No one dared to underestimate Manchester United, and Gao Bo was no exception.
After all, this was the most successful team since the Premier League era began, and their coach was also the best coach in the Premier League.
Their roster was filled with stars. Just looking at their starting lineup gave Gao Bo a headache.
Currently, Manchester United's weakest link was probably the goalkeeper. Due to Van der Sar's injury, their current number one goalkeeper was English goalkeeper Ben Foster. Manchester United fans had high expectations for this goalkeeper because Ben Foster had performed quite well in the pre-season friendlies. However, in Gao Bo's memory, this goalkeeper had made quite a few low-level mistakes. Not to mention being the number one goalkeeper for a team like Manchester United, Ben Foster wasn't even qualified to be a number two goalkeeper. Gao Bo remembered that this goalkeeper was once ridiculed by Chinese fans as "Dumb-Foster."
Apart from the goalkeeper, Manchester United's central defender pairing was probably the strongest in the Premier League: Ferdinand and Vidić! The partnership of these two central defenders made Manchester United's defense impenetrable. As for the full-backs, Ferguson chose the versatile O'Shea to play right-back, and the left-back was naturally Evra.
This combination of defenders was quite good, and in midfield, Manchester United's starting lineup was Valencia, Fletcher, Carrick, and Nani lined up in a row. Looking at this midfield configuration, Gao Bo knew what Ferguson wanted to do—Valencia and Nani on both sides were quite sharp players in attack. They were incredibly fast and could provide a constant stream of attacks on the wings.
And in the forward line, it was Rooney paired with Berbatov.
Seeing such a lineup, Gao Bo knew that his team would be in for a tough time.
Valencia and Nani would be two important attacking points. Using fast wingers to attack the opponent's defense had always been Manchester United's forte.
However, Gao Bo didn't give too detailed instructions on tactics before the game, because the team had been working on tactical training and coordination for the past month or two. This game would be a test of the team's training results over the past month.
Of course, the main focus was on defense. Manchester United would definitely be the attacking side.
Could they win the Community Shield? Gao Bo certainly didn't want to lose, but the focus of this game was still to assess the players and see how they performed.
The players from both sides quickly walked onto the field from the player tunnel, and then both sides stood on the field. All the fans stood up.
Before the game started, both sides had to stand and applaud to pay tribute to the former legendary England coach who passed away from cancer a week ago.
Ferguson was also observing Luton's players.
Compared to last season, there were several changes in Luton's starting lineup.
First of all, of course, was in the forward line. Antoine Griezmann, who Luton spent 500,000 euros to sign from Real Sociedad B team this season, was of course the focus of Ferguson's attention.
In fact, in England, people were quite impressed with Gao Bo's vision. After all, there were several successful examples before.
However, it was difficult for Ferguson to find information about Griezmann.
And Manchester United's scouts only gave him a very general summary: flexible, with good technique!
Ferguson wanted to curse when he saw this information.
How the hell could you tell anything from that?
Moreover, Gao Bo was willing to spend 500,000 to sign this player, which was enough to show that Gao Bo was very optimistic about Griezmann. With precedents, no one dared to underestimate the players Gao Bo signed.
The other new player was Schmeichel. Ferguson was very familiar with this, because this was the son of former Manchester United goalkeeper Schmeichel. However, the son of this Manchester United legend chose to join Manchester City's youth academy.
Schmeichel's performance in a few games for Manchester City last season was still remarkable. His reaction and speed to the bottom line were very fast, and his basic skills were very solid. However, he exposed many shortcomings in the Premier League games. First of all, in terms of height, Schmeichel Jr. was only 1.84 meters tall, which was too disadvantageous in the goalkeeper position. First of all, of course, was the control of high balls. Schmeichel had a natural defect, so although Schmeichel's technique was good, Manchester City still let him go—even many Premier League teams gave up on signing Schmeichel after seeing his height.
Ferguson knew Sol Campbell very well. After all, this was Arsenal's main central defender before. Ferguson was naturally very familiar with the players of his old rival. However, Ferguson was actually skeptical about how much Campbell could still contribute at such an old age.
As for the other two new signings Luton brought in, Carl Jenkinson was on the bench, while Alex Sandro was unable to play due to work permit issues. He might be sitting in some corner of the stands at this time.
In this way, Luton's starting lineup was not much different from last season. Goalkeeper Schmeichel, the central defender pairing on the defense line was Geoffrey and Sol Campbell, left-back Sorodavis, right-back Mitchell Piran, the central midfield was the combination of Drinkwater and Kanté, and on both sides were Kevin Keane and Hassan Ali, and the forward combination was Vardy and Griezmann.
Because the defensive pressure in this game was very high, Gao Bo chose Hassan, who had stronger defensive ability, in midfield, while Adam was on the bench. The main reason for choosing Geoffrey to start in the central defender position was that Geoffrey's header ability was stronger. After all, Manchester United's attacks on both sides could create many opportunities for crosses, and Luton needed to strengthen the defense of high balls.
And in the forward line, the positioning of the two forwards was a bit different from last season.
Compared to Charlie Austin, Gao Bo gave Griezmann much more tactical weight!
Gao Bo let Griezmann stand behind Vardy, as a number nine and a half player. Moreover, Griezmann was not just a number nine and a half. Gao Bo had never used Griezmann as a pure shooter—because Griezmann's ability was far more than that. When he moved forward a little, he was a forward, he was a shooter, but when he retreated from number nine and a half to number ten, Griezmann also played very well in the attacking midfielder position.
Although Griezmann could play many positions, Gao Bo believed that the position that could maximize his role was still in the center.
The reason why Luton struggled so much when facing a dense defense last season was largely due to the lack of an attacking organizer. Drinkwater was not an organizer, he was more like a midfielder who sorted things out, and he also had defensive ability, and Kevin Keane was actually similar to Drinkwater. So Griezmann could undoubtedly fill this gap.
Wembley was buzzing with noise. Not long after the game started, Ferguson was taken aback by Griezmann's performance.
After Manchester United kicked off, Valencia's side was Manchester United's main attacking direction. He broke through all the way to the bottom line on the wing, and then swept the ball across the middle with great force, but Luton's players had already anticipated this move.
Sol Campbell's position was very good,
He didn't clear the ball with a big kick, but pushed the ball towards the sideline, to Hassan Ali!
Here you could see the experience of the veteran. Sol Campbell knew that for the team, any counter-attack opportunity was very precious.
Hassan was just a connecting player, and he quickly passed the ball to Drinkwater. Drinkwater didn't stop either, because Griezmann had also come back to get the ball!
Griezmann took the ball with his back to Fletcher, but he faked a few moves and shook off Fletcher. Then he dribbled the ball all the way forward and shot from the edge of the penalty area, but the ball went slightly wide of the post, but it still startled the Manchester United fans.
Where did they find such a talented player?!
Ferguson glanced at Gao Bo not far away and thought silently.