The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 59 Sniper Overlord

Defeating Liverpool twice greatly boosted the morale of the Red Devils players and greatly increased their confidence. Ferguson brought about a drastic change in them. They no longer considered themselves cowards, weaklings, or hopeless losers. The successful attack on Liverpool brought them down from their high clouds, which was truly the style of a powerful team.

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Ferguson had just arrived and had taken over the Red Devils for less than a year, but he had already defeated Liverpool in two red national derbies. The key was that he did not perform poorly on the field, which was really surprising.

The Red Devils fans were so happy that they went crazy, and even Liverpool's city rivals Everton were overjoyed.

Ferguson's record of defeating a strong team with a weak team and defeating Liverpool in a head-on battle shocked the entire English football world. The media immediately raised the classic and soul-stirring question: "Red Devils vs. Liverpool, who is the deeper red of England?"

Everyone in Liverpool was so angry that their noses were crooked.

How could Ferguson, what was his ability, what was his level, how could he be able to compete with a league leader like Liverpool? How could he be able to challenge Liverpool's dominance?

Indeed, even though Liverpool had just experienced a severe blow from the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985, their popularity was not comparable to that of the fallen Red Devils.

No matter how angry Liverpool are, they can't stop the Red Devils' fans from being overjoyed, nor can they stop Everton fans from preparing to celebrate their upcoming league championship.

Dalglish's defeat to Ferguson was also a hot topic in the media. Dalglish's defeat of Atkinson was not news, and defeating Ferguson was not news either, but Ferguson's defeat of Dalglish was big news, and this time he defeated him twice!

Liverpool has been strong for a long time.

Since 1963, Liverpool has emerged as a powerful club competing with Manchester United for supremacy in England. Even though Manchester United's meritorious coach Busby created the 1968 Champions League title and cultivated the glory of three Golden Balls, Shankly's brilliance could not be overshadowed. When Busby retired in 1969, Liverpool quickly became the only dominant team in English football.

Under the coaching of the legendary coach Shankly, Liverpool won the first league title during his tenure in the 1963-64 season, the FA Cup in 1965, and the league in 1965-66. In 1973, Shankly won the league title again and the UEFA Cup. The 1974 FA Cup was his last honor for Liverpool.

In 1974, Shankly announced his resignation as head coach, but the boot room tradition he established was successfully continued. Shankly's assistant Bob Paisley accepted the position of Liverpool head coach. Paisley was a Liverpool player and had assisted Shankly for a long time. He was familiar with the team situation and could continue to carry forward the team style established by Shankly.

尽管是香克利的继任，但派斯利的成就甚至超越了他的老师。在执教的9年时间里，派斯利为利物浦带来了惊人的19座冠军奖杯，其中包括了6次联赛冠军(1976、77、79、80、82、83)、3次欧洲冠军杯冠军(1977、78、81)、3次联赛杯冠军(1981、82、83)、1次欧洲联盟杯(1976)、1次欧洲超级杯(1977)和5次慈善盾冠军(1974、76、77、80、82)！

Shankly created an era, but Paisley was the pinnacle of glory. Under his successor, Liverpool not only established its position as the dominant team in England, but also became the best team in Europe at that time.

Three European Cup titles, this is a feat that no one in England or even in Europe has ever achieved!

In the summer of 1983, Paisley, who had achieved success, resigned as Liverpool manager and Joe Fagan became his successor.

Liverpool were equally strong under Fagan in the 1983-84 season, and they were even more aggressive and invincible than before. In this season, Fagan led Liverpool to win the League Cup, the League Championship and the European Cup.

By winning three major titles in his first season, Fagan had accomplished what his two great predecessors had failed to do. The only thing missing was the FA Cup, and Fagan would become the first person to win all the titles!

Even so, he is also the first coach in Liverpool's history to win the treble!

In the 1984-85 season, the Liverpool team led by Fagan was ambitious and vowed to win all the championships in seven competitions (League, Champions League, League Cup, FA Cup, Community Shield, European Super Cup and Toyota Cup).

As soon as this crazy declaration was issued, it shocked the whole world.

The greater the ambition, the greater the failure.

Liverpool, the defending champion and the dominant team in Europe, was in a passive position at the beginning of this season. Liverpool's forwards were in poor form at the beginning of the season, and the team was helpless in the face of the defensive counterattack tactics of various opponents. The impact of the bad start eventually became more and more serious, directly leading to Liverpool's failure to defend the league title.

At that time, the league was still a 42-round system. Liverpool, the defending champion, was 13 points behind Everton, the team in the same city, and only had a goal difference advantage over Tottenham, who were third. Although they played well at the end of the season, Liverpool had a bad start, winning only 11 games in 2 games. Although they had the best defensive data of 35 goals conceded throughout the season, the Red Army's offensive firepower was insufficient, with 68 goals, 10 less than Tottenham and 20 less than Everton. The most embarrassing thing was that Liverpool was defeated by these two teams twice this season, swallowing the bitterness.

Liverpool was also repeatedly attacked in domestic cup competitions. In the Community Shield against last year's FA Cup champion Everton, Liverpool goalkeeper Grobbelaar's own goal led to a 1-10 loss. Liverpool, who had won the League Cup for four consecutive years, suffered a Waterloo and was eliminated by Tottenham in the third round. Liverpool, who had not won the FA Cup for more than years, was defeated by the Red Devils' Paul Walsh in extra time and was eliminated in the semi-finals. They missed the championship again.

Liverpool suffered another setback in two intercontinental competitions held in the winter. In December, Fagan led the team to Tokyo to compete in the Toyota Cup, but lost 12-0 to the Argentine powerhouse Independiente in the final. In January 1, the European Super Cup final was temporarily changed from a two-round system to a one-match system due to the tight schedule. Liverpool lost 1985-1 to the last UEFA Cup champion Juventus in Turin and lost the championship again.

In the European Champions League, which Liverpool values ​​the most, they made it to the final. Liverpool and Juventus met again, gathering at the Heysel Stadium in Belgium, to launch the final sprint for the European Champions League.

Before the final began, the tragic "Heysel Stadium Disaster" occurred. The Heysel Stadium Disaster made the entire stadium feel like hell. In the end, Juventus defeated Liverpool by one goal in the hastily carried out Champions League final, making Liverpool's dream of defending the title vanish.

This historic football catastrophe marked the end of the lives of 39 fans and was destined to be a turning point in the fate of English football and Liverpool.

After the Heysel Stadium tragedy, UEFA took drastic measures. English teams were banned from participating in European competitions for five years, Liverpool was banned for 5 years (later changed to 10 years), 6 Liverpool fans were charged with manslaughter, and the Liverpool club was also severely criticized.

After the tragedy, Liverpool coach Fagan resigned and left the team. The legendary player Kenny Dalglish took over as Liverpool coach. He will face a new challenge: how to bring Liverpool back to the dominant position?

The "Heysel Disaster" dealt a heavy blow to Liverpool's reputation in Europe and also seriously affected their strong fortunes. But the boot room tradition they relied on was not lost, their style and tradition were not abandoned, and their lineup was still strong.

In the 1984-85 season, when Liverpool was aiming for seven titles but ultimately failed, Everton, a team from the same city as Liverpool, seized the opportunity and emerged as a dark horse. This equally ambitious team shined under Kendall, winning the English League One and European Cup Winners' Cup in one fell swoop.

Everton also reached the final of the FA Cup, just one step away from the treble.

Everton won the league championship and achieved a double kill against Liverpool in the league, which made the media feel that the sky of the city of Liverpool had turned blue.

Then came the 1985-86 season, a season of fierce competition among the top teams. The Red Devils also wanted to win the championship. The FA Cup title last season also gave the team more motivation. Strachan and the team had a better understanding of each other, and Robson continued to maintain his peak level. The Red Devils had a great start in the league this season, winning an amazing 10 games in a row and remaining unbeaten for 15 rounds, which once gave them a huge advantage in the standings. When the Red Devils fans expected the team to continue to advance, the team was hit by injuries again. In the end, the Red Devils started well but ended badly, and ended the season with only fourth place in the league points.

Everton, as the defending champion, has efficient shooters Lineker and Graham Sharp, creative midfielder Kevin Sheedy, fast winger Matt Wall-Steven, British midfielder Peter Reid, as well as defensive leader Ratcliffe and Welsh goalkeeper Solskjaer. The lineup is extremely competitive and it is indeed a top European team.

As a result, in the process of advancing on both fronts, the Reds under Dalglish made great strides and won the first domestic double championship of the League + FA Cup in the team's history.

In the FA Cup final, Everton's nemesis Ian Rush scored twice to help the team turn the tide in adversity.

With this double championship, Dalglish officially announced to Liverpool fans that the tragedy at Heysel did not defeat them and Liverpool stood up again.

Liverpool's true core competitiveness played a huge role. Dalglish, as a direct disciple of the Boot Room tradition, inherited and carried forward the Boot Room spirit and demonstrated strong coaching ability.

Dalglish adopted a smooth transition approach, and continued the ideas of the Paisley and Fagan periods in terms of overall formation, playing style and personnel selection. This efficient, simple and technical 442 system has always had an inherent lethality in British football.

Dalglish's success proved that the succession was smooth.

Time came to the 1986-87 season. What happened to Liverpool, its neighbors, its arch-rivals, and its opponents?

As a result, Liverpool were overconfident and complacent in the 1986-87 season. They were arrogant and conceited after the start of the season, and their opponents quickly seized the opportunity and caught them off guard. After the season entered November, Dalglish's team suffered a double defeat by Ferguson's Red Devils. Everton took the opportunity to work hard to grab points, not only avenging the previous defeat in the direct dialogue, but also regaining the league championship.

Liverpool ended up losing all four major titles, and the fans were extremely disappointed.

This was also the first major setback Dalglish encountered, and the result of failing to win any of the four major titles also made him remember Ferguson deeply.

For Ferguson, the short six months from November 1986 to May 11 were so exciting and so shocking. Although he knew when he took over that the goal of the season was only to make some innovations and progress, he still had this important goal in mind: to beat Liverpool!

If the opponent loses the championship because of a double victory over Liverpool, it would be a huge pleasant surprise.