0-7! New Manchester United wreak havoc at Saltergate Stadium!
Chesterfield become the first victims of New Manchester United's revenge!
The next day, the Manchester Evening News ran this headline on its front page, along with a photo of Mourinho standing on the touchline with his hands in his pockets, a cold, arrogant smile on his lips. In the distance, the Chesterfield manager could be seen slapping his forehead in helpless frustration.
It was a very interesting photograph, one that accurately reflected the gap in strength between the two teams in that match.
After more than half a month in a slump, New Manchester United finally bared their fangs, making Chesterfield their first stepping stone on the road back.
In this match, New Manchester United completely shook off their previous weakness in attack. The front three of Kitson, Malouda, and Hleb showed formidable strength. Kitson, who had just turned 20 this year, scored twice, once with his head and once with his foot, while Malouda and Hleb also scored their first goals of the season.
But what was most commendable was that New Manchester United's possession in this match was almost identical to Chesterfield's, at 51% to 49%. However, in terms of shots, New Manchester United had 23 attempts in total, 13 of them on target, and scored 7 goals. Chesterfield, on the other hand, managed a pitiful 4 shots throughout the entire match, with only one on target, which Schmeichel collected easily because it lacked power.
In this match, New Manchester United showed astonishing control in both defence and attack, almost covering every inch of the pitch. Under their pressure, Chesterfield repeatedly misplaced passes, and their attack failed to create any real threat. They were completely beaten by New Manchester United.
With the 3 points from this round, Mourinho's team had accumulated 5 points from the first 5 matches, escaping the relegation zone and moving into safety, level on points in 19th place in the league.
After the emphatic victory over Chesterfield, New Manchester United returned to the Newton Heath training base in Manchester, where Mourinho immediately announced a day off for the team, much to the players' delight.
However, for the coaching staff, Mourinho and his team clearly did not have it so easy.
Although the team had won heavily against Chesterfield, the coaching staff still saw many flaws in the match. Yes, there was no perfect tactic or formation in this world. What Mourinho wanted to do was unlock as much of the higher and stronger potential of the players at his disposal as possible.
Moreover, Mourinho was well aware that his tactical system was still incomplete.
The reason he had failed before the league campaign began was because he wanted success overnight, believing he could balance control of the ball with control of space. But very quickly, the team's terrible results made him realize that this was unrealistic.
He now understood one principle: everything had to adapt to the local environment. English football had its own style, and simply copying Barcelona's approach would not work in England. Therefore, he could only absorb Barcelona's strengths to compensate for the weaknesses of English football.
This also made him begin to understand why Manchester United's four midfielders, despite all having good technical ability, did not play a possession-based game, but instead preferred quick passing and faster transitions between attack and defence. It was because that style of play was more suited to England.
And how to adapt the ideas in his mind to English football would be the challenge Mourinho had to face over the coming years.
Of course, for now, the most important thing was to lead New Manchester United to victory!
Using a win to establish his core tactical philosophy, Mourinho and his coaching staff decided to refine this broad framework. For example, Mourinho began to consciously guide the players in training on how to attack, how to defend, and how to handle the details.
Take Terry, for example. Mourinho's demands of him were simple.
As the core of the defence, his most important task was to be stable, abandon some poor defensive habits, make greater use of his body and technique, improve his positional sense and anticipation, help his teammates defend in time, and appear where the team needed him most.
To help Terry improve as quickly as possible, Mourinho instructed Schmeichel to communicate more with him, both in training and during matches, to help him understand how to organize a defensive line better.
More and more teams were now using a defensive system that combined man-marking and zonal marking. Zonal marking was generally used outside the final third, and once the ball entered that dangerous area, the defence immediately switched to man-marking.
The role of the defensive leader was to master the seamless transition between man-marking and zonal marking.
To help Terry better understand his position, Mourinho would often stop training specifically to explain real match situations to him, making him understand how to direct his teammates' movement, covering, marking, and so on in specific scenarios.
In midfield, New Manchester United's midfield core was Juninho, who was responsible for controlling the tempo of the team's attack, which in turn affected the transition of the defensive shape.
As for the attack, Mourinho gave Kitson more responsibility in organizing the front line, requiring him to drop deeper more often to receive passes, support the attacks of the two wingers, and link up with the late runs from midfield. This was closely connected to Juninho's role in controlling the tempo in midfield.
Thus, Terry, Juninho, and Kitson formed New Manchester United's central spine.
As September arrived, after a week of adjustments, a well-rested New Manchester United welcomed Mansfield Town at home.
During this week, Mourinho made further adjustments and changes to the team. New Manchester United played very steadily in this match, giving Mansfield almost no chances, and secured another comfortable 4-0 victory.
After two consecutive wins, New Manchester United had 2 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses, accumulating 8 points and lifting themselves to 14th in the league table.
Unlike the previous four winless matches, after two consecutive big victories, Mourinho and the New Manchester United players were unanimously praised by the media. Kitson in particular, who scored another brace in this match, was even named Player of the Round.
This 20-year-old powerful centre-forward had been Žigić's substitute last season. After Žigić's departure this season, he finally got his chance to play, scoring 5 goals in 6 league matches and currently sitting joint-top of the scoring charts.
On September 9, New Manchester United travelled away to challenge Southend. Despite the home team's stubborn defence, New Manchester United still managed to take another 3 points from Roots Hall thanks to a direct free kick from Juninho.
In the 8th round, New Manchester United played away against Kidderminster, who had been promoted to League Two with them this year. This familiar opponent were currently ranked 10th in League Two, higher than New Manchester United. With this being a home game, Kidderminster were ambitious, hoping to climb higher by stepping over their fellow promoted side.
It was worth noting that the points gap among the top 10 teams in the league was very small, and a win could potentially put them into the top 7.
Kidderminster had also brought in quite a few strong players this season. It was clear that they also wanted to make an impact in League Two. Even if they could not win promotion, they at least wanted to ensure they would not be relegated.
But undoubtedly, their strength was still not as good as New Manchester United's, at least judging from their season goals. Their goal was to avoid relegation and strive for promotion, while New Manchester United's goal was the title.
With a 2-4 scoreline, New Manchester United once again secured 3 points. However, in this match, Terry was struck on the bridge of the nose by an opponent's elbow. Although he bravely fought on until the end of the match, a post-match medical examination confirmed that he would be unable to take part in Tuesday's 9th-round league match, and it was still uncertain whether he could play on Saturday.
In this situation, Mourinho began to try rotation. There were two weeks of midweek fixtures at the end of September and the beginning of October, and New Manchester United's form had been improving recently, which gave the team an opportunity to rotate.
On September 19, in the 9th round of League Two, New Manchester United hosted Leyton Orient. Crouch started in place of Kitson, Palacio replaced Malouda, Essien came in for Alou Diarra, Hangeland replaced Terry and made his first start for New Manchester United, and Evra replaced Abidal.
Although quite a few players in the starting line-up had been changed, New Manchester United's players had already adapted to Mourinho's tactics. Amid the cheers of the home fans, they defeated visiting Leyton Orient 3-1. Crouch performed excellently with a goal and an assist, while Essien, who had been pushed to the bench by Mourinho and rarely received substitute opportunities, scored with a long-range shot and was named Man of the Match.
The other goal came from Hleb on the right wing.
Hangeland, making his first start for New Manchester United, performed well. He took Terry's position, and with his excellent heading ability, he almost completely prevented the opponent's tall centre-forward from threatening the goal. However, his partnership with Distin still lacked cohesion, and Leyton Orient's striker seized an opportunity to score.
On September 23, in the 10th round of League Two, Kitson returned to the starting line-up and scored the only goal of the match, helping New Manchester United snatch 3 points from Hull City.
On September 26, New Manchester United rotated their squad again. Thanks to Crouch's brace, New Manchester United defeated Lincoln City 3-0 at home. In this match, Terry returned from injury and partnered Abidal at centre-back, Evra started at left-back, and Stansonn replaced Bosingwa on the right flank, making his first start of the season and putting in a solid performance.
On September 30, Mourinho's team once again secured 3 points in a hard-fought match. Although Cardiff twice equalized after falling behind, Mourinho's decision in the final 10 minutes to replace Poulsen with Palacio and switch to a two-striker formation immediately produced an unexpected result, with Palacio scoring the winning goal.
The day after this match, the FA announced the League Two Player of the Month for September, which went to New Manchester United's Juninho. In 6 matches in September, he scored 2 goals and provided 3 assists. As the heart of New Manchester United's midfield, he was the team's best-performing player, even surpassing Kitson, who was currently ranked first in the League Two scoring charts.
The Manager of the Month was naturally Mourinho. His New Manchester United side, after a slow start to the league, had experienced a major resurgence, especially from the 5th round onward, with New Manchester United achieving a 7-game winning streak in League Two.
Thanks to this 7-game winning streak, New Manchester United now had 7 wins, 2 draws, and 2 losses, accumulating 23 points, placing them 5th in League Two and entering the play-off places.
New Manchester United, who had fallen into the relegation zone a month ago, now saw the dawn of promotion, and even the title, a month later!
(To be continued.)
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