From the man behind the football king to the football king.

Chapter 934 Meeting the Wolf
Manchester United's first game in 2022 will be on the afternoon of January 1nd. This is also the last game of the so-called Christmas Devil's schedule. Manchester United will face Wolves at the new Old Trafford Stadium.

Both teams have a large number of Portuguese players. Manchester United has Bruno, Cancelo, Dalot and Palinha, while Wolves, because of the former head coach Nuno Santo, have introduced many Portuguese players, and it has almost become a world dominated by Portuguese players.

With the departure of Nuno Santo, some players including Patricio also left Wolves, but there are still eight Portuguese players left in the team, including Moutinho, Semedo, Ruben Neves, Jose Sa, Podence, Trincao and Jordan, and most of them are the main players of Wolves.

Just today, the Portuguese players who started for Wolves included goalkeeper Jose Sa, midfielders Semedo, Ruben Neves, Moutinho, forwards Trincao, Fabio Silva, Podence and other six people. Only Jordan and Fabio Silva were temporarily sitting on the bench.

Before the game, a group of Portuguese players chatted for a while, and several visiting team players congratulated Bruno. On the one hand, they congratulated him on breaking Yosi's record of 91 goals in the year, and on the other hand, they wished Bruno a great success at the World Footballer of the Year awards ceremony in half a month.

Everyone knows that with Bruno's performance in the 2020-2021 season, whether it is the Portuguese national team captain Cristiano Ronaldo, the Argentine leader Yosi, the Polish striker Lewandowski, as well as Mbappe, Harry Kane and Salah, it is basically impossible to threaten Bruno's four consecutive elections.

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However, the warm atmosphere before the game disappeared in an instant as the referee blew the whistle to start the game. Everyone was busy helping their own team win.

Before the game, the media predicted that it would not be easy for Manchester United to win at home in today's game. Because Wolves' last game was on December 12 before Christmas, and the two subsequent rounds of games during Christmas were postponed due to the resurgence of the new crown epidemic, so the Wolves players rested for a full two weeks before this game, which is equivalent to the teams in Serie A and La Liga just going through the winter break.

Manchester United has played three more games than Wolves. Although Manchester United's lineup is deep enough and Mourinho's rotation has allowed the players to get some rest, compared to the Wolves who are recuperating, Manchester United is undoubtedly at a disadvantage in terms of physical fitness.

After the game started, the media's analysis was confirmed.

The first team to score was not the home team Manchester United, but the visiting team Wolves!

Just fourteen minutes into the game, Wolves scored a goal!

Wolves made a cross from the bottom of the wing, Manchester United cleared the ball with a header, Moutinho unloaded the ball in front of the penalty area and shot directly with his right foot, the ball went straight into the dead corner, Manchester United 0:1 Wolves.

This made the entire new Old Trafford stadium a lot quieter.

The Wolves commentator shouted excitedly in the commentary booth: "Joao! Joao! The 35-year-old veteran scored the first goal for Wolves!!"

"To be fair, Wolves' performance was indeed better than Manchester United's before the goal. The goal was logical and there was no surprise. Wolves were obviously better prepared than Manchester United..." said Gary Lineker.

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After Wolves scored and took the lead, their morale was boosted and they played even more frantically. Everyone was like hungry wolves, running tirelessly to contain Manchester United.

Wolves' midfielder Ruben Neves not only marked Bruno in the midfield but also defended other Manchester United players. He was like building a dam in the midfield, blocking Manchester United's offensive outside the dam and keeping his own goal safe.

In the first half, the entire Manchester United team was almost sleepwalking. The intensive Christmas schedule had a greater impact on them.

At the end of the first half, the score was still 0:1, and the home team Manchester United was behind. In the locker room, Mourinho severely criticized the team's performance in the first half.

"…What are you thinking about? Wake up now. If anyone still can't wake up, I will replace him!"

He was also dissatisfied with the team's performance in the first half.

He does not accept the excuse of the Christmas devil schedule. After all, this is not the first time Manchester United has experienced this.

The Manchester United players who were scolded by Mourinho did not dare to breathe. After more than five years of continuous victory, Mourinho has established absolute authority among Manchester United players. It is not an exaggeration to say that he is Ferguson II.

The right thing to do when he scolds you is to lower your head and take the scolding. Never try to defend yourself and don't raise your head to look him in the face. Doing so will only make your death more miserable.

After scolding, Mourinho began to arrange the tactics for the second half. He asked the players to run more actively.

There is nothing wrong with the tactics, the key is execution. If everyone does not run, or does not run to the right position, all the arrangements before the game cannot be executed, and then no matter how good the tactics are, they are just empty talk.

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Meanwhile, in the Wolves dressing room, head coach Bruno Lager was praising his players.

“…You did a great job! We need to run the same way in the second half as we did in the first half. Use our running to separate them and prevent them from establishing any connection, especially Bruno! Don’t let him pass the ball!”

Everyone nodded when they heard this.

This was also their strategy in the first half. Active running was the main reason why they were able to take the initiative in the first half. Running allowed them to enter the game earlier than Manchester United.

Ruben Neves naturally agreed to the coach's arrangement. He only had one worry: Can everyone keep running like this?

There is no problem with his physical fitness, his job is to keep running, but what about other teammates who don’t usually play like this?
After 70 minutes of the game, how much energy do they have to support this tactic? Once our physical strength is exhausted, how can we maintain our advantage over Manchester United?

You have to know that this is Manchester United's home ground. If they are allowed to recover, the Wolves team with reduced physical strength might collapse.

But obviously head coach Bruno Laze has also taken this into consideration, so while he asks the players to continue running actively, he also asks the players to seize every opportunity they can and strive to score a few more goals.

"...As long as we can score more goals and get a big enough lead, we can win this game!"

That's right, as long as Wolves can score more goals when they are in an advantageous position and widen the score to the point where Manchester United cannot fight back, they can win the game. Then they can shrink their defense and it won't take much energy.

(End of this chapter)