I remember watching a thing with Thierry Henry years ago about his time at Barca, and how Pep set them up to attack against teams playing deep (aka anyone who played against Pep's Barca side), and how Pep gave Henry a bollocking for deviating from the attacking patterns.
When I watch us, against the deep sides I see a lot of the issues I recall Henry mentioning. The wide players all tuck in narrow, instead of literally hugging the line and pulling the defensive side into wider positions, to create spaces between the cb and fb for midfield runners to use, or give a creative type more space as an oppo cm would tuck into the defence to plug the gaps that a runner would use.
Currently we get to the attacking third, and it feels like we play within the width of the 18 yard box (we may play on one wing, but the team on the other side comes narrow still). Its not necessarily we need new players, we just need more width and to stay wide and force gaps to appear
It's a catch 22 situation and it's been the same since the Mourinho days. What Henry was describing is barely revolutionary. It's a given that when you have the ball, your main goal is to make the pitch as big as possible. The problem is how to get there by utilizing your best players in their favourite roles and how to create the right synergies between the players in order to instil and then maintain some semblance of fluidity in your game.
Before we get to the final third, let's take a look first at what we're doing (or not doing) in the build-up phase. Solskjaer understands that, with the midfield options at his disposal, it's very difficult to move the ball through the lines down the central channels. He also acknowledges that he has to find a solution to that problem because when you're a transition-based side, you simply can't afford to dilly-dally on the ball in your own the third. So, what does he do? He spends the vast majority of his budget on a ball-playing centre-half and a right-back who possesses adequate ball-playing ability (AWB is not an attacking FB by any means but he is not a donkey on the ball either) because he aims to use the width of the pitch in order to progress the ball forward. Lindelof was preferred over Smalling for the same reasons too.
Then the problems start: The centre-halves (Maguire-Lindelof) exchange passes between them and eventually the ball is passed to the FB who stays a bit deeper because he is expected to be involved in the build-up. From that point, AWB and Shaw have two primary options and one secondary. The two primary passes available are toward the centre-half and toward the midfielder (both on the near side, of course). The first opens up the opportunity for a long diagonal switch-play pass toward the FB on the other side while the latter is supposed to get one of the midfielders on the ball, facing the goal, and with the whole of the pitch available to pick a pass.
In theory.
What actually happens is the following: When the CB gets the ball back from the FB, he can't play the long diagonal because the FB on the far side is very deep and hasn't moved higher up the pitch. And he can't play the ball vertically to the midfielder (on his side) because the latter is almost always on the same vertical line with him and he doesn't look to create an angle to receive the pass. So, it's the short-pass to the other CB who will take his turn in trying to create the same pattern with the FB on his side. Rinse and repeat. There are a few rare occasions when the CBs attempt to carry the ball through the lines on their own or play a direct pass through the lines and some others when McT will show up for the ball but that's as far as it goes.
We eventually get the ball to the halfway line (better late than never) and then other problems occur. For starters, the relationship between the #10 and the forward is static. There's no backwards-forwards movement and interchanging of positions that keeps the defenders guessing and creates angles for passes. Martial more often than not looks lackadaisical and just waits for the ball to come to him. And when he decides to brace us with his presence by dropping deeper to get more involved there's rarely anyone making any runs in behind. I mean, yesterday Lingard attempted one such run and he almost fecking scored. The problem with Lingard is that he barely resembles a proper footballer nowadays. As for our other #10s: Mata will come all the way down to our third of the pitch just to turn around and face the goal, Pereira looks for spaces available in the wide areas from where he can only cross the ball when we don't have anyone to score from crosses and Pogba is a magician with the ball but picking pockets of space between the lines isn't exactly his strong suit. Doesn't mean that we haven't missed him though with the aforementioned players being our alternatives.
One more thing regarding the second phase of our build-up. It's no secret that we aim to overload the left side and use the right-wing to switch play. When we stagnate on the ball in the midfield, Rashford rarely drops off to provide an option for a pass. Or better, there are periods during a game when he looks very active and others when he gets lost and he's only searching for runs in behind. This creates an issue because it draws the #10 on the left side to operate as a stepping stone for the ball to reach Rashford's feet and, subsequently, leaves Martial completely isolated centrally. And us with none to switch-play quickly and smoothly. Important note: This dropping off to receive the ball and play a neat one-two is the ability that makes both Salah & Mane so invaluable to Klopp's tactics. Add Firmino's constant movement (in comparison to Martial's) and the wide playmakers in their FBs and you understand two things: Why Liverpool look unbeatable and why we are not getting at the same level any time soon.
The problem with this isn't that Rashford's lazy. In your post, you mentioned Henry. He and Eto'o could stretch the pitch horizontally simply because they were comfortable with getting on the ball near the touchline. They were capable of making things happen from those positions. Rashford hasn't reached that level yet. He possesses explosive acceleration but when he's running with the ball he plays with the breaks off. He only looks to shoot. It creates a conundrum because Rashford is at his best when he receives the ball in the left half-space and near the box where he can look how to finish or link up with someone and run in behind. But the LB (Shaw or Young) can't cover the whole of the pitch vertically and the midfield is not good enough to keep the ball moving right behind him.
James is making himself more available but he's limited on the ball. Lingard has a good tactical understanding too but he's very poor on the ball too (and has other issues too). Impasse.
How much of it is on the manager and how much is on the players is up for debate. Both are at fault. We need players with a better positional sense but we also need to find ways to make things easier for ourselves. Conte struggled with the 433 initially at Chelsea because he couldn't find the extra man in the first phase of his transitions (he likes to use the width of the pitch too). He found the right formula when he reverted to three at the back. But his tactical understanding of such systems is exquisite. The lack of a physical presence up front is also hindering us. It's not the fear of resorting to hoof-balls as our FBs are playing many direct balls when they run out of options already (the secondary option i mentioned previously). It's about having a "get out of jail" card every once in a while when things get desperate. And no Lukaku isn't that type of player and Mourinho paid the price for making the wrong choice. Such an option, at least coming from the bench, could have helped us get over the finishing line in some games when the manager had to come up with different formations and tactics.
We planned the season wrongly and we put a lot of faith on too many players to provide us with solutions. And now we're paying for it.
