The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 47 The Second Fire

"Ferguson began to promote tactical innovation at the Red Devils. He completely abandoned Atkinson's style of play and changed the team's playing style. He wanted to change the team to an aggressive offensive tactical style, activate the team's atmosphere, enhance the team's integrity, speed up the team's offensive and defensive rhythm, and make the team tougher and faster."

--Inscription

The second thing Ferguson did after taking over as coach of the Red Devils was to reform the tactical play.

Atkinson's Red Devils style is not outstanding. Despite having stars like Robson and Strachan, the Red Devils still use the traditional English 442 position, mainly long passes and single-player attacks by frontcourt players, without any innovation. Not only that, Atkinson's biggest problem is that he relies too much on the core players in the frontcourt. Apart from simple passing tactics, he almost relies on the abilities of Robson and Strachan. When the Red Devils are seriously injured, especially when the two core players are injured and absent, the whole team seems to collapse completely.

Ferguson was faced with such a difficult situation and could see the fatal problem of the team. He wanted to change the tactical style of play, get rid of the heavy reliance on a certain player, and create a whole set of overall style of play. This reform was certainly not a special innovation and was not taken seriously for a long time.

Only when Ferguson led the Red Devils to win the Premier League title, when the Red Devils Class of 92 emerged and the team took shape, and when they won the Treble in one season, did Ferguson's long-term tactical exploration begin to attract attention.

The first step of Ferguson's reform was to return to Busby's tradition, requiring the team to focus on offense. This is also the characteristic that Ferguson has insisted on since he coached several clubs such as East Stirling, St. Mirren and Aberdeen.

Ferguson's personality is full of attacking elements, which are naturally reflected in the teams he coached. Atkinson actually wanted to play wonderful offensive football in his previous coaching, but he relied heavily on the core in tactical design, which naturally became a matter of cutting the feet to fit the shoes and could not form an overall style. When the team suffered serious injuries, Atkinson would only give up on himself, which naturally led to the team's big defeat.

Ferguson emphasized one point in the locker room, that is, it is necessary to maintain sufficient morale and the spirit of striving for victory. His earliest method of tactical innovation was to implement it through training programs, through team group matches and team group matches. Ferguson felt that the players were not in good physical condition, and was even more dissatisfied with the team's lack of fighting spirit, so he placed great emphasis on emphasizing fighting spirit, physical fitness, and tenacity in daily training. Ferguson naturally knew that with strong players such as Robson, Strachan and Whiteside, the Red Devils could play very strongly, but the problem he urgently needed to solve was how the Red Devils could play without these core players. What he particularly needed to solve was how the Red Devils could play with a tenacious will to fight in the predicament of the lack of main players.

Ferguson used brainstorming to apply the self-motivation method in the locker room during his time at Aberdeen and St. Mirren to the Red Devils players. He convened an internal meeting and asked each player to speak on the team's problems, including exposing the problems, criticizing them, making suggestions for change, and hoping for improvement. His opening remarks were simple but effective. With their hearts open, the players quickly changed their self-perception. When Ferguson concluded, he used a set of highly stimulating words. His speech eventually stimulated many players to scream and rekindled their passion.

Ferguson spent a lot of energy, talking to each player specifically, analyzing the problems in daily training and games in detail with the players, making specific requirements, and constantly encouraging the players.

This method did not work for everyone, but Ferguson still turned around the vast majority of players. He ultimately instilled a strong sense of self-awareness, confidence in the team's strength, and motivation for the players themselves in the Red Devils team, all of which were very effective.

Ferguson carefully instilled the requirements of the game into the players through group training. Through positive and uplifting training and highly competitive intra-team competitions, the players quickly changed their previous sluggish mental state.

This is how Ferguson's tactical reform began.

In daily training, Ferguson uses one word as a guide: run.

As soon as Ferguson arrived at the Red Devils, he found that the team he took over was too weak and lacked physical strength. Therefore, he and his assistants developed a series of training programs, all centered on one word: running. Long-distance running, short-distance running, accelerated running, variable speed running, sprinting, change of direction running, relay running... Ferguson set strict running distance standards for the players, which made these men frown and miserable. Ferguson's intensive training caused a sensation and was also questioned, especially the criticism and ridicule from the media day and night. This pressure did not change Ferguson, but his training quickly changed the team.

On this basis, Ferguson began to change the Red Devils' playing style in a targeted manner. Ferguson is best at seeing what's going on and using the cards in his hand to achieve unexpected results. Ferguson didn't make a breakthrough in the first four games as the Red Devils coach, but his understanding of the team has become deeper and deeper, and the players' physical fitness has also improved significantly. In December, Ferguson waited for Robson and Whiteside to return to the team after being injured, and he also had his own thoughts on the team's starting lineup and lineup.

In the second half of this season, Ferguson began to strengthen the wing attack and consciously began to continuously optimize the two wing attacks in the Red Devils. He began to design some new tactics, such as pushing from the middle to the wing, breaking through from the midfield position of the wing to the opponent's baseline, crossing from the bottom and then outflanking the middle, etc. In order to strengthen the wing attack, Ferguson also introduced players with speed and extraordinary skills such as Maiorana.

At that time, there was no high-pressure tactics in the frontcourt in English football, nor was there an all-out attack and defense style of play. Almost all teams played the traditional 442. Ferguson seized the breakthrough of strengthening the wing attack as a highlight of the Red Devils' tactics. Ferguson strongly required the Red Devils players to have excellent physical fitness, mainly to implement this kind of continuous attack at a high frequency and increase the number of offense and defense conversions. Ferguson strengthened the offensive combination training of cross balls, strengthened the training of running without the ball, and strengthened the training of acceleration and two-on-one coordination. He effectively improved the frontcourt attack power through the requirements of the arc, landing point, strength, etc. of the cross ball, the training of players rushing in the penalty area, and the training of rushing shots in front of the goal.

Ferguson found that English football emphasized physical confrontation more, and did not demand too much about the transition between offense and defense and rhythm. There was a huge space for him to think and benefit from it. Ferguson insisted that no matter how the Red Devils were rebuilt, no matter what kind of players they introduced, they would eventually have to rely on the collective performance, the overall addition, and the tacit understanding between the players to become truly strong. Of course, he welcomed superstars and geniuses with speed or skills, but he emphasized the whole more. The Scottish league where Ferguson played before and English football are of the same origin. Both regions are loyal believers of 442, which is no obstacle for Ferguson. Ferguson, who studied under Stan, played 442 at St. Mirren and Aberdeen, and had already mastered all the tactical changes of the 442 formation. Ferguson naturally had his own ideas about how to play 442 at the Red Devils.

Ferguson's tactical changes are detailed and specific. The Red Devils players need more time to adapt, including position, line, timing and teamwork, and more training and running-in before they can meet Ferguson's requirements. For Ferguson, he needs to constantly make the team stronger. Some positions need to be replaced, some people need to change positions, and some people need to be partially or completely changed. This is a long-term and huge challenge for the Red Devils locker room, and it is also an opportunity for everyone.

Compared with the wing attack, Ferguson has another good move for the Red Devils, which is to strengthen the role of the full-backs. He requires both wingers to show their speed advantage. In addition to the impact of the wing forwards, the full-backs must also actively join the attack. Ferguson hopes that the Red Devils can quickly establish their advantage on the wing. A midfielder or a striker, plus the full-backs and wing forwards, will become a small team in the area. This team should actively try to break through, actively try to cross the ball from the bottom, and even actively try to find teammates in the penalty area through long passes from the wing to directly create offensive opportunities.

Ferguson asked the Red Devils to minimize 45-degree diagonal long passes and blind high balls in the offense. He was very disgusted with inaccurate long passes, believing that this inefficient offense was actually purely to help the opponent clear the siege. He has been leading the players' team training, from cooperation and tacit understanding, to passing speed, to group passing and cutting, to fast and effective advancement, and finally to fast crosses and outflanking shots in front of the goal. Ferguson repeatedly practiced this short-range attack routine day and night, repeatedly sharpened and tapped players to strengthen their offensiveness, and single-mindedly polished this tactical style.

How is this tactic different from previous ones?

After February 1987, even the most critical media found that the Red Devils had a completely new look in attack. A Manchester Evening News reporter said: "The Red Devils have no trace of Atkinson. This is no longer the same team as before. Ferguson's 2 played vigorously. The team began to try to pass the ball and two-on-one against the wall, but all happened in the side areas. Their tall players stood quietly in the backcourt, while the attack in the frontcourt was more fierce, more aggressive and more dangerous."

Ferguson also put a lot of effort into the defensive end. He required the forwards to return to defense and press the opponent's central defenders. The two central midfielders were responsible for sweeping and intercepting from the midfield to the penalty area. The central defenders had to keep an eye on the forwards, and the other players were ready to fill in at any time. Ferguson emphasized that the four midfielders must be very fast, return to the penalty area when retreating, and go deep into the opponent's penalty area when attacking. Especially the midfield core like Robson, they must play a role in both offense and defense. In Ferguson's defensive system, the whole team must return to defense when switching from offense to defense, and also rely on a tight overall team to get a better defensive effect.

The more Ferguson studies his players, the more comfortable he is with them, and the better the team runs. Ferguson attaches great importance to Robson and Strachan. Strachan is not tall, but he has excellent footwork. He has always been the bottle opener in the Red Devils' midfield offense. After Ferguson came, he focused on his sharp breakthrough characteristics and created opportunities through his breakthroughs and advances. As for Robson, Ferguson also knew that the trouble with the Red Devils was that they relied too much on the captain. The Red Devils were completely two different teams with or without Robson. Ferguson properly let Robson recover from his injury, used the captain's playing time more reasonably, let his advantages play out, and quickly changed the passive situation.

Time has proved everything. The tactical reforms that Ferguson launched during his initial coaching period at the Red Devils not only brought immediate changes to the team and easily completed the task of relegation, but also allowed Ferguson to gain a firm foothold in the new environment in England and more effectively advance his team building.