Star Card System

Tsk, football games are not just about defense.

Seeing Xia Xing praised by his teammates as a defensive genius, Pogba was a little unhappy again.

And he did show his strength with his actions.

In the confrontation match, Pogba made several consecutive long passes, showing his world-class passing ability.

And relying on the sudden forward shot with strong impact, he also scored two wonderful shots.

Even the team's second goalkeeper Romero was helpless.

This is the strength of the French genius midfielder!

Compared with Pogba, Xia Xing made fewer passes.

He still organized more and controlled, focusing on defense.

This made Pogba even more complacent.

But his complacency did not last long...

It was early August, and Manchester United arranged four friendly matches.

The opponents were Wigan Athletic, Dortmund, Galatasaray and Everton.

The strengths of the teams varied, and Mourinho planned to try out several new tactical arrangements of his own.

In the team's training match, Mourinho had already determined some of the starting players.

Mourinho initially decided on a 4-3-3 formation.

On the front line, the center forward is naturally the first, and Ibrahimovic's current strength is still at the world's top level.

Behind him is striker Rooney, the captain of Manchester United, who is in charge of the frontcourt.

Behind him is the combination of Xia Xing, Pogba and Carrick, who are old and new, and have good offense and defense.

Goalkeeper De Gea is one of the strongest goalkeepers in the world today.

Only these players are the main players, and the others need to try to adjust.

For example, wingers, such as full-backs.

In addition, veterans Rooney, Carrick, and Ibrahimovic cannot persist in all the games of the whole season, and they must be rotated frequently.

Important rotation players also need to be adjusted and must be functionally divided.

And the current Manchester United players do not have a big gap in strength, so the choice is not easy, and it needs to be determined by training and games.

In the first game, Mourinho sent a lineup dominated by veterans.

On the front line is Ibrahimovic, and next to him are Rooney and Mata.

Behind him are Xia Xing, Pogba and Carrick.

Four defenders: Ashley Young, Smalling, Blind, Valencia.

Goalkeeper: De Gea.

Facing Wigan Athletic, Manchester United has a huge advantage in strength.

In the 2012-2013 season, Wigan Athletic was eventually relegated from the Premier League.

And in the 2014-2015 season, they were relegated from the Championship again.

But last season they returned to the Championship with the first place in League One.

They have invested a lot this season and look forward to returning to the Premier League.

For Manchester United, this warm-up match is just a small test, allowing trial and error.

Throughout the game, Manchester United naturally had an absolute advantage.

In the end, they also won with a score of 2-0 and got a good start in the friendly match.

However, Mourinho was not very satisfied with this game.

The team's offensive frequency is not small, but the efficiency is not high.

Especially the cooperation between the midfield and the frontcourt, which needs to be further adjusted.

In this game, Xia Xing retreated appropriately to escort Carrick and Pogba, playing as a pure defensive midfielder.

Carrick is more of a metronome for the team, organizing long passes.

In this way, Pogba took over the responsibility of attacking in the midfield.

Several shots were very threatening, and his passing and running also showed a big picture.

However, his short pass level is average, and his ability to dribble and run is not top-notch.

Even when facing opponents like Wigan Athletic, he still can't create scoring opportunities through his personal ability.

But he still likes to dribble forward.

He has Kaka's momentum, but not Kaka's dribbling skills.

And there were two times when he lost the ball, which almost caused a disaster.

Fortunately, Xia Xing made up for the defense behind him, and the ball was intercepted without any problems.

In the end, relying on Rooney's long shot and Ibrahimovic's header, Manchester United easily defeated the opponent.

It was so difficult to play against a team that played in the English League One last season. Mourinho was a little unhappy in the locker room after the game.

But he didn't get angry. After all, he had just joined the team. He just talked to a few players individually.

In the second game, he replaced most of the players, especially in the midfield and frontcourt.

Rooney was the center forward, and Rashford and Martial were the wings.

Xia Xing, Pogba and Mkhitaryan were the midfielders.

This attacking combination is much younger.

Facing Dortmund, Manchester United attacked with all their strength.

In this game, Mourinho intended to test the offensive ability.

Unfortunately, the team played very poorly in the first half.

1 to 3, this was the score at halftime.

Manchester United fell behind.

Mourinho looked unhappy.

Manchester United's offensive players were very active, but their defense speed was not fast enough.

And the midfield control was also very poor.

The three players in the front court pressed very high, and Pogba and Mkhitaryan in the midfield also attacked actively.

In this case, they often did not have enough strength to defend.

Although Xia Xing had a large defensive coverage area, he was still alone.

Dortmund's fast attack was very effective. After three passes and two passes, he tore through Manchester United's defense and finally scored.

During the halftime break, Mourinho made a large-scale adjustment.

He directly replaced Rooney, Shamar, Pogba, and replaced them with Fellaini, Lingard, and Herrera.

At this time, Rashford became the center forward, and Lingard and Mkhitaryan played as wingers.

Xia Xing's midfield partner also became Fellaini and Herrera.

In the player tunnel, Mourinho talked to Xia Xing alone.

"Xia, I think your contribution to the offense before was too small."

"Yes, that's true."

"Why?"

"The teammates' offensive range is very large, and the team always has to have someone defending."

"Yes..."

"Yes."

"Someone helped you defend in the second half, you should participate more in the offense! I want to see how good your offensive ability is in this Manchester United team."

"Okay!"

Xia Xing's words were very clear, and Mourinho also understood them in his heart.

But he didn't want to easily hit Pogba's offensive enthusiasm yet.

In the summer signings, Pogba was the only player who was not introduced by Mourinho.

The club has been paying attention to Pogba for a long time and has been in contact with his agent Raiola.

After Mourinho joined the team, the management did not make any other requirements, and tried to satisfy him as much as possible.

The only suggestion was to introduce Pogba, and Mourinho's opinion was also asked.

Mourinho did not object.

Pogba is indeed a good player and is very helpful to Manchester United's commercial brand.

And the club has been talking about it for a long time. Just because of his coaching, will this work fail?

It is not suitable and impossible.

So Mourinho agreed.

And Pogba's characteristic of not liking to return to defense has also made Mourinho dislike it.

But there is no way. The team needs talents like Pogba, and he must try his best to play to his strengths and avoid his weaknesses.

In training, he asked Pogba to participate more in defense, and Pogba agreed.

But on the court, sometimes Pogba finds it difficult to control his offense and desire to perform.

Now, he simply replaced Pogba.

This is normal in a friendly match.

In the second half, the team's offensive organization was handed over to Xia Xing!