We can improve by 32 points if we have a very good transfer window. Why do you have little optimism?
Ole Gunnar Solskjær | 2021/22 Discussion
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I agree. And I mentioned that in my post also:
It is my biggest concern that he hasnt got more out of them.
People are scared of being critical of Ole because he is a club legend and nice. The same problem arises with some of the players like Young etc. If someone rings MUTV and says anything against them it's 'He's a great lad'. That is the best they can come up with. So that is the criteria for United now is it, being a great lad.
The solution was to be ruthless and not give them contracts. Fine, it happened. Being ruthless would be no longer playing them and then selling them because they would have no future at the club. We know that's not going to happen though. He's played Young non stop this entire awful period despite knowing full well Young is past it and is not going to magically get better. Instead of using that time to build toward the future by playing Dalot even more, he chose Young. If you're not expecting either fullback to give you an outstanding performance, the better option is to go for the player who can still get better.
If you did a poll on whether or not Young, Jones, and Lingard will get sold this summer, I bet 99% will not believe it. And for good reason. He's not ruthless despite the sound bites.
Cardiff was a long time ago. He's a smart guy. He'll have learned from the experience.
I think he has a pretty good idea of what a United player should look like. As should Phelan, Carrick etc. I see no reason to suggest they cant sign a decent fullback between them.
I'm pretty sure you've answered your own question there.
Yep easily possible.
Wouldn't use MUTV as an indication. It's a propaganda channel.
It's actually not that easy mate. We have signed full backs lately and neither of them really hit off.
It's very important position and in Liverpool's case cornerstone to their success. Phelan/Ole combo doesn't really fill me with confidence identifying one. We can easily fall for the Trippier path and end up with even more deadwood on big contract..
Then he should be brave and test that out. Why wouldn't he give O'Connor the starting LB spot over Young yesterday? If you know Young isn't going to give you a good performance and you're confident the youngsters will be more of a liability, why not give the youngster some experience for his development? Help build toward the future instead of some has been who is going to stink the place up guaranteed and has no future past next season.
Did LVG have to play Blackett? Mcnair? Love? No. Some managers are willing to show bravery.
He played Young because he was desperate to get the job and couldn't afford inexperienced players to make mistakes and cost him wins. After he got the job, he played Young to get the best results possible in a rotten run of form -- because he felt Young had more experience and was likely to get back to form more than Dalot and the rest. Of course, Young didn't deliver on his expectations.
Also has no bad word to say against English players no matter how badly they perform, while he has singled out Martial and Sanchez as capable of doing more. He is too eager to buy into the mythical "club culture" which is blunting whatever ruthlessness he may otherwise show.
If Ole had joined in December and spread out his wins and losses more evenly but ended in 6th. place a lot of people on here would have been more forgiving. It appears that his dramatic start made people think we were better than we actually are. It is difficult to explain the two parts to the season since Ole arrived but, whatever, that is what has happened.
The only absolute truth in the matter is that we have a squad that is lacking in class players, have players who do not want to work as hard as 'pool and city and most other prem teams, and finally have too many players who are set in their ways and/or are over the hill. We should all know that a rebuild has been needed for a few years now and I don't mean tampering by putting a few big names in specific areas. We need a complete overall from top to bottom from youth set up and scouting to board level.
Now the hard part. Which one of the geniuses out there is going to put their money where their mouth is and say who should be the man to do this? Don't forget, if you are old enough to remember, Fergie had six years of similar to what we are doing now before a young lad called Mark Robins scored a goal in the cup that saved his bacon. Whoever could have predicted that?
It appears too many want instant success but it is a rare commodity although can be accelerated by lashings of money and good planning, but again may also need a succession of managers as well.
The only absolute truth in the matter is that we have a squad that is lacking in class players, have players who do not want to work as hard as 'pool and city and most other prem teams, and finally have too many players who are set in their ways and/or are over the hill. We should all know that a rebuild has been needed for a few years now and I don't mean tampering by putting a few big names in specific areas. We need a complete overall from top to bottom from youth set up and scouting to board level.
Now the hard part. Which one of the geniuses out there is going to put their money where their mouth is and say who should be the man to do this? Don't forget, if you are old enough to remember, Fergie had six years of similar to what we are doing now before a young lad called Mark Robins scored a goal in the cup that saved his bacon. Whoever could have predicted that?
It appears too many want instant success but it is a rare commodity although can be accelerated by lashings of money and good planning, but again may also need a succession of managers as well.
One hell of a window that must be to gain us 10 extra wins and 2 draws, whilst also needing City to not improve at all. Not happening, a good window should have us competing with Spurs, Chelsea and Arsenal to get in top 4. Bad window and I doubt we finish higher than 6th again.
North Korea TV is probably more neutral than MUTV. Loved Geoffrey Boycott's unexpected rant the other day.
Shirt sales in Asia mean absolutely nothing on the football pitch, I don’t know how big of a club we are, but anything football related we’re not even a top 20 club.
We’re run by incompetent amateurs.
Previous managers have.
Pretty sure they're trying to get away from chasing big names on silly wages. He wants to sign young players on the way up that will be useful for many years. He wants players with high fitness levels.
Trippier meets none of those criteria.
We would need the stars to align and city and liverpool pick up 8-10 points less and we go on a crazy Leicester style run to have a title shot.
Aiming for a title next season could undermine the rebuild. We need to be thinking about how to build a team that can compete for multiple seasons.
Aiming for a title next season could undermine the rebuild. We need to be thinking about how to build a team that can compete for multiple seasons.
This is kinda post sums up the anti ole brigade. Blaming him for not playing some untested reserve team players rather than Smalling and Jones who despite being crap were the only suitable players for CB this season.
Almost everyone bashing ole and wanting him out here are being knee jerk and panicky. You don't build successful teams like that. You will never ever get instant success.
It takes time and for any of you to take 2 or 3 months of games to judge a manager is just childish.
Do you see playing players like Blackett, McNair and Love for Manchester United as some sort of achievement?
This naive throw the youth team into the first team shit needs to stop. Our reserves couldn't get promoted from the 2nd division. They can earn it like anyone else.
Maybe some of us know his playing style from molde and see what hes trying to implement here at United?
Theres a clear vision ole has for me. It's the style of football we need.
Goes to show the type of fans that want ole out immediately. A new shiny name from the reserves is all they care for.
Same goes for managers. What has Ole done to deserve couple of windows and perm contract? 10 good games in a row?
I see this getting mentioned. What's the plan and style of football that Ole has? Have you seen how we finished the season? I see no real plan or tactics whatsoever.
It's a return to man United fundamentals of fast counter attacking football along with asking players to press. He is a very attack oriented manager hence the heavy defeats.
He has been unable to implement his tactics for obvious reasons that will be rectified in the summer.
You are using one option to draw too many conclusions. Not sure how much say he had as a care taker manager in extending contracts, when most of them were in discussion for long time.
Dalot didn't look any better (going by what Ole said) we had top 4 in sight and he didn't want to change too much and focused on results. Something he tried and backfired.
You can't make wholesale changes and expect ship to sail smoothly. He would have lost dressing room even before he started the job. It's not like he can dump him so that there are better players readily available.
He has talked the talk, now with transfer window he has a chance to prove what he talked.
Said it few times, we have too much deadwood and can't clear in 1 single window. So in the end, people will moan about players who stayed saying how Ole isn't ruthless. Also clearing deadwood doesn't depend on single party, it needs agreement between 3 parties.
We're going to sign Mickey Mouse, Goofy McSloppy, Quasimodo, Winnie "eat your pie" Williams. They'll fit perfectly in this team.
Woodward dreamed of a Disneyland for adults in United, he's going to have it his way. You're kidding yourself if you think this "rebuilding" job is one man task.
Until we have proper structure in place, nothing going to change.
It is. I have to say, I would be more supportive of Ole if he hadn't changed his mind of what he thinks of the players. When we were winning, “they are a fantastic bunch of players” to now, “we need man utd players”. Wo? Rashford and Lingard? They were worse than Pogba yesterday, but because they are man utd, they get a free pass!
Back to the fitness issue, it's nothing to do with fitness! It's basic tactics on a football pitch. Something solskjaer has failed to get out of them!
All I saw yesterday was headless chickens with no direction!
And let's not forget, the football was pretty much boring when Phelan was no.2 to SAF! So I don't think he is a great appointment for the modern day!
That's really something every manager nowadays will present as a "plan". He hasn't really been sticking to his pressing "plan" either. Don't confuse attack oriented manager with tactically naive manager.
Him saying that just means the likes of you get your knives out quicker when it is quite obvious we are no where near.
The supporters need to reign in expectations and quick.
He actually auditioned for the role. How many managers do that before getting a contract?
He got it by winning a shitload of games. Knocking PSG out of Europe, beating Chelsea and Arsenal away in the cup and getting us from 12 points off top 4 to almost making it.
Kind of hard to stick to it when half the squad started falling with hamstring injuries. He's talked countless times about fitness levels not being where they should be.
@SteveW @shamans
what is your take on these, would love to hear your opinion on our shape in those examples. Again blamed on fitness or?
Spaces between the lines
Anyone who has ever coached or played football knows that you need to protect the space between your defensive and midfield lines. This is especially true against teams like Barcelona. In the image below, I’ve highlighted United’s defensive setup just before Coutinho made it 3-0. Lionel Messi is on the ball in midfield and plays a sweeping pass out to Jordi Alba. He could, though, just as easily have threaded it into Coutinho or Luis Suárez who are positioned between United’s defence and midfield. The central midfield duo of Fred and McTominay both push towards the ball while the defence drops, creating that huge space between the lines.
Alba has just played the ball back to Coutinho (yellow). Lindelöf, Smalling and Jones have all dropped while left-back Ashley Young has been to slow to retreat. The same goes for Fred in midfield. This means Barca are actually 3 vs 3 against United’s remaining defenders just outside the penalty area after just two passes from their own half. Young’s positional weakness is highlighted here as he should have dropped alongside his fellow defenders and been somewhere around where I’ve put the empty white circle. Then United would have been 4 vs 3 and could have let Smalling step out to Coutinho. Now they can’t and Coutinho has enough time to score beautifully.
This is just one example but United consistently give up space between the lines and allow teams time on the ball just outside their own penalty area. This is due to the poorly synchronised collective movements out of possession, and the individual mistakes in terms of basic positioning made by so many of their defenders and central midfielders.
Horrible positioning around the box
However, what perhaps is most startling for a team at United’s level is the horrible positioning around their penalty area. What I’ll look at now is truly amateur stuff. It seems laughable when you remember this team defended so well positionally as a collective at home against Liverpool and away to Chelsea and PSG.
Let’s start with a situation from the Manchester derby last week. Raheem Sterling has the ball and is up against Young. You can see United’s back-five in pretty good positions at this point.
In the image below, Sterling has now started to drive infield. Young (white) should just pass him onto Pereira (yellow) at this point. United are still in good positions to defend at this point with seven players behind the ball.
As you see below, Pereira has been easily beaten. Young has continued to follow Sterling’s run inside and now looks to put pressure on the winger. Please have a look at United’s back-five. It’s possible that you’ve never seen a back-five in these positions. Look at Smalling in particular who has dropped four yards deeper than his fellow centre-backs and plays Agüero and Silva onside.
As Sterling plays the ball to Gündogan, the German has a great chance to play a one-touch pass to David Silva who is onside all alone just in front of goal due to Smalling’s ridiculous positioning. United were lucky that he didn’t see this pass. If he had, Silva and Agüero would be 2 vs 1 against Smalling just outside the six-yard box. United have nine players here in the central area of the pitch but are poorly positioned as a collective.
United’s defensive players are consistently guilty of chasing the ball rather than keeping their positions around the box. The game against Watford provided plenty of examples of this. The image below highlights Roberto Pereyra as he has just received the ball. Young (white) is immediately attracted to the Argentinian. Smalling (blue) decides to pick up the run from Deulofeu into space behind Young.
Preferably, Young would have stayed in position, allowed Smalling to step up and picked up the run of Deulofeu. As it was, they changed positions. As the image below shows, this is still no issue. Smalling (yellow) provides pressure on the ball while Young (white) covers in as a centre-back.
This is where the ridiculousness kicks in again. The ball is played inside to Pereyra (blue) again. Smalling is still wide right having pressed Deulofeu. Young steps up to Pereyra. Nemanja Matić (black), United’s defensive midfielder, has now decided to leave his position and move very deep alongside Jones. When Will Hughes makes a run into this vacated space centrally, United’s left-back Luke Shaw (yellow) makes an unexplainable decision. He leaves his position (empty yellow circle) to mark Hughes. As Abdoulaye Doucouré makes a run into this space, Paul Pogba (white) is forced to go with him. So, rather than Shaw staying in his position and Pogba in his, United now have Shaw in central midfield and Pogba at left-back.
The ball is transferred to Deulofeu who cuts inside. As you see below, United have now a situational back-six. It reads, from right to left, Smalling-Young-Matić-Shaw-Jones-Pogba. With Herrera pressing Deulofeu, United have NO ONE defending the space outside the box. This is spectacularly unorganised at a level I’ve rarely seen at any level.
Luke Shaw has impressed with his individual defending in many games. His positional sense, however, leaves a lot to be desired. The image below highlights this perfectly well. For some reason, he has decided to mark Hughes four yards behind the rest of his teammates. As Jones, Young and Smalling have all changed positions in this situation, United are already disorganised. Shaw’s position means United have no cover on their left. Shaw should be somewhere around where I’ve put the black circle. Now, United have no player defending the left half of their penalty area and Watford create a chance from which Janmaat should have done better.
Finally, United also showcased these positional issues against West Ham. The image below shows the build-up for West Ham’s goal. At first, United’s defenders are in decent positions. Smalling (white) provides pressure on the ball while the other three provide cover behind him. Preferably, I’d have liked Jones a bit deeper, in the black circle, but it’s still a decent setup.
What then happens is symptomatic for United’s structural positional issues around their own box. As you see below, Smalling (white) now provides cover for Dalot as Lanzini has received the ball on West Ham’s left. This job should be done by Fred or Mata. Smalling, as the ball-near centre-back, should move back into the position highlighted to defend the first-post area. This would allow Jones to defend the middle of the goal and Rojo the back-post area. Mata and Pogba are too lazy to get back into the correct positions. This leaves United defending the cross 2 vs 2 when they should always have a numerical advantage in their own box. As it happens, Rojo’s individual defending is perhaps even worse than the collective as he allows Anderson to get to the cross first despite spending eight seconds looking straight at the Brazilian.
Man-orientated defending causing issues
When United enjoyed a good run and defended really well, they did so with an organised positional approach where each player kept their position rather than marking the closest opponent. Recently, however, the old Mourinho habits of chasing the ball and opponents have crept back into the players with plenty of them now making consistently poor decisions when defending. Let’s have a look at Manchester City’s second goal in the derby as an example.
In the image below we can see how Sterling skips past Fred with the Brazilian needlessly diving in rather than looking to delay Sterling’s run. Even worse, though, is the action of Lingard. He happens to be in a defensive midfield position and could easily have stopped or at least delayed Sterling by moving into the highlighted direction. What he does, however, is to stop and allow Sterling to run past him.
As Sterling now drives towards United’s back-three (as highlighted below), United’s three centre-backs are in really good positions. Despite City attacking 4 vs 3, this doesn’t look all that dangerous at this point. Amazingly, one run (Agüero’s) causes havoc for United. It’s not even a tough run to defend against, Darmian should pass Agüero on to Smalling who can just drop and block the potential pass.
In the image below we see the scene that has been doing the rounds on social media with United’s defenders in a straight vertical line. Instead of Darmian passing Agüero on to Smalling, the Italian followed the run as a man-orientated defender should. This leads to the open passing lane from Sterling to Sané. Had Darmian passed Agüero on, he could have prevented that pass from ever being made by standing in the highlighted space (yellow circle). Now, Sané is allowed a free run at goal.
On other occasions, United have struggled not because of their players following runners, but by opting not too. The below image highlights a situation against Watford. You would think United have this situation under control. There are four United players up against four Watford players. Let’s see what happens in the next image.
Three seconds later, Watford have exchanged a few passes and Hughes has made the highlighted run. Look at the three United players! Pogba, who marks Hughes in the image above, is pointing to Hughes, probably urging someone to mark him when in fact that’s his job. Kiko plays the pass into Hughes and Watford easily get into the penalty area.
what is your take on these, would love to hear your opinion on our shape in those examples. Again blamed on fitness or?
Spaces between the lines
Anyone who has ever coached or played football knows that you need to protect the space between your defensive and midfield lines. This is especially true against teams like Barcelona. In the image below, I’ve highlighted United’s defensive setup just before Coutinho made it 3-0. Lionel Messi is on the ball in midfield and plays a sweeping pass out to Jordi Alba. He could, though, just as easily have threaded it into Coutinho or Luis Suárez who are positioned between United’s defence and midfield. The central midfield duo of Fred and McTominay both push towards the ball while the defence drops, creating that huge space between the lines.
Alba has just played the ball back to Coutinho (yellow). Lindelöf, Smalling and Jones have all dropped while left-back Ashley Young has been to slow to retreat. The same goes for Fred in midfield. This means Barca are actually 3 vs 3 against United’s remaining defenders just outside the penalty area after just two passes from their own half. Young’s positional weakness is highlighted here as he should have dropped alongside his fellow defenders and been somewhere around where I’ve put the empty white circle. Then United would have been 4 vs 3 and could have let Smalling step out to Coutinho. Now they can’t and Coutinho has enough time to score beautifully.
This is just one example but United consistently give up space between the lines and allow teams time on the ball just outside their own penalty area. This is due to the poorly synchronised collective movements out of possession, and the individual mistakes in terms of basic positioning made by so many of their defenders and central midfielders.
Horrible positioning around the box
However, what perhaps is most startling for a team at United’s level is the horrible positioning around their penalty area. What I’ll look at now is truly amateur stuff. It seems laughable when you remember this team defended so well positionally as a collective at home against Liverpool and away to Chelsea and PSG.
Let’s start with a situation from the Manchester derby last week. Raheem Sterling has the ball and is up against Young. You can see United’s back-five in pretty good positions at this point.
In the image below, Sterling has now started to drive infield. Young (white) should just pass him onto Pereira (yellow) at this point. United are still in good positions to defend at this point with seven players behind the ball.
As you see below, Pereira has been easily beaten. Young has continued to follow Sterling’s run inside and now looks to put pressure on the winger. Please have a look at United’s back-five. It’s possible that you’ve never seen a back-five in these positions. Look at Smalling in particular who has dropped four yards deeper than his fellow centre-backs and plays Agüero and Silva onside.
As Sterling plays the ball to Gündogan, the German has a great chance to play a one-touch pass to David Silva who is onside all alone just in front of goal due to Smalling’s ridiculous positioning. United were lucky that he didn’t see this pass. If he had, Silva and Agüero would be 2 vs 1 against Smalling just outside the six-yard box. United have nine players here in the central area of the pitch but are poorly positioned as a collective.
United’s defensive players are consistently guilty of chasing the ball rather than keeping their positions around the box. The game against Watford provided plenty of examples of this. The image below highlights Roberto Pereyra as he has just received the ball. Young (white) is immediately attracted to the Argentinian. Smalling (blue) decides to pick up the run from Deulofeu into space behind Young.
Preferably, Young would have stayed in position, allowed Smalling to step up and picked up the run of Deulofeu. As it was, they changed positions. As the image below shows, this is still no issue. Smalling (yellow) provides pressure on the ball while Young (white) covers in as a centre-back.
This is where the ridiculousness kicks in again. The ball is played inside to Pereyra (blue) again. Smalling is still wide right having pressed Deulofeu. Young steps up to Pereyra. Nemanja Matić (black), United’s defensive midfielder, has now decided to leave his position and move very deep alongside Jones. When Will Hughes makes a run into this vacated space centrally, United’s left-back Luke Shaw (yellow) makes an unexplainable decision. He leaves his position (empty yellow circle) to mark Hughes. As Abdoulaye Doucouré makes a run into this space, Paul Pogba (white) is forced to go with him. So, rather than Shaw staying in his position and Pogba in his, United now have Shaw in central midfield and Pogba at left-back.
The ball is transferred to Deulofeu who cuts inside. As you see below, United have now a situational back-six. It reads, from right to left, Smalling-Young-Matić-Shaw-Jones-Pogba. With Herrera pressing Deulofeu, United have NO ONE defending the space outside the box. This is spectacularly unorganised at a level I’ve rarely seen at any level.
Luke Shaw has impressed with his individual defending in many games. His positional sense, however, leaves a lot to be desired. The image below highlights this perfectly well. For some reason, he has decided to mark Hughes four yards behind the rest of his teammates. As Jones, Young and Smalling have all changed positions in this situation, United are already disorganised. Shaw’s position means United have no cover on their left. Shaw should be somewhere around where I’ve put the black circle. Now, United have no player defending the left half of their penalty area and Watford create a chance from which Janmaat should have done better.
Finally, United also showcased these positional issues against West Ham. The image below shows the build-up for West Ham’s goal. At first, United’s defenders are in decent positions. Smalling (white) provides pressure on the ball while the other three provide cover behind him. Preferably, I’d have liked Jones a bit deeper, in the black circle, but it’s still a decent setup.
What then happens is symptomatic for United’s structural positional issues around their own box. As you see below, Smalling (white) now provides cover for Dalot as Lanzini has received the ball on West Ham’s left. This job should be done by Fred or Mata. Smalling, as the ball-near centre-back, should move back into the position highlighted to defend the first-post area. This would allow Jones to defend the middle of the goal and Rojo the back-post area. Mata and Pogba are too lazy to get back into the correct positions. This leaves United defending the cross 2 vs 2 when they should always have a numerical advantage in their own box. As it happens, Rojo’s individual defending is perhaps even worse than the collective as he allows Anderson to get to the cross first despite spending eight seconds looking straight at the Brazilian.
Man-orientated defending causing issues
When United enjoyed a good run and defended really well, they did so with an organised positional approach where each player kept their position rather than marking the closest opponent. Recently, however, the old Mourinho habits of chasing the ball and opponents have crept back into the players with plenty of them now making consistently poor decisions when defending. Let’s have a look at Manchester City’s second goal in the derby as an example.
In the image below we can see how Sterling skips past Fred with the Brazilian needlessly diving in rather than looking to delay Sterling’s run. Even worse, though, is the action of Lingard. He happens to be in a defensive midfield position and could easily have stopped or at least delayed Sterling by moving into the highlighted direction. What he does, however, is to stop and allow Sterling to run past him.
As Sterling now drives towards United’s back-three (as highlighted below), United’s three centre-backs are in really good positions. Despite City attacking 4 vs 3, this doesn’t look all that dangerous at this point. Amazingly, one run (Agüero’s) causes havoc for United. It’s not even a tough run to defend against, Darmian should pass Agüero on to Smalling who can just drop and block the potential pass.
In the image below we see the scene that has been doing the rounds on social media with United’s defenders in a straight vertical line. Instead of Darmian passing Agüero on to Smalling, the Italian followed the run as a man-orientated defender should. This leads to the open passing lane from Sterling to Sané. Had Darmian passed Agüero on, he could have prevented that pass from ever being made by standing in the highlighted space (yellow circle). Now, Sané is allowed a free run at goal.
On other occasions, United have struggled not because of their players following runners, but by opting not too. The below image highlights a situation against Watford. You would think United have this situation under control. There are four United players up against four Watford players. Let’s see what happens in the next image.
Three seconds later, Watford have exchanged a few passes and Hughes has made the highlighted run. Look at the three United players! Pogba, who marks Hughes in the image above, is pointing to Hughes, probably urging someone to mark him when in fact that’s his job. Kiko plays the pass into Hughes and Watford easily get into the penalty area.
that's a really long winded way of saying our defense is shit.
If you think for a second I'm wasting my time reading through all this after the quality of your last few posts you are sadly mistaken.@SteveW @shamans
what is your take on these, would love to hear your opinion on our shape in those examples. Again blamed on fitness or?
Spaces between the lines
Anyone who has ever coached or played football knows that you need to protect the space between your defensive and midfield lines. This is especially true against teams like Barcelona. In the image below, I’ve highlighted United’s defensive setup just before Coutinho made it 3-0. Lionel Messi is on the ball in midfield and plays a sweeping pass out to Jordi Alba. He could, though, just as easily have threaded it into Coutinho or Luis Suárez who are positioned between United’s defence and midfield. The central midfield duo of Fred and McTominay both push towards the ball while the defence drops, creating that huge space between the lines.
Alba has just played the ball back to Coutinho (yellow). Lindelöf, Smalling and Jones have all dropped while left-back Ashley Young has been to slow to retreat. The same goes for Fred in midfield. This means Barca are actually 3 vs 3 against United’s remaining defenders just outside the penalty area after just two passes from their own half. Young’s positional weakness is highlighted here as he should have dropped alongside his fellow defenders and been somewhere around where I’ve put the empty white circle. Then United would have been 4 vs 3 and could have let Smalling step out to Coutinho. Now they can’t and Coutinho has enough time to score beautifully.
This is just one example but United consistently give up space between the lines and allow teams time on the ball just outside their own penalty area. This is due to the poorly synchronised collective movements out of possession, and the individual mistakes in terms of basic positioning made by so many of their defenders and central midfielders.
Horrible positioning around the box
However, what perhaps is most startling for a team at United’s level is the horrible positioning around their penalty area. What I’ll look at now is truly amateur stuff. It seems laughable when you remember this team defended so well positionally as a collective at home against Liverpool and away to Chelsea and PSG.
Let’s start with a situation from the Manchester derby last week. Raheem Sterling has the ball and is up against Young. You can see United’s back-five in pretty good positions at this point.
In the image below, Sterling has now started to drive infield. Young (white) should just pass him onto Pereira (yellow) at this point. United are still in good positions to defend at this point with seven players behind the ball.
As you see below, Pereira has been easily beaten. Young has continued to follow Sterling’s run inside and now looks to put pressure on the winger. Please have a look at United’s back-five. It’s possible that you’ve never seen a back-five in these positions. Look at Smalling in particular who has dropped four yards deeper than his fellow centre-backs and plays Agüero and Silva onside.
As Sterling plays the ball to Gündogan, the German has a great chance to play a one-touch pass to David Silva who is onside all alone just in front of goal due to Smalling’s ridiculous positioning. United were lucky that he didn’t see this pass. If he had, Silva and Agüero would be 2 vs 1 against Smalling just outside the six-yard box. United have nine players here in the central area of the pitch but are poorly positioned as a collective.
United’s defensive players are consistently guilty of chasing the ball rather than keeping their positions around the box. The game against Watford provided plenty of examples of this. The image below highlights Roberto Pereyra as he has just received the ball. Young (white) is immediately attracted to the Argentinian. Smalling (blue) decides to pick up the run from Deulofeu into space behind Young.
Preferably, Young would have stayed in position, allowed Smalling to step up and picked up the run of Deulofeu. As it was, they changed positions. As the image below shows, this is still no issue. Smalling (yellow) provides pressure on the ball while Young (white) covers in as a centre-back.
This is where the ridiculousness kicks in again. The ball is played inside to Pereyra (blue) again. Smalling is still wide right having pressed Deulofeu. Young steps up to Pereyra. Nemanja Matić (black), United’s defensive midfielder, has now decided to leave his position and move very deep alongside Jones. When Will Hughes makes a run into this vacated space centrally, United’s left-back Luke Shaw (yellow) makes an unexplainable decision. He leaves his position (empty yellow circle) to mark Hughes. As Abdoulaye Doucouré makes a run into this space, Paul Pogba (white) is forced to go with him. So, rather than Shaw staying in his position and Pogba in his, United now have Shaw in central midfield and Pogba at left-back.
The ball is transferred to Deulofeu who cuts inside. As you see below, United have now a situational back-six. It reads, from right to left, Smalling-Young-Matić-Shaw-Jones-Pogba. With Herrera pressing Deulofeu, United have NO ONE defending the space outside the box. This is spectacularly unorganised at a level I’ve rarely seen at any level.
Luke Shaw has impressed with his individual defending in many games. His positional sense, however, leaves a lot to be desired. The image below highlights this perfectly well. For some reason, he has decided to mark Hughes four yards behind the rest of his teammates. As Jones, Young and Smalling have all changed positions in this situation, United are already disorganised. Shaw’s position means United have no cover on their left. Shaw should be somewhere around where I’ve put the black circle. Now, United have no player defending the left half of their penalty area and Watford create a chance from which Janmaat should have done better.
Finally, United also showcased these positional issues against West Ham. The image below shows the build-up for West Ham’s goal. At first, United’s defenders are in decent positions. Smalling (white) provides pressure on the ball while the other three provide cover behind him. Preferably, I’d have liked Jones a bit deeper, in the black circle, but it’s still a decent setup.
What then happens is symptomatic for United’s structural positional issues around their own box. As you see below, Smalling (white) now provides cover for Dalot as Lanzini has received the ball on West Ham’s left. This job should be done by Fred or Mata. Smalling, as the ball-near centre-back, should move back into the position highlighted to defend the first-post area. This would allow Jones to defend the middle of the goal and Rojo the back-post area. Mata and Pogba are too lazy to get back into the correct positions. This leaves United defending the cross 2 vs 2 when they should always have a numerical advantage in their own box. As it happens, Rojo’s individual defending is perhaps even worse than the collective as he allows Anderson to get to the cross first despite spending eight seconds looking straight at the Brazilian.
Man-orientated defending causing issues
When United enjoyed a good run and defended really well, they did so with an organised positional approach where each player kept their position rather than marking the closest opponent. Recently, however, the old Mourinho habits of chasing the ball and opponents have crept back into the players with plenty of them now making consistently poor decisions when defending. Let’s have a look at Manchester City’s second goal in the derby as an example.
In the image below we can see how Sterling skips past Fred with the Brazilian needlessly diving in rather than looking to delay Sterling’s run. Even worse, though, is the action of Lingard. He happens to be in a defensive midfield position and could easily have stopped or at least delayed Sterling by moving into the highlighted direction. What he does, however, is to stop and allow Sterling to run past him.
As Sterling now drives towards United’s back-three (as highlighted below), United’s three centre-backs are in really good positions. Despite City attacking 4 vs 3, this doesn’t look all that dangerous at this point. Amazingly, one run (Agüero’s) causes havoc for United. It’s not even a tough run to defend against, Darmian should pass Agüero on to Smalling who can just drop and block the potential pass.
In the image below we see the scene that has been doing the rounds on social media with United’s defenders in a straight vertical line. Instead of Darmian passing Agüero on to Smalling, the Italian followed the run as a man-orientated defender should. This leads to the open passing lane from Sterling to Sané. Had Darmian passed Agüero on, he could have prevented that pass from ever being made by standing in the highlighted space (yellow circle). Now, Sané is allowed a free run at goal.
On other occasions, United have struggled not because of their players following runners, but by opting not too. The below image highlights a situation against Watford. You would think United have this situation under control. There are four United players up against four Watford players. Let’s see what happens in the next image.
Three seconds later, Watford have exchanged a few passes and Hughes has made the highlighted run. Look at the three United players! Pogba, who marks Hughes in the image above, is pointing to Hughes, probably urging someone to mark him when in fact that’s his job. Kiko plays the pass into Hughes and Watford easily get into the penalty area.
I didn't watch if yesterday as so angry and they likely wouldn't have helped my mood. They have cancelled a couple of phone-ins lately. They usually have one after every game, good or bad, but not recently. Don't want a few home truths I think.
I have optimism but it's not blind to the reality of the situation we're in.
Another very very outstanding managerial recommendation from sir Alex... can we please stop taking managerial advice from an 80 yrs old man now? I'd really like that.
@Enigma_87 Better use spoiler tags IMHO
And we'd still not improve by 32points.
@Enigma_87 I'm going to give that massive post a read later but I'll warn you that these stills with arrows and what not are often extremely misleading and is just a way to bait people online to make it seem they know what they're talking about.
I can show you any goal Man City have conceded this season and show you how they were "tactically inept" due to which the goal was conceded.
I can show you any goal Man City have conceded this season and show you how they were "tactically inept" due to which the goal was conceded.
That old man is the greatest manager of all time, sometimes his insight is welcomed.
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