Chapter 648 Target

West Ham United, who wanted to be a dragon-slaying warrior and end Manchester United's unbeaten run in the Premier League, played very actively on the field. Every player was running tirelessly and pressing Manchester United players.

Bruno soon found that as long as he had the ball, he would be surrounded by West Ham United players. No matter which direction he passed the ball, it might be intercepted.

In short, he fell into the trap prepared for him by West Ham United.

Mark Noble was pestering him, but he was not the main person to intercept the ball. Someone else intercepted the ball, maybe Declan Rice, maybe Anderson, or Obiang. It might even be Yarmolenko and Arnautovic who retreated.

For ordinary people, this is very difficult. But for Bruno, the greater the difficulty, the more opportunities he has.

Although Bruno was surrounded, he was still trying hard to find the opponent's empty space. Although this was a bit difficult, sometimes his feet would be intercepted because of slow passing, and sometimes he would make a passing error because of hasty kicking. But he still insists on this approach. He believes that as long as he passes the ball successfully once, it will be enough to threaten West Ham United's goal.

After seeing the difficulties faced by Bruno, Manchester United's players also rushed to support. For example, the other two midfielders consciously moved closer to Bruno to reduce the distance between them, which also reduced the difficulty of Bruno's pass.

They shortened the distance between them and Bruno, which did reduce the pressure on Bruno, but this led to a disconnection between the midfield and the frontcourt.

In order to maintain a close enough connection, forwards Harry Kane, Rashford and Mbappe must retreat to respond.

Once they retreat, the distance between them and West Ham United's goal will be far away. As a forward, the farther away from the opponent's goal, the less threat there is.

Manchester United's offense has not improved much during this period, which is also related to the current entanglement between the two sides in the midfield.

West Ham United has accumulated 5 people in the midfield, and the number advantage is very obvious, so they can still have the upper hand in such a tug-of-war, and sometimes they can launch a counterattack by intercepting the ball in the midfield. However, because the players moved closer to the middle, the personnel were too concentrated, and the support for striker Arnautovic was actually very limited, so there were not many opportunities to really threaten De Gea.

………………

After 25 minutes of the game, the two sides were still deadlocked in the midfield. Manchester United could not score, and West Ham United could not break the deadlock.

Mourinho, the head coach of Manchester United, was happy to see the current situation. Because a draw without either side scoring was acceptable to Manchester United. He just watched from the coaching bench without making any adjustments, or he thought that the current situation did not require him to make major tactical adjustments, and only required the players to make small-scale self-adjustments.

Pellegrini, the head coach of West Ham United, could not sit still, after all, he had ideas about defeating Manchester United at home.

The tactics he had set up specifically for Bruno now seemed to tie his hands instead. Although it limited Bruno's performance, it also made his own offense lose its threat. This kind of "killing one thousand enemies and losing eight hundred" thing is too unprofitable.

Seeing that the first half was halfway through, if the game continued like this, West Ham United could only hope that luck was on their side.

Pellegrini stood up from his seat, walked to the sidelines, and sent a signal to the field, indicating that the two full-backs of West Ham United should increase the number of assists.

Since the midfield was going to have a tug-of-war with Manchester United, the full-backs' assists would be used to open up the situation.

Zabaleta was originally a defender with super assist ability, and Masuaku on the other side was almost, but he was also a Democratic Congolese international with a long-range shot and a good cross.

………………

As soon as the two full-backs of West Ham United came up, they immediately changed the situation.

While the two sides were in a tug-of-war in the midfield, the two sideways attacks made Manchester United's defense a little overwhelmed. De Gea's goal began to be in danger many times, and he also became the Manchester United player who appeared in the TV close-up the most times.

In the 40th minute, Bruno got the ball in the midfield. As usual, Noble was always by his side, Anderson was not far away, and Declan Rice was also rushing towards him. Noble was still using his feet to infect him with the ball. As long as he was not careful, he might lose the ball.

In desperation, he could only pass the ball back.

The ball was passed back to the central defender Van Dijk. After Van Dijk got the ball, he looked at Bruno's situation and found that it would probably be a pass back again.

We can't always rely on Bruno so much, we must find a way to relieve his pressure.

Van Dijk looked at the wing and passed it to the full-back!

Seeing that he didn't pass the ball out immediately, but controlled the ball under his feet, looked around to observe, he ran up and planned to counter-rob on the spot.

Under his pressure, the ball under Van Dijk's feet was hastily passed to the wing and given to the left-back Luke Shaw.

Van Dijk's pass was very powerful, and Luke Shaw used his chest to stop the ball in the air on the sideline to prevent it from going out of bounds.

But when he adjusted the ball, Zabaleta was already beside him.

Luke Shaw panicked, and the only thought in his mind was to break through. He planned to poke the ball out between the opponent's legs, but the experienced Zabaleta had expected this, pressed down in advance, and closed his legs, just in time to stop the ball kicked by Luke Shaw.

Luke Shaw crossed over and realized that the football was not coming. When he turned around to chase after him, Zabaleta had already taken the football out and ran towards the Manchester United goal.

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"Ah! This is an excellent opportunity! After waiting for forty minutes, there was such a big gap in Manchester United's defense. Zabaleta rushed forward with the ball. In front of him were only two central defenders from Manchester United. And a goalkeeper... West Ham’s counterattack!”

After passing the ball, Bruno has been moving, seeking cooperation with his teammates, so he is now the Manchester United player closest to Zabaleta.

He rushed towards Zabaleta from behind, intending to steal the ball. Because the start was already late, if Zabaleta was not stopped here, it would be too late when Zabaleta entered the penalty area, so he chose a very dangerous defensive action, which could lead to him receiving a red card: flying tackle Just follow Zabaleta's footsteps.

Zabaleta, who was dribbling the ball at high speed, could sense Bruno's plan. When Bruno tackled him, he gently knocked the football away, then jumped high and flew over Bruno!

"Oh! Bruno didn't get shoveled! He got passed!"

Manchester United's two central defenders, Maguire and Van Dijk, hurriedly rushed towards Zabaleta's direction. The huge space in the middle was only guarded by Kante.

Zabaleta didn't have a goal of his own. He saw Anautovic meeting him in the middle and passed the football sideways.

The ball passed in front of Maguire and Van Dijk, and Kante completely missed Arnautovic behind him.

The 1.92-meter-tall Austrian center calmly stopped the ball from Zabaleta and then shot. De Gea turned around and pounced, but it was already too late.

The football rolled against the goal post and into the goal!

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"Oh!" the West Ham United commentator shouted, "Arnautovic! Arnautovic! Marko Arnautovic!! The ball is scored!!! This is a very crucial goal, West Ham United United took the lead on the scoreboard. This was a classic counterattack!”

After the goal, Arnautovic celebrated the goal wildly. He rushed to the sidelines, put his hands behind his ears, and made a listening gesture. The meaning was obvious. He wanted to hear more enthusiastic applause and cheers. .

More than 50,000 West Ham fans at London's Olympic Stadium made Arnautovic's wish come true. They gave a huge cheer, as if they were shaking the huge London Bowl.

"Hooray! West Ham United!"

This was the only goal scored by both sides in the first half. Although West Ham United took advantage of the momentum and continued to strengthen their offense after taking the lead, with the intention of swallowing Manchester United in one gulp, Manchester United also strengthened its defense under the leadership of Bruno. In the remaining minutes of the first half, West Ham United had no chance to change the score.

West Ham United entered the halftime break with a 1:0 score at home.

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At halftime, in the visiting team's locker room, Mourinho said to his Manchester United soldiers: "We conceded the ball in the first half, but compared with conceding the goal, what concerns me more is our performance in the first half. ”

He looked at Bruno and said: "In the first half, our midfield was not running smoothly. We were stuck in the quagmire of West Ham United in the midfield. The opponent had 5 people in the midfield, but we only had 3 people. A tug-of-war? This is not what I want to see. We must change this situation in the second half and cannot be in a stalemate with the opponent in the midfield. This is West Ham United's strategy. If we are in a tug-of-war with them in the midfield, then It plays into their hands.”

As a bystander, Mourinho always sees the situation clearly. He explained the situation clearly to the players in the simplest language.

"So we have to speed up the tempo in the second half. Bruno, you have to reduce the time you have the ball at your feet. When necessary, you have to reduce the number of times you have the ball. We don't necessarily have to organize the offense through you."

Bruno didn't object because this was not the first time he had encountered this situation. In fact, he had already taken the initiative to change the situation in the first half, but the results were not very good. Most of the Manchester United players didn't seem very excited, which led to a lot of problems with the passing and receiving between the players.

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"We have to pass the ball quickly and move quickly, and the two wings must be more active. West Ham United knows how to let the full-backs come up to assist, why can't we? Open up the situation from the wings and force West Ham United's center Strengthen the defense on the wings, which will reduce the pressure on Bruno in the middle.”

Mourinho wrote on the tactical blackboard and told every player about the team's changes in the second half, letting them know what to do in the second half.

When he finished his remarks, there were only three minutes left before the start of the second half.

"It seems that I have talked a little too much, but I hope you all remember every word I said." Mourinho said to the players, "We are lagging behind in the score. If we still want to challenge Arsenal If we want to maintain our unbeaten record, we need to do our best in the 45 minutes of the second half.”

"I know that after being undefeated last season and winning several championships in a row, many people have lost the motivation to pursue the championship. But why can't we attack Arsenal's unbeaten record? We are already in 46 games unbeaten in the Premier League, only three games away from Arsenal’s record.”

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Mourinho's words made many Manchester United players' eyes light up, and they thought, yes, why can't we impact Arsenal's unbeaten record?

After all, now they only need to not lose in the next three league games to tie Arsenal's longest unbeaten record in the Premier League of 49 games; if they can go 4 unbeaten games in the Premier League, that will be fine. Breaking Arsenal's unbeaten record.

After being undefeated in all competitions last season and winning 6 consecutive championships, Manchester United's players once thought that their highest goal had been achieved and that the next step was just routine.

This summer, the team did not introduce large-scale personnel, and also left several veterans such as Ibrahimovic, Carrick and Valencia. It is understandable that the team is not high-spirited.

But now they have found their goal again: to hit Arsenal's unbeaten record of 49 Premier League games!

Bruno also clenched his fists.

When the Manchester United players take the field, they are still excited about their new found goal.

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Taking advantage of the time when the West Ham United players were playing, Bruno called his teammates together. There were some things that he didn't have time to say in the locker room, and now he wanted to tell his teammates.

"I want to say that hitting the record of 49 unbeaten games is a great goal!" Bruno said loudly to his teammates surrounding him. "When people think about the unbeaten record in the Premier League in the future, they will think of us. I Just excited. Are you the same as me?"

"Yes!"

"You're right, breaking the 49-game unbeaten streak is a good idea, Bruno!"

"I think we can do it. Now we are 46 games unbeaten. As long as we win against West Ham United, it will be 47 games unbeaten. We are 47 games unbeaten. Is 49 games far away?"

…

His teammates responded enthusiastically.

"Very good, brothers! In fact, West Ham United is just our defeat. They have not defeated us in the past two seasons. We will not lose on the eve of Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten record." ? This is unreasonable! As long as we work hard, as long as we work together, brothers... we can definitely break Arsenal's 49-game unbeaten record!" Bruno shouted.

"Hit the record!"

"Defeat them!"

"I'm not afraid of West Ham!"

“Find a way to score their goals!”

…

The Manchester United players talked a lot.