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

Chapter 940 The Running Red Devil
Sarr's long kick was headed by Mount, and this outstanding player from Chelsea's youth training system jumped high, fully demonstrating his excellent jumping, air-staying and heading abilities, and headed the ball to his teammate Lukaku.

But as soon as Lukaku received the ball, Van Dijk and Maguire pressed forward.

Under the double-team of them, Lukaku quickly lost the ball. This time, the ball did not fall into the feet of a Chelsea player, but was firmly controlled by Van Dijk, who then passed the ball to Bruno.

Bruno turned and passed the ball forward.

Although it was Chelsea who kicked off, Manchester United took only half a minute to regain possession of the ball. They showed not only momentum in the game, but also excellent tactics and execution capabilities.

On the other hand, Chelsea seemed a little panicked when they got the ball from the start, which eventually led to the loss of possession.

Perhaps, the "spell" has begun to take effect without our knowing it!

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Manchester United, who had seized possession of the ball, launched an attack, but this attack did not directly threaten Kepa's goal. Greenwood's shot was blocked by Azpilicueta's body.

Although they didn't score a goal or threaten the goal, the Manchester United players didn't feel any regret. They had a firm belief in their hearts: if we keep playing like this, the advantage will belong to us, and the victory will also belong to us!
In the preparation period before the game, head coach Mourinho showed them a lot of videos of Chelsea games.

Chelsea's performance in this season's league is not very good. After 16 rounds of the league, although they are currently ranked third, they have been left behind by Manchester United, the leader, by points and have bid farewell to the league championship race in advance. They are in big trouble in the league.

And the games they lost are all instructive.

Before this game, every Manchester United player watched a lot of videos showing how Chelsea became helpless under the opponent's crazy pressing. The coaching staff also analyzed for them what they should do if they faced Chelsea based on these videos.

Chelsea has a strong ability to counterattack, so after Manchester United attacks, if they lose the ball, they must not return to defense quickly, but must rush to grab the ball immediately and create enough pressure on Chelsea's players in the backcourt. Only in this way can they prevent Chelsea from launching their deadly and quick counterattack.

Moreover, Chelsea players have a weakness, that is, their passing ability is not that good. When they face pressure in the backcourt, they often do not choose to use quick passing in a small range to break through the encirclement, but directly kick the ball forward with a big foot.

This is of course also due to their requirement to play quick counterattacks, but it also shows that Chelsea players have no concept of passing the ball back and forth in the backcourt. Their football is more direct and sharper, but it also lacks some changes.

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After sufficient preparation before the game, Manchester United's players used practical actions to verify that their pre-match arrangements were correct after the game started. Now everyone is much more confident.

In the following games, as long as Chelsea players controlled the ball in the midfield and backcourt, they would face pressing from Manchester United players. Sometimes it was one person, sometimes two, and there were even cases where three people surrounded a Chelsea player.

Even someone like Bruno, who usually doesn't have much defensive tasks, ran actively and joined in the process of "encircling" Chelsea players.

He ran back and forth tirelessly on the court, which made people worry about his physical strength.

However, those who are familiar with Bruno and Manchester United will not have such worries, because everyone knows that Bruno is a physical freak. His physical energy seems to be inexhaustible. He is full of energy from beginning to end in every game. According to OPTA statistics, Bruno's average playing time is about 89 minutes, almost all of which are played in the whole game; and his average running distance per game is as high as 13.2 kilometers, which is 1.7 kilometers higher than the second-ranked Soucek!

Because Bruno's running data is there, even if Bruno is substituted off the field, if he walks slower and says that he is too tired to run, the referee will not bother him.

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Bruno's running was part of Manchester United's full-throttle machine. Everyone was running hard, even young player Amad Diallo was no exception.

Because only when everyone runs can we ensure that there will be no loopholes in this pressing process. If one person does not run, then the place where he is will become a breakthrough for Chelsea.

So defense is a very disciplined job, which is different from offense which relies on talent.

Everyone on defense has to become a screw of the team. Only when everyone does their job well can the machine run normally.

Bruno clearly remembers that in another time and space, Manchester United, in the post-Ferguson era, almost always ranked in the middle and lower reaches of the Premier League in terms of running distance every season, which is also the key reason why their performance in the post-Ferguson era has been unsatisfactory. If they don’t even run actively, what good performance can you expect?
As a die-hard Manchester United fan, Bruno himself gave Manchester United at that time a nickname: Slow and Sticky. The players on the field were all slow and each one was stickier than the other. Most of the players would not pass the ball unless they could not dribble.

But now, under the requirements of head coach Mourinho and led by captain, Manchester United has been the most running team in the Premier League in the past six seasons, and its running data is much higher than the second-ranked team!
Bruno believes: running creates miracles, running creates opportunities, running creates victory!
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Continuous pressing made Chelsea's midfield almost out of control. Jorginho and Saul, two players who are good at taking the ball, passing and organizing, were the focus of Manchester United's "care", which put them under tremendous pressure. It was good enough to keep possession of the ball, and don't expect them to organize an attack at all.

Mount, Havertz and Lukaku couldn't get the ball in front at all, so they had to retreat to ask for the ball.

But after they retreated, the midfield became even more crowded. The space available to each person could not be smaller, and there were people everywhere, which made it easier for Manchester United to siege the ball.

For players like Mount who are physically flexible and able to break through, Manchester United adopts a tactic that combines fouls and siege away from dangerous areas. If they can grab the ball, they will grab it, and if they can't, they will just foul directly.

Because you are far away from the danger zone, you won’t get a card even if you commit a foul.

As a result, Chelsea's midfield became a mess.

Tuchel realized that if he continued like this, his team's midfield would be ruined, so he made a decisive substitution.

Although the game had just started for twenty minutes, he replaced Saul with Kovacic and replaced a defensive midfielder with an attacking midfielder.

In the face of Manchester United's pressing, the role of a defensive midfielder was almost completely unplayable. He could only grab the ball, but could not control or pass the ball well, so he could not break the current situation.

Kovacic is a player with excellent ball control and passing abilities. After he came on the pitch, Chelsea had three passing and organizing players in the midfield, which gave Chelsea more changes and possibilities. This is also the strategy Tuchel used to deal with Manchester United's high-pressure defense.

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"Chelsea was forced to make a substitution after only 20 minutes. It seems that Manchester United really makes Chelsea very uncomfortable... Mourinho had to make this decision. Saul may have just finished warming up and had to come back to sit on the bench. It's really a pity. But if such a substitution is not made, I'm afraid Chelsea's midfield will be even worse. So such a drastic substitution is necessary..."

"Forcing Chelsea to make substitutions after 20 minutes fully demonstrates that Mourinho's tactics are correct," said Andy Gray. "But the situation may change after Kovacic is brought on. Manchester United should be careful with this substitution."

After Kovacic came on, Chelsea's midfield has indeed improved to a certain extent. At least now Manchester United will need to make more efforts to paralyze Chelsea's midfield, because defending Kovacic is different from defending Saul.

However, Manchester United did not just think about defending, their purpose of doing so was just to score goals.

After Chelsea was unable to organize an effective attack, of course they should think about how to break their goal.

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In the 30th minute, ten minutes after Kovacic came on, Manchester United was still in the advantageous position. Their running not only allowed them to snatch the ball from Chelsea, but also allowed them to pass the ball smoothly.

Any midfielder who passes the ball would probably be very envious of Bruno at this moment, because he doesn't even need to look up, as there are teammates everywhere around him to support him. As long as he passes the ball, no matter where it goes, it will definitely be caught by his teammates.

This is in stark contrast to the situation where the player holds the ball and observes it for a long time, then uses his hands to push away the opposing players who come up to grab the ball, and then protects the ball in a messy manner, only to find that there is no suitable person to pass the ball to.

But having too many people to pass the ball to is also a problem, because you can't simply pass the ball to your teammates' feet. In that case, passing the ball back is the safest option.

Passing the ball is just a means to a goal. The goal is to threaten the opponent's goal. So finding the most suitable target among so many available passing targets will test the passer's ability.

Because they have to counterattack immediately after stealing the ball, there is not much time for the passer to observe and think. They must make a decision immediately so as to seize the fleeting space and opportunity.

This processing speed is not a difficult task for Bruno.

(End of this chapter)