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

Chapter 15 I gave you a chance but you didn’t use it.

"Okay, okay, I've said it before, Lee will definitely be able to achieve what you think is success in the Premier League, but at that time you must be thinking, what is this old man talking about?
Look, I've worked with Lee for over a decade, and I understand better than any of you how much tactical knowledge he has accumulated over such a long period of time.

And this is just one of the basic elements for his initial success today.

Now I just want to advise you not to disturb him too often and not to put too much inexplicable pressure on him. A new chapter has been opened in his career, but it is only the beginning.

I always wish him good luck and will always be proud of him, he will bring a whole new change to Manchester United."

——Mourinho

"This is crazy. Just two weeks ago, I bet with Zidane that Lee would win the league games against Chelsea and Arsenal. Zidane said Lee would win at least one game, but now it seems that we were too conservative.

He is a genius in tactical planning, I think you will have no objection to this, right?
If you still remember the Champions League final 7 years ago.

He is so good, both in terms of individual coaching ability and mentality, I have no doubt that he will have a place in the future coaching world."

——Carlo Ancelotti

"It's obvious that Lee is a 'dangerous' guy. He reacts so quickly to on-the-spot adjustments, and he seems to be able to come up with different tactical ideas in every game. This is really... a genius performance!
He is a great opponent, young, energetic, passionate, tactically sound and I think he will surprise every Premier League manager who rediscovers him.”

——Tuchel
……

As the old saying goes, the more famous you are, the more gossip you will have.

After Li Chen became popular, some well-known reporters who could not interview him or were not in England at all simply "took a different approach" and went to interview coaches or players who had had contact with him.

The content of the interview did not change much. It just asked these celebrities what impression Li Chen had on them in the past and now.

Mourinho and Ancelotti, two well-known coaches who have worked with Li Chen before, gave Li Chen great affirmation on his professional ability.

Tuchel generously praised Li Chen's on-the-spot ability.

As for the famous basketball stars interviewed by these reporters who had worked with Li Chen, the responses they received were not exactly the same.

However, they would all give Li Chen a "responsible" evaluation.

On the other hand, this has improved the media reporters' and fans' personal impression of Li Chen.

At first glance, most recent sports media reports seem to portray Li Chen as a young coach with almost all advantages.

This kind of news report that readers like to read is quite popular.

However, Li Chen, who was surrounded by praises, did not feel much agitation in his heart.

This is not to say that he does not care about the public opinion environment for himself. He is not an extremely calm emotional saint.

It's because he has seen too many examples of the media manipulating public opinion over the years.

Be it Mourinho or Ancelotti, these two have already won too many championship honors in the football world and no longer need to prove themselves as head coaches, but they have suffered countless hardships in public opinion.

Including the current number one coach in football, Guardiola, every bold attempt to innovate tactical trends will be questioned and ridiculed by the media.

Even these coaches who stand at the top of the football pyramid are like this. Li Chen is not arrogant enough to think that he can avoid the cycle of good and bad public opinion environment.

Not to mention the examples Li Chen has seen of players who were ruined by hype or pressure.

Precisely because he has seen enough, Li Chen still appears to be very rational and restrained when it comes to the public opinion environment being favorable to him.

Li Chen has no control over what the outside media say they want to say, and he won't take those reports too seriously.

Instead, he was waiting patiently, waiting for the momentum of public opinion to show the "expected" signs of something wrong.

As expected, just as he was leading his team in preparation for the upcoming final round of the Champions League group stage, The Sun took the lead in speaking out.

It started in Portugal where Li Chen was studying, and continued with his footsteps following Mourinho in the football world.

A number of beautiful women with outstanding looks came out one after another from Italy, Spain, and England, describing in vivid detail their past love stories with Li Chen.

I don’t know where The Sun dug out these old stories from. A total of eleven beauties were interviewed, which quickly changed the fans’ impression of Li Chen again.

This change is not simply from good to bad.

Some fans are interested in Li Chen's past love history, some simply envy him, and the majority make fun of him.

Of course, there are also some critical voices.

Most of them are European non-governmental organizations “speaking for justice”.

But The Sun also clearly stated that when all of Li Chen's love affairs are traceable, no two of them occurred at the same time.

If other newspapers made such a statement, fans might not believe it, but since The Sun has made it clear, fans will naturally believe that although Li Chen has dated many girlfriends, he has never cheated.

In other words, you can say that Li Chen is promiscuous, or even say that he is a playboy, but you cannot say that he is an emotional scumbag and a player.

Li Chen was not very comfortable with the Sun digging into his personal love life, but he would not stand up and make accusations.

Anyway, every relationship of his has a beginning and an end, with a formal start and a formal end.

It is true that his relationship is not very stable, and it is also true that he is a playboy by nature, but he is completely accountable to himself and the other person.

He doesn't think this is a big problem. He has a mouth and can say whatever he wants. He thinks that as long as he has a clear conscience, that's enough.

With the interference of The Sun, the recent trend of the industry praising Li Chen has come to a halt.

Many fans have shifted their focus from Li Chen's professional abilities to his skills in picking up girls.

This made Manchester United's players in preparation feel a lot more relaxed.

After all, the more public opinion praises Li Chen, the more it will pay attention to Manchester United's subsequent performance.

To put it bluntly, the mainstream public opinion believes that there is no problem with Li Chen's coaching level, but ignores more team conditions, such as injuries and the ups and downs of players' condition.

If Manchester United's performance is slightly unstable at that time, won't public opinion blame all the problems on these players?

Manchester United's main players, who have already taken enough blame, certainly don't want to experience the feeling of being ridiculed by almost the entire network again.

Fortunately, The Sun muddied the waters, and once the public's focus shifted, everyone at Manchester United felt a lot more relaxed. As for Li Chen, who has now been labeled a playboy...

Hehe, the greater the ability, the greater the responsibility. The head coach will have to work harder and be talked about for a while, because he is the helmsman of the team.

After successfully completing the preparations, Manchester United once again faced the challenge of Young Boys Bern at home.

This Champions League group match does not mean much to Manchester United.

Because they now have 10 points and are at the top of the group, while Villarreal, the second-placed team in the group, is in second place with only 7 points.

Even if Villarreal beats Atalanta in the last round of the group stage, as long as Manchester United does not lose by a large margin, they will be able to securely qualify as the top spot!

The team's fairly good performance in the Champions League group stage was the only thing that Manchester United fans could be proud of recently.

Of course, Ronaldo played an indispensable role in Manchester United's top spot in the group.

After several tough battles, Manchester United almost relied on his equalizing or winning goals at the end of the game to score points.

Without Ronaldo's gold-priced goals, it would be hard to say what the current situation of Group F of the Champions League would be.

Li Chen could be said to have gotten a great bargain. In the final round against Young Boys of Bern, he only needed to arrange his tactics normally.

For example, there were almost no opportunities for rest in the previous period. Key players such as Cristiano Ronaldo, B Fee and Lindelof, who played in every game, can now rest assured in this Champions League group match.

Li Chen directly promoted several young players from the second team, several of whom, together with some of the team's rotation players, formed the starting lineup for Manchester United's home game against Young Boys Bern today.

Also sitting on the bench were Cavani and Varane, who had returned from injury.

The two players' rapid physical recovery this time exceeded the expectations of many Manchester United fans and media before the game.

Luke Shaw's timely return and starting appearance surprised countless Manchester United fans!
As for the several young players that Li Chen sent to start today, Manchester United fans were quite concerned about them, but their attention was not strong enough.

However, Li Chen attaches great importance to the young players trained by this team.

Before the game officially started, he pulled Elanga and Diallo to the sidelines and patiently explained things to them.

It is true that powerful teams do not really need their own young players to support them, but the symbolic spirit of a team still needs to be carefully passed on by these young players.

Not to mention that Woodward has not yet talked to Li Chen to discuss signings in this winter transfer window.

Therefore, Li Chen had to prepare for the future and choose to tap internal potential first.

In Li Chen's opinion, as long as Manchester United's main lineup is complete and healthy enough, their ability to fight tough battles will be guaranteed.

What is more important is to improve the depth of the bench and ensure the combat effectiveness of the rotation lineup.

A club as big as Manchester United will definitely continue to fight on three fronts, so for Li Chen, no matter how many players he has at hand, it is not too many.

Li Chen does not count on youth players like Mengi and Iqbal who are too young for the time being.

But Elanga and Diano Li Chen, who are a little older and have more outstanding skills, are still quite promising.

So he directly chose to let these two guys start in today's game.

He made no secret of his optimistic intentions, and the two promoted young men were extremely grateful to Li Chen for a moment.

Lianlian swore in his heart that he would try his best to perform well in order to repay the head coach's trust!
The game started on time at 12:8 on the evening of December 20th.

Even when facing the Young Boys of Bern, who did not pose too much of a threat, Li Chen still deployed a relatively safe 442 starting formation.

Rashford and Greenwood started together today, forming a double striker combination for Manchester United.

Behind them is the midfield duo of Matic and Mata, with Elanga and Diano on the wings.

Luke Shaw, Maguire, Bailly and Wan Bissaka lined up from left to right on the back line.

The starting goalkeeper is Dean Henderson.

Young Boys Bern also used a 442 starting formation today.

In terms of midfield formation, they did not suffer a loss in terms of numbers.

But in fact, as soon as the game started, the two veterans in the middle of Manchester United firmly controlled the rhythm. They did not choose any rash attacks at all, nor did they give the Young Boys of Bern the opportunity to press in the middle.

After taking control of the situation, Mata began to frequently transfer the ball to the left and right wings, allowing Elanga and Diallo to play boldly.

Compared to Elanga, who has a more stable style of play, Diallo likes to show off his extraordinary skills.

At only 19 years old, he is also fearless and has repeatedly tried to get past Young Boys' left-back Lefort on the wing.

Greenwood also pulled out of the penalty area many times to support the two wings. At this moment, Rashford was at the front of the lineup and looked more like a running forward who was ready to pass the ball.

Many Manchester United fans at home are looking forward to Rashford's performance today.

After all, after "resting" for such a long time, Rashford's physical fitness is fine. He has repeatedly posted photos of himself training alone on social media, and it seems that his condition is also guaranteed.

Today, Li Chen was very considerate and did not let him participate too much in the tactical task of getting the ball and returning to defense. He just let him stand at the front of the lineup waiting to receive the ball and shoot.

After this arrangement, Rashford's supporters, who had previously complained about Li Chen's selection of players, were speechless.

They now truly believe that Li Chen is indeed selecting players and arranging their playing time based on the different performances of each player.

If Rashford performs well in this game, will he have a chance to return to Li Chen's starting lineup?
Under their expectant gaze, Rashford did soon get the chance to get forward and score.

However, he was blocked by the opponent's central defender and failed to score. He also fired a direct shot under the opponent's close defense.

At first, the home fans were still making excuses for Rashford, saying that he was looking for his form.

But when they saw Rashford take the initiative to move out of the penalty area and take the ball wide on the left side, where he is best at, wasting his teammates' hard work, the audience couldn't help but burst into sporadic boos!

This is really a case of "I gave you the opportunity but you didn't use it"!

(End of this chapter)