Starting with saving Manchester United

Yang Fan, as always, stood silently on the sidelines "learning" during his second training session.

Unlike yesterday, this training session was led by Steve Lund.

Mike Phelan stood with Yang Fan on the sidelines, chatting with him every now and then.

Yang Fan's attention was focused on the players.

From his perspective, each player had three lanterns of different colors on their heads.

But the overall situation is rather bad.

There are just too many yellow and red lights.

Thinking about it carefully, this is quite normal.

Just now, they suffered a humiliating 0-3 home defeat to arch-rivals Liverpool, and manager Moyes was suddenly sacked, which is a very painful blow to morale and confidence.

More importantly, everyone was filled with fear and anxiety.

As Yang Fan said before, Moyes suffered two consecutive defeats in December last year, followed by a six-game winning streak.

However, since the beginning of 2014, they have played a total of 14 matches, with a record of 4 wins, 3 draws and 7 losses.

This report card is truly terrible.

Now that Yang Fan has arrived, everyone is dissatisfied.

According to reports from the medical department, Manchester United's first team currently has only one injured player, Jonathan Evans.

Darren Fletcher has largely recovered from his colitis and is now able to participate in team training and games.

Both Andy Walker's assessment and the yellow light (critical) given by the indicator system prove that Fletcher's condition has basically improved.

Nani's hamstring strain has just healed, but his condition is in a red light (fatigue).

Yang Fan will be busy for the next couple of days.

He needs to reassure the players as soon as possible, especially his preferred starters.

At the very least, the light needs to turn yellow before they can even play properly on the field.

A sea of ​​red (referring to a group of people in red) on the field would probably result in a crushing defeat!

"Jackie, after training, I'll intercept Vidic. You stay behind and talk to Ferdinand, Evra, Carrick, and Fellaini."

"Fellaini?" Jackie Kay asked, somewhat surprised.

Vidic and Evra are the captain and vice-captain, Ferdinand is a veteran player, and Carrick is the only remaining playmaker in Manchester United's midfield.

No matter how the head coach changes, these players will always be the team's most relied-upon players.

But what's going on with Fellaini?

"Yes, Fellaini, tell him to stay after he finishes his meal," Yang Fan confirmed again.

"You want to use him?" Mike Phelan was also somewhat surprised.

Previously, Yang Fan's statement that he would use Ashley Young and Valencia as full-backs was already quite surprising.

Now they're going to use Fellaini?

It's worth noting that the Belgian midfielder lost his place in Manchester United after joining the club this season.

In December, he first strained his back and had to rest for half a month, and then injured his wrist and had to rest for a month and a half.

He didn't recover from his injury and return to play until mid-February.

He also played in the 0-3 loss to Liverpool, but his performance was poor.

Yang Fan nodded silently, but said nothing.

This seemed somewhat mysterious to Mike Phelan and Jackie Kay.

Fellaini's abilities are actually fine; it's just that Moyes used them somewhat incorrectly.

As a non-professional, Yang Fan's greatest advantage is not his professional football knowledge.

Rather, it was because he, as a time traveler, had seen a lot in advance.

For example, Ashley Young and Valencia both played very well as wing-backs.

Both of these wingers played exceptionally well, both during and after Van Gaal's tenure.

Therefore, Yang Fan was very confident that they would be able to adapt to the transformation of the wing guard.

What about Fellaini?

In the 14/15 season, Van Gaal was most famous for his big circle tactics at Manchester United.

In this large-circle tactic, Fellaini is recognized as the tactical core, and his ability to win headers and receive the ball with his back to goal is unparalleled.

Last season at Everton, Fellaini averaged a remarkable 4.9 successful aerial duels per game.

Before joining Manchester United this season, he played three Premier League games for Everton, averaging an astonishing 6.3 successful aerial duels per game.

These are absolutely the stats of the world's top aerial dominance center!

Furthermore, his chest control, back-to-the-go ball receiving and support, as well as his ability to protect the ball under high-intensity pressure are all his specialties.

However, Fellaini's weaknesses are also very obvious.

For example, slow movements, poor running coverage, and poor defensive positioning.

For players with such obvious strengths and weaknesses, their strengths must be used to compensate for their weaknesses through the team's overall performance.

This is something even an amateur sports fan like Yang Fan knows.

Moyes didn't know?

No, he knew perfectly well.

He used Fellaini very well when he was at Everton.

At that time, Everton adopted a combined arms warfare approach.

Fellaini is like a heavy tank, responsible for impacting and suppressing the defense, creating space in the attacking third, with the surrounding "infantry" quickly following up to attack the space he creates.

In theory, Fellaini played the role of a center forward at Everton, similar to Drogba, Giroud, and Berbatov.

So why didn't he perform well at Manchester United?

The tank is still the same tank, but there are no infantrymen around to support it anymore.

Fellaini started as a central midfielder at Everton, but his best season was 12/13 when Moyes moved him to the attacking midfield position, where he showcased his aerial prowess and tactical contributions.

Manchester United's desire to sign Fellaini stems from this very reason.

Then why not use it?

Because Rooney is in the attacking midfield position.

Moyes once pushed Rooney up front to form a strike partnership with Van Persie, but Rooney still frequently dropped back.

Rooney no longer possesses the ability to hold his own against Premier League center-backs.

If Fellaini wants to utilize his aerial dominance, doesn't he need to push forward?

So the two of them started going out together frequently.

After a humiliating 1-4 defeat to Manchester City in the fifth round, Fellaini was sidelined and gradually lost his place in the starting lineup.

Later, he was positioned as a double defensive midfielder, partnering with Carrick.

But this, in turn, exposed another of his weaknesses.

At 1.94 meters tall and physically strong, he certainly won't be fast, and his running coverage won't be good either.

A player like him should either be allowed to focus on defense in the backfield; he can do that well.

Alternatively, let him focus on playing a tactical role in the attacking third, while also applying pressure in the attacking third; he can do a good job there.

But you can't have it all at once.

This is somewhat similar to Pogba later on.

The world's best left inside forward and left midfielder were used by Manchester United as workhorse defensive midfielders, and then Pogba was criticized for his poor performance. Is that reasonable?

If even a well-rounded player like Pogba can't perform to his potential, then the polarized Fellaini is even worse.

But Yang Fan is a time traveler.

After joining Manchester United in 2014, Van Gaal was already very certain that to solve the Rooney problem in the attacking third, a three-man defense was necessary.

Rooney absolutely needs to play, preferably as an attacking midfielder.

Van Persie also prefers to play alone and plays as a lone striker.

Manchester United's wingers are already ruined. Under these circumstances, what can they possibly change?

As for Van Gaal's later change of formation, that doesn't mean the three-defender approach was wrong.

In this three-defender formation, Fellaini played exceptionally well on the left flank of the attacking third.

Especially his partnership with left wing-back Ashley Young.

Ashley Young is ambidextrous; when playing on the left wing, he can cross from the byline, cut inside and pass diagonally, and also cut inside to shoot.

He's fast, strong, energetic, and daring. He's hardworking and diligent—truly impressive!

Thinking of this, Yang Fan turned his head to look at Mike Phelan.

"Schedule Ashley Young and Fellaini together more often in tomorrow's and the day after training sessions."

Mike Phelan and Jackie Kay were both astonished.

……

Throughout the entire training session, Yang Fan still didn't say a single word to the players.

It wasn't that he was aloof, but rather that he genuinely didn't know what to say.

He wasn't familiar with the players, and the players didn't respect him, so the more he said, the more mistakes he made.

But after the training session, Yang Fan specifically called out to Vidic from the sidelines.

Instead of choosing the office, he spoke with Manchester United's current captain right there on the sidelines of the training ground.

Vidic had clearly anticipated this.

But he never expected that Yang Fan's first words upon meeting him would be rather impolite.

"You really signed with Inter Milan?"

Vidic's expression immediately changed.