The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 110: Three consecutive defeats

"Ferguson was destined to face repeated challenges this season. The fluctuations in the team's form, the team's results, and the changes in the game scene caused his team to suffer repeated defeats... Everything made him the focus of media criticism."

--Inscription

The tough draw with Arsenal should have been a morale-boosting thing, but it seemed to have used up all the Red Devils' luck.

In the standings, Manchester United is still in the middle. The season has come to an end. It is impossible for Manchester United to compete for the championship, but it is impossible to be relegated with this score. Now the team is beginning to show the emotions that teams in the middle often have, that is, a kind of desireless mentality. They do not want to make progress and continue to sprint to a higher position; they do not want to lose to more opponents and do not want the points ranking to continue to decline. Some players are also worried about physical injuries due to too intense competition, and want to muddle through the subsequent games.

Of course, there are also many players who will maintain their professional standards and high morale. There are also some newcomers and youth training seedlings who hope to take the opportunity to move up, or try to play bravely and strive for the opportunity to start as a main player.

But no matter what, it is difficult for the team at this stage to have the fighting passion to compete for the championship, and the strong fighting spirit to strive for victory even in difficult situations.

Back in the league, the Red Devils faced the underdog Millwall.

This match between the two teams was completely beyond Ferguson's expectations. He sent almost all the main players who could play and deployed active offensive tactics. As expected, the Red Devils took an absolute advantage at the beginning of the game and continued to attack Millwall. However, no matter how the Red Devils' players attacked the opponent, no matter how they tried to tear open the opponent's defense, Millwall was always like a rock in the stormy waves. Even under various attacks, the team did not collapse. In the 20th minute, McClair headed the ball in the opponent's penalty area, but the close shot was deflected; in the 31st minute, Hughes faced the opponent's goalkeeper in the penalty area, but the 15-yard powerful shot was not handled well, and the opponent's goalkeeper fell to the ground and saved it. In the second half, Robson's two long shots outside the penalty area did not pose enough threat. The opponent's defense was too large, and the defenders blocked Robson's shot in the penalty area. In the 63rd minute, Manchester United made a cross from a corner kick, but Bruce's header was unfortunately higher than the goal beam. In the 68th and 72nd minutes, Hughes received two consecutive shots in the penalty area, but they did not hit the power. After the 80th minute, Ferguson even asked Bruce to go to the opponent's penalty area in advance to act as a center forward, and constantly let the two wingers kick the ball and cross it, but these crosses did not form assists in the end. Manchester United's players were unable to perform in the crowded penalty area.

Manchester United attacked fiercely for nearly 80 minutes, but in the end they could only draw with their opponents 0-0.

Then in the 31st round, Manchester United played against another weak team, Derby County. The first 30 minutes of this game were exactly the same as the previous one. The strong Red Devils kept attacking, and the entire formation pressed into the opponent's hinterland, and even the back line pressed near the midfield line. Manchester United organized many offensives in succession and created excellent opportunities one after another. McClair successfully penetrated the gap in the 17th minute, but his subsequent shot lost its spirit; in the 23rd minute, Manchester United took a corner kick, and Bruce and Hughes missed the opportunity in the opponent's penalty area again.

In the 33rd minute, Derby County suddenly launched a counterattack. Their winger Milners rushed all the way to the edge of Manchester United's penalty area, and passed the Red Devils' left back at high speed, almost forming a one-on-one situation. When McGrath stepped forward to withstand his impact, Milners sent a low pass to the front of Manchester United's goal. This cross eventually formed an empty goal, and Derby County striker Reichton easily shot in front of the goal and helped the team lead the Red Devils 1-0.

In the second half, Manchester United was once again in a difficult situation, while the opponent played steadily and implemented the defensive counterattack tactics, leaving Manchester United's attack helpless. Not only that, when Derby County was holding on for about 10 minutes, substitute Carton suddenly launched an offensive, once again breaking through the Red Devils' defense with a simple and direct pass, and finally helped their other striker Black easily score in front of the goal, locking the score at 2-0.

Manchester United's fierce attack throughout the game was ineffective and they eventually lost by 2 goals.

In the 32nd round of the league, Manchester United played against Charlton.

Ferguson's team lined up in the most traditional 442 formation, with Bruce, McGrath, Anderson and Donaghy as the starting four defenders, which Ferguson believed was the strongest defensive line. The midfielders were Robson, Mullen, Lee Sharpe and Gill, and the forwards were McClair and Hughes. Manchester United cheered up at the beginning of the game and quickly took the advantage. The opponent Charlton was not strong, and they played defensive counterattacks honestly at the beginning, and did not cause too much trouble to Ferguson's team. Until the 72nd minute of the second half, the Red Devils' defense line, which had been unable to attack repeatedly, made another mistake. Charlton made a long pass from the backcourt and directly penetrated Manchester United's defense line that was too far forward. Then Charlton's forward Lukes beat Bruce again in a speed competition, and finally his single shot made Manchester United fall into the embarrassment of being scored again. After Charlton took the lead, the whole team actively defended, and everyone once returned to the penalty area, forcibly compressing the space in front of the goal to the limit.

Manchester United tried every possible means but just couldn't pry open their opponent's turtle shell and ultimately had to suffer another upset, losing to their opponent with a score of 0-1.

The result of the match shocked all the media. "What happened to Manchester United after losing to these weak teams in a row?"

In the 33rd round of the league, Manchester United lost to Coventry with the same score.

The media continued to add insult to injury, and now even Manchester United fans began to feel incredible. Such a result was only embarrassing and humiliating for Ferguson and his coaching team.

This is really an extremely embarrassing record. Since the 28th round of the league, the Red Devils have not won 6 games in a row. What is uncomfortable is that there are 4 losses in them, and the most recent three games are even more difficult to face three consecutive defeats!

The Red Devils' ranking in the league standings has dropped rapidly, and now they have fallen to 13th place. Not only have they completely left the championship group, but they may also fall into the quagmire of relegation.

At this time, Queens Park Rangers, who were third from the bottom in the relegation zone, had a points gap of only 5 points with Manchester United!

The Red Devils suffered three consecutive defeats in the league, and they lost to three very poorly ranked teams. This series of defeats, which was good in the process but uncomfortable in the end, shocked the management for a while. When they lost to Charlton, the Manchester United board was ready to hold a meeting to hold Ferguson accountable, and when they lost to Coventry, the board's atmosphere became even more tense.

Manchester United director Watkins said, "I can't understand why Manchester United is like this. It is unacceptable for the club to be like this."

Although the media were focused on the follow-up reports of the Hillsborough Disaster, which had just happened in the football world, this did not stop them from pouring more cold water on Ferguson's team and giving them more ridicule and criticism.

This wave of heart-breaking defeats, this series of losing streak that kept hitting new lows, also deeply dampened the enthusiasm of the fans.

Edwards' speech at the board meeting represented the attitude of the management. He said: "Many of us on the board have been confused. Why has the team become like this?"

Legendary player Charlton said: "Alex must have encountered difficulties. The team's current performance is a bit abnormal. Many of the team's losses during this period should not have happened."

What is even more painful is Ferguson. He cannot accept such poor performance of the team, but now he is the one who needs to explain to the board of directors.

Ferguson could only reflect deeply, "The main reason and main responsibility for all these failures are me."

Ferguson said: "There is something wrong with our mentality. We were overconfident when facing some teams with less strength, and we were not prepared enough for the difficulties. When we were really in adversity, we had no new response measures."

Ferguson knew very well that these explanations would only make him suffer more criticism, but he had no choice now.

After answering brief inquiries from the board of directors, Ferguson called a meeting with Norris and other assistants and the club's coaching staff. Everyone talked for a long time but could not reveal any special reasons.

Lack of physical fitness?

Physical coach Luis said, "The players did not have a particularly serious lack of physical strength. The physical exhaustion they experienced in the last 20 minutes of the second half was not caused by their usual training, but a disaster caused by the unreasonable allocation of time in the game."

In response to the media's questioning about many players' inability to run right from the start, Luis did not make any further excuses, "Considering that the season has entered its final stage and that we have had a large number of long-term injuries this season, some players' recovery and condition are indeed not at their best."

Morale problem?

Norris directly refuted: "Our team has been playing very hard this season, but we have never been lacking in morale or giving up the game. Our players have been very active in these games and have been counterattacking when they fell behind, but it is hard to imagine that we lost in the end."

No shot? Not many chances?

This is ultimately a problem of the team's poor performance. Ferguson himself concluded, "We do have this problem in our game. So far this season, our offensive data is very ugly. The number of times we have entered the opponent's defensive third zone, the number of times we have entered the opponent's penalty area, the number of times we have organized shooting opportunities, the number of shots, the number of shots on the opponent's goal...even the most critical number of goals, our data is very bad."

"This is not a problem with the ability of a single player, but a problem with the tactical design and execution of the entire team. We are actually in big trouble."

Manchester United legend Law, who was invited by the BBC, specifically evaluated the team's performance in recent times. His words were full of regret and helplessness. "As players, we have also experienced the frustration of losing games and the blow of consecutive failures. These situations are sometimes difficult to explain with common sense. It seems that the team played well, but in the end the score was lost; it is obvious that we have an absolute advantage and have created various scoring opportunities, but in the end we were still defeated by a sneak attack by the opponent. This situation is very abnormal, but it does happen occasionally. What I want to say is that the team needs to let go of the burden and unite again at this time."

After repeated discussions with his assistants, Ferguson decided to put all the problems on hold and leave them to the end of the season in the summer.

There is no point in forcing anything now, and it may even lead to more unstoppable accidents. Although Ferguson has experienced countless ups and downs in his heart since the season began, he has probably anticipated the ranking of this season's results.

Ferguson is ready to accept it and wait until the end of the season before taking action.

Ferguson deeply understood in the face of adversity that the team's progress was not so easy and that the Red Devils still had a long journey to complete in their road to reconstruction.