The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 208 A Critical Defeat

As the league reaches its final stage, it all comes down to who makes fewer mistakes, who is in more stable form, who can win the game, and who will have the last laugh.

--Inscription

Manchester United won a crucial victory and now the pressure is on Leeds United.

In the following match, the White Army beat Chelsea 3-0. Among the three goals, the one scored by Cantona was the most brilliant and dazzling. At that time, Cantona stopped the ball with his chest near the penalty area in the frontcourt, then easily passed the opponent with a fake move, then gently lifted the ball, and then volleyed the ball into the opponent's net.

Leeds United declared their rebound with a big win and continued to put pressure on the Red Devils.

到了1992年4月12日，红魔在联赛杯决赛登场亮相。然后就是3天之后的4月16日，弗格森的球队回到主场，迎战南安普敦队。

The match between the Red Devils and the Saints was a classic, with both sides playing brilliant offense. The Red Devils scored a groundbreaking goal in the 31st minute. At that time, the Red Devils won a corner kick on the left, and Southampton shrank back to the small penalty area to deploy dense defense. As a result, the Red Devils did not pass the corner kick directly to the opponent's core area with tight defense, but directly outside the penalty area. Kanchelskis, who was ambushing at the edge of the penalty area, was already ready. He got ready and shot the ball, hitting a world wave with a powerful volley. This shot was like a thunderbolt, completely untraceable, and went straight into the dead corner.

Red Devils 1-0!

In the subsequent game, Manchester United stabilized the midfield and withstood Southampton's long passes, allowing Ince and Pallister to jointly lock down Le Tissier. Kanchelskis and Giggs both retreated deep to help Manchester United's defense to build a fence and reduce space. Southampton also launched a sharp attack after falling behind. In the 72nd minute, Le Tissier started from the midfield with the ball, passed Webber with a realistic fake move, and then flexibly passed to his teammates on the wing when Ince came to intercept. He got rid of Ince's entanglement and suddenly accelerated to rush into the Manchester United penalty area. Garcia, the Southampton winger on the right, received the ball and accelerated to rush to the Manchester United backcourt, and then made a strong cross. In the penalty area, Le Tissier faced Pallister's interception, shook past his opponent, grabbed the position, took the ball one step forward, and immediately shot hard. This shot went straight to the upper corner of Manchester United. Fortunately, Schmeichel concentrated and blocked the ball with a side dive.

In the end, Southampton's consecutive attacks were in vain, and Manchester United's counterattacks were a bit too arbitrary, with passes lacking accuracy and naturally not posing much threat.

The game ended here, and Manchester United continued to lead the standings after two consecutive wins.

In the 38th round of the league, the Red Devils challenged Luton away.

The Red Devils were missing Robson and Ings from the starting lineup, Kanchelskis was also given a rest, and Ferguson fielded a midfield quartet of Phelan, Webber, Giggs and Sharp. Luton was not very strong, but the Red Devils played in the League Cup final and had been playing a game every three days, which consumed too much energy. After the final, they were also relaxed, so the game against Luton was very difficult.

The Red Devils took the initiative in the game, but they did not create too many opportunities and posed little threat to Luton. Luton did not expect to defeat Manchester United. They started with a defensive counterattack and gave up the midfield early. But with the slow passing of Manchester United's midfield, Luton found a quick counterattack opportunity. In the 25th minute, Luton's midfielder intercepted the ball, and then passed it directly to the bottom of the left side of Manchester United's backcourt near the penalty area with great efficiency. Cox received the ball and passed Parker with a fake move, then dribbled into the penalty area and shot the ball into the lower right corner of Manchester United's goal about 15 yards away. Schmeichel could not save it and could only watch the goal fall. Manchester United fell behind 0-1.

The Red Devils finally woke up from their dream and quickly began to fight back.

From the 30th minute, Manchester United continued to strengthen the attack on the left. Giggs and Sharp made many breakthroughs and made many crosses from the bottom, which repeatedly disturbed the Luton penalty area. In the 33rd minute, Giggs received a pass from Parker on the left and passed the opponent's midfielder with a change of rhythm, then accelerated forward, and before going to the bottom, he made a fake move to shake off the opponent's full-back, and then made a cross from the bottom. Hughes headed the ball in front of the goal, but unfortunately it was too high; in the 35th minute, Manchester United made a comeback on the left, Giggs once again used his skillful change of direction to pass the opponent's full-back, then went all the way down the penalty area line, cut into the penalty area and made a reverse triangle pass, but McClair didn't touch the ball in the chaos; in the 39th minute, Ins received a pass from his teammate on the right in the middle, and when he was about 20 yards from the top of the opponent's penalty area, he passed the ball to the right, and Lee Sharpe rushed in at high speed, dribbled into the opponent's penalty area, faced the opponent's left back blocking, and continued to attack with the ball after a fake move, and finally shot near 12 yards in front of the goal, but unfortunately it was saved by the opponent's goalkeeper. In the 41st minute, Manchester United took consecutive corner kicks, Hughes and McClair both missed the chance to cross and missed the ball, and Bruce also headed a shot in the penalty area...

Manchester United continued to attack in the first half, but still failed to equalize the score.

In the second half, Manchester United attacked more fiercely. In the 53rd minute, Lee Sharpe made a long pass from the left to his teammate in the middle. McClair received the ball but his shot was not strong enough and the angle was not good, so the opponent easily seized it. In the 55th minute, Manchester United made a long pass from the right. Hughes pulled out of the penalty area to receive the ball. He passed the ball back to Webber with his back turned, but Webber was not ready to shoot... No matter how hard the Red Devils tried, Luton's defense was very solid and did not give the opponent many chances. In the 73rd minute, Wallace came on the field. His dribbling breakthrough in the front court greatly increased the opponent's defensive pressure, and the entire defensive system also shrank more tightly. In the 76th minute, Manchester United made a cross from the left. In the melee in the penalty area, the ball fell to Lee Sharpe's feet on the periphery. Lee Sharpe took the ball and faked to pass the opponent's defender who came forward to intercept. After entering the penalty area, he shot a small arc. This shot was very accurate. The ball passed the opponent's goalkeeper's hand tip who flew out to block and spun into the outer corner of the goal.

Manchester United equalized 1-1!

In the next 20 minutes, the Red Devils attacked like a tide, constantly trying to break through and shoot, hoping to overtake the opponent, but they just couldn't score. At the end of the game, Manchester United and the opponent were evenly matched, each with one point.

Many years later, Ferguson still felt very sorry when he recalled this game. He thought that there was no reason why the Red Devils could not win this game. Ferguson said: "We probably created 10 or 15 chances, of which about 4 or 5 were the kind that could be scored effortlessly. But we wasted them very extravagantly. Luton played very tenaciously, but we were really too casual. I am very dissatisfied with this game. Not winning the game is one reason, but the more important reason is that we were a little bit lacking in spirit and handled the ball too casually in the early offensive phase."

Manchester United now continues to maintain first place in the standings, 2 points ahead of their rivals Leeds United, but they have encountered a serious problem: after playing against Luton on April 4, the Red Devils will play the 18th round of the league on April 4, with only one day in between!

这不仅仅是曼联3天里踢两场，更恐怖的是6天里踢3场，9天里踢4场！

The Times criticized the game before the match, saying, "We must question why the FA arranged the schedule in this way. There is no fairness in this schedule. Leeds United plays two games in seven days, while the Red Devils play three games in six days... This is a huge irony and farce, and it is also irresponsible to the fans. Ferguson's players are human beings, not gods. Their basic human rights are difficult to guarantee."

What is even more speechless is that the Red Devils' match was scheduled to start at noon, just to meet the needs of TV broadcast. Ferguson was too tired to complain and could only try his best to face Nottingham Forest, his opponent in this round.

Ferguson unexpectedly did not start Mark Hughes or Ings in this battle, which caused great controversy afterwards. The goalkeeper was still Schmeichel, the defenders were Blackmore, Irwin, Bruce and Pallister, the midfielders were Phelan, Kanchelskis, Webber, Lee Sharpe and Giggs, and McClair played as the lone striker.

The Red Devils played a formation with five midfielders, which was unexpected and the players themselves were not very familiar with it. The biggest problem was not the absence of Mark Hughes, or even the absence of Robson and Ings in the midfield, but the three wingers Lee Sharp, Giggs and Kanchelskis were all on the field. Ferguson had planned to let Giggs play as a striker and partner with McClair, but this became a big problem in actual combat. Giggs was not used to holding the ball with his back to the goal, nor was he used to competing with the opponent's defenders for space.

In addition, neither McClair nor Giggs are good strikers and their headers are not that good. Manchester United's attack from both flanks is mainly based on crosses, which puts both of them in a situation where they are at a loss as to what to do.

Nottingham Forest was a well-known giant in the English First Division. At that time, they were outstanding under the command of the legendary coach Clough. Their style of playing high and high was very obvious. There were a large number of tough players in the team, who always had the advantage in the midfield stranglehold. The Red Devils had been defeated in their first encounter with them this season. Although Ferguson won the League Cup final that just ended, Ferguson hoped to deal with the opponent with the fast attack in the front court and the players' sharp footwork, but this strategy did not succeed. Clough sent out a sufficiently tough midfield combination of Pearce and Stoughton to shrink the distance between the midfield and the backcourt as much as possible, leaving no space for the Red Devils' wing players to break through, and set up a melee with the Red Devils in the midfield. Clough was not convinced by the loss in the League Cup final, and they were not afraid of Manchester United's home court. They started a fierce fight with Manchester United's midfield, turning the midfield area into a complete meat grinder. Forest's tactics were very targeted. The fierce fighting and confrontation prevented Giggs and Lee Sharpe from bringing out their flexible and sharp advantages. Even Kanchelskis was defeated by the opponent's muscles.

Ferguson's surprise attack not only failed to work in the actual game, but also fell into a passive position in the midfield battle. Without Robson and Ings, Webber and Phelan's defense in the middle of the midfield was not strong enough, and the two of them were not enough to withstand the impact of the Forest team.

Not long after the game started, the Red Devils' double wings failed to pose a threat, and were pushed back to their own half by the Forest team's strong muscles. Under the opponent's long-distance and short-distance tactics, the Red Devils' defense was on high alert, but it was difficult to avoid a slack. The Forest team scored a goal in the 16th minute through a simple cross tactic, and then took advantage of the Red Devils' excessive impatience to launch a sharp counterattack. In the 23rd minute, they counterattacked with a long pass, and Clough scored another goal under offside, quickly locking in a 2-goal lead.

In the second half, Ferguson replaced Mark Hughes and later Donaghy, with Bruce playing center forward. The whole team launched a massive attack, but still had no way to deal with Forest's tough defense. Although the Red Devils increased their one-on-one breakthroughs, their crosses from the bottom were not threatening enough, and there were no chances to take free kicks. In the last 20 minutes, Manchester United besieged their opponents and the game became a half-court offense and defense. In the 83rd minute, McClair received a cross and scored a goal in the melee, but in the end the Red Devils still failed to play the next game and could only lose 1-2.

After the game, Ferguson was immediately criticized by the media. The Manchester Guardian said: "We can't imagine that the Red Devils lost the game like this. This was a big battle that was enough to set the tone for the championship. They should have done it more cautiously. Ferguson's starting lineup before the game had huge problems. He was very conservative in giving up Hughes, and the 451 formation was also confusing. The players didn't lose because they didn't have the physical strength. They were messed up by the coach's mess. This was completely Ferguson shooting himself in the foot."

The BBC criticized: "Ferguson is always full of adventurism. His tactics took the lead in the League Cup, but he will pay for his madness in this game."

The loss to Nottingham Forest was the key to Ferguson's final loss of the championship this season. No one would have thought that the team that had been leading for so long would collapse in the final stages.

And this loss was the first wave of the avalanche.