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Manchester United’s tactical shape has been brutally picked apart by a Premier League analyst who spells out exactly where things have gone wrong this season for Erik ten Hag’s side.
The Red Devils’ defensive woes are no secret and the shortcomings of the side were spectacularly exposed last night by 14th placed Crystal Palace in an horrendous 4-0 defeat at Selhurst Park.
The Eagles’ Michael Olise and Eberechi Eze time and time again marched through a non-existent United midfield and mercilessly attacked the makeshift central defensive partnership of an unfit Jonny Evans and an out-of-position Casemiro.
55 goals have flown past Andre Onana this season in the Premier League and there are still three tough looking fixtures against Arsenal, Newcastle United and Brighton and Hove Albion to come.
None of this should really come as a surprise, however, given a Premier League analyst interviewed by The Athletic claimed, “it was quite easy to see that they were better with the ball than without it.”
The analyst, who asked to be anonymous to protect relationships, claimed to have spent 18 hours poring over footage of United’s tactical setup before a trip to Old Trafford earlier in the season.
They had identified that if United could not win the ball back quickly in the final third, it became significantly easier to play against them and keep possession, as the side struggled to defend in a medium and low block.
“The thing that we were surprised by the most was actually how much time and space that we were able to get at Old Trafford — that we were able to get out of the pressure so much.”
United have seen less possession in just under half of their league games this season and this has occurred a shocking nine times at Old Trafford this season. Embarrassingly, this has also happened against teams such as Luton Town, Burnley and Everton.
After the four shipped last night, United must only concede two goals in their remaining three to have the worst amount of league goals conceded in their Premier League history, and this is already the worst defensive record in all competitions since the 1977-78 season.
In essence, even the untrained eye can see that the biggest structural problem is the chasm left between the midfield and the low-lying defence.
The analyst explained this happens because “when you would play with two No 6s, they would use their No 10 and one of the No 6s to connect with the two players, so they were quite man-oriented on those two players.”
“That’s what creates the big gap — that they only have one No 6 between the lines. We wanted to overload that area, because what we noticed was that with that big gap in there, if they wanted to be open, we could go straight into it.”
United’s typical response to this is also regularly exposed by the opposition.
“When teams overloaded central areas, their back four would get so narrow, so that when we played around the winger and the first line of the press, the full-backs would have such a long distance into pressing our full-backs that they wouldn’t be able to manage.”
“Every time we bypassed the winger, they would have to drop and then they would get passive, and then we would get more and more space on the ball higher up the pitch.”
United would typically respond by marking man for man in the penalty area, which in turn, would leave lots of space on the flanks.
“They became so narrow and man-oriented that if we had hard runs against the near post, we would empty out the area at the back post a lot, and we would create some overloads there.”
The analyst claims that aspects of Erik ten Hag’s high press have worked but the problem is that for a system like this to work, everybody has to do it, not just the players up top.
“But if you’re going to be that aggressive, it needs to be team-wide. You can’t say, ‘Actually, our centre-backs are not really good at this so we’re just going to let them hang back.’”
In the FA Cup fourth round versus fourth division Newport County, the Red Devils gave up 17 shots and the lower league team scored two in a 4-2 away win.
The performance analyst at Newport, Conor McGaharan claimed, “with the shape of their midfield, we felt that if we could get a switch through their midfield three, onto the outside shoulder of the furthest midfielder, and we could get our wing-back going forward, we could get crosses into the box.”
The under-fire Dutch coach has claimed that such chaotic transition football aligns with the traditions of the club and he even bizarrely labelled his side the most dynamic side in the division.
However, in an era where Arsenal and Manchester City are dominating due to specific control of matches, even if Ten Hag’s tactics were working – which they aren’t – it would still be out of step with what the most successful teams are trying to do.
With new technical director, Jason Wilcox, being tasked to be one of the main architects of the new club-wide style of play, it is imperative that United move away from this ridiculous style which has made them as defensively useful as a chocolate teapot.
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