Chapter 388: Standing Out Alone
While the Liverpool coaching staff debated, their head coach, Klopp, remained silent, deep in thought.
As an American coach, Bradley's overall tactics lean towards offensive football. Bradley's Swansea emphasized control, but Klopp saw that they lacked the quick counter-attacks and were more focused on stability in possession. Such a possession-based strategy might work well for a strong team, but for a mid-to-lower table Premier League team like Swansea, it was unlikely to produce good results. Especially against a team like Manchester United, which excelled in defensive counter-attacks, this approach was unlikely to be effective.
In the visiting team's technical area at Liberty Stadium, Mourinho smiled, not just because his team had taken a 1-0 lead, but also because he knew his tactics were effective, and his judgment was correct. He felt even more confident about winning this match.
Bradley's team moved the ball slowly, with skilled footwork and precise passing. However, they lacked diversity in their attacking plays and crossing patterns, making it easy for United to predict and intercept their moves. This led to a lack of pressure in the penalty area.
At 0-1 down, Swansea appeared disorganized, seemingly unprepared for conceding an early goal. Mourinho found it surprising that Bradley hadn't considered what to do if his team fell behind early.
The answer was known only to Bradley.
In the 22nd minute, Manchester United launched a quick counter-attack. Bruno dribbled through the center and then passed wide to Rooney, who crossed to Ibrahimović. Ibrahimović received the ball, dribbled horizontally, and scored with a low shot. United led 2-0.
In the 33rd minute, another quick counter-attack saw Bruno again initiating the play. He passed to Rooney, who sent a through ball to Ibrahimović. Ibrahimović dribbled past the defender and scored, making it 3-0 for United.
With just over 30 minutes gone, United was already three goals ahead.
Mourinho celebrated with his assistants on the bench. With a three-goal lead, the game was almost certainly in the bag.
In first-half stoppage time, United produced another beautiful attacking move. Mata's through ball caught Swansea's defense off guard, and Bruno's low shot found the net, making it 4-0.
Leading by four goals at halftime, the match was all but decided.
In the second half, Swansea pushed forward in an attempt to reduce the deficit but ended up conceding again in the 65th minute.
This time, it was Mata who scored. After a one-two with Bruno, Mata broke into the penalty area. He faked a shot, passed to Ibrahimović, whose shot was blocked by Fabiański, but the ball bounced to Bruno. Bruno selflessly passed it to Mata, who easily slotted it into the empty net.
Liberty Stadium fell silent, except for the cheers from the two to three thousand United fans in the away section.
Trailing 0-5, Swansea was completely demoralized, and their players looked confused and frantic on the field. Bradley's substitutions failed to change the situation.
Bradley replaced Britton with Fer to boost the attack. Mourinho responded by bringing on Herrera for Mata to strengthen the defense.
Bradley then took off the struggling Spanish striker Llorente and brought on young forward Modou Barrow to further enhance the attack. Mourinho countered by replacing Rooney with Rashford to increase the speed of their counter-attacks.
Swansea pulled one back in the 69th minute. Darmian fouled Barrow on the wing, and Sigurdsson's free-kick found van der Hoorn, who headed in from close range to make it 1-5.
Although Swansea scored a consolation goal, it did nothing to change the overall situation. The four-goal deficit left Swansea's players with little motivation.
In the end, Premier League leaders Manchester United comfortably defeated second-to-last Swansea 5-1 at Liberty Stadium, securing three points and completing the third massacre of the round.
Manchester United won so easily that, except for a few minutes at the end of the first half when Swansea suddenly exerted pressure, they controlled the game throughout.
After this victory, United extended their lead at the top of the Premier League table to five points.
As the Premier League schedule approached its one-third mark, Manchester United had won 10 out of 11 matches, only losing once away to Chelsea. Despite many media predictions of United's collapse, the Red Devils continued to widen their lead at the top of the standings, prompting media and fans to take them more seriously.
With the conclusion of this round of league matches, the major European leagues paused for the third international break of the season.
As the new week began, the headline on the front page of the Manchester Evening News read "11-30!"
The number 11 referred to the 11 rounds of the Premier League that had been played. By winning against Swansea, United had set a new club record for the best start to a Premier League season.
Previously, United's best start in the Premier League era was in the 2006-2007 season when they achieved a record of 9 wins, 1 draw, and 1 loss in the first 11 rounds, totaling 28 points.
Looking at the entire Premier League history, United's 30 points in the first 11 rounds was only surpassed by Chelsea in the 2005-2006 season and Manchester City in the 2011-2012 season. Both Chelsea and City remained unbeaten in their first 11 matches, winning 10 and drawing 1, earning 31 points.
This was an outstanding achievement, especially considering the high quality of their victories. United had already faced and beaten three of the "Big Six" teams—Manchester City, Liverpool, and Chelsea—losing only to Chelsea.
United had scored 33 goals in 11 league matches, averaging 3 goals per game, the highest in the league. Defensively, they conceded 11 goals, averaging 1 goal per game, second only to Tottenham, who had conceded just 6.
Among the top five European leagues, La Liga leaders Real Madrid were unbeaten but had only 27 points from 8 wins and 3 draws, 3 points behind United. Serie A leaders Juventus had 10 wins and 2 losses from 12 matches, also slightly behind United. Bundesliga leaders Bayern Munich and RB Leipzig were both unbeaten but had drawn 3 of their 10 matches. Ligue 1 leaders Lille had 29 points from 9 wins, 2 draws, and 1 loss in 12 matches.
Manchester United was the highest point-per-game team among the 98 teams in the top five European leagues, truly standing out alone.
During the upcoming two-week international break, the Portugal national team had only one match, a home game against Latvia on November 13. This was the fourth match of the World Cup European qualifiers group stage, and it was expected to be another massacre.
Despite Latvia's defensive tactics, Portugal, with two reigning Ballon d'Or winners, dominated the match.
Portugal had 75% possession, which is rare in football.
Portugal had 30 shots, 11 on target, and scored 6 goals. Latvia had 6 shots, 2 on target, and scored 1 goal.
To stop Portugal's attacks, Latvia committed 23 fouls, and their goalkeeper Vanins made 5 saves.
Bruno and Ronaldo both scored twice.
With two more goals, Bruno's tally for Portugal in 2016 reached 20, setting a new national team record for goals in a calendar year. Ronaldo's two goals brought his total to 15 and 16 for 2016, with 71 goals in 136 national team appearances, the highest among active players, far surpassing Messi.
Ronaldo had some bad luck in this match.
In the 44th minute, he broke the offside trap and entered Latvia's penalty area, only to be wrongly flagged offside.
In the 57th minute, Ronaldo won a penalty but hit the post. In 2016, Ronaldo missed 6 of 10 penalties for club and country.
Before the end, Ronaldo's header hit the crossbar after a Quaresma cross.
Despite the missed penalty, the woodwork, and a bad offside call, Ronaldo's two goals capped off his 2016 national team campaign perfectly.
2016 was Ronaldo's best year in the national team, with 6 goals in 7 matches leading Portugal to the European Championship.
(End of Chapter)
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