I almost helped Manchester United revive, but I chose to run away

Chapter 12 When the whole world does not believe in a player, the coach must stand behind him

Martial, who scored the goal, did not seem very excited. On the contrary, his eyes were a little dazed at first. He seemed to come back to his senses until he was passionately hugged by Ronaldo and Sancho nearby.

The passionate cheers surrounded the Manchester United players who gathered to celebrate again.

But Martial's mind became clearer and clearer amid the cheerful congratulations from his teammates, and the experiences of these years quickly flashed through his mind at this moment.

Since moving to Manchester United, he has experienced too many head coaches over the years and his tactical position in the team has risen and fallen many times.

He has been trusted, been "obstructed", and had some highlights, but more often than not, he was unable to continue to grow due to injuries.

Except for the 2019-2020 season, when he was in good health, started 30 league games and scored 17 goals, his number of league starts in the rest of his seasons at Manchester United did not exceed 30 games.

Solskjaer trusts him and is a head coach who values ​​him, but he only gave him 17 league starts last season.

There is no way, his injury problems have a huge impact on the team's starting structure and tactical arrangements.

Solskjaer had to plan ahead and bring in another center forward, Cavani.

Martial has also complained about the split playing time, but compared with being almost directly abandoned this season, simply reducing playing time is nothing.

Originally he thought that his career at Manchester United had entered the countdown, but the goddess of luck favored him this time and allowed the coach who had repeatedly guided his emotional problems and given him suggestions for technical adjustments to return to work at Manchester United!

Martial has a special feeling of gratitude towards Li Chen.

At that time, Mourinho was not satisfied with his mentality and performance, and verbally provoked him many times, hoping that he could respond with stable performance and prove himself.

But for Martial, who has never had big ambitions, Mourinho's approach means more contempt and humiliation than motivation and encouragement.

So even though Martial had performed well in many games at the time, he did not think it was the result of Mourinho's encouragement, and the private relationship between the two became increasingly corrupt.

Old Mourinho naturally doesn't care what his young players think of him. He thinks he has a clear conscience.

However, Li Chen, who has always paid attention to the mental growth of young players, has talked to Martial many times, trying to ease the tension between him and Mourinho.

However, over time, the relationship between Martial and Mourinho has not changed much, but his relationship with Li Chen, who often encourages him, has become increasingly friendly and intimate.

Li Chen doesn't like Rashford very much because he feels that Rashford is like a child who has been spoiled by the media too early.

He has talent, but he is not very concerned about expanding his upper limit. After all, he is the darling of all Manchester United fans just by using his talent to play football.

Whether he plays well or not, he always has a place in the Manchester United team and is not affected by too many injuries, so he always appears a little lazy on the court.

Mourinho criticized him, he changed for a while, but it didn't take long for him to go back to his old ways.

Li Chen gave him advice and encouraged him to work harder to improve himself and strive to become a leader among the younger generation of players, but he didn't take it seriously.

To put it bluntly, it was because he was protected and praised by too many people when he was too young, and when he suddenly met a stricter coach, he developed a rebellious mentality.

In comparison, Martial, who doesn't like Mourinho's way of driving but can listen to the encouragement and advice of others, is naturally more valued by Li Chen.

Because of his physique that is too prone to injury, Martial is indeed unable to participate in defense as much as other young players on the field. He actively runs back and forth without the ball throughout the game.

Li Chen understood this very well. He immediately made a detailed technical adjustment plan for Martial, suggesting that Martial should work harder on receiving the ball with his back to the goal, protecting the ball and passing the ball.

After all, when he is unable to retreat deep into the defense and cannot always go into the opponent's penalty area to engage in close combat with the opponent's central defender, further improving his tactical role as a fulcrum has become the most practical direction for Martial's career transformation.

Martial was able to listen to advice and was willing to make advance preparations for his career transformation. Li Chen was confident that he could successfully train Martial in the next two or three seasons!
Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. Mourinho was abandoned by the management before he had even stayed at Manchester United for three full seasons.

The turbulent locker room situation in the last half of the season also made it impossible for Martial to calm down and continue to complete the transformation journey with Li Chen.

This is indeed a great regret for both of them.

Fortunately, after several seasons, the two had the opportunity to work together again, and this time, Li Chen directly became the head coach of Manchester United.

There was no solemn promise, but in the first training session after returning to Manchester United, Li Chen's action of personally handing the main vest to Martial said it all.

From that moment on, Martial knew clearly that the future of his career would no longer be bleak.

Two league games, two starts, Martial was reborn in the position he is good at!

At this moment, he scored a goal in the Premier League again after a long absence and chose to express his gratitude to the head coach who trusted him, just like Sancho.

It's just that his way of expressing gratitude is more direct.

After celebrating with his teammates, he ran straight to the sidelines and hugged Li Chen who was waiting for him.

Neither of them said much. In the end, Li Chen just patted Martial on the back of his head and watched him turn around and return to the court with a smile.

Such scenes have occurred too many times in Manchester United's last two league games.

Ronaldo's hug, Sancho's high-five, now it's Martial's turn to personally give a hug of gratitude.

The Manchester United fans at home don’t know what Li Chen has done to these players since he took office.

But seeing such a scene, they understood very well that the team had truly stabilized, and they had to applaud the magical young coach in front of them!

Before the game resumed, there was thunderous applause at Old Trafford. Li Chen put one hand on his chest and nodded slightly to show his gratitude.

At this moment, Arteta, who was standing beside him, was already anxiously calling Saka and Lacazette on the bench to warm up.

Li Chen took a look and did not make any move. He just made tactical adjustments again, signaling the Manchester United players on the field to shrink their formation.

With a two-goal lead in hand, Li Chen naturally felt more confident.

The two key players in Manchester United, Cristiano Ronaldo and Matic, are getting older and it is time to slow down.

Moreover, shrinking the formation and consolidating the defense at this time will also help the entire Manchester United team calm down.

As for Arteta’s substitutions?

Li Chen decided to wait and see.

He has the advantage in on-the-spot response, and he also has a few tactical cards in his hand. Once Arteta makes the first move, it will not be too late for him to respond.

However, Arteta ultimately did not choose to take the risk of substitutions in the first half of the game.

The score at halftime was fixed at 2-0. Players from both teams walked into their respective locker rooms with different expressions after the referee blew the whistle.

At this time, many fans who did not watch the live broadcast of this game were surprised after taking a look at the score at halftime! After all, in their opinion, even if Manchester United beat Chelsea in the last round of the league, it would be difficult for them to improve their current form significantly.

It takes time to adapt new tactics and boost players' confidence.

No matter how good Li Chen's coaching skills are, he is not Mourinho in his prime. How could he possibly transform Manchester United and make it rise strongly as soon as he takes office?

Arsenal's reconstruction is in much better shape, and Arteta's coaching level is now recognized by the vast majority of fans.

This is a tough opponent. Even though Manchester United has the home advantage, it may not be able to stop Arsenal's penetrating offensive.

So in their opinion, Li Chen's ability to lead the team to force Arsenal to retreat and get a point at home is considered a good result.

But the fact that Manchester United was leading by two goals at halftime was a slap in the face!
These fans watched the video clips of the first half of the game on their mobile phones while watching the live broadcast of the game at the right time.

What came into their eyes was the abnormal scene that Manchester United took the lead in attacking at the beginning of the second half and tried their best to suppress Arsenal!
Arteta made the substitution adjustment at halftime, replacing Elneny with Lacazette, wanting to strengthen the attack and change the formation to 442.

But before they could make any move, Manchester United took the initiative and launched a strong attack, forcing Arsenal's frontcourt players to return to defense!

However, there is still something to be said about Arsenal's current defensive system.

With the contracted formation, Odegaard, who actively pressed, and Thomas, who had good intercepting ability, still built a stable midfield defense line in front of their own penalty area.

Once the defenders in the penalty area are stuck in position, Ronaldo's off-ball running threat will naturally be greatly reduced.

After attacking for a few minutes, Manchester United gradually slowed down the tempo of the game and pulled the battle line back to the midfield area.

After recovering from the shock, the Arsenal team did not want to waste time and pressed forward decisively, trying to quickly seize control of the midfield.

As a result, Manchester United did not want to give up the ball easily. Sancho retreated all the way, and Manchester United started to control the game directly in their own backcourt!

If it was when Solskjaer was in charge of the team in the past, Manchester United fans would probably be shocked when seeing this scene!

After all, Pogba is not on the field, and there is no strong midfielder to hold the ball. Manchester United, who plays with a single defensive midfielder, dare not play with fire in the backcourt.

But now, although the Manchester United fans at home were a little nervous when watching this scene, they were still relatively calm.

After all, shortly after the start of today's game, Manchester United used stable backcourt control and transmission many times to avoid Arsenal's high pressure.

It is obvious that Li Chen has been focusing on the training content these days and has designed a new backcourt passing tactic for Manchester United, and it seems to be working well at the moment, otherwise he would not be so confident in using this tactic.

As expected, after retreating, Sancho directly moved to the right area. B Fee fell back significantly to get the ball. On the left was Fred, on the right was Sancho, and in front of him was Matic who supported him.

Not to mention that Lindelof and Bailly were standing on both sides of him, ready to receive the ball at any time.

The embarrassing situation in the past where Manchester United's backcourt players had no one to receive the ball and had no way to pass the ball no longer occurs.

In terms of the ability to pass the ball, these players in Manchester United's midfield are not bad.

Moreover, Li Chen did not ask them to withstand the pressure and pass the ball all the time, but to actively cooperate in the designed tactical routes and look for counterattack opportunities.

For a while, Arsenal's high-pressure defense not only failed to achieve the goal of stealing the ball and launching an attack, but the slightly empty backcourt was also repeatedly targeted by Manchester United's counterattacks!

Ronaldo is old and not as fast as he was when he was young.

But with Martial as a fulcrum to help him expand the offensive space, his several offside runs forward posed a huge threat to Arsenal's backcourt defense!
In the 57th minute of the second half, Ronaldo suddenly fired a shot from the left edge of Arsenal's penalty area during a counterattack under the defensive pressure of Ben White!
Ramsdale ran down quickly and dangerously and touched the ball, which caused the ball to miss the goal post and fly out of the bottom line!

Although Ronaldo's attempted shot did not go in, his good form was clearly revealed. The entire Arsenal team had to readjust their midfield defense with some caution.

But this meant some time wasted. In the 65th minute of the second half, Arteta could no longer sit still and directly replaced Smith Rowe, who had a mediocre performance today, with Saka.

Seeing this, Li Chen made decisive adjustments, letting Wan Bissaka and Dalot switch positions.

Wan Bissaka went to the left to directly guard Saka, while Dalot returned to the right and continued to face Martinelli who had switched to this side.

In addition, Li Chen also asked McTominay and Maguire, whose suspension was lifted, to go to the sidelines to warm up.

Arsenal fans who saw this scene became anxious and left messages in the live broadcast room mocking Manchester United for not having the courage to compete with Arsenal on the offensive end.

Manchester United fans were not angry at all when they saw these messages. Instead, they responded happily, claiming that they just liked watching the new head coach make tactical adjustments to stabilize the defense.

However, after Li Chen replaced Sancho with McTominay, he did not intend to defend to the death.

Because McTominay went directly to the central midfielder position under his tactical arrangement.

Arsenal players thought that McArthur came up to do the dirty work, but the latter quickly made a header in front of the goal on the counterattack, which made all Arsenal players break out in a cold sweat!
The cross from Ronaldo accurately found McTominay who was making a forward run!
The latter overpowered Thomas who was returning to defense and headed the ball, but unfortunately the angle of the shot was a bit too much, so the ball bounced off the far post of the Arsenal goal and rolled back into the penalty area!

Ben White, who was still in shock, cleared the ball with his foot first!
Xiaomai, who missed the goal, roared to the sky with regret, and then gave a thumbs up to Ronaldo who sent him the beautiful cross.

Ronaldo was a little tired at this moment. He put his hands on his hips and relaxed. Then he applauded his teammates with a smile on his face.

Arsenal's players on the field were given a headache by Manchester United's sharp counterattack.

With their hands tied, the quality of their offense has been declining.

Li Chen replaced Maguire in the 76th minute of the second half and directly changed to a three-center-back formation.

The goal scorer Martial, who was substituted off the field, received warm applause from all the Manchester United fans present!

Li Chen also put his arm around Martial's neck with a smile on his face, whispered something in his ear, and sent him back to the bench.

The latter grinned and seemed in a good mood as he took the coat handed to him by his teammate.

Seeing this scene, many Red Devils fans in front of the TV were all smiles.

Of course, what made them even happier was the whistle that the referee blew to end the game about ten minutes later!
Arsenal, who did not dare to press forward with all their strength, ultimately failed to break through Manchester United's goal.

Both league games were won with a score of 2-0. Li Chen has now firmly established his foothold in Manchester United!

When a group of reporters surrounded him after the game and asked Li Chen how he activated the Manchester United players, Li Chen just replied as a matter of course:
"Unity, understanding and trust.

I told them that in our team we all share the same honor and disgrace. If we want to win, we win together, and if we want to lose, we lose together. It’s no big deal. If we show our spirit, the fans will understand us.

When the whole world doesn't believe in a player, as a head coach you have to stand behind him. I told my players before the game, forget those damn sarcastic comments, I will support you to the end!
It’s that simple~”

(End of this chapter)