I am the king of football

Chapter 286: Simple Magpie

On December 2012, 12, the day after Christmas, Old Trafford was packed with people.

The atmosphere of Christmas enveloped the city a week ago. The festive bright red decorations matched the red theme of Manchester United, which saved the Red Devils fans a lot of trouble when decorating the streets near the stadium before the game.

Merry Christmas songs were heard everywhere in the city, and a group of fans wearing red Manchester United-themed scarves walked and sang towards their team's home stadium.

When Manchester United's bus set off from their training base and arrived at Old Trafford, the players also felt the extremely enthusiastic emotions of their fans.

"Manchester United! Manchester United! Oh oh oh~, we are the invincible red devils!"

Almost every player of each team can find his or her own poster among the fans on both sides of the street. As the most popular team in England today, they have the most and craziest fans.

“Don’t let them down!”

Ferguson stood in front of the car and solemnly addressed his players again. His expression was very sincere, and the players responded to him loudly.

"Understood, Boss!"

When the entire Manchester United team entered Old Trafford, they were greeted with even more enthusiastic support.

The stadium, which can accommodate more than 76,000 people, was packed except for more than 1,000 seats that had to be vacated due to security issues. Excluding about 5,000 Magpies fans, the rest were home team fans who came to watch Manchester United.

This made the entire stadium filled with the Red Devils' team song at all times, and everyone shouted the name of Manchester United loudly, making the players warming up on the field feel extremely excited.

In contrast, when Newcastle United, wearing black and white jerseys, entered Old Trafford, they were booed more violently than ever before. As one of the most devilish home stadiums in the Premier League, any team that comes here must withstand tremendous pressure.

"Don't panic, warm up well, what's important is what happens on the field!"

Newcastle United coach Alan Pardew was very calm. This was not the first time the Magpies had come to Old Trafford this season. They had played against Manchester United here in the third round of the League Cup this season.

The season had just begun at that time, and both teams were just starting to get going. The Magpies, playing away, were unable to defeat Manchester United.

However, based on Manchester United's subsequent performance in various competitions, that defeat did not seem so difficult to accept.

But, in this game, Alan Pardew and his disciples came with a mentality of revenge.

Last season they finished fifth in the league, and their coach was awarded the Premier League Manager of the Year award. This achievement has long made the team unwilling to be relegated to the middle of the Premier League for a long time.

Be it the League Cup, the FA Cup, or even the Europa League, it is not important to the Magpies who are now determined to achieve something in the Premier League. The energy they invest in the league is far greater than that in the cup competitions.

Therefore, Newcastle United played with all its elite players in this game. Compared with Manchester United's somewhat patchwork starting lineup, Alan Pardew deployed the team's usual 451 formation this season, with all the regular main players appearing on the field, vowing to win this Christmas battle.

On the pitch, the two teams looked at each other from a distance during the warm-up, and the coaches of both teams, Ferguson and Alan Pardew, nodded to each other with serious faces, and the strong smell of gunpowder was visible to the naked eye. When the two teams returned to the locker room after the warm-up and followed the referee team back to the pitch, the countdown to the start of the game officially began.

"CCTV, CCTV, good evening, dear audience friends, welcome to watch the 2012th round of the 2013- Premier League match between Manchester United and Newcastle United at home. I am the commentator Zhan Jun."

The familiar opening remarks were announced, and the captains of both teams on the field had completed the rock-paper-scissors game. Scholes chose the right to kick off for his team, while Newcastle United chose the half facing away from the sun.

"Okay, both teams have taken their positions. In this match, the home team Manchester United will be wearing red home jerseys and attacking from left to right, while the away team Newcastle United will be wearing black and white jerseys and attacking from right to left."

“Sh ...

The whistle sounded and the game officially began. Manchester United, who were arranged in a 4132 formation, did not launch an opening attack. Their players needed to slowly get into the game. The tactics formulated by Ferguson were to control the rhythm on the court in the first fifteen minutes.

The ball was quickly passed from Qin Hu and Rooney to their own home midfield, and Scholes became the commander of the team's ball possession rhythm.

In contrast, Newcastle United pressed forward decisively after observing Manchester United's opening style of play. They changed their 451 formation directly to 433. Obviously, the positions of the two wingers were not fixed under Alan Pardew's arrangement.

"The Magpies played very boldly and started to press forward right from the start. It seems that Alan Pardew is very confident in the form of his players~"

Zhan Jun took advantage of this time to read out Manchester United's starting lineup. Seeing that the two teams began to engage in a fight in Manchester United's heartland, he quickly announced the Magpies' starting lineup.

"In this game, Newcastle United played a pseudo 451 formation, with the powerful Demba Ba as the lone striker, and five midfielders, Bijiri Mana, Anita, Page, Cisse and Malvio, lined up behind him. Among them, Mana and Malvio did not have fixed positions, and at the moment they were pressing forward as the team's double strikers."

Compared to the many famous stars in Manchester United, the Magpies' lineup is mainly simple. The team's striker Demba Ba joined the team last season and performed stably but did not have much star quality. The same is true for other midfielders.

"On the back line, the four defenders are Simpson, Williamson, Coloccini, Thornton, and goalkeeper Krul."

On the defensive line, the most famous player is the full-back Thornton, who was introduced by the Magpies from Inter Milan last season.

This former Inter Milan prince became famous at a young age, but after a serious injury he was gradually abandoned by Inter Milan and eventually sold to Newcastle United. Even after experiencing so many ups and downs, he is only 21 years old now.

When Zhan Jun announced the starting lineups of both teams, the game time reached ten minutes later. The probing of both sides was almost over, and Manchester United, who was pressed into their own half by their opponents, began to try to advance outwards.

However, at this moment, an inadvertent mistake changed the situation of the game in an instant.

"Scholes passed the ball forward, and the ball reached Shinji Kagawa's feet. He faced Malvio with the ball and changed direction to the right. He moved quickly. Cisse came from the side and tackled the ball! He stood up and sent the ball forward directly~~~"

In the twelfth minute of the game, Newcastle United intercepted the ball in the heart of Manchester United's midfield and suddenly launched a counterattack the next moment.

The first chapter is here! Thank you all for your support!!!

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(End of this chapter)