Toni Kroos stood in the center circle.
As soon as he saw Danilo coming up to meet Vidal on the right, he immediately ran to the right along the center line.
Danilo's kick came back, and the German followed the trend.
Knocked back again and gave it to Varane.
At this transition, Stoke City's pressing had to slow down.
But before Stoke City could take a breath, Varane passed the ball to Javi Martinez, who made a long pass and accurately reached the frontcourt and found Ibrahimovic.
Suddenly, before everyone in Stoke City could take a breath, they had to continue to press harder.
The Swedish center fought for the ball, and Neymar was the second target.
After the Brazilian grabbed the ball, he quickly distributed it to the left wing.
David Alaba had already rushed forward quickly, and after receiving the ball, he went to the bottom line.
With this, Southampton's offensive line also advanced to Stoke City. large restricted area.
But this wave of offense still failed to work.
The ball passed into the penalty area and was cleared by Robert Huth.
The ball had fallen to Southampton, Modric received the ball and passed it to Toni Kroos.
The German turned around and knocked the ball back to Neuer at the front of the penalty area.
Suddenly, everyone on the Saints team knew that they needed to control the rhythm a little.
In this game, Toni Kroos's position was relatively deep, and he formed more of a ball-controlling formation with Javi Martinez, Varane and goalkeeper Neuer.
The two full-backs Danilo and David Alaba pressed very high, even higher than Toni Kroos in many cases.
In addition, Neymar cut inside and Gareth Bale diagonally inserted into the penalty area. , making the two full-backs look more like full-backs, and the entire burden of offense and defense on the wing falls on them.
The ball was passed skillfully back and forth in Southampton's midfield and backcourt, and the overall formation was slowly pressing forward.
Stoke City retreated slowly, but had no intention of applying pressure and pressure on Southampton's ball-controlling backcourt.
First of all, Crouch's height makes it difficult for him to actively participate in pressing and pressing like other players.
And he is the only one, so it’s hard for him to do anything alone.
Another very important reason is that the average age of Stoke City's frontcourt is over 30 years old.
Needless to say, Crouch has been famous for a long time.
He is 32 years old this year, Etherington is also 32 years old, Whitehead is 31 years old, and Walters is 30 years old.
The youngest player in the entire midfield is French midfielder Nzonzi, who is 24 years old.
But what can one person do?
Therefore, such a high age makes it impossible for Stoke City to use frontcourt pressing and pressing tactics.
If you do that, let alone whether the effect can meet expectations, just talk about the physical consumption of yourself, it is probably not Tony Pulis. can bear.
Sometimes, everyone knows that high-intensity frontcourt pressing and pressing is a trend, but it may not be applicable.
Tony Pulis chose the tactical play that best suited Stoke City, which was to give up pressing and pressing in the frontcourt.
But in this case, Southampton must be allowed to control the ball.
From the opening, Southampton's ball possession rate steadily exceeded 70%, completely dominating the game.
Stoke City adopted a compact midfield and backfield style and patiently defended.
Even though Southampton controlled the game and made several threatening attacks, they either failed to create a threat or goalkeeper Begovic performed well.
Begovic is one of the best goalkeepers in the Premier League this season.
Not only has he attracted the attention of wealthy teams such as Manchester United, Chelsea, Arsenal and Liverpool, but even Barcelona wants to get him, which shows his strength.
Southampton controlled the ball very patiently.
Toni Kroos is very smart.
He always keeps in mind the arrangements and arrangements made by coach Bielsa before the game.
That is to not allow Stoke City to have a chance to breathe, but to constantly use ball control tactics to wear down their toughness and consume their physical energy, because they are old and will definitely not be able to bear it.
But as the team's deep-lying organizer, Toni Kroos must always remember not to rush.
Once the team gets a little anxious, he must stabilize immediately and stay calm and rational.
In Bielsa's words, as long as they maintain enough patience, Southampton will definitely win.
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At Manchester United's training base in Carrington, west of Manchester, Ferguson sat in his office, silently looking at the TV screen in front of him.
Sitting next to him was Everton's head coach Moyes, who had come all the way from Liverpool.
This little Scottish fellow has come to listen to the admonitions of his predecessors.
After all, he took over from Ferguson's team, and his biggest task was to continue the legacy that Ferguson had worked so hard to build.
I just didn't expect that he arrived at the wrong time, just in time for the make-up match between Southampton and Stoke City.
Ever since, after talking for an afternoon, Moyes was left by Ferguson to watch the game together.
"Tony Pulis's defense is very targeted.
He is very strict in cutting in and diagonally on both wings.
Especially in the midfield, he always maintains protection in front of the defense line, which is quite impressive."
Even Moyes has to admit that Tony Pulis is definitely the best defensive coach in Britain.
It's just a pity that his offensive accomplishments are really beyond praise.
I would like to ask, how can any normal and rational head coach pile up so many veterans in their early thirties in their midfield and frontcourt?
Not to mention that veterans are prone to injuries, but in terms of physical exertion and recovery, veterans will definitely suffer more than young players.
The competition in the Premier League is so fierce, so many veterans will definitely be overwhelmed.
Ferguson's eyes were always fixed on the TV screen, unwilling to leave for a moment, but he was mumbling to himself what Moyes said.
"Belsa is a cunning old fox.
He knows Stoke City's weaknesses.
It is the last game of the season anyway, so he is not in a hurry.
He uses possession tactics to fight a war of attrition.
The key lies in the second half."
The first half has gone on for more than 20 minutes, and the score is still zero to zero.
But everyone knows that if this situation continues, the later the game time goes, the greater the pressure Stoke City will face.
Moyes couldn't help but nod, "Belsa's team is very good at suddenly exerting force at the last moment, so I guess Southampton will have another wave of attacks before the end of the first half."
Ferguson still nodded calmly.
Any Premier League coach should be able to see this.
There is nothing strange about it.
"In the second half, Bielsa will definitely have something up his sleeve."
These words made Ferguson's eyes light up, and he couldn't help but exclaimed.
"Stoke City's performance this season is very interesting.
They scored 28 points at home, scored 21 goals, and conceded 22 goals.
They scored 14 points away from home, scored 13 goals, and conceded 23 goals. , it can be seen that the biggest difference between this team’s home and away games is not in defense, but in offense.”
Judging from the performance of the entire first half, Stoke City almost completely gave up their willingness to attack and just thought about defense.
Tony Pulis set up an iron barrel formation at St.
Mary's Stadium and made it clear that he wanted to tell Southampton that I came here to seek peace.
If you refer to Moyes's data, it really fits Stoke City's positioning.
Anyway, the offensive ability in the away game is not good, so I just don’t want to attack and concentrate on defense.
"But there is another very interesting statistic.
In the first half of this season, Stoke City scored 15 goals and conceded 18 goals.
But in the second half, Stoke City scored 19 goals and conceded 27 goals. , scored four more goals than the first half, but conceded nine more goals.”
Moyes' words immediately made Ferguson frown.
He understood what Moyes meant.
There are many Premier League teams this season who are prone to collapse in the first half and second half.
The most typical example is Newcastle, which always collapses in the second half.
There are also teams like West Ham United, Queens Park Rangers, Wigan Athletic, Reading and other teams that performed poorly in the second half.
Manchester United's second-half record was not ideal either, ranking sixth in the Premier League, behind Southampton, Arsenal, Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur.
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But in the first half, Manchester United was slightly ahead of Southampton with a slight advantage.
It can be seen that Manchester United and Stoke City have exactly the same problem.
That is because there are too many veterans in the team, which makes it difficult for the team to maintain a high level of performance in a ninety-minute game.
It always performs well in the first half, but begins to decline in the second half.
There's no way around it, unless you're willing to reorganize your team's lineup "If Tony Pulis' team can hold on in the first half, then if they bite the bullet in the second half, they might be able to hold on, and a draw may not be impossible."
When Moyes said this, he glanced at Ferguson and found that the latter's face was very ugly.
I felt sad in my heart, what can I do?
Southampton is so strong, is it possible for a mid-table team like Stoke City to fight them?
There was one last thing he didn't say, which was that if Stoke City lost the ball in the first half, it would be difficult for Tony Pulis to regain the situation in the second half, no matter how amazing he was.
That's why Ferguson's face looks so ugly.
It can be guessed that Southampton did not give all its strength in the attack after the opening.
What Bielsa really wanted to score was near the end of the first half and in the second half.
Therefore, before the end of the first half, it was Stoke City’s first test.
Ferguson was on tenterhooks.
Looking at the TV screen, Southampton still controlled the ball, and Stoke City still huddled in their own half and defended tightly. look.
I don’t know why, even though he knew that Stoke City’s defense was one of the best in the Premier League, Ferguson still couldn’t rest assured.
After all, the strength gap between the two teams is too big.
Could it be that I really want to end my coaching career empty-handed?
No I don't I will never Ferguson gritted his teeth and looked at the TV screen.
He was very unwilling, very, very unwilling.
He absolutely cannot allow his coaching career to end like this, with such humiliation.
It's not fair to him Moyes on the side had a clear view of Ferguson's reaction, but he felt very sad in his heart.
The arrogant Sir Alex Ferguson was scared, so why not?
Southampton is so strong this season, what about next season?
Can he lead such a Manchester United team against Southampton?
He was even able to reform Manchester United's tactics and reorganize Manchester United's lineup while still retaining the top four positions in the league.
Moyes is really not sure Just when the two were thinking about each other, they saw Toni Kroos on the court get the ball, face the pressing, and quickly pass it to Modric.
He suddenly changed his previous lateral movement style and rushed forward quickly.
Modric also understood the situation and quickly hit back after receiving the ball, completing a beautiful one-two pass in the middle.
As soon as Toni Kroos moved forward, Southampton's entire midfield and frontcourt immediately followed suit.
The German commander finally blew the horn of Southampton's attack before the end of the first half.
Moyes glanced at the score column on the TV screen.
There were still about ten minutes left.
It seems that Southampton has still captured Stoke City’s defensive weakness.
In the next ten minutes or so, Stoke City may declare that the city gate has been lost at any time.
As a result, the two people in the office almost held their breath and watched the live TV broadcast attentively
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