completely different teams. The Gunners often start amazingly, but they decline rapidly after the winter break, while Manchester United, no matter how they start, always makes people admire this team after the winter break.

Just like now, after Christmas, although Manchester United lost to Fulham before the holiday, they soon defeated Hull City 3:1 away and Wigan Athletic 5:0 at home in two rounds of the Premier League within three days after Christmas, winning two consecutive victories and successfully defeating their opponents.

Although Ancelotti is a newcomer, his performance in the two rounds after Christmas is still good, with one win and one draw, and four points, but the ranking in the Premier League standings was pulled down by Manchester United. The Red Devils successfully caught up with Chelsea and climbed to the second place in the league standings.

Tottenham Hotspur also had one win and one draw in the two rounds after Christmas. On the 26th, they drew with Fulham, a team from the same city, away from home. This was more or less related to Tottenham Hotspur's long journey and running back and forth in the past period of time, plus the Christmas carnival. Ye Qiu also knew very well that the first game after Christmas was a very troublesome thing.

0:0 draw with Fulham, but soon, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Ranieri's West Ham United 2:0 at home, continuing to maintain its position as the leader of the league. Not only that, after entering January, the FA Cup was immediately ushered in. Tottenham Hotspur's opponent was Peterborough United from the English Championship.

In the case of multi-line operations, the cup game insisted on using substitutes and young players. This was a strategy that Ye Qiu had formulated early. Therefore, in this FA Cup, Tottenham Hotspur still mainly used young players, plus substitutes, to challenge the vice-captain at the bottom of the English Championship away.

As a result, Tottenham Hotspur defeated Peterborough United 4:0 away and successfully advanced to the fourth round of the FA Cup.

The third round of the FA Cup knockout match was held on January 2, which was Saturday. There was no game in the middle of the week, and the weekend was the 21st round of the Premier League. Therefore, Tottenham Hotspur was scheduled to play the 17th round of the Premier League in the middle of the week. Tottenham Hotspur defeated the newly coached Manchester City team 3:0 at White Hart Lane Stadium with Falcao and Fabregas scoring twice.

I don’t know if it was affected by Ye Qiu’s previous words in Abu Dhabi, Manchester City finally made up their minds to kill Mark Hughes and fired the English coach. Just like Ye Qiu in his previous life, they invited Mancini.

Back and forth, many things still can't get rid of the influence of Ye Qiu's previous life, but this is not to say reincarnation or something like that, but because there are indeed not many famous coaches in the current football world who can accept Manchester City's invitation, and Mancini is the coach who best meets Manchester City's current requirements, and more importantly, he is now unemployed at home.

These days, famous coaches are a scarce commodity, especially those truly first-line famous coaches, such as Ye Qiu, Mourinho, Ferguson, Wenger, Benitez, Ancelotti, and if you count those old-fashioned famous coaches, such as Lippi, Capello, Hitzfeld, etc., in fact, they basically won't move.

In other words, even if Manchester City has money now, it can't dig up these big gods, so Manchester City can only settle for the second best and find some small gods. Looking at it vertically and horizontally, Mancini, who performed well in Lazio and helped Inter Milan win the Serie A championship for consecutive years, is undoubtedly a more suitable candidate. He can barely be regarded as a European famous coach.

Looking at the European football this season, among all the teams that changed coaches, there are actually two that Ye Qiu pays more attention to. One is Chelsea's Ancelotti, and the other is Real Madrid's Pellegrini. As for Mancini, who came to Manchester City midway, Ye Qiu feels that this Italian head coach is very capable, but it is difficult to create surprises.

It's not that Mancini doesn't have enough ability and tactical literacy. On the contrary, Mancini's coaching ability is definitely there, and the Italian head coach has never had a problem with tactical literacy. The key lies in Mancini's temper and his control over the locker room. These are all problems, and Mancini's use of troops rarely surprises people.

This is also the characteristic of many Italian head coaches.

Why does Ye Qiu pay more attention to Ancelotti?

A very important reason is that Ancelotti is another head coach of Chelsea who attaches great importance to technology and creativity after Ye Qiu. Under the circumstance that Chelsea's lineup has always maintained the framework created by Ye Qiu, Ye Qiu is looking forward to what Ancelotti can do.

But judging from the progress of this season, Ancelotti still has problems adapting, especially to the Premier League, but he has already stimulated Chelsea's offensive power. The Blues' current offensive strength exceeds Manchester United and is second only to Tottenham Hotspur.

Pellegrini is another type of head coach. He can often bring you surprises, but once you start to have high hopes for him because of the surprises, he may disappoint you. The reason is very simple. Ye Qiu has always felt that Pellegrini has problems in player control.

Many people say that Ye Qiu is very good at regulating the players' status. In key matches, the team has few injuries and the players are generally in good condition. The team can play at a reasonable level, which means that the head coach is good at regulation, and this requires the head coach to control the team from all aspects and fields, and form a reasonable and effective cooperation mechanism with the players and coaching staff.

In the 09/10 season of Ye Qiu's previous life, Pellegrini coached Real Madrid, which was definitely a successful season. Even Ye Qiu has always believed that if Florentino had not put pressure on Pellegrini, if the Chilean engineer could get a more relaxed coaching environment and a longer period of trust, Real Madrid would not need Mourinho at all.

Why do you say that?

One of the most powerful evidence is that when Pellegrini coached Real Madrid, they lost to Barcelona twice in the league, but after the end of the league, the points gap between Real Madrid and Barcelona in the standings was only three points.

Perhaps, you may not have the impression that the two defeats against Barcelona were not just six points, because Barcelona won six points, Real Madrid lost six points, and the difference was twelve points, and finally lost three points, which means that in addition to the two century derby games, Real Madrid performed much better than Barcelona.

Of course, losing the century derby, the shameful loss of the King's Cup, and consecutively stopping in the top 16 of the Champions League all reflect Pellegrini's flaws and shortcomings, that is, in key games, his ability to adjust the team's status and activate the players' fighting spirit is not enough.

But these can't cover up Pellegrini's amazing first season as Real Madrid coach, because he is new and has no impressive resume, plus Real Madrid has many internal problems and contradictions, so these flaws and shortcomings can be forgiven, giving him more time to make up for it.

But it is very regrettable that Pellegrini's road to Real Madrid came to an abrupt end after one season.

From the above cases, it is not difficult to find a very interesting problem, that is, changing coaches often represents labor pains and reorganization, and may even cause the team to experience turmoil.

Ye Qiu has always had a clear plan for his career. He has ideals and aspirations, but he also has a career and a family, so he knows very well that he can't stay in the position of Tottenham Hotspur head coach until Ferguson's age. What he wants to do most now is to build all aspects of Tottenham Hotspur, whether it is the power distribution of the team's management or the team's entire tactical attack and defense system. He wants to build this foundation.

And he has been cultivating the future successor, that is Mauro Tassotti!

Ye Qiu has gradually handed over the training to Mauro Tassotti to take full responsibility. He just tells Mauro Tassotti what he wants, and then lets Mauro Tassotti play and adjust. He is establishing Mauro Tassotti's authority in this way, and then observing Mauro Tassotti's various abilities from the side.

For example, how good is his ability to deal with the relationship with the players in the team? How well does he cooperate with other members of the coaching staff? When he faces some key games or emergencies in the team, how is his ability to respond and deal with them?

This will not be a short period of time. Even though Mauro Tassotti is about to turn fifty, just like his predecessor Capello, what he is doing now is a kind of accumulation, and the purpose of accumulation is for the future. After he can take over the baton from Ye Qiu and become the head coach of Tottenham Hotspur.

In Ye Qiu's position, the head coach of the team is like the soul of a team, just like the CEO of a multinational company. They must be carefully selected, have undergone multiple assessments, and have extremely rich experience. But more importantly, he must understand and be able to successfully control the team.

After defeating Manchester City 3:0, Tottenham Hotspur soon ushered in the 21st round of the Premier League. The team challenged Liverpool away, but this time, Tottenham Hotspur drew 1:1 with Benitez's team and failed to defeat the opponent. But what's interesting is that Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea all drew, while Manchester City won 4:1 against Blackburn.

In the middle of the week, the League Cup semi-finals were ushered in. Tottenham Hotspur continued to play with a young lineup and challenged Mancini's Manchester City away. As a result, the strong Manchester City defeated the visiting Tottenham Hotspur 2:1 at their home court with two goals from Adebayor.

Although they failed to beat their opponents away from home, the performance of these young players of Tottenham Hotspur was still impressive.

In the entire first half, Tottenham Hotspur performed the best. This group of young players not only restricted Manchester City's offense well in defense, but also played a very threatening offensive in offense. Hazard scored the first goal for Tottenham Hotspur in the 27th minute.

But the situation took a turn for the worse near the end of the first half. Nastasic and Varane made fatal mistakes when defending Adebayo. Wright-Phillips broke through Coentrao on the right and passed the ball. Adebayo overpowered Nastasic in the header and passed it to Bellamy. Varane pushed Bellamy down when he missed a man.

Although the referee did not give a red card, but only a yellow card to warn Varane, he gave Manchester City a penalty kick, which Adebayo scored himself, opening the scoring for Manchester City.

This conceding goal severely damaged the morale of Tottenham Hotspur's group of young players. Even though Ye Qiu kept encouraging the players during the halftime break, in the second half, Tottenham Hotspur's group of young players The young players still performed poorly, and Mancini took the opportunity to encourage the team to press hard.

In the end, in the 75th minute, Manchester City, Adebayor scored another victory, helping Manchester City complete the reversal.

Ye Qiu spoke highly of the performance of young players at the post-match press conference. He believed that all teams would not feel relaxed when playing Manchester City away from home, because Manchester City is already a very powerful team in the Premier League. This team has very good stars and its overall strength is also very good.

“I am satisfied with the team’s performance, especially this group of young players. I can clearly feel their progress. It is indeed a pity to lose the game, but I want to say that this is only the first time. After the first round of the game, we still have the second round. I will not adjust the team's lineup in the second round because I firmly believe that this group of young people are worthy of my trust. We will knock Manchester City out of the league at White Hart Lane. Cup, I have no doubts about it!”

Ye Qiu's words immediately caused an uproar among all reporters. He announced the starting lineup a week in advance, and did not plan to change the team's lineup. He continued to play with this young lineup. I really don't know what Ye Qiu should be. What about overconfidence? I still really believe that this group of young players can create miracles.

You know, any one of Manchester City's lineups is a famous European star, and in Tottenham Hotspur's starting lineup, the biggest player is Beckham, but everyone knows that Beckham They are already old, and whether it is Pogba, Phil Jones, Ramsey, Hazard, Nastasic or Varane, they are obviously just young players with potential.

On the second day of the League Cup, when all reporters and media interpreted Ye Qiu's words, they unanimously believed that Ye Qiu had decided to use this League Cup to bet on the future of young players. He insisted that he would Use this crucial battle to inspire young players and help them accumulate richer game experience.

"In the final analysis, for Tottenham Hotspur, the League Cup and FA Cup are always just training grounds!"

After the first round of the League Cup, they returned to London from Manchester. Tottenham Hotspur welcomed Hull City at White Hart Lane with its full lineup.

What surprised everyone was that Tottenham Hotspur, playing at home, defeated Hull City from the beginning at White Hart Lane. In just eight minutes, Falcao scored for Tottenham. Tottenham opened the scoring, followed by Franck Ribery, Marcelo and David Silva, establishing a four-goal lead early in the first half.

In the second half, Tottenham Hotspur's offensive continued unabated. David Silva scored another victory and scored twice, and then Falcao and Cesc Fabregas also scored. Tottenham Tottenham beat Hull City 7-0 at home.

The unlucky Hull City encountered Tottenham Hotspur twice in a row this season, and both games ended in disastrous defeats. This also made Steve Bruce, the former Birmingham coach who took up the job midway through the season and is known as Ferguson's protege, feel uncomfortable. Extremely frustrated, he even said at the post-match press conference that the team had tried their best to attack Tottenham Hotspur, but they were still unable to threaten the home team, and there was nothing he could do about it.

Ye Qiu even smiled and mentioned that when Tottenham Hotspur and Manchester United were competing for the league championship, it was Steve Bruce and his Birmingham City who attacked Tottenham Hotspur at the critical moment and helped. Manchester United has a hand, and before this game, Steve Bruce also wanted to repeat the old tune, but Tottenham Hotspur obviously would not give him such an opportunity.

"We are no longer the Tottenham Hotspur team we were back then!" Ye Qiu smiled proudly and confidently.

Tottenham Hotspur beat Hull City, Chelsea and Manchester United also defeated their opponents successively. Following closely behind, these two teams still refused to relax, especially Manchester United. After Christmas, the Red Devils' performance also improved a lot. Big improvement, especially the overall offensive and defensive system of this team, which looks much more orderly. In the four league rounds after Christmas, they have three wins and one draw to remain unbeaten.

Moreover, after Christmas, Ferguson insisted on starting with Lars Diarra for four consecutive games. The performance of this French midfielder has also been greatly improved compared to the beginning of the season. He is very stable and sophisticated defensively, and his ability to play the ball is also very good. Excellent, although occasionally he still sticks to the ball and misses the opportunity, but it can be seen that Ferguson is constantly beating the midfielder.

Not only has Lars Diarra changed, Sneijder has also returned to the main lineup. He and Carrick have formed a strong complementarity. England's midfielder is deep, and Sneijder is pressing forward. The former and the latter have displayed their respective characteristics very well. Coupled with the midfielder Lars Diarra who has excellent interception ability, Manchester United's midfield has been greatly improved.

The midfield is getting tougher, and the front three of Tevez, Benzema and Rooney are becoming more and more aggressive. In this game against Burnley, Manchester United's three goals were scored by these three players. Players scored, and the previous 5-0 victory over Wigan Athletic was also a game in which Trident performed well.

All signs clearly show that after half a year of running-in and adjustment, this Manchester United team has finally reloaded, and no matter at any time, as long as Ferguson adjusts the team well, the Red Devils Manchester United will be the strongest contender for the Premier League title.

Ye Qiu could never forget that when Manchester United competed with Chelsea for the championship, Ferguson won continuously and finally caught up to the final feat. Although Tottenham Hotspur defeated Chelsea in the last round and gave Manchester United a league championship, the Red Devils' relentless pursuit before that and the momentum of the winning streak left a deep impression on Ye Qiu.

In any case, Ye Qiu did not want Tottenham Hotspur to become Chelsea of ​​that year!