Chapter 528 138 — First Place I

Monday, December 11th, and the analysis room at Carrington was dark except for the screen.

Players drifted in with takeaway coffees and water bottles, boots and training bags shoved under the seats, a few still pulling on their training tops against the cold that had followed them in from the car park. Bruno sat in the second row with his feet up on the chair in front. Mainoo slid in beside Demien without a word and uncapped a bottle of water.

The first clip went up before anyone had properly settled.

It wasn't United against Bayern.

It was Eintracht Frankfurt 5–1 Bayern Munich.

The room shifted slightly. Someone near the back let out a low whistle. Garnacho leaned forward in his seat. McTominay said, "Saturday?" and one of the analysts nodded.

"Saturday," the analyst said. "First league defeat of their season. Thirteen unbeaten before this."

The goals played one after another. Frankfurt 1–0. Frankfurt 2–0. Frankfurt 3–0 before halftime, Bayern's players standing with their hands on their hips in the rain while the home crowd roared. Then two more after the break.

Højlund raised his eyebrows at Dalot. Nobody laughed. It was difficult to watch a team like Bayern concede five and not react, but nobody in the room was stupid enough to enjoy it.

Demien watched the goals differently.

Don't look at the score.

Everybody would look at the score. The papers would. The pundits would. Half the internet already had.

Look at how they happened.

Frankfurt's first came from a turnover in Bayern's own half, the ball stolen as a center-back tried to play into midfield. The second came from a pass that went sideways instead of forward, and Frankfurt were through before anyone in red could turn. The third was the same idea again — Bayern pushing players forward, losing the ball, and Frankfurt attacking the space beside and behind those players before the shape could reset.

It's not that they're weak.

It's that when they lose it high, their distances are wrong for three or four seconds. And Frankfurt went vertical every single time, straight away.

He noticed something else too. Alphonso Davies, on the left, was starting so high in possession that when Bayern lost the ball there was often nobody between the Frankfurt winger and the center-back.

That's the pattern. Not the five goals. The pattern.

And they'll know that too. They'll have watched this on Sunday, same as us.

Ten Hag let the last goal finish, then stepped in front of the screen.

"If anyone in here thinks Bayern are weak now," he said, "you're wrong."

The room went quiet.

"One bad day in the Bundesliga does not change who they are. Kane is still Kane. Musiala is still Musiala. Kimmich. Sané. Coman. And I'll tell you something about a team that's been embarrassed five-one. They don't come to Old Trafford scared. They come looking for a reaction."

He looked around the room slowly.

"In Europe, they haven't lost a group game in years. They're built to go forward fast, through Kane, through the wide players. What Frankfurt found, we might be able to use. But Bayern will be expecting teams to try it. Don't walk in thinking the door is open."

Then he clicked to a plain slide. Just two lines.

Bayern Munich — 11 points Manchester United — 10 points

"We're both through," Ten Hag said. "That's done. Win tomorrow and we finish first in the group. That's the only thing this week is about."

The next section went back to Bayern in the Champions League, including clips from the first meeting between the two sides.

Demien remembered that night vividly. He remembered how often he'd turned around and found a Bayern player standing somewhere he didn't expect.

The first clip showed Harry Kane.

Kane wasn't standing on the shoulder of United's last defender. He was walking away from it — ten yards, fifteen, twenty — until he was practically in midfield, back to goal, calling for the ball.

"If the center-back follows him," the analyst said, freezing the frame, "watch the wide players." He let it run. Sané was already sprinting into the channel the center-back had just vacated. "If the center-back doesn't follow him—" another clip — "Kane gets it facing forward, and he's a playmaker. He can find anyone from there."

"Pick your poison," Bruno muttered.

The next clip added Musiala.

He was drifting into the same kind of space as Kane, the gap between United's midfield and defense. Two players, both in areas where it wasn't clear who should step toward them — a defender or a midfielder. And every time someone hesitated, Bayern's wingers attacked the space the hesitation created.

Demien leaned forward.

I remember this.

In the first game, it wasn't Kane that hurt us. It was Kane and Musiala at the same time, standing in places where nobody could decide whose job they were.

If I follow Kane too high, Musiala steps into the gap I leave. If I stay deep, Kane turns. If a center-back goes with Kane, Sané or Coman are in behind.

So it's not "mark Kane."

It's handovers. It's distances. It's someone always knowing who takes the space when someone else leaves it.

Ten Hag stopped the clip.

"Demien. Kobbie. Scott."

All three looked up.

"I want all three of you listening to this," Ten Hag said. "I haven't decided the midfield yet. Whoever plays needs to understand this properly."

The next clips showed Kimmich and Goretzka sitting behind Bayern's attack. They moved the ball patiently, left to right and back again, almost lazily — until a forward lane opened, and then everything accelerated at once, through Kane or Musiala or out to a winger.

"This is how they do it," the analyst said. "They circulate. They wait. Then they go fast. They'll pull our midfield to the middle and then go around it, through the wide players."

"So we don't chase," Ten Hag said. "Our press needs triggers."

He counted them off on his fingers.

"When they play square between the center-backs, we hold. When a center-back receives facing his own goal, we squeeze. When Kane drops with his back to play, the nearest midfielder presses him and the next one protects the pass beyond him."

He paused.

"And when Kimmich gets the ball facing forward with nobody near him, we've already lost that phase. Understand?"

Nods around the room.

Then the analysts went back to Frankfurt — not for the score, but for the moments.

They showed Bayern losing the ball in buildup, and Frankfurt attacking before Kimmich, Goretzka and the back line could get their distances right again. They showed Davies high on the left, and Mazraoui high on the right, and the empty grass outside the center-backs when the ball changed hands.

"That's the space," the analyst said. "When they lose it with the fullbacks forward, there's room out there. A fast switch, before they recover."

Demien felt the temptation immediately.

That's exactly my kind of pass. Win it, look up, hit it across the pitch into the space behind Davies. I could do that all night.

But if we start hunting that on every possession, we're playing Bayern's game. End to end. Chaos. And with Kane, Musiala, Sané and Coman, chaos is exactly where they want us.

So it comes down to the first pass after we win it.

If the outlet is really there — if the space is actually open — go.

If it isn't, keep the ball. Make them run back and reorganize. Don't give it straight back to them.

Ten Hag finished by returning to the two lines on the screen.

"We are not fighting to survive," he said. "A draw — we're second, qualified. A defeat — we're second, qualified. That's the truth."

He turned back to the room.

"That's freedom. It means we can try to win this without playing desperate football from the first minute. We play our game. We win it properly."

The doors to the training pitches opened onto cold air that went straight into Demien's lungs.

The sky above Carrington was a flat, heavy grey. The grass was dark and damp from the overnight weather, and his studs bit into it with a soft, wet sound as he jogged out. Everyone's breath showed in little clouds. Whistles from the staff cut across the pitches from three directions at once, and the balls skidded across the slick surface faster than they would have on a dry day.

The first part of the session was open, a handful of cameras and press along the far side watching the warm-up. The squad jogged, stretched, and worked through a rondo, Bruno complaining loudly every time he ended up in the middle.

Then the cameras were ushered away, and the staff narrowed the group into the real work.

「CHAMPIONS LEAGUE PREPARATION MISSION ACTIVATED」 「Opponent: Bayern Munich」 「Complete full tactical session」 「Complete 6 successful press escapes」 「Record 5 central handovers against dropping attackers」 「Create 4 progressive actions after regaining possession」 「Complete 4 switches into space behind the advanced fullback」 「Central Turnovers: Maximum 1」 「Reward: +15 TP」 「Bonus Objective: Complete session without repeating a positioning correction」 「Bonus Reward: +15 MP」