In the early morning of Beijing time today (9th), Manchester United challenged Burnley away in the 24th round of the Premier League. United took the lead in the first half, but Burnley equalised in the second half, eventually drawing 1-1 between the two sides.
The deputy squad leader can't take it either?
More than two months ago, Manchester United easily beat Burnley, who was 18th in the Premier League at home, 3-1 at home, and United scored three goals in the first half, but did not keep a clean sheet. This round of away games again, Manchester United should have solved the battle in the first half, many opportunities could not be seized, only Pogba scored a goal, in the second half as usual, Manchester United only got 1 point. West Ham beat Watford, who were second-to-last at home on the same night, squeezed United out of the top four by a point difference.
If both North London beat each other tomorrow morning, they will have 39 points with Manchester United. United's prospects for a four-place race lie in the four rounds that follow, with three masters and one away: southampton this weekend, the 18th round of the home match against Brighton next week, and the final round of this month against Watford, away to Leeds United, sandwiched between Brighton and Champions League away to Atletico. In other words, if United score less than 12 points this month, it will be a foregone conclusion to miss the top four. Manchester United have no domestic cup tasks and will start a new round of the Devil's fixtures next month: against Manchester City, Tottenham Hotspur, Atletico Madrid (away to the Champions League) and Liverpool respectively, with an optimistic estimate of up to 3 points, most likely taken from the match against Tottenham.
In contrast, the other three companies competing for the fourth place: West Ham have the remaining three rounds of this month against Leicester City, Newcastle and Wolves respectively; Tottenham Hotspur have the heaviest load of 5 rounds, after playing Southampton, they play Wolves, Manchester City, Burnley (13th round of play-off) and Leeds United respectively; Arsenal have the Premier League left, but because Chelsea went to Dubai to play the Club World Cup, Liverpool will compete with Chelsea in the League Cup on the 26th of this month, and their and Gunners' schedules have been rescheduled. Counting the make-up matches against Wolves, Arsenal actually played only three games, but 2 of them were against Wolves. The possibility of the three companies taking all their expected points in February is unlikely, and whether Manchester United can have a Champions League seat depends on this month.
But United's form is hopeless. Since the beginning of the new year, Lonnick has also "fought on two fronts", on the one hand, he has to lead the team to grab points, on the other hand, he is constantly caught in quarrels with his subordinates. After arguing with Martial and Arguing with C Ronaldo, and arguing with C Ronaldo and arguing with Lingard, the external results were not good, and the team was constantly wrong, quite anxious. In order to change the passive situation of scoring only one goal in almost all games, he adjusted the lineup back and forth, painstakingly but to no avail. In this round, he let C Ronaldo sit on the bench, and in the last 20 minutes, he replaced the latter to replace Cavani as a trapped beast, and the result was that the two head hammers failed to rewrite the score. Two goals ahead can't be saved, it's harder to get ahead of a goal, and the nickname "Lang One" is not in vain. He explained before the game that Cristiano Ronaldo may not start: "In this game we need a lot of repeated sprints, to grab the first point, the second point, Cavani will help us more. "Cavani started right, wrong with Ronnick's luck – the luck was just too bad.
Varane's header scored beautifully, but was cancelled after Maguire was offside before the free kick and blocked Jay Rodriguez, who assisted the defense. Marcus Rashford's cross forced home team McNeil Oolong, but was cancelled after Pogba had previously violated home defender Peters. Cavani was less than a meter from the goal, and the head hammer that was bound to enter was blocked by the knee of the opposing goalkeeper Pope. If we had followed the same posture two months ago, United could have easily changed sides with a two-goal lead. With only one goal ahead, United have to "send" the advantage back.
Sure enough, less than 3 minutes into the second half, the opposing new center Weihost, while scrambling for a six-four opportunity, alertly deceived Maguire, who pounced, and immediately passed Maguire behind him to Jay Rodriguez. Maguire knew the plan, it was too late to chase back, he had turned slowly, coupled with the speed was not fast, was left behind by Rodriguez with the ball raw, watching De Gea lose on the right side in a one-on-one situation.
Maguire's poor form this season has been going on for a long time. But with both Lindlev and Bai injured, Lonnick had no other centre-back to replace. In the last FA Cup, he was eliminated by Miburg, and although the goal he lost was not all the responsibility of Maguire, he routinely let go of the opponent's cross - he could not grab the ball he grabbed, or even did not grab, he should not grab, he repeatedly took the risk. After conceding the ball in this game, he almost received a red card for pulling Rodriguez and making the last man to destroy the opponent's attack, but because Rodriguez was far away from the goal, referee Taylor gave a yellow card. At the last minute, United won a set-piece, but he pounced on it but only touched the ball on his shoulder, losing his last chance to lead again. The FA Cup was eliminated, C Ronaldo wasted the opportunity the most responsibility, this round was forced to draw burnley, it is Maguire who is fully responsible. After joining Manchester United for two and a half years, Maguire is no longer the same Maguire in the World Cup in Russia.
There is no more than one goal in the front and more than one goal is often conceded at the back. The current situation of Manchester United can no longer be viewed through the perspective of playing style or personnel adjustment, and the root of the disease is in the mentality and motivation. The team lost the spirit of the club's tradition and raised a large number of players who did not want to make progress and were second-rate in ability. Playing away to a team that has won just one game in 377 days at home, United can't take it, already hinting that all the goals of the season may be missed. The club has had the opportunity to correct mistakes, but for various reasons it has been wrong again and again. Players no longer trust or even respect the acting coach, and the coach can't inspire the player's desire to win, and the luck is very bad.
Everyone seems to be waiting for management to come up with a countermeasure as soon as possible, that is, "Who should be the official head coach?" "The top management of Manchester United is slow and does not feel that it is about to hit the iceberg. It takes courage and vision to rectify the chaos anyway, and Manchester United lacks both, and sooner or later it will mix into the way Everton is now.
Wen | Lin Liangfeng
Edit | Peppery Soup