.
There’s far more to that than breaking into space. It’s the diminishing of what we actually do that waters down the argument of coaching
It’s inflating the fact that we are a good counterattacking side that leads to the idea we are well coached generally.
Against big sides we are excellent at counter attacking, fast in transition and carry a real threat. No one can argue with that.
last season, we were completely awful defending set pieces and making the most of our own set pieces. Ole brought in a set piece coach. He saw that deficiency too ie. we were poorly coached at set pieces and needed to get someone else in. No one can argue with that. So there’s one way in which we have been poorly coached.
Defensively, we are pretty solid and the new recruit will help. I had little concern last season about the quality of our defensive play aside from playing out from the back. Are we well coached in that sense? Have you seen any quality movement and options when our centre halves or full backs are being pressed high? So I would say we are not particularly well coached in that respect- watch the Wolves game 3 weeks ago. We can’t still be blaming quality. So another area we are poorly coached in.
Finally, and the crux for most fans...playing against deep sitting sides. We look shite. Unless we bang in an early goal and force the other team to come out, we struggled time and time again. 11 draws last season the majority of which we had more possession.
Even more concerning is the wins that very easily could have been draws -
Brighton (A) last minute VAR penalty, Newcastle (A) 86th minute Bruno counter attack opens the flood gates,
West Brom(H) we needed a retaken penalty to win one nil,
Southampton(A) last minute Edi 3-2, Wolves (H) 1-0 Rashford last kick of the game,
Villa (H) won by a penalty,
Burnley(A) Pogba long range deflection, Fulham (A) we were awful and what should have been a walk for title contenders was a desperate 2-1 having gone behind, Sheffield Utd(H) lost-
West Ham (H), own goal1-0,
Brighton(H) Greenwood with 5 minutes to go 1-0..
I’m just gonna stop there.
I love Utd but we played a dangerous game last season. 11 draws and another 12+ games where our inability to break teams down needed divine intervention, penalties (one missed penalty actually got retaken!), deflections,VAR. The quality of our squad is much better then riding our luck for half a season.
Our spirit, amazing, last minute wins -dna of the club. But the Premiership is so competitive. You can fire blanks and come upwith the goods for a few games a season, you can fail to find the net and have an off day once or twice (City v Southampton) butany more than that and you ain’t winning the league. That’s why I don’t understand how some fans can point to the league table and goals scores column last year and forget the actual performances...the slow, sideways passing with no movement and an inevitable cross into a packed area...and say we are a well coached team going forward.
Well coached counter attacking side definitely. Anyway, who knows what this season holds but nothing in our performances so far have indicated an improvement from last season - except for set pieces...