The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 292 Red Light

"The Premier League belongs to red. Manchester United and Arsenal have won important titles, but some red clubs have gradually faded."

--Inscription

激烈竞争的英超第二个赛季在5月划上句号，联赛从1993年8月14日开始，到1994年5月8日踢完最后一轮，一切终于尘埃落定。

The Premier League is becoming more and more exciting, the championship competition is getting more and more fierce, and the fight for the relegation zone is also breathtaking. Dazzling attacks, fast-changing rhythms, fierce and brave confrontations, and consistent hot scenes and hot stadium atmosphere... The Premier League has quickly become a powerful league brand and is showing strong competitiveness in the global sports market.

This season, 22 teams participated in the Premier League, playing a total of 462 league games. After fierce competition, Manchester United retained the league championship, Ferguson also retained the honor of the best coach of the season, and Cantona became the first non-English PFA player of the year.

In addition to successfully defending the title, Manchester United also set many new records. The team's goals, wins and total points all exceeded those of the first year of the Premier League. Ferguson's team scored 80 goals throughout the season, won 27 games, and the points exceeded the 90 mark, overwhelming Blackburn with an 8-point advantage and winning the championship two rounds in advance. Prior to this, the Red Devils' last top league title defense dated back to the 1956-57 season, when the legendary coach Busby was still coaching. Ferguson led the team to accomplish a feat that the club had not seen in 37 years, and the momentum of league dominance has begun to show.

With the league championship and FA Cup championships he won consecutively, as well as the European Cup Winners' Cup, Super Cup, League Cup and other impressive achievements since he took over as coach, Ferguson has become the most meritorious coach in Manchester United's history, second only to Busby. His prestige has reached its peak since he took over as coach, and he has begun to be called the "Godfather" of the Red Devils Manchester United, praising his unparalleled status in Manchester United and his unquestionable authority.

Ferguson solved the problem of complacency after Manchester United won the championship last season. He used strict training standards to stimulate all Manchester United players, and made them all rely on their training performance to fight for the starting position. In this way, all Manchester United players quickly put aside their pride of winning the championship and started new hard training, thus training new fighting power.

With Ferguson's intensive preparation, the Red Devils Manchester United showed extremely strong fighting power at the beginning of this season, and the overall strength also had a crushing advantage, which can be said to be overwhelmingly dominant over most of the mid- and lower-level teams. Manchester United got off to a good start almost at the beginning of this season. In the early stage of the season, only Villa and Liverpool had the experience of leading the team for a round, and the Red Devils never lost the lead after regaining the yellow jersey in the fourth round. Ferguson's team kept the lead until winning the championship in the 4th round. Naturally, Manchester United was the first to cross the finish line in the remaining two rounds.

Manchester United's lead in the league lasted 262 days, the second longest in Premier League history, second only to Chelsea's 2014 days in the 15-274 season.

The Times concluded, "Red shines in the Premier League. This is the era of Ferguson and the era of the Premier League that belongs to Manchester United."

The BBC said, "Ferguson's dominance? You only need to look at Manchester United's performance this season to understand. This is an era when the red wave is surging, just like 37 years ago, when we also felt the red passion and we were excited for this red team."

Sky Sports has come up with a new gimmick, they believe that "a red dynasty is being laid". In the eyes of critics, Manchester United is on a strong road to revival under Ferguson's coaching. From domestic cup competitions to breakthroughs in European competitions; from the first Premier League title to the Premier League defense, Ferguson's team is harvesting various goals in an orderly manner. This strong team has a coach who seems to be in charge for a long time, a very stable lineup structure, and a very good youth training team... All of this means that Manchester United will continue to dominate and win more championships.

"Is there any force that can stop them? In theory, of course there is, and there are many, but in reality, as long as Ferguson himself does not go crazy, as long as the Manchester United board does not go crazy, their dominance is almost impossible to be easily shaken."

Following Manchester United in the standings are not former champions or giants, but Blackburn Rovers and Newcastle United, both of which have also qualified for the League Cup in the following season. Blackburn Rovers has emerged as a dark horse with great progress, and once became the biggest obstacle for Manchester United to defend their title. Newcastle United has created a rare success. With Gascoigne as the core, they play smooth offensive football and have become a unique landscape in the league. The Magpies finally got 77 points, ranking third in the standings, surpassing Liverpool, Arsenal, Tottenham and other giants. Looking back at the history of the Premier League, there are only two teams that can rank among the top three as newly promoted teams. In addition to Newcastle United, the other is Nottingham Forest in the 3-1994 season.

The Red Devils won the Double, Villa won the League Cup and Arsenal won the European Cup Winners' Cup.

Arsenal is another red team that the media pays attention to, even though their jerseys are red and white. At the beginning of the season, Graham's team performed well, and once won two consecutive games, and they were able to keep close to the Red Devils in the standings, but in the winter, they began to encounter difficulties. Arsenal's defense is as good as ever, but the problem lies on the offensive end. Throughout the season, Arsenal's defense is still the best in the league, but the offense is only ranked 8th. As a result, the team has not been able to win many games, and it is not surprising that they finally struggled to fourth.

Leeds United, which has improved its away form, has come to fifth place in the league, having survived the blow of failing to defend its title. In contrast, the recovery plan of the veteran powerhouse Liverpool has not been smooth. Not only did they withdraw from the championship race early, but their points eventually slipped to eighth place in the league.

The Red Devils were the focus throughout the season, and Ferguson did everything he could to keep his players hungry and striving to defend their title. Under his multi-faceted stimulation, the Red Devils players continued to maintain a very good state, not only successfully defending the title, but also winning the double championship, and even the treble if the Charity Shield is included. This season was even called the "Red Devils Year" by the media, and Ferguson received widespread praise, truly consolidating his position as a famous Premier League coach.

The Red Devils were going smoothly. Roy Keane's joining made the lineup structure more reasonable and the strength became stronger. The Red Devils created the best record of the Premier League start, with 14 wins, 12 draw and 1 loss in the first 1 rounds, which was not broken until Manchester City in 2011-12. After winning Arsenal on penalties in the Community Shield, the Red Devils then won the first game of the season. After losing to Chelsea, Ferguson's team rebounded strongly, winning 17 wins and 5 draws, completely establishing its advantage in the championship. Even after losing to Chelsea again in the second round and being chased by Blackburn in the later period, the Red Devils did not give up the top spot.

The Red Devils led the way, but there was actually a crisis hidden under the good situation. As the Red Devils fought on four fronts, they advanced in the FA Cup and League Cup and reached the finals in both. The schedule was very frequent, which consumed a lot of the players' physical energy. The Red Devils were unstable after March 1994. Not only did they lose 3-4 in the direct confrontation with Blackburn on April 1, but they also lost 0-2 to Wimbledon. In the last 0 rounds, the points were once caught up by Blackburn. Fortunately, the team stabilized in time and won 1 games in the last 7 league games. The opponent Blackburn collapsed helplessly. In the last 5 rounds, they not only lost 4 away games, but also drew twice at home. They could only watch the Red Devils steadily climb to the top.

杯赛方面，红魔在联赛杯决赛中输给了维拉，足总杯决赛则4比0大胜切尔西，从而成为继1960-61赛季的热刺、1970-71赛季的阿森纳以及1985-86赛季的利物浦之后，又一支完成双冠王的球队。

The challenges faced by the Red Devils this season are not small, and Blackburn is not the only one chasing them. At the beginning of the season, Arsenal was once closely following the Red Devils because of Ian Wright's outstanding performance, but they eventually ran out of stamina. Arsenal, who had the worst offensive power last season, fell into trouble again because of their poor goal-scoring ability. They only had 6 players score in the Premier League throughout the season (excluding opponents' own goals), which is the worst record in the history of the Premier League so far. In the embarrassment, only Ian Wright shined in Arsenal. He scored 23 league goals this season and scored a historic hat trick in consecutive away games. It was not until May 2017 that someone in the Premier League replicated Wright's miracle of consecutive away hat tricks. That person was Harry Kane.

On the European battlefield, the Red Devils did not perform well in the Champions League. After encountering the "Turkish injustice case", they returned home early, but Arsenal made a new breakthrough on another front.

The glory of the Graham era continued in Europe, where Arsenal made great strides in the European Cup Winners' Cup and faced Italian powerhouse Parma in the final. Before the game, no one thought Arsenal could beat their opponent. Arsenal was indeed extremely passive. Parma almost besieged their opponent from the beginning, holding the Gunners to the ground and rubbing them repeatedly. Arsenal relied on their best defensive system in Europe to withstand the opponent's fierce firepower and relied on the goalpost to help avoid the danger of scoring. Arsenal had few counterattack opportunities, but they were extremely efficient.

The opponent defender Minotti headed the ball, and the Gunners striker Smith chested the ball at the edge of the penalty area and volleyed with his left foot. The ball hit the post and bounced into the net. Arsenal took the lead incredibly, and then they withstood the opponent's 70-minute attack and held on until the end of the game.

Arsenal won the championship!

This is the most brilliant achievement Arsenal has achieved under Graham, who once described it as one of the two most satisfying games since he coached Arsenal. From winning the league title in 1989, to Arsenal winning the league title again in 1991, to the FA Cup and League Cup double in 1993, and then to this European Cup Winners' Cup, Arsenal reached the pinnacle of the club's history under Graham's leadership.

Besides Arsenal, another giant Liverpool is still struggling in the thorns. Liverpool only won the eighth place in the league and won nothing in other fields. Souness's coaching did not bring a thorough innovation to Liverpool, and the task of reconstruction is still extremely heavy. This giant team that once dominated the league for a long time is facing a major change. The aging Rush has become history, Beardsley has also left, Barnes can't carry the team alone, and the team is waiting for new hope. Souness's coaching at Liverpool soon came to an end. He announced his resignation after the team lost to Bristol City in an upset. This was in January 1994. He was replaced by Roy Evans, and as a fire-fighting coach, Evans did not achieve the goal of leading Liverpool to rise.

Like the Red Devils, Liverpool has also attached great importance to youth training in recent years, and new stars have continued to emerge. But it must be said that Liverpool's problem is not that there is no one in the youth training, but that they cannot build a team with sufficient strength with the existing main players. Speaking of youth training alone, although the new Anfield players who like to dress in bright clothes and rush in the air have received countless praises very early, they have not experienced iron-blooded struggles. Most of them are like little puppies, who can only show off in smooth situations, but cannot shine in difficult situations.

In Liverpool, the young Fowler shined early and became a young striker renowned in England. He made his debut in the League Cup away game against Fulham in September 1993, when he was only 9 years old. His Liverpool debut was very successful, with an outstanding performance and the first goal of his career. In his second game for the Reds, the fledgling Fowler scored all five of Liverpool's goals, immediately shining brightly, and his reputation even shocked the whole of England. Although Fowler started out extraordinary, his performance fluctuated drastically after he got the team's main starting position. His thin body was not enough to gain a foothold in the Premier League. In the end, he scored 18 goals in the league, which was a good result, but it still did not meet the expectations of Liverpool fans.

In addition to Fowler, Liverpool's youth training has many new players. McManaman, Redknapp and other talented players have appeared on the field and become the main force, which has aroused countless eager expectations from Anfield fans.