Starting with saving Manchester United

On Friday morning, Carrick arrived at Carrington on time, as usual.

He received a group text message from the club last night.

Yang Fan has been officially appointed as Manchester United's interim manager.

Carrick didn't know how the others reacted; he was indeed somewhat surprised, but not unexpected.

Many people in the locker room knew about the things that happened between Class 92 and the management.

However, when Carrick entered the locker room, he found that things were different today.

The first few teammates stood in front of a tactical blackboard with a notice posted on it.

The announcement was brief: today's training session will be postponed by 30 minutes, and everyone should first go to the conference room for a debriefing meeting.

This is the norm.

Unusually, the coaching staff gave everyone a questionnaire.

Carrick took a copy and frowned as he looked at it.

too weird!

The first question on the questionnaire was: About a minute into the game, Olympiacos' right winger Perez received the ball on the left flank of his own half and launched an attack. Question: During this transition from attack to defense, how should the midfield and forward positions press to prevent the opponent from passing the ball?

Another question: At around 3 minutes into the game, Olympiacos captain Maniatis suddenly switched the ball to the left wing. What went wrong with Manchester United's defense and response? Why did the opponent break through and create a crossing opportunity?

There are many similar questions.

It's not just about defense, but also offense and organization.

Some of these are related to Carrick.

During the transition from defense to attack, Manchester United intercepted the ball outside their own penalty area and passed it to Carrick. However, Carrick could not find any passing lanes around him, missing a very good counter-attack opportunity.

Q: If you are around Carrick, how do you receive the ball to get it to your teammates in the attacking third in the shortest amount of time?

All the questions are meant to prompt the players to think.

Moreover, all of these are scenes that actually occurred during the competition.

Carrick was utterly shocked when he saw the questionnaire.

Every single question here was meticulously prepared by the coaching staff.

But more importantly, this is something that no one has ever done before, including Ferguson.

The teammates around them were obviously very surprised, and everyone was talking about it. Some even argued because of their different opinions on a certain scene.

However, as clever as Carrick is, he realized that these problems were actually about a specific issue, not a specific person.

Therefore, even if there are disputes, they are only different perspectives and viewpoints.

More and more players gathered in the locker room, and the discussions grew louder and louder.

Even when dining at a restaurant, you can hear all sorts of discussions.

This made Carrick sigh inwardly.

Even during Ferguson's tenure, Carrington never experienced anything like this.

From a football perspective, Yang Fan is indeed a novice.

But many of the things he does are quite unexpected.

This unexpected turn of events was further highlighted during the subsequent tactical review.

……

In the past, tactical debriefing meetings were mostly dominated by coaches talking and players listening.

But Yang Fan's tactical debriefing meetings were mostly discussions.

He first released a video of the first minute when Perez received the ball behind Ashley Young and launched an attack.

Moreover, the ball was played from the Greek team's own half.

He froze the video frame at the moment Ashley Young stepped forward, and then asked Ashley Young a question.

"Ashley, as you step forward, who do you think bears primary responsibility for filling in the area behind you? And who bears secondary responsibility?"

Ashley Young thought for a moment, "I think the primary person responsible is Smalling, and the second is Cleverley."

Yang Fan nodded and looked at Smalling, "Chris, what do you think?"

"It should have been me, but he suddenly stepped forward without telling me. By the time the ball came to me, it was too late, so I had to foul him," Smalling explained.

"OK, Tom, what about you?"

"I was keeping an eye on Dominguez, worried he might make a through pass, so I was thinking of dropping back to the edge of the penalty area immediately, so..."

Cleverley became increasingly uneasy as he spoke.

Because it's very clear from the video that Vidic and Phil Jones are both behind him, and Carrick is also in the penalty area.

If he had moved further to the left, providing better protection for Smalling, Smalling's tactical foul could have been avoided.

Of course, this foul didn't earn a card, but it exposed many problems.

After such analysis, the responsibility becomes clear.

Ashley Young did not inform his teammates in time before deciding to step forward.

Smalling wasn't focused enough and his defensive awareness was slow; he didn't notice Ashley Young moving forward.

Cleverley, on the other hand, failed to recognize the danger on the flanks and, as a defensive midfielder, did not provide adequate protection behind the advancing wingers.

After figuring out the problem, Yang Fan did not blame or criticize the players. Instead, Mike Phelan gave him targeted guidance before he immediately moved on to the next part of the game.

Yang Fan used a similar analytical method to dissect each game scenario, including offense, defense, and organization, allowing each player to see their own problems.

Finally, Yang Fan asked all the players, regardless of whether they participated in the game, to answer a question together.

"What do you think you can do well in this game? What kind of support do you hope your teammates will provide?"

……

This is hardly a tactical debriefing meeting.

It was more like a team brainstorming session!

This is the biggest feeling among Manchester United players.

However, it must be admitted that in just 30 minutes of fast-paced brainstorming, Manchester United players gained a more comprehensive understanding of the past game and a deeper understanding of what they could and could not do in the game.

This is also what Yang Fan wanted to achieve.

He simply doesn't have time to prepare different tactics and can only keep iterating and improving this three-defender tactic.

In addition to tactical aspects, Yang Fan announced three strict red lines for locker room discipline in the last few minutes of the debriefing meeting.

Before the match, he had already announced a rule that players would be prohibited from publicly complaining.

This used to be a major problem in the Manchester United dressing room.

But now, Yang Fan has taken it a step further.

The first of the three red lines is that it is forbidden to disclose what happens in the locker room to the outside world in any form or by any means.

Article 2: It is forbidden to be late, leave early, or even be absent from training without a valid reason.

Third, whether it's training or competition, we must go all out. Those who slack off will be severely punished!

"This is an ironclad rule!"

Yang Fan declared emphatically to the players, "As long as I am the manager of Manchester United, and as long as you are Manchester United players, whoever you are, you must strictly abide by this!"

Riding the wave of Manchester United's 6-0 comeback victory against Olympiacos, Yang Fan aims to reverse Manchester United's slump in one fell swoop.

The first priority is to revitalize the locker room and rebuild the players' confidence!

Of course, simply applying pressure is not ideal, so Yang Fan announced that from now on, Manchester United will adopt a brand-new training program. The coaching staff will tailor-make targeted training programs for each player based on their physical condition, injury status, and so on.

This is fantastic news for injury-prone players or veterans like Van Persie, Vidic, and Ferdinand.

Previously, Moyes' training method was a one-size-fits-all approach, which had the advantage of being easy to manage and treating all players equally.

But now, Yang Fan's training methods emphasize humanization and targeted approaches.

In addition, Yang Fan listened to some suggestions from Mike Phelan and reinstated some rules and regulations and player treatment that had been abolished by Moyes during the Ferguson era.

One hand holds a radish, the other a big stick.

After the debriefing meeting, Yang Fan paid special attention to the traffic lights above the players' heads, and the feedback was generally quite positive.

The dramatic comeback victory against Olympiacos boosted Manchester United's morale.

But not enough.

After all, Manchester United's performance over the past six months has been so poor that it's unrealistic to expect a single comeback to completely change things.

However, Yang Fan believes that as long as the team maintains its current momentum, it will definitely be able to get out of the quagmire.

The weekend trip south to London for an away game against West Ham United will also serve as a training exercise.

The real test will be the rescheduled Premier League match next Wednesday, where they will play Manchester City at home.

The Manchester derby is the main event yet.

After the Manchester derby next Wednesday, the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals will be the Wednesday after that.

Yang Fan was rather curious about who would be drawn as one of the top 8 opponents this time.

Is it still Bayern?