With Manchester United's recent excellent form, the media has begun to hype up the players, especially several standout performers, with Jesse Lingard, who just returned from injury, being the most prominent.
Sometimes the media forgets easily, yet it also remembers everything.
As the Roses Derby approaches, coverage of the rivalry between Leeds United and Manchester United has intensified.
Lingard, who has been in superb form over the past six games, has undoubtedly become the center of attention at United. Almost everyone believes he is the key figure behind the team's resurgence.
At the start of the season, Lingard missed six matches due to a contusion.
He was on the bench during the home match against Arsenal but didn't play.
In the six games that followed, he performed exceptionally in every match, either scoring a brace or assisting teammates. Even in the recent match against Sheffield United, he contributed a goal and an assist to help United win.
In six games, Lingard recorded six goals and four assists, delivering an outstanding performance.
Many now say that Solskjaer has found the formula for Manchester United's success.
What is it?
4-2-3-1.
The midfield consists of two holding midfielders, McTominay and Matic.
These two tall and powerful midfielders act like twin towers, providing strong protection for the back line.
In front of them are Martial, Lingard, and Daniel James. Martial plays on the left, James on the right, and Lingard operates as the attacking midfielder behind Rodrygo.
This setup has unleashed United's attacking firepower.
Excluding the match against Manchester City, United have averaged three goals per game, showing great offensive efficiency.
Defensively, the back line consists of Luke Shaw, Maguire, Lindelöf, and Wan-Bissaka, with De Gea in goal.
This has been United's unchanged starting lineup for the past six games.
If any problems arise or a starter isn't available, Greenwood comes on.
In this lineup and system, Lingard, playing in the number 10 role, is undoubtedly crucial.
As United's performances improved, Lingard received increasing praise.
Many media outlets have hailed him as "the mighty Lingard," "United's savior," and even "if Heaven hadn't created Lingard..."
Some journalists shamelessly dubbed him the King of Basketball.
Anyone who dares to question it gets shut down instantly by the media and United fans.
"Emperor Lin was personally chosen by Gao Shen. Who do you think you are?"
"Back in the day, when Gao Shen tried to poach United youth players, his top target was Lingard. Unfortunately, Sir Alex Ferguson also saw his potential and chose to keep him. Only then did Gao Shen settle for Pogba instead."
"If you don't believe it, go look at the reports from back then. Check Ferguson's interviews."
The stories that started as banter had somehow become the truth over time.
Now, with Lingard in such great form, United fans are even more fired up.
Why did United play so poorly at the beginning of the season?
Because Emperor Lin wasn't here!
Lingard's return has left the Premier League awestruck!
Next up, watch as Lingard tramples Leeds United, silences Sterling's City, terrorizes the Premier League giants, and leads United to a stunning comeback.
What's that called?
It's called using something profound to fight something profound!
...
Pfft!
In the conference room at the AXA Centre, when Leeds United's players read the article from The Sun, they all burst into laughter.
Looking at Gao Shen, it was obvious that the word "embarrassed" was written all over his face.
"They said we need to use something profound to counter something profound, so go ahead and self-destruct," Lucas said, laughing out loud.
Everyone joined in the laughter.
The article was written in an absurdly exaggerated style.
"Was this Dan Wootton's handiwork? He's the editor-in-chief of The Sun, right?" Borrell asked with a grin.
Everyone thought it looked like his work.
Dan Wootton is not only the executive editor of The Sun, but also a master at creating headlines and topics. Crucially, he also writes humor columns.
Over the years, he's been prolific and good at guiding public opinion.
Lucas's eyes scanned the room again.
More laughter followed.
When it comes to grabbing headlines, The Sun is one of the best in British media.
Gao Shen, however, remained unfazed. With his current status, even acknowledging Dan Wootton would be giving him too much credit, let alone cursing him.
"Should I intervene?" Lucas asked.
Things had been heating up in the media recently.
United were masters of PR and marketing, and they had fully embraced a traffic-driven business model in recent years.
With such a golden opportunity, why wouldn't they milk it?
"Forget it. I can't be bothered," Gao Shen waved dismissively.
Most people in the industry already know the real story. Even Ferguson later learned the truth. This whole narrative was just a joke that got taken seriously.
Lucas and Borrell, who were Gao Shen's assistants back then, knew perfectly well that Gao Shen never targeted Lingard. He always wanted Pogba.
If Gao Shen had truly rated Lingard, considering United's poor form in recent years, how could the great Emperor Lin have stayed at the club all this time?
Let's be real, Lingard is already 27.
Why use something profound to fight something profound?
It was a joke, plain and simple.
As for United's six-game unbeaten streak, what was really behind it?
It's simple: they were better than their opponents, the tactics fit, and Lingard's form happened to click.
Solskjaer is a good person, but as a head coach, he has a fatal flaw—he lacks a coherent tactical philosophy or system.
He doesn't have a structured style like Guardiola, Van Gaal, Bielsa, or Klopp. He lacks a mature, stable tactical foundation and long-term planning.
Everyone knows that a head coach's job is to constantly encounter and solve problems.
But if you don't have long-term planning and a solid tactical system, your team ends up stuck in a cycle of patchwork fixes.
Solve one problem, and another appears. Fix that, and a third pops up.
It's like pushing down a gourd only to have the ladle pop up.
The tactics remain fragmented and inconsistent.
That's why people feel Solskjaer is always swinging between good and bad, between being the right man and the wrong one.
He constantly plugs holes wherever they appear.
How can a team like that be stable?
Many of United's problems now are beyond the understanding of even football experts, let alone Ferguson.
Why?
Take center-backs, for example. With De Vrij already available, why buy Maguire?
Now they have a group of center-backs who can't press forward, so the defense lacks depth.
What's the solution?
Full-backs can tuck inside, but that weakens flank attacks. Against teams with strong wing play, it leaves the flanks exposed.
Another solution is a double pivot.
McTominay and Matic do offer protection, but both are tall and heavy players. And everyone knows that tall players over 1.9 meters cannot be expected to provide wide coverage.
That's suicide.
Is there a solution?
Yes, add more pressing up front to reduce the midfield's workload.
But what style does Solskjaer play?
Counter-attacking football.
If you press high, you need to push the line forward. But that exposes the defense, and with these center-backs...
So, in the last six rounds, excluding the City game, United scored 14 goals and conceded 7.
Why didn't they concede against City?
Because they were dominated the entire game.
"When United signed Ndombele, I was worried. I thought maybe they were finally doing things right, but..." Gao Shen shook his head with a wry smile.
It was just like when Dele Alli went to United. What a waste.
If they had used Alli properly, they wouldn't have needed to buy Ndombele.
But they couldn't use Alli well, so they bought Ndombele. Now both are flops.
"In modern football, the midfield needs players who can receive, distribute, and battle physically. Ndombele could've been perfect, but..." Borrell sighed.
Leeds have Declan Rice and Aurelien Tchouaméni. City have Rodri and Fernandinho. Real Madrid have Casemiro. Barcelona have Busquets.
If you can't manage with one, use a balanced double pivot.
But United's duo is McTominay and Matic. That's not ideal.
"Solskjaer is overly cautious. Once he finds a lineup that works, he won't change it unless something goes wrong. People call Ranieri the tinkerman, but honestly, I think Solskjaer is more like that," Gao Shen joked.
As a player, Solskjaer was very good.
But as a manager, he's just not there.
Trakliffe's so-called "Red Devils spirit" is nonsense.
Did United's comeback against Bayern in 1999 happen because of spirit?
Sure, spirit helped.
But the key was strength. Real strength.
Without strength, there is no spirit.
Nowadays, United are always talking about Red Devils spirit, as if that's enough.
But they're putting the cart before the horse.
This time, at Old Trafford, Gao Shen plans to completely tear off the final fig leaf of Manchester United's Red Devils spirit.
(To be continued.)