Old Trafford on Boxing Day is filled with a joyful Christmas atmosphere.

There are children dressed up in Santa Claus and children who make homemade championship trophys as if they have received Christmas gifts.

Manchester United faces Newcastle United at home.

Manchester United, who has fallen second in the standings, naturally hopes to win the game.

At least the captain Ye Yifeng was full of fighting spirit.

You have your Christmas.

I won my game.

Newcastle United is currently ranked 9th in the league. It seems that there is no pressure to relegate this season. It coincides with Christmas, so it is inevitable that it will be a little relaxed.

It can be said that the pressure on Manchester United is definitely much greater than that of Newcastle United.

Lukaku did not enter the starting lineup today and sat on the bench.

Mourinho is worried that his emotions will affect his on-the-spot performance.

Now Sandezi is negotiating with Inter Milan, and it will definitely be negotiated in the end. Manchester United will inevitably sell people in order to sign up. Now the only one who can sell at a good price is Lukaku.

Therefore, from the perspective of team development, Mourinho also needs to re-open the front line.

If Pogba is sold, what Manchester United needs to change is only the replacement of forward roles and the change of formation.

The one who sells it now is Lukaku.

The problem arises.

Who plays center?

Rashford? Martial?

It seems that it is not reliable no matter how you think about it.

Taking the centers that Manchester United used to play as the standard, Rooney, Van Persie, Berbatov and others, it is difficult for Martial and Rashford to reach their level in the center position.

So today at Old Trafford, Mourinho allowed Manchester United fans to see Ye Yifeng who appeared in the center position.

Consciousness, running, technology, ability to capture opportunities, ability to seize opportunities, and shooting skills are all Ye Yifeng, who is at the top level in the team. He finally left the midfield and returned to the front line.

It's just a brand new location.

He is partnered with Greenwood and James on the front line.

During the Christmas mail, rotation is certain, and he also allowed Martial and Rashford to survive the most festive extreme of the two days and prepare for the next game.

Lingard, Pogba and McTominai are the three of them in the midfield.

All the main players on the back line were released.

Ye Yifeng, who came to the front line, must take some time to adapt to the style of play.

After the game started, he was under the attack of the back line and the midfield line, so he needed to keep running and frequently observe the surrounding situation, and the space was narrower. Even if his teammates passed the ball to him, he often shot the ball with one kick.

If you run back and forth, you will pass the ball more often, and you will pass it back or divide the side.

He still has a ease in his performance.

It's just that it's hard to have space to control the ball and perform a slutty operation.

Mourinho temporarily put aside his distractions and carefully observed the team's performance in the game.

When Ye Yifeng adapted to the position and gradually improved, Manchester United's midfield performance could still give them an advantage, but Newcastle United's condition was a bit bad.

Although it is intensive defense, the joint defense effect is not good.

When James and Greenwood wings flew together, Ye Yifeng would take the initiative to support him. Unless the opponent had an offensive advantage, he would run to grab the spot in the penalty area.

The quality of the two of them was not high, and the passing against Ye Yifeng was less effective in predicting space utilization and opportunities.

So Ye Yifeng began to try to control the ball at the front of the penalty area.

Turning around and breaking through, encountering the joint defense with intensive defense, the ball is intercepted, and it is still difficult to hit the center.

As a winger, even if he is behind his back, there is most likely only one defensive player behind him. If he is closely guarded when playing center, he is easily defended by his opponents.

In addition, the operational space was compressed, he realized that the success rate of forcing force in the middle lane would be very low.

So he took a step back, creating opportunities for the two wingers who cut in on the basis of restraining the defensive forces, or creating opportunities for teammates who inserted behind him. At the same time, he would quickly turn around and intervene in front after the ball was released to grab the point.

It's a bit similar to his thoughts when playing the front midfielder, and he may not have completely completed the role transformation from his consciousness.

But the effect is particularly explosive!

In the 29th minute of the game, Ye Yifeng received a straight pass from Pogba at the front of the penalty area. Before he touched the ball, the two defenders closed the ball and pressed them from behind, and the back midfielder turned around and returned to defend and rushed towards him.

Ye Yifeng took the initiative to pull back and pull back, and knocked back the ball back and found Lin Emperor who inserted it. The latter sent a straight pass to the right rib of the penalty area.

Ye Yifeng restrained and responded, and Lin Huang sent the threatening ball.

Greenwood quickly cut inside and broke into the penalty area and responded with the right rib, stopped the ball and adjusted, and shot, and completed it in one go.

Football flies straight to the bottom left corner of the goal.

Take your hand and take your sword and break it completely!

Manchester United 1:0 Newcastle United.

After scoring the goal, the master of Aoki took the initiative to run to high-five with Ye Yifeng, and then ran to the sidelines to enjoy the cheers of the fans.

After assisting, Lin Huang also ran to Ye Yifeng quickly, smiling with a smile.

Mourinho clapped and clapped, but he also realized that Ye Yifeng's center plays on the court can create greater space for the winger and front midfielder.

Because he has a halo of "group ridicule"!

No opponent will look down on him!

If there is anything missing, it is to hope that Ye Yifeng can exert his terrifying ending ability after running-in.

Newcastle United is really not in good shape, maybe it's because it's too exciting to spend Christmas.

If there is any obvious change in Ye Yifeng's feeling, it is that he is in the front of the penalty area, which is completely within his long-range shooting range, and the opponent dares not easily foul him.

I was afraid of giving Manchester United a dangerous free kick opportunity.

In the 44th minute of the game, Pogba suddenly passed the ball diagonally back while making a forward dribbling pass, and Lingard made a direct pass while following up.

Ye Yifeng ran horizontally to drive the defender to follow the defense, but he seized the opportunity and turned around in the reception. The man turned around, but the ball was knocked into the right rib of the penalty area with his heel.

Both Newcastle United defenders were guarding him, but Greenwood once again broke into the right rib of the penalty area to pose a threat. However, Ye Yifeng's move of turning around and hitting the ball on the heel made him react slowly. If it was activated early, he could replicate the previous goal.

This time when I caught up with the football, the goalkeeper had already attacked, but the master of Aoki decided to stab the ball in the middle of the goal.

Ye Yifeng couldn't catch up, and there were guards in front of him.

But James rushed to the back of the goal like a flash of lightning and flew into the ball and shot it into the empty goal!

Old Trafford's cheers and applause were deafening!

Mourinho stood up and applauded the team for their performance.

A fast-running player seems to be right about playing wingers.

Ye Yifeng seemed to kick him to a loneliness.

No goals, no assists.

But all the fans could see that he activated two wingers!

Let Greenwood and James better display their own characteristics and strength!

At the end of the half, Manchester United led Newcastle United two goals.

Back in the locker room, Mourinho asked the team to play more conservatively in the second half.

Focus on defensive counterattacks.

After all, this is just the first game on the devil's schedule.

Although Manchester United plays one less round and one less League Cup, they are not on vacation when they go to Qatar, and they play two games after all.

In addition to the travel expenses across Eurasia, these need to be considered.

The two sides changed sides and fought again in the second half.

Newcastle United did not launch a counterattack, and Manchester United became conservative again, so it became a positional battle for James and Greenwood to attack individually.

Ye Yifeng followed up at an average speed in the middle, and he would only start decisively if the breakthrough on the wing was successful.

The two young players each made a contribution, their confidence soared, and the success rate of breakthrough was quite high. Ye Yifeng frequently rushed into the penalty area to try to respond.

But the quality of their crosses suddenly became a bit terrible.

Perhaps only Ye Yifeng has one point, which requires very high accuracy in crossing.

As a result, Ye Yifeng rushed to loneliness.

Until 60 minutes after the game, Newcastle United began to counterattack, and at least they had to work hard.

After all, it wasn't for Manchester United to send Christmas three-pointers.
To be continued...