Chapter 772: Manchester United Will Adjust Their 2022 Tactics in This Match

Slap!

Rodri sent the ball into the penalty area, and Dembélé, making a run to the far post, easily took the shot.

Goal!

"1:0!"

"Dembélé!"

"Beautiful!"

Seemingly frightened by recent bad luck, Dembélé immediately looked at the linesman after scoring, only beginning his celebration after confirming he was not offside.

"Wow!"

Sliding on his knees, Dembélé cupped his ears in the face of the home fans' taunts, as if demanding they boo even louder.

Ten Hag thrust his right fist forward violently, causing Fan Fan Dejiahe behind him to shake his head repeatedly.

Sitting Like was completely obsessed.

No matter who scored, as long as Cristiano Ronaldo was not on the field, it was a good goal in Ten Hag's eyes.

A tremendous goal!

After casually tapping a few keys, Fan Fan Dejiahe turned his head to glance backward with his peripheral vision.

Cristiano Ronaldo was sitting two rows back, still wearing the hood of his down jacket.

Sigh...

Fan Fan Dejiahe was convinced that this matter would eventually find a good solution; it simply hadn't been found yet.

"TY!"

"Xuuu!!!"

"TY!!"

"Xuuu!!!"

The Villa fans were extremely unhappy.

"Why!"

As Dembélé walked back toward his own half, he complained to Tang Ye beside him: "I scored the goal, so why are they starting to boo you!"

"Haha!"

Tang Ye grabbed one of Dembélé's hands and raised it high.

"Xuuu!!!!"

"Do you know why they are booing me?"

Leaning his mouth close to Dembélé's ear, Tang Ye shouted loudly.

"Oh, you startled me... Why are they booing you?"

Tang Ye patted Dembélé on the back: "Because your presence is too low..."

"..."

"Press their center! The center-backs!"

Gerrard was issuing his commands.

Abandoning the full-backs to specifically suppress the two center-backs was Villa's tactic for today.

If one observed carefully, one would discover that Villa's tactic today was a knockoff version of Wolves' previous tactics.

Simply put, Villa had learned from Wolves.

Experience in playing against Manchester United!

Martínez looked for De Ligt beside him!

Danny Ings and Buendía rushed over simultaneously.

At this moment, De Ligt should have passed to Wan-Bissaka.

But Buendía's running line was extremely strange, perfectly blocking De Ligt's passing lane to Wan-Bissaka.

!

Slap!

He could only pass back to De Gea.

De Gea did not hesitate either, launching a long pass that sent the ball directly to the front field.

"Oh!"

"..."

"This... we can see that Villa seems to have found some kind of... well, let's call it a trick? against Manchester United, since describing it as a tactic might not be entirely appropriate."

"Actually, looking at it, Manchester United is not completely without a way to deal with this pressing; they could easily neutralize the opponent's attack by having Rodri and De Jong drop back."

"But the problem lies right there: if both Rodri and De Jong choose to drop back, then Manchester United's prized counter-attack cannot be executed..."

The commentators expressed their concern about Manchester United's situation, and Ten Hag seemed to have realized this as well.

In the 32nd minute of the first half, Manchester United made their first substitution of the match ahead of schedule.

Bruno Fernandes replaced Rodri!

"Xuuuu!!!"

"Ten Hag is trash!"

"Trash!"

It was the Villa fans who were shouting insults; they did not believe Ten Hag's decision to substitute Bruno Fernandes for Rodri was correct.

Tang Ye cut toward the left.

Look at the far angle!

But he chose to push it to the near post!

Bang!

A low-driven shot was sent in, but Martínez pushed it away successfully.

"Wow!!!"

"What an extreme save that was, Martínez!"

Martínez didn't bite on Tang Ye's feint, which makes things very uncomfortable.

Soon, Villa also found their own attacking opportunity.

Martial's mistake in controlling the ball in the attacking third was suddenly stolen by Konsa surging forward, and then Konsa carried the ball all the way into the attacking third.

During the run, B Fee tried to intercept, but failed.

Konsa's pass found Watkins precisely.

Snap!

Cutting inside after trapping the ball, Watkins very cleverly dodged Dalot, and with the coordination of Ings and Douglas, successfully entered the penalty area.

In the end, just as he was raising his foot to shoot, he was brought down by De Ligt.

Bang!

"Beep!"

"Beep beep beep!!"

The pitch was full of the sound of fake whistles, and De Ligt also realized something was wrong, standing in the penalty area with both hands raised high.

Before his teammates could go up and speak for De Ligt, the head referee Kute directly awarded Villa a penalty.

"Holy……shit!"

This situation…… doesn't seem to be looking good……

"It's fine."

Tang Ye held De Ligt's head and kissed the top of his hair: "Small problem, it's fine."

De Jong stood with his hands on his hips beside Tang Ye, the Dutch midfielder narrowing his eyes.

The penalty was taken by the man who won it, Watkins himself, his opponent being David de Gea.

"Come on, come on!"

"Come on, Watkins!"

"Beep—"

Run-up!

Bang!

A shot was fired, but De Gea guessed the right direction!

Smack!

The ball was parried away, B Fee reacted very quickly, rushing over and kicking the ball up into the stands.

"Nice!!!"

Lima decisively hugged De Gea, the two chests colliding together.

【When did the Duck learn to save penalties?】

【Won't let my De Gea save penalties now, huh】

【Awesome awesome, scared me to death】

【Villa really are something, is this the fighting power of 7th place in the Prem?】

【I'm truly done with this Wolves team, damn, United should've just surrendered that FA Cup match, they've found our weakness, what do we do】

【Don't panic don't panic, we can hold steady, the current United isn't the previous United, not so easy to deal with, watch Tang Tang Qiuwang blast them to death with a long shot】

The penalty was saved, and Gerrard was furious.

That's how it is in a match between top sides — wasting one chance can be fatal.

In the fans' eyes, Villa only missed one goal.

But in Gerrard's view, just now, Villa lost the chance to pull off an upset against United!

The 38th minute!

Receiving De Jong's pass, Tang Ye decisively laid it off to B Fee beside him.

B Fee lofted the ball, sending it into the penalty area.

Martial!

"Lay it off!"

Hearing Tang Ye's voice, Martial headed it back, aiming for Tang Ye.

Facing the incoming ball, Tang Ye raised his left leg and struck the middle of the ball with his instep.

Smack!

The sound was very crisp.

The angle wasn't great, but the ball speed was fast enough — Martínez didn't have enough time to react.

Goal!

"2:0!!"

"Beautiful, Tang Ye!"

Bang bang!

Bang bang bang!

……

Halftime report: Tang Ye volleyed through the air to break the deadlock, De Gea saved a penalty, and at the break Manchester United led Villa 2:0.

The opening few matches of 2022 hadn't gone particularly well, leading many fans to the illusion that "the Wang Chao of Manchester United is dead."

But since it's an illusion, of course that notion is wrong.

At least for now it certainly looks that way — Manchester United's core competitiveness has not weakened.

"Second half we need to watch out — they like to press our centre-backs. I'm not happy when I see this, because as you all know, the reason they press our centre-backs is because they think our centre-backs are weak."

Ten Hag looked at De Ligt: "But I think that's absolutely wrong. Our centre-backs are not weak — never weak. They've just picked up a few things from our previous opponents, and I don't think that's a big deal. We just need to do our own job and not be distracted by other things."

"Now, we need to claim our first clean sheet of the year!"

"Wow!!"

In the dressing room the Manchester United players rose one after another and gathered in the middle.

"3, 2, 1!"

"United!"