Chapter 59: The state fluctuates

But the dragon's weakness really seems to be exposed.

In the fourth round of the League Cup, Manchester United and Middlesbrough in the Championship played out a 0-0 draw in 120 minutes!

Manchester United fielded an entire bench for this game.

The goalkeeper is teenager Johnstone, the right wing-back Rafael at the back, the centre-back combination of Chris Smalling and Phil Jones, and the left wing-back is Luke Shaw who has returned from injury.

The four players in midfield are left wing-back Ashley Young, midfielder Carika partnered with teenager Fusumensa, right midfielder Nani, and on the forward line, teenager Marcus Rashford partnered Hernandez.

With the exception of Marcus Rashford, who featured in the last Manchester derby, none of the other players have featured. It's a complete bench line-up.

However, according to common sense, even such a lineup is much stronger than Middlesbrough on paper, but Manchester United, who is playing at home, besieged Middlesbrough for more than 120 minutes and failed to gnaw the opponent down.

Then in the penalty shoot-out, substitutes Rooney, Carrick, and Ashley Young missed a penalty kick, and Manchester United was eliminated 3-1 by Middlesbrough on penalties in the Carabao Cup!

There seems to be an up-and-down run in a team's form, with a draw in the Manchester derby ending their winning streak and then being knocked out by Middlesbrough in the Carabao Cup, all of which seem to signal a decline in United's form.

The elimination of the League Cup actually had no effect on Manchester United.

Compared to other major European leagues, the Premier League has two cup competitions, the League Cup and the FA Cup.

Compared to the FA Cup, the League Cup organized by the professional leagues looks a lot more chicken. In fact, if it weren't for the strength of England's strong tradition, the FA Cup would not have been too much of a trophy to be chased by the big teams.

Ancelotti didn't feel anything to regret being eliminated from the Carabao Cup. It was clear from the start he arranged that he had completely used the Carabao Cup as a training ground for substitutes and young players.

If it weren't for the fact that United's first-team squad was a bit overstaffed, Carlo Ancelotti could have even sent the youngsters of the youth team to cope with this competition.

Carlo Ancelotti was a bit hasty in accepting Manchester United, and after buying a few players, the first team was a bit crowded.

Carlo Ancelotti still has a lot of work to do next season, including slimming down the first team.

The English media reported Manchester United's League Cup elimination by Championship side Middlesbrough as a big upset. Apart from the local media in Manchester, the English media elsewhere are happy to see Manchester United unlucky. Because Manchester United is not only the club with the most fans in England, but if anyone counts, it should also be the most hated club - who makes Manchester United win the most titles.

United didn't keep his haters happy for long, either.

On October 31, in the 11th round of the English Premier League, Manchester United faced Crystal Palace away!

Mata's injury is good news for Wayne Rooney personally, as he can finally get a chance to start and prove what he can do.

Sure enough, Carlo Ancelotti confirmed in his press conference the day before the game that Wayne Rooney would start this game.

It is clear that Carlo Ancelotti wants Rooney to use his experience to do Mata's job.

It is worth mentioning that Rooney has scored 187 goals in his Premier League career, which is tied with Manchester United legend Andy Cole for second place in the Premier League, second only to Alan Shearer with 260 goals. In terms of total goals, Wayne Rooney ranks third in team history with 236 goals, just one goal away from second-placed Dennis Law and 13 goals behind first-place Bobby Charlton.

Edwin Alan Padu's side have been in poor form of late, but Crystal Palace, who play at home in this game, have shown their determination.

No one expects Crystal Palace to beat Manchester United, who have the absolute upper hand with 30 wins, nine draws and seven defeats, scoring 86 goals and conceding 43. Among them, against Crystal Palace away, Manchester United has a record of 11 wins, 6 draws and 4 defeats, scoring 36 goals and conceding 27 goals. Manchester United are unbeaten in the league against Crystal Palace with 12 wins and two draws, and have never won against Manchester United in the history of the Premier League.

Alan Padu wasn't expecting his side to win against Manchester United, and he was happy with a draw at home.

But of course, he can't just say that to the Crystal Palace players. He told his players before the game that they wanted to win at home. After all, only if you take victory as your goal and strive for it, then even if the final goal is not achieved, the final result may not be too bad.

Defend solidly, then use the speed of Ponchon and Gayle to play United's counter-attacks. This is Alain Padu's idea, in fact, there is nothing special, the weak team plays the strong team, isn't it all this idea.

Although the media said that Manchester City had given other Premier League teams ideas to deal with Manchester United, Alan Paddu knew that his team was not Manchester City, he did not have Silva, De Bruyne, Aguero, he only had Ponyon and Gale.

Crystal Palace were also knocked out of the Carabao Cup two days ago, but they were far worse than Manchester United, who were swept away 5-1 by Manchester City.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference, Alain Pardu said: "The Carabao Cup is behind us and we are focused on the league at the weekend and Manchester United. Even though players like Cabaye are unavailable, we will still try to put out the best line-up. ”

Palace did show their belief in the first half, and although their counter-attacks failed to threaten David De Gea's goal, a hard-nosed defence saw them go into the break with a 0-0 scoreline.

However, in the second half, Palace resisted for just six minutes before conceding a goal.

Li Qingshan turned on the line of the penalty area and volleyed a right-footed shot into the top right corner of the goal, helping Manchester United open up the winners.

Di Maria then broke through and was brought down in the box by the Palace centre-back, and United were awarded a penalty.

Wayne Rooney converted the penalty to take his Premier League goal tally to 188, surpassing Andy Cole to become the second leading scorer in the Premier League.

At the end of the game, Carrick, who started the game instead of Fellaini, who was suspended for a red card, also scored a goal, he was through a free kick opportunity on the left side of the penalty area, when all the players were pinned down by Li Qingshan and others near the small penalty area, Rooney pulled the ball to the edge of the penalty area, Carrick met the ball and pushed it to help the team seal the win.

After suffering two draws in a row, Manchester United continued to lead the Premier League with a 3-0 victory.