At 1:30 a.m. Beijing time on January 4, the 21st round of the 2021-22 Premier League season ushered in a focus battle: Manchester United hosted Wolves at home.
In the current Premier League table, defending champions Manchester City have a strong lead with 53 points in 21 games, Chelsea is second with 43 points in 21 games, Liverpool is third with 42 points in 20 games, Arsenal are fourth with 35 points in 20 games, West Ham United are fifth with 34 points in 20 games, Tottenham Hotspur is sixth with 33 points in 18 games, and Manchester United is seventh with 31 points in 18 games.
In the championship team, Manchester City has shown a trend of riding the dust, although Chelsea and Liverpool are also strong forces in the championship, the prospects are not optimistic, but at least it can be stabilized in the top three, then, the fight for four will be extremely fierce. Arsenal, Tottenham, Manchester United, and even West Ham United, coached by former Manchester United manager Moyes, have the hope and desire to compete for four.
After Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was dismissed and Ronnick succeeded him, Manchester United's record has greatly improved, although it has not been able to maintain a winning streak, but at least it is unbeaten, although it is currently 4 points behind Arsenal in fourth place, but it has the advantage of 2 rounds of less competition, and more importantly, compared to Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, it is more advantageous to the schedule. Until the 28th round of Manchester United's "Manchester City Derby" away to Manchester City, Manchester United will not encounter strong teams, and Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur will play against the teams in big6 one after another, the next round is a direct dialogue between Tottenham Hotspur home and Arsenal, the 23rd round of Tottenham Hotspur vs Chelsea, the 25th round arsenal away chelsea, the 26th round of Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester City, the 27th round arsenal home to Liverpool ... "North London twins" can only sigh, and will definitely lose a lot of points. And Manchester United is likely to remain unbeaten or even harvest a wave of consecutive wins, then soon rise to fourth and sit in fourth.
But the game is to be fought one by one, and before the final whistle, no one knows what the result will be. Manchester United's home win over Wolves in this round will not be easy.
Wolves are currently ninth in the Premier League table with 25 points from 18 games, which is in the middle of the range, but this team can always create some trouble for a strong team like BIG6. In the first leg of this season, Manchester United only narrowly beat Wolves 1-0 away.
In the battle, United's starting lineup is still 4222 formation, C Ronaldo and Cavani double forwards, Sancho and Greenwood double forwards, Matic and Scott McTominay double backs, four defenders Luke Shaw, Varane, Jones, Van Bissaka, goalkeeper De Gea.
Wolves started 343, with Jimenez, Bourdens and Trincon forming a forward trident.
Before the match, Lonnick was full of ambition in an interview, saying of the team's unbeaten success after coming to Manchester United: "It is very important to maintain the good momentum of the team, nothing can replace the importance of winning, this is the most important aspect. We've been unbeaten in 8 consecutive games and we have to try to continue that way of playing. ”
But after the game began, Lonnick found that against teams outside big 6, not only could not maintain a winning streak, but also remain unbeaten.
As soon as the game began, Wolves attacked like a tidal wave, and United did not concede a goal in the first half, relying on De Gea's many heroic saves. In the 81st minute, Wolves scored, Moutinho's shot went into the dead corner, and this time De Gea could not save the lord. Ronaldo played very aggressively, but did not have many chances and failed to score.
In the end, United lost 1-0 to Wolves at home, accumulating 31 points in 19 games and still seventh in the Premier League table. There is still hope for the fourth place, but can Ronnick win arteta and Conte? The overall strength of the Manchester United team is definitely stronger than Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur, but the ability of Manchester United manager Ronnick is obviously inferior to Arteta and Conte.
Manchester United actually thought of this for a long time, only let Lonnick be the manager for half a season, and then looked for a manager at the end of the season to change Lonnick's position as a consultant. But in this half season, whether Lonnick can help Manchester United retain Champions League qualification is a bit of a hang.