Attack or defend?
Every team eventually faced that choice.
During the first half of the Premier League season, New Manchester United had been widely praised as one of the most balanced sides in England.
Martin Samuel had repeatedly analysed Mourinho's tactics in his columns.
In his view, the system borrowed ideas from Total Football but expressed them in a more direct, aggressive, and modern way.
The pressing began high.
The midfield closed space relentlessly.
Possession was recovered quickly.
And once New Manchester United had the ball, they attacked with speed and purpose.
A number of Premier League clubs had struggled badly against it.
Charlton Athletic 0-5 New Manchester United.
New Manchester United 4-0 Manchester City.
Tottenham 1-4 New Manchester United.
Middlesbrough 0-3 New Manchester United.
Aston Villa 0-3 New Manchester United.
New Manchester United 3-0 Blackburn.
The results were not accidental.
Many opponents simply had not adapted to the intensity of Mourinho's pressing or the constant movement of his attacking players.
The Magic Four rotated almost continuously in the final third.
Behind them, two central midfielders connected the play.
And behind that sat one of the strongest defensive units in the league.
On paper, it looked close to perfect.
In reality, there was no such thing as a perfect balance between attack and defence.
The two were always connected.
Push too many players forward and space appeared behind them.
Sit too deep and the attack lost support.
A team could not spend ninety minutes attacking with everyone and defending with everyone at the same time.
Liverpool had provided the clearest example.
New Manchester United had gone three goals ahead at Anfield.
Then, for ten chaotic minutes, the entire structure disappeared.
Liverpool scored three times.
That match had become a warning.
On the club's supporter forums, one fan had offered what sounded like a simple solution.
Five players should attack.
Five should defend.
The Magic Four and Beckham could handle the offence.
Essien and the back four could handle the defence.
The coaching staff dismissed the idea immediately.
Football did not work that way.
Ethan could think of an obvious example from his previous life.
The first Galácticos era at Real Madrid had sometimes resembled exactly that kind of structure.
Too many attacking stars.
Too few players willing or able to protect the team without the ball.
The result was obvious.
Mourinho had reached a similar conclusion from a different direction.
"Modern football is more collective than ever," he once said when journalists compared Messi with Maradona.
"The eras of Pelé and Maradona cannot simply be recreated."
"This game demands too much collective work now."
"A player can still be extraordinary, but nobody survives at the highest level without the team."
That was Mourinho's view.
And it shaped the problem he now faced.
Arsenal.
...
Arsenal were an extremely difficult opponent.
Their attack was outstanding.
Their defensive structure, for all the criticism it received, was still strong enough to keep them unbeaten.
They had drawn too many matches, which was why New Manchester United currently sat above them.
But the league table meant very little before a match like this.
The season was only halfway through.
There was still an enormous amount of football left to play.
Leading in December proved nothing.
So how should New Manchester United approach Highbury?
That question had occupied Mourinho and his staff for days.
Attack?
The risk was obvious.
Arsenal were dangerous enough when given normal space.
If New Manchester United committed too many players forward, Henry, Pires, Bergkamp, and Ljungberg could tear into the spaces left behind.
Arsenal were also better defensively than many people gave them credit for.
Defend?
That was safer in theory.
But there was no guarantee that a counter-attacking approach would work against Wenger's side.
And Arsenal had another problem.
Ashley Cole would miss the match.
He had been sent off in the previous round against Bolton after a reckless challenge.
That immediately made Arsenal's left side look more vulnerable.
For Mourinho, the temptation was obvious.
A weakness like that was difficult to ignore.
The only question was whether attacking it would expose New Manchester United elsewhere.
The media had long praised Wenger's influence on Arsenal.
But opinions about the team's style were divided.
Some viewed Arsenal as the most technically accomplished side in England.
Others pointed towards their disciplinary record and accused them of being far more physical than their elegant reputation suggested.
Since Wenger's arrival in 1996, Arsenal had accumulated a remarkable number of red cards.
Ashley Cole's dismissal was only the latest.
Jeffers.
Campbell.
Vieira.
And now Cole.
This was not the gentle, purely artistic Arsenal that later generations of supporters might imagine.
They could be brilliant.
They could also be nasty.
Ethan remembered how Arsenal would eventually become associated almost entirely with elegant attacking football.
But watching them in the present made that image feel incomplete.
Their attacking combinations were beautiful.
Their defensive challenges often were not.
Even Wenger, usually quick to defend his players publicly, had admitted that Cole deserved to be sent off against Bolton.
That red card had contributed directly to Arsenal dropping points.
Now Cole would miss the biggest match of the Christmas period.
Without him, Arsenal's left side looked weaker.
And their central defence was hardly flawless either.
That was what made the decision so frustrating.
The opportunity to attack was obvious.
So were the risks.
In the past, New Manchester United could approach a match like this with almost nothing to lose.
They were the outsiders.
The promoted club.
The team nobody expected to challenge Arsenal.
Now things were different.
They were top of the league.
Both teams were unbeaten.
Both were carrying enormous momentum.
Neither wanted to lose that unbeaten record.
A defeat in a match of this importance could affect far more than three points.
It could change confidence.
It could alter the psychology of the title race.
That was why Mourinho still had not made up his mind.
Attack?
Or defend?
...
Ethan preferred driving himself.
Walsh had suggested more than once that he hire a chauffeur.
Ethan always refused.
Most of the time he drove his bright red car.
But whenever people saw him behind the wheel of the black Audi, they could usually guess who was sitting beside him.
Eva.
Since becoming pregnant, she had preferred the smoother, quieter Audi whenever they travelled together.
New Manchester United would head south before Christmas for the Arsenal match.
This time, Ethan was leaving Manchester earlier than the squad.
He had promised Eva that they would spend Christmas with her family.
They would travel south first.
Then, on December 26, Ethan would go to Highbury.
They left home for the airport.
On the way, Ethan asked the driver ahead of him to slow near the construction site of New Manchester United's new stadium.
The structure had already taken shape.
From a distance, the scale was becoming obvious.
The major seating modules and stair sections were now being installed.
Each module weighed around eighteen tonnes.
There were more than a thousand in total.
Cranes, lifting cables, and winches had to work in exact coordination.
Once that phase was completed, the remaining major work would focus on the roof and outer shell.
The stadium's exterior would use thousands of lightweight membrane panels.
Most were translucent.
That design allowed far more natural light to reach the pitch than in many enclosed modern stadiums.
Ethan had pushed for that specifically.
He wanted to avoid the turf problems that plagued grounds where the roof blocked too much sunlight.
Then he noticed another familiar Audi parked near the junction leading towards the site.
It was a place Ethan himself often stopped.
From there, he could watch the stadium grow.
"Wait here for me," Ethan told Eva with a smile.
She nodded.
Pregnancy had changed her appearance noticeably now.
There was a calm warmth about her that Ethan had come to love.
He stepped out of the car and walked towards the junction.
Mourinho was standing there.
Alone.
Staring at the stadium.
Ethan stopped beside him.
"So," he said with a smile, "what are you planning to win before we move into that place?"
Mourinho's brows were drawn tightly together.
He had clearly been thinking about football even while standing in front of a construction site.
Still, a faint smile appeared.
"I want a trophy."
Ethan raised an eyebrow.
Mourinho paused.
Then added:
"The Premier League."
Ethan smiled.
He had been hearing the same thought increasingly often around the club.
Maybe this really was the season.
Manchester United were dealing with problems of their own.
Beckham's departure had weakened them significantly.
Ferguson was also distracted by his dispute with John Magnier.
Chelsea had spent heavily, but even Ranieri could not transform a squad after replacing so many important players in a matter of months.
Arsenal remained the strongest threat.
Their form was excellent.
Their attack was outstanding.
But they had weaknesses.
The defence was one of them.
Campbell remained top class.
Keown was ageing.
Cygan hardly inspired complete confidence.
In Ethan's previous life, Kolo Touré would have become an important part of Arsenal's defence that season.
That was no longer possible.
Kolo was at New Manchester United.
Wenger had shown interest in him.
Ethan had no intention of selling.
Liverpool had not shown enough consistency in recent years to look like genuine title favourites either.
Compared with all of them, New Manchester United were not obviously inferior in terms of talent.
Their squad was deep.
Perhaps more importantly, most of the players had already spent at least a year together.
Their understanding was excellent.
Beckham was the exception.
But even he had adapted quickly.
By now, he looked increasingly integrated into Mourinho's system.
Redondo, effectively semi-retired, often discussed matches and midfield positioning with him.
Those conversations had helped.
Beckham's control of games was becoming stronger by the month.
Of course, wanting the Premier League title and winning it were two very different things.
The second half of the season would be much harder.
Christmas was one problem.
The African Cup of Nations was another.
Drogba.
Kolo Touré.
Yaya Touré.
Essien.
All could be unavailable at the same time.
That would be a major blow.
And New Manchester United had no choice but to release them for international duty.
Ethan looked towards Mourinho.
"How confident are you?"
Mourinho kept his eyes on the unfinished stadium.
"At the start of the season?"
"None."
"I was thinking one match at a time."
He gave a faint smile.
"Then suddenly, almost before I realised it, we were top of the Premier League."
He finally looked at Ethan.
"Once you're there, you have to think about winning it."
"Otherwise, you're wasting what the players have earned."
Ethan understood exactly what he meant.
Nobody at Newton Heath had seriously spoken about a title challenge in August.
Now the players could see the table every week.
They knew where they stood.
They knew how well they were playing.
Eventually, pretending the title did not matter would become dishonest.
And once the players truly began believing they could win it, that belief would influence everything in the second half of the season.
"All right," Ethan said.
"If you want to go for it, and the players want to go for it, then we go for it."
Mourinho turned fully towards him.
"We have the quality."
"I trust you."
"I'll tell Walsh and Dave to give the football side everything it needs."
"And if you decide we need reinforcements in January, I'll approve them."
Mourinho nodded appreciatively.
He still needed to discuss that with the coaching staff.
New Manchester United had never liked making winter signings unless there was a genuine need.
January was an awkward time to recruit.
Good players were expensive.
Clubs did not want to sell.
New arrivals had little time to adapt.
But if the title race demanded it, the option would be there.
Ethan's expression then became more serious.
"José."
Mourinho looked at him.
"Have you thought about the bigger issue?"
Mourinho frowned.
"What bigger issue?"
(To be continued.)