Chapter XXIII The Competition for Position

Under the gaze of the television cameras, Frenchman Claude Pierre stared at the pitch with his hands on his chest and deep eyes, and there was no sign of any reaction to United's attack on his face. （）

In fact, Pierre was a little worried at this time.

This season he took over the reins from Ronald Koeman to take charge of a club located in one of England's warmest regions. Although the former Lyon and Nice manager of Ligue 1 appeared confident in an interview with the media, if you look back at the achievements of his predecessor Ronald Koeman, Southampton finished eighth, seventh and sixth in the Premier League in the previous three seasons!

For Southampton as a club, they will definitely not be the first group in the Premier League, Manchester United, Manchester City, Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, these teams are the first group teams in the Premier League, and it should not be Southampton - Everton are also in much better condition than Southampton. It is not easy to achieve such an achievement in the Premier League.

When you climb to the top, it's definitely hard to enjoy the scenery halfway up the mountain.

The same goes for the fans, Claude Pierre has taken over a Southampton team that has produced the best record in recent years, and for the Frenchman, the pressure on this season is still very high, especially on the basis of the sale of a number of key players, Claude Pierre's job this season is destined to be very difficult.

Pierre knows it will be too difficult to beat Manchester United at Old Trafford, but Southampton will also have to fight for points – and there is no game to give up.

Before the start of the game, Claude Pierre thought that Manchester United would attack Southampton on high-altitude balls, after all, this season the Saints lacked Wundt, Pelle, Wanyama's Southampton's ability to defend high-altitude balls has declined significantly, and in the last round of games, the Saints faced Watford, who were not excellent in aerial confrontation, actually fell behind in this statistic, you must know that the Saints were one of the teams with the most powerful headers last season.

But I didn't expect Manchester United to come up with a wave of ground cooperation to hit the middle, Li Qingshan and Pogba two hundred million Mr. continuous cooperation tore apart Southampton's defense, and the Saints almost conceded the ball when they came up!

Pierre's deep eyes kept staring at Pogba and Li Qingshan, who were walking back and still communicating something. The continuous cooperation of the two talented players just now made Pierre's eyelids jump.

Compared to last season, Manchester United has more weapons in attack!

Before Manchester United's ace tactics of high-altitude balls were played, they first showed off a short pass in the middle of the pitch in the positional battle, and it was only two players who completed the attack. No one will doubt Li Qingshan's ability, and now it seems that Manchester United once again spent nearly 120 million euros to buy back Pogba, which is also quite scary - the Community Shield game, Pogba looks very uncomfortable, but in just two weeks, Pogba looks completely adapted to the Premier League, Serie A to the Premier League, seamless connection!!

Such a Manchester United is terrible!!

Pierre clasped his hands to his chest, trying to calm himself.

If Manchester United have improved a lot in attack this season, then in defence, they should be no different from last season, no, no!! They should be better defensively than last season.... Nerfed!!

Last season, Manchester United had three defensive midfielders in front of the backline, and this season Pogba looks to be more involved in attack, so in terms of defensive numbers, United will naturally decline.

The new season has just begun, Southampton drew at home to Watford in the last round, and this time they are away to Old Trafford, and the whole Southampton team is full of motivation to pick up points - anyway, the season has just started, and the teams are not yet under much pressure on the points.

Southampton, who are playing away from home, have taken the initiative to increase the tempo, playing with the speed of the two strikers and the pace of the away game against Manchester United.

Two minutes later, Southampton launched an attack on the right flank, striker Raymond's dribbling speed was fast, Manchester United left-back Sandro and defensive midfielder Kramer were swept away by Raymond's forward attack!

Raymond received the ball on the side near the bottom line, Rojo forced out, Sandro also chased after him behind, Raymond's sudden acceleration did make Sandro difficult to guard against for a while, but Sandro was not slow, Raymond just got the ball, he caught up.

Southampton's other striker, Sean Long, was cutting in into the box and Rojo jammed Raymond's pass, but Raymond slammed the ball with his right foot and his left foot was ready to cross.

There were a number of Southampton players in the box, and when there were chances to attack, Southampton were not conservative at all.

Marcos Rojo grimaced that he had brought in a new centre-back this season and knew they were likely to take his place. But in the arena, nothing is absolute, as long as he performs well enough, then it remains to be said whether the twenty-three-year-old black boy can take his place.

The Argentines are going to fight for their position!

At the moment when Raymond crossed with his feet, Rojo slammed to the end and bravely blocked Raymond's cross with his head!!

There was applause in the stands.

Rojo made a beautiful and brave defense!!

The camera immediately focused on Eric Bailly on the bench, and the Ivorian stood up to applaud Rojo's performance, just like the rest of United's substitutes, at least from the look on his face.

"Manchester United spent 30 million pounds to bring in the Ivory Coast defender this season, many people think that he will replace Rojo as Manchester United's starting central defender, but look at Rojo's performance this time, who starts and who is on the bench, it is really not necessarily!!"

Carlo Ancelotti is also applauding Rojo's performance this time, he brought in Bailly, but if Rojo can maintain this form for a long time, Bailly may not be able to replace Rojo's starter.

Keeping the team healthy in competition is what Carlo Ancelotti wants to do.

Anyone's starting position isn't necessarily set in stone.

Ancelotti's message is that in the starting position, he will only select the best players, even if it is Li Qingshan, as long as someone can surpass Li Qingshan in the center position, he can also start.

Competitive sports have their brutality, and all professional players have to adapt to that.