When a giant is down, it likes to reminisce about the glory of the past, and for manchester United now, the past is much more brilliant than the present. Today is the 80th birthday of the team legend Dennis Law, and I take this opportunity to introduce the Three Saints of the Red Devils and the unparalleled era.
Eye-catching statues of the Three Saints
One. The ins and outs of the Divine Trinity
In the early 1950s, Manchester United coach Matt Busby's men emerged a group of youth talent, loved by fans as "Busby Baby", including duncan Edwards and Bobby Charlton and other talented players, plus the signing of Tommy Taylor and other immediate combat, the team in the mid-to-late 1950s has become the top team in English football, not only in the league to win consecutive championships, and even have the opportunity to challenge Real Madrid's Champions League supremacy.
Bobby Charlton
However, the Munich air disaster in 1958 buried everything, and The nine-dead Busby was rescued from the ghost gate, he once said that he wanted to leave football forever, but the dream in his heart was not extinguished, and finally decided to come back and try to make a comeback. Bobby Charlton was less injured in the air crash and naturally became the cornerstone of the revival of the dynasty.
Dennis Law
However, due to the death of most of this generation of youth elites, they had to supplement the capable foreign stars, so in 1962, they signed back the unhappy Denis Law from Italy, and he became the first top star in the red wave to come to support.
George Best
Even more surprisingly, in the early 1960s, the Red Devils' scouts discovered an unborn football talent in Northern Ireland: George Best, who was only 15 years old. In 1964, at the age of 18, he officially became the team's starter and gradually established himself as the core.
The real formation of the Three Saints was in the 1964-65 season, when Bobby Charlton was 27 years old, Dennis Law was 24 years old, and George Best was 18 years old, which was not strictly speaking a generation, but due to Best's early wisdom, the peak of the three still coincided. In later biographies, they are referred to as the "Holy Trinity" combination.
Two. The Red Devils' style of play, career honors and influence
The 1960s was a period of mixed competition in English football, and Manchester United was naturally a hero after the formation of the three Saints, but Liverpool under Shankly was also on the road to revival, and Manchester City was also in the best time before the team's contemporary era, so there was no absolute strong at that time, and every game had to be fully fought.
Charlton and Best
Sir Charlton's offensive midfielder is the absolute core of the offensive end, that is, a brain-type character in the popular sense. He is very well-rounded, whether it is a personal belt, passing a threatening ball or even a final shot, he is almost always in control of the ball, and then create scoring opportunities for his teammates, and he can also find the opportunity to complete the goal.
Dennis Law is further ahead, and he can also be an attacking midfielder, but more often than not, he plays as a second striker. Inheriting the Scotsman's fine foot technique from a hundred years ago, he has a good grasp of the ball, is more precise than Charlton, and is the team's main lethal scoring weapon due to his closer proximity to the opponent's goal.
Best's functionality is even more pronounced, his dribbling is truly top-notch, and few in football history can match him. Such a superstar is the nuclear flashpoint of the team, and once the situation cannot be opened, it may be turned around through his freehand personal play. At the same time, he is also very brave, very hard in defense, never afraid of physical confrontation, can be said to be embroidered tiger double cultivation type genius.
The peak of their collaboration was around 1964 to 1972, and of course it was mainly concentrated between 1964 and 1968. During this period, the Red Devils won two English top flight titles, and also won the first European Champions Cup of england teams in the 1967-68 season, and Busby and the three saints spent 10 years to complete the rebirth, using the European championship to comfort the deceased in Munich.
George Best received the 1968 European Ballon d'Or
They were all also awarded the European Ballon d'Or in the 1960s, which is enough to show their status, and a team has 3 Ballon d'Or-level figures at the same time, and its shocking effect can be imagined. It is worth mentioning that the three of them are also the first stars in the history of England, Scotland and Northern Ireland, except for Charlton's less secure top position (with Moore competition), the other two are real peak souls.
Three. The epilogue of the Three Saints and the Fall of the Red Devils
After 1972, the Red Devils' glory years came to an end. Best was in a bad state around the age of 26 because of his addiction to alcohol and women's sex, and finally left the team in 1974 at the age of 28; Dennis Law dedicated most of his youth to the Red Devils, returning to his parent team Manchester City in 1973 at the age of 33; Charlton, as a pure red devil, naturally had to go with the team, and he also left the team in 1973 to retire at the age of 36.
The Three Saints of the Red Devil in his later years
United were even relegated in 1974 and faltered for nearly 15 years until Sir Alex Ferguson regrouped in 1993 and the Reds won the top flight again. Now, in the post-Ferguson era, the team is once again trapped in the dilemma after the three saints, and only a long watch is left to regain its glory.