February 28th.
The 28th round of the Premier League was about to begin.
Ling and his teammates arrived in Lancashire, where their opponents today were Burnley, one of the founding members of the English Football League.
Burnley's manager, Sean Dyche, didn't miss the opportunity to exploit Manchester United's rotated lineup.
From the opening whistle, he leveraged the vocal home advantage to launch fierce, physical attacks down Manchester United's right flank.
Martin Tyler: "David Luiz, stepping into a makeshift defensive midfield role today, seems to be struggling with the tempo early on."
Gary Neville: "Less than ten minutes into the match, and he's already made a couple of positioning errors and reckless tackles, Martin. If it weren't for David De Gea's sharp form, the scoreline would likely have changed by now."
Martin Tyler: "And here come Burnley again! Dwight McNeil drives forward with the ball and sweeps a low cross into the box!"
Gary Neville: "Chris Wood lets it roll cleverly behind him! Ashley Barnes follows up with a fierce volley! De Gea makes a world-class save!"
Martin Tyler: "But it's not over! Jack Cork pounces on the rebound from the edge of the box! He scores! Burnley take an early lead at Turf Moor!"
At Turf Moor, the Burnley fans erupted into a deafening roar, every face beaming with delight.
After all, Manchester United isn't exactly the most popular club in the Premier League.
The British newspaper The Mirror had recently conducted a national survey, asking fans to vote for the most popular and most hated Premier League clubs.
The results? Manchester United (68%), Chelsea (65%), and Liverpool (60%) ranked as the top three most hated clubs in the country.
In the most popular clubs survey, smaller sides like Southampton, Bournemouth, and Swansea took the top three spots.
The reason for this naturally boils down to historic dominance.
Manchester United and the other two giants have all dominated the league at various points, so fans of other clubs are always eager to see them lose, hoping they drop out of the title race altogether.
"Mason, drop back deeper and help David with the defense," Ling walked over and instructed Mason Greenwood.
Burnley was ranked 15th in the league table, indicating their overall quality was average.
As long as United could secure the defense at the back, Ling was confident about handling the attack up front.
"Understood, skip!" Greenwood shouted, nodding firmly.
He was a youth academy product just a year younger than Ling and had witnessed his captain's meteoric rise firsthand.
In their future aspirations, all the academy kids dreamed of becoming a player like Jeremy Ling.
Even if he was asked to drop back and defend, or even play as a makeshift full-back, Greenwood would happily do it without hesitation.
"Good, keep it up. The boss has high hopes for you," Ling said meaningfully.
Recently, Jesse Lingard and Paul Pogba had been acting up, and Ling noticed Mourinho's clear intention to discipline them.
If they didn't change their ways, harsher measures would follow.
This gave hungry younger players like Greenwood a golden opportunity.
Upon hearing the captain's praise, Greenwood became visibly energized and glared fiercely at McNeil across the pitch.
'Young players just need a bit of motivation,' Ling thought to himself.
BEEP!!!
After the match resumed, Burnley didn't choose to retreat and defend their lead.
Instead, they continued to target Manchester United's right flank.
Sean Dyche understood that with Burnley's rugged defensive capabilities, it would be difficult to stop Ling's attacks for a full 90 minutes.
So, he decided to go all-in on offense!
Fortunately, with Greenwood's tireless assistance, Manchester United managed to stabilize the right side of their defense.
However, their offense encountered some issues.
Every time Ling got the ball, he was swarmed by three burly defenders.
Even if he managed to break through one or two with sheer force, the opponents didn't hesitate to commit cynical tactical fouls to chop him down.
On the touchline, Mourinho gestured frantically for the players on the left to increase their forward runs, boosting the numbers in the final third.
Ling also stopped trying to force his way through alone and focused more on quick link-up play with his teammates.
Martin Tyler: "With Ling acting as the central spearhead, Manchester United are gradually building fluid passing combinations. Scott McTominay's timing in joining the attack has been spot on!"
Gary Neville: "With less than five minutes left in the first half, I wonder if United can find a crucial equalizer before the break?"
As time passed, the match entered stoppage time.
Ling dropped deep to receive a pass, glanced over his shoulder at the three defenders breathing down his neck, and cleverly flicked the ball with the outside of his boot out to Marcus Rashford on the flank.
Immediately, Ling sprinted into the penalty area. If he couldn't break through with the ball, he'd create space without it!
"Stay with him!" Burnley goalkeeper Tom Heaton urgently reminded his center-backs, pointing at Ling's run.
Little did Heaton know that another player had ghosted into the vacated space at the edge of the box.
Martin Tyler: "Rashford cuts it back to the edge of the area!"
Gary Neville: "McTominay's diagonal run is too clever; he's shaken off Ashley Westwood!"
Tyler: "McTominay shoots! It finds the bottom corner! Manchester United are level on the stroke of halftime!"
Ling even made sure to run across the goalkeeper's line of sight just as the shot was struck.
By the time Heaton reacted, the ball had skimmed across the wet turf and buried itself into the net.
No wonder he started his youth career as a striker, Ling smiled, rushing toward the young Scotsman.
"Scott, you're our hero!"
"Hero! Hero!" the Manchester United players chanted as they swarmed him.
Equalizing just before halftime was a massive boost to morale.
When they returned to the pitch after the break, the team was fired up and raring to go. Burnley simply couldn't resist the pressure.
In the 67th minute, McTominay's decoy forward run distracted the midfield, giving Ling a pocket of space.
He barged past Ben Mee and unleashed a thunderous long-range strike.
The ball flew like a cannonball, crashing into the Burnley net and shattering the home side's hopes of a draw.
1-2.
From then on, Manchester United pragmatically changed their approach and began to park the bus.
The Burnley fans in the stadium started jeering, with piercing boos ringing out nonstop, but the United players remained unfazed.
Short on rotation players and dealing with an exhausted squad, there was no shame in locking down a lead.
They had learned the pragmatic essence of Mourinho's philosophy: winning is what truly matters!
In the end, Manchester United narrowly defeated Burnley away, wrapping up their final match of February.
After this match, the 28th round of the Premier League concluded.
To the disappointment of Manchester United fans, Liverpool beat Leicester City 3-1, and Manchester City defeated Newcastle United 2-1.
Their biggest rivals in the title race hadn't slipped up.
If the situation remained this tight—with all three teams winning every match except when facing each other—the title race would become complicated.
Ling glanced at the upcoming fixture list on his phone.
Manchester United would face Liverpool in mid-March and Manchester City at the end of April.
"I wonder if Liverpool, with no hope of winning the title themselves, might go easy on Manchester City just to spite us?" Lukaku asked casually on the bus.
"Trust in their professionalism, Rom. We just need to focus on ourselves," Ling cut the topic off.
Some questions were better left unasked; if the media got wind of that narrative, a massive storm would follow.
Besides, although United and Liverpool were bitter historic rivals, he didn't think the current Liverpool squad lacked integrity.
"Ugh, those things are too far off anyway. Let's think about what we're eating tomorrow instead," McTominay grinned, stuffing a large piece of grilled chicken breast into his mouth.
Manchester United had recently hired a new head chef, rumored to have previously served the England national team.
"His seasoning skills are really good," Ling agreed, gnawing on a beef rib. "I have a sponsor event to attend in London tomorrow. Call me if there are any issues."
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