The legendary Red Devils coach: The road to success

Chapter 72: Competing with the Powerful

"Ferguson is fearless and has never submitted to any traditional hegemons, let alone any powerful forces. This was the case when he coached Aberdeen in Scotland and it is still the case when he coaches Manchester United now. He came here to break the old order. All hegemons are paper tigers and there is nothing to be afraid of."

--Inscription

Liverpool's strength meets the expectations of many media.

This club was the undisputed number one in English football in the 80s. Although they lost the league title last season, it did not let the team sink. In the final stage of last season, they watched their city rivals Everton take the league title in disgrace, which deeply stimulated the Liverpool team.

Liverpool then decisively reorganized the team, Dalglish created a new trident and also made new attempts in tactical play.

The English media almost unanimously believe that they will be the favorites to win the championship and other strong teams will not be able to compete with them.

Liverpool had a great start to the season, winning streak right from the start, and then they kept fighting for the top spot in the standings. By November 1987, Liverpool had taken the top spot and continued to set a new unbeaten record. Facing Liverpool's momentum, which was like the autumn wind sweeping away fallen leaves, almost all of the league's opponents were beaten into submission.

Now, the Reds will once again become a touchstone for the leaders.

The Red Devils were very excited and expressed their desire to bring down their opponents. Ferguson, a straightforward man from Scotland, had long been unhappy with Liverpool. He led his team to a double win over Liverpool last season, handing in his first outstanding performance as a coach of the Red Devils, and also helped Ferguson gain the unwavering support of the Red Devils fans.

Ferguson knew very well that as long as he led the team to beat Liverpool, the Red Devils fans would love him without any reason. He also knew very well that there was only one choice for the Red Devils to face Liverpool again, and that was to fight to the end.

Ferguson was even a little impatient for the game to come because his team also had a chance to win the championship.

This world-renowned match took place on November 1987, 11. It was the 15th round of the English League One, with the Red Devils playing against Liverpool at home.

This was the first English Red Derby of the season and the first conversation between Ferguson and Dalglish. The Red Derby once again attracted media attention before the game, with many media analyzing and speculating which red team would win, how the two teams would line up, and how to deploy targeted tactics. Gambling companies across England even offered a variety of betting options for this game.

The Red Devils' derby is always the focus. Although the Red Devils are not as strong as their opponents, and their reputation and achievements are far inferior to those of Liverpool, their former pride is always there, and the home fans who have always accompanied them have greatly boosted the team's reputation. In Ferguson's view, the Red Devils must have the confidence to defeat their opponents, and have the desire to actively attack and fight, and be braver and more bloodthirsty than their opponents.

Ferguson would not underestimate his opponents, but he would not overestimate Liverpool. Ferguson also had his own reasons, he believed that Dalglish's coaching level was just average, and the team's impact was more due to the special abilities of the players.

Ferguson was a strong man with an urge to challenge the old order. It was his unshirkable responsibility to shake Liverpool's dominance in English football.

The only problem for the Red Devils was that Ferguson was missing key player McGrath, so he had to temporarily let Blackmore in as a backup; the main goalkeeper Turner was injured and Walsh got the chance to start. Ferguson arranged a 442 formation: goalkeeper Walsh, defenders Anderson, Gibson, Duxbury, Blackmore, midfielders Mullen, Robson, Strachan, Olsen, and forwards McClair and Whiteside.

Although the midfield and backcourt lack the mainstay McGrath, the midfield and frontcourt lineup of Robson, Strachan, Whiteside and McClair still gives the Red Devils fans great confidence. This combination is not inferior to the opponent in terms of fame and strength, and has been verified in the previous dozen rounds of games.

Before the game started, Ferguson called the Red Devils players for a final mobilization. "Look at that arrogant opponent, right? How proud they were when they were training on the field, but don't forget that they cried twice under our iron fists last season. Yes, these guys are now arrogant and proclaiming that they are invincible. As the masters of the Theatre of Dreams, can we tolerate such humiliation?"

"Listen to the shouts of our fans outside the stadium, look at where we are, think about our glory at the Theatre of Dreams, and we must repay those who truly love us with our best performance. I hope you can play with your true strength, our sharpness and intensity, and the momentum of our Red Devils."

"Go ahead and kill them!"

The Red Devils players were full of high morale and confidence, and their hearts were filled with a strong desire to defeat their opponents. They stepped onto the field impatiently. The Red Devils launched a fierce attack at the beginning of the game and took advantage of the situation. Liverpool played steadily after the opening, and they were also experienced and responded flawlessly. The Red Devils players ran quickly, pressed actively, and seized every opportunity to launch an offensive. The first 15 minutes of the game were completely dominated by the Red Devils. The Red Devils' ball possession rate, number of shots, scoring within the opponent's 30-meter area, and creating shooting opportunities were all better than Liverpool.

The Red Devils suppressed Liverpool. Although it was beyond the expectations of many critics, the passive Liverpool team did not panic. They were still able to press in the midfield, gather strength in the defense line, and protect the goal. In the fierce competition, the Red Devils players gradually created more opportunities. Whiteside played well and performed better than the opponent Barnes. Strachan's command in the midfield also overshadowed Beardsley. Captain Robson's performance was far better than Aldridge. McClair was the opponent's biggest worry, involving most of the energy of the opponent's two defenders. The Red Devils quickly created a great opportunity in the first half. Whiteside moved flexibly in the penalty area, received the pass from his teammates in time, and immediately shot and scored a goal for the Red Devils, 1-0!

At the end of the first half, the Red Devils took the lead.

After the start of the second half, Liverpool was unwilling to lose and launched a fierce counterattack. At this time, the hidden danger of the Red Devils' defense without McGrath quickly emerged. Not only was it difficult to withstand the impact of the opponent's center forward, but there was also a lack of effective defense, and the midfield defense was not enough. The Red Devils' defense finally made a mistake. First, Mullen failed to retreat in time and failed to help the full-back defend the opponent's winger, which then caused the central defender to move slowly to make up for the defense. The gap in the Red Devils' ribs was opened, and the opponent quickly cut into this area and passed the ball to the high-speed attacker Barnes.

The Red Devils' central defender did not appear in the most dangerous area in time. The Liverpool striker calmly seized the opportunity and shot the ball directly into the dead corner, helping Liverpool equalize the score.

After Liverpool equalized the score, they started to play steadily, hoping to take advantage of the Red Devils' impatience. Because the Red Devils consumed too much energy too early, they had no way to organize more attacks in the last moments of the second half, and they were unable to fully suppress their opponents in the half. Although they made threats in several attacks, they still did not create excellent shooting opportunities.

At the end of the game, the Red Devils were tied 1-1 by Liverpool.

Liverpool escaped unscathed, and Ferguson was very disappointed. After the game, Ferguson said: "Of course I am not satisfied that we only got one point. From the course of the game, we were the better team. We created more opportunities and gained more advantages in the confrontation. We should have won."

Ferguson criticized Liverpool's football. "They play a very utilitarian kind of football. They are satisfied with a draw, afraid of losing, and obsessed with gains and losses in details. Every foul is always hoped to waste more time, and they are satisfied with getting a point at Old Trafford. I feel that they have the psychological shadow of losing to us last season. They are too afraid of losing to us."

Liverpool manager Dalglish is much more famous than Ferguson. He said after the game: "We played very well, of course. The Red Devils were very rough, with many bad fouls and unnecessary actions, which led to a broken state of the game. We Liverpool played very efficiently and created many opportunities. We were able to keep our mentality when we fell behind, actively adjusted our tactics and equalized the score in time."

The BBC said: "This was a evenly matched game. The Red Devils had the upper hand on the field, but they just played very lively and did not create many scoring opportunities. Liverpool is experienced and played very calmly. They did learn the lesson of losing to the Red Devils last season and were very careful from the start. Although they fell behind in the first half, Liverpool responded in time. They eventually equalized the score and escaped from this hostile stadium."

McClair, who missed a great opportunity, said: "We should have won. The game went almost exactly as Alex (Ferguson) planned. We were told after the game that the coach and his team had been preparing for this game for two weeks. Although McGrath's injury affected our lineup and overall strength, Alex (Ferguson) and his team made arrangements in advance. We knew that there would be some problems in defense, so we took the initiative to attack at the start and ignited the war in the midfield and the opponent's half."

Strachan said: "After Alex took over as coach of the Red Devils, the opponent he wanted to beat the most was undoubtedly Liverpool. This feeling is always very obvious, but unfortunately we failed to win this time. Alex did a lot of preparation before this game. He even stayed up for two whole nights to study the opponent in depth. He made plans specifically for every player, every tactic, and every change of the opponent. He even prepared response plans for every different stage of the game, including how to forcefully attack the opponent and how to change the formation to use a high center forward to attack the opponent's penalty area. It's a pity that we didn't hold on to the advantage in the end. After being equalized, we missed too many opportunities, and in the end everyone was a little tired."

“It’s such a pity that we couldn’t defeat our opponent!”

This was almost the inner thought of the entire Red Devils team.

Ferguson was not satisfied, but the Red Devils fans who watched the game were still very excited, even a little happy. Before the game, no Red Devils fan would have predicted that the Red Devils could beat the arrogant Liverpool so badly. After all, since the start of the game, no team has been able to take the initiative in front of Liverpool, let alone besiege the opponent like in this game. The Red Devils played really vigorously in this game. Not only did they have the advantage in the lead, they also dominated the game and even created a lot of scoring opportunities. They almost had the last laugh.

The game ended in a draw, which of course was a bit disappointing for the Red Devils fans, but even though they failed to defeat their arch-rivals, the Red Devils had made a lot of progress on the field.

What surprised the media was that Ferguson's coaching ability did stand the test of Liverpool. When facing such a strong team, Ferguson was not conservative, not defensive, but instead adopted a positive offensive strategy, attacking with attack, not timid, not retreating, not passive at all.

After drawing with Liverpool, the Red Devils beat the Burnley team 2-1 at home and advanced to the next round of the League Cup.

On the other hand, Liverpool, who were tied by the Red Devils, did not stop there. They continued their good form and even showed stronger strength.

In the end, Liverpool not only won the championship, but also set a record of 29 unbeaten games in the league, tying the old Leeds United.