The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 104: Inflexible

"Ferguson was embarrassed to be beaten by Norwich all the time, but he refused to accept the defeat and refused to change his style of play or lower his head to deal with his opponents. He firmly believed that Manchester United was a powerful club and must rely on the team's strength to defeat its opponents."

--Inscription

On February 1989, 2, the Red Devils visited Sheffield Wednesday's home ground, Hillsborough Stadium.

Sheffield Wednesday was not a strong team, but the home fans were very crazy. Under the enthusiastic watching of many home fans, Sheffield Wednesday once took an attacking stance and launched several fierce attacks. Ferguson's team fought calmly and patiently with the opponent, and soon suppressed the opponent. After seizing the initiative, the Red Devils controlled the rhythm changes and dominated the progress of the game.

In the 7th minute of the game, Sheffield Wednesday made a cross from the left, and striker Ashton's header in the penalty area was saved. Then the Red Devils took the initiative. In the 27th minute, Manchester United launched an attack with a series of short passes from the right. Hughes took the ball in the penalty area and moved flexibly, then passed it to McClair. The Scottish striker shot in the penalty area and scored, helping the team to take the first point 1-0.

In the second half, the Red Devils continued to maintain their strong form and continued to attack. In the 52nd minute, Manchester United organized an attack in the middle. Mullen passed the ball directly to the edge of the opponent's penalty area. Hughes turned and shot after receiving the ball. The Sheffield Wednesday goalkeeper fell to the ground to save the ball, but the ball was blocked at McClair's feet. McClair thanked him and made a direct shot to score, and Manchester United led 2:0.

In the end, the two sides exchanged blows but neither scored again. The Red Devils finally won 2-0 thanks to McClair's double.

For this match, many Red Devils fans travelled to the away team's stadium, but no one was aware of the danger at the time, and no one could have predicted that this stadium would be the site of a horrific incident two months later.

The Red Devils then played in the fifth round of the FA Cup against Burnley. The Red Devils tied with their opponents 1-1, and then eliminated Burnley 1-0 in the second game, successfully advancing to the sixth round of the FA Cup.

Thanks to the Red Devils' increasingly outstanding performances during this period, especially their increasingly proactive offense and continuous scoring of goals, fans and the media have also begun to change their attitude towards the Red Devils.

In this FA Cup home game against Burnley, the Red Devils fans rushed in crazily, completely filling the Old Trafford Stadium, which has only more than 4 seats, and almost all the standing seats were packed.

The entire Manchester United team played better and better with the cheers of thousands of people. Even though they encountered stubborn resistance from the opponent and many chances in front of the goal were resolved by the opponent, the Red Devils did not lose heart and finally pried open the opponent's turtle shell with continuous and fierce offensive.

At the end of the game, Manchester United gave back to all the Red Devils fans with a victory. The tense Red Devils fans applauded and cheered in the end, sharing this wonderful game and rare victory with the players. This grand occasion was broadcast to the audience through the screen and TV, and also excited Manchester United fans all over the world.

The atmosphere of the game was so exciting that even Ferguson felt it. He had a real understanding of the energy of the Red Devils fans and immediately proposed to expand the commercial business in the board of directors.

Starting from the FA Cup against Queens Park Rangers, Ferguson's team had a rare 10-game unbeaten streak. During this unbeaten streak, the Red Devils defeated Tottenham and West Ham United in tough battles, and also had many big wins with three goals or more, which made many fans very excited.

The Guardian commented, "Manchester United still has potential, but it's a pity that the Red Devils won consecutive games too late. The gap in points in the standings is too big, and there is no possibility of catching up quickly."

In the 25th round of English League One, the Red Devils challenged Norwich away.

Norwich was not a strong team, but like Wimbledon, it was becoming Ferguson's nemesis. Ferguson had already suffered two consecutive defeats against this team, and lost in the first half of this season, and that was at Old Trafford.

Ferguson naturally didn't want to lose again, he attached great importance to this game and sent out the strongest lineup. McGrath and Bruce, who had recovered from their injuries, were in charge of the central defenders, Robson and Strachan were in charge of the midfield, Hughes and McClair were the double strikers, Lee Sharp continued to play as the left midfielder, and Donaghy and Milne got the chance to start.

The Red Devils launched a fierce offensive at the beginning of the game, which indeed caught the opponent off guard, but the Red Devils' attacking line lacked luck and missed many opportunities in front of the goal, and they were unable to take the lead.

Norwich's strength this season is average, but their coach has always been very low-key and pragmatic. Since the beginning of the season, they have been playing a tactic of steady defense and counterattack, and have always kept their position relatively low, playing very low-key against all kinds of heroes. After withstanding the Red Devils' round of rapid attack, Norwich stood firm, and played better and better, becoming more and more calm. The Red Devils have always taken the initiative, and the attack line has always been forward, and later almost all of them were deployed around the opponent's penalty area, but Norwich coped very easily, and effectively resolved various crises after shrinking their defense.

The Red Devils were very strong and seemed a little anxious, but they did not have enough ways to pry open the opponent's turtle shell. Norwich played steadily from the beginning, taking advantage of the Red Devils' eagerness to win and played a simple and quick counterattack. The two central defenders of the Red Devils were not good at speed, and the two full-backs were unable to assist in defense due to the pressure. Norwich quickly counterattacked in the 36th minute, and three passes were passed to the Manchester United penalty area. Forward Thompson headed the ball directly into the goal.

Manchester United's defense was penetrated and they were completely unable to prevent the opponent's counterattack. This situation was repeated in the first half. Norwich made a long pass from the right, the striker passed it back, and the core midfielder Wright followed up with a powerful shot, opening the score to 2:0.

Although the Red Devils players never gave up and kept attacking their opponents when they fell behind, their violent offensive force could not break down the opponent's defense. Although Hughes scored a goal in the end, they were still defeated again by their opponents with a score of 1-1.

"The Red Devil's eyes were pecked out by the Canary again!"

"Ferguson was beaten once, twice and thrice by Norwich. Let's see when the record will be broken."

The media was eager to make trouble and started to hype up some of Ferguson's remarks after the game. They still remembered Ferguson's wild words before the game, "Norwich is nothing to mention..."

Ferguson said: "As the losing side, I must of course congratulate Norwich. They deserved to win. They played as planned before the game and did catch our mistakes."

“Is there anything Manchester United can learn from Norwich?”

Ferguson's face was full of seriousness. "Learn from Norwich? Win like Norwich? Sorry, I don't know what you are talking about? I am the head coach of Manchester United now, and we will have our own way of winning."

In fact, Ferguson knew very well how Norwich won the game without the media's nagging.

But Ferguson was determined to refuse to imitate Norwich. He believed that this style and tactics were not suitable for Manchester United, let alone a team that wanted to win the championship. Norwich won because all the teams did not regard them as a super team, and did not think that they were really strong. Even if they were in the middle or at the top of the standings, the big teams would still put them in the position of a weak team when playing against them.

Ferguson deeply understood that if Norwich could really take the top spot and really launch a strong attack, then their opponents would definitely not reveal so many flaws and would not give the Canaries so much space.

The media didn't care about that and continued to hype up the loss. In addition to Ferguson being mocked and criticized, Bruce was once again pressed, "As a former Norwich captain, you are now playing for the Red Devils, but you have been defeated by your parent team three times. How do you feel about that?"

Bruce replied with thousands of greetings in his heart, but he had to answer awkwardly in front of the camera: "I firmly believe that the Red Devils will get better and better, we will continue to improve and move towards better goals. This loss is just an accidental failure. In fact, we are improving. The advantage on the field is ours, and we have more opportunities. We are the one who deserves to win this game more."

Bruce said: "I believe the Red Devils will cheer up soon. I have confidence in Ferguson's coaching and the Red Devils will definitely succeed."

Bruce was full of confidence, but the Red Devils were not able to bounce back as quickly as he would have liked.

The Daily Mail reporter interviewed English football legend Bobby Moore, who said: "I personally think Ferguson is very tough, not in line with etiquette, and hypocritical. He knows why Norwich won, and it's not just the first or second time, but now he is being tough again when they lose again, which is actually meaningless."

Another England star Ashton said: "What the coach says and what the team is are two different things. Ferguson has always been in this style, and he has always built the team according to his own ideas. There is nothing to criticize about this. What we need to focus on is the team's performance and results."

In the 26th round of League One, the Red Devils played against Villa away at Villa Park.

The course of this game was almost the same as that of Manchester United against Norwich. Ferguson's initial tactical deployment was to take the initiative to attack, and indeed a fierce offensive was launched at the beginning of the game. Mullen and Phelan both had the opportunity to rush to the opponent's penalty area with the ball and shoot from a distance. McClair and Hughes had more than one chance to shoot near 15 yards in front of the goal, but unfortunately they were not able to score in the end. The most regrettable thing was Hughes, who had single or semi-single opportunities in both the first and second half, and also had a great opportunity to shoot at an empty goal 8 yards in front of the goal, and more than one shot in the penalty area without anyone blocking or defending closely, but he was not able to seize it.

Villa also wanted to stabilize their defense at the beginning. The team shrank their defense line after the opening, relying on the number of players and the reduced space to deal with the opponent. In addition to defense, they also attacked Manchester United's goal through quick counterattacks and long passes. Unlike Norwich, their counterattacks lacked quality. They could hardly complete more than 5 passes, and there was no chance to pass the ball smoothly to Manchester United's goal, let alone to form threatening shooting opportunities.

The game was played with Manchester United attacking Villa's defense, but they were unable to break the balance. Even though Ferguson made continuous substitutions in the second half, replacing more attackers to strengthen the offense, he still failed to break Villa's defense.

Manchester United was eventually tied 0-0 by their opponents and could only get one point.

After this game, the Red Devils continued to rank fifth in the league standings, but their hopes of catching up with the top of the table are becoming increasingly slim.