Mourinho: "We are not a physical side"

[MyOnlySolskjaer]

It really is hard to understand how we concede so much from set pieces and aerial duels. This has been an issue for many seasons now. You'd think adding the likes of Lukaku, Matic, Pogba and having Smalling starting, we'd be able to cope one game without Fellaini but we seem to be so easy to score against.

Surely we will make signings to address this but why is this such an issue for us? We make it seem as if we have midgets defending for us.

 

[VorZakone]

Not focused enough during set pieces.

 

[Bobski]

It is not the size but what you do with it that counts.

Pogba and Lukaku are both rubbish defensively from set pieces, switch off, lose their man, or react slowly. Matic is fairly average aerially. For all that Utd have a lot of tall players it is only only really Smalling and Fellaini who attack the ball with any conviction. Rojo as well maybe but he is a bit of a clown.

 

[Beachryan]

He's not wrong. We don't really have a single physical monster out there (w/o Fellaini). Even Smalling tends to get bossed by strong centre forwards.

We have height but not aerial prowess. As the above poster pointed out, it's what you do with it. Vidic was hardly a towering giant, but he'd win an obscene amount of headers because of his vision, timing and aggression. I guess you can't teach that.

Pogba is a weird case because even though he's massive, he's never shown a desire to really get mixed up. I can barely recall him heading the ball in midfield. Maybe he gives you enough to excuse that?

 

[Rajma]

He’s playing right into the stereotype. Physicality is the least of our worries when you watch us building our attacks.

 

[Treble]

The most important physical qualities in football are stamina, pace and agility. In this sense, Liverpool and City are more physical sides than us.

 

[Utdstar01]

Thought that was fairly obvious. Goes the same offensively as well the defensive side. No coincidence that we are fecking shite from corners even if we get the delivery right.

 

[Red_toad]

He's not wrong. We don't really have a single physical monster out there (w/o Fellaini). Even Smalling tends to get bossed by strong centre forwards.

We have height but not aerial prowess. As the above poster pointed out, it's what you do with it. Vidic was hardly a towering giant, but he'd win an obscene amount of headers because of his vision, timing and aggression. I guess you can't teach that.

Pogba is a weird case because even though he's massive, he's never shown a desire to really get mixed up. I can barely recall him heading the ball in midfield. Maybe he gives you enough to excuse that?

Care to name games where's he's been bossed? Most games I watch he likes to mark a big physical striker and is more than a match for them in the air, for speed and on the ground. Maybe I miss all the games where he tends to struggle with them, but I do watch the majority of games, so maybe it's not a trndancy, more a few poor games every now and then, like all defenders have.

 

[AndyJ1985]

We're not a physical side, we're not a technical side, we're not a quick side, we're not a pressing side. It's difficult to figure out what kinda side we actually are

 

[VeevaVee]

We're not a physical side, we're not a technical side, we're not a quick side, we're not a pressing side. It's difficult to figure out what kinda side we actually are

Was just thinking this myself.

 

[AaronRedDevil]

I don't think it's about being physical, I think it's more about technique. Every player needs to be like glue to whoever they mark in the box for corner or free kick. Look at pogba for the goal. He gave him a bit of space to move, which allowed rudiger to run around lindelof and already he's free. Had pogba got right in front of him and just outright block him from moving to much, the goal wouldn't have happened. It's positioning that's really important for those kind of situations.

 

[Bobski]

I don't think it's about being physical, I think it's more about technique. Every player needs to be like glue to whoever they mark in the box for corner or free kick. Look at pogba for the goal. He gave him a bit of space to move, which allowed rudiger to run around lindelof and already he's free. Had pogba got right in front of him and just outright block him from moving to much, the goal wouldn't have happened. It's positioning that's really important for those kind of situations.

And attention to detail. Looks at Chelsea's NBA style off ball screens. Obstruction but very hard for a ref to see in real time.

 

[JPRouve]

"We are not a smart side" would have been a lot more relevant and accurate. Poor positioning, marking and anticipation have nothing to do with physicality.

 

[Ekeke]

Bad training is the only explanation. If it was going well in training it would be second nature to defend set pieces properly

 

[Rado_N]

It is not the size but what you do with it that counts.

She was just being polite.

 

[Ekeke]

It really is hard to understand how we concede so much from set pieces and aerial duels. This has been an issue for many seasons now. You'd think adding the likes of Lukaku, Matic, Pogba and having Smalling starting, we'd be able to cope one game without Fellaini but we seem to be so easy to score against.

Surely we will make signings to address this but why is this such an issue for us? We make it seem as if we have midgets defending for us.

Also, I'm not against Mourinho signing another tall player if he thinks it'll correct that weakness.

But first he must offload the ones that play and arent doing it. I don't want to see a team of 11 giants and only Mourinho's 11th giant - the new signing, defends well on set pieces and the rest are carried by that 1. And if he isnt available we go to shit. No.

If we signed a bunch of tall players and yet need to sign more tall players to fix our weakness on set pieces, get rid of the likes of Matic and replace them with the new tall player.

 

[SadlerMUFC]

There's a time for man marking and there's a time for zonal marking. On the corner kick yesterday we had too many players at the near post because a bunch of Chelsea players were there. It was a set play designed to draw our players out. Then Pogba wanted Lindeloff to switch men with him, but he should have dropped behind to run around and follow his man. It's good to go man for man when players are all deep in the 18 and going to make near post runs, but when half of CHelsea's players were already near post, then we should drop a couple players into zonal to mark out the spot where the header was conceded from because there is no way a player should get an uncontested header from that area on the pitch...

 

[FrantikChicken]

There's a time for man marking and there's a time for zonal marking. On the corner kick yesterday we had too many players at the near post because a bunch of Chelsea players were there. It was a set play designed to draw our players out. Then Pogba wanted Lindeloff to switch men with him, but he should have dropped behind to run around and follow his man. It's good to go man for man when players are all deep in the 18 and going to make near post runs, but when half of CHelsea's players were already near post, then we should drop a couple players into zonal to mark out the spot where the header was conceded from because there is no way a player should get an uncontested header from that area on the pitch...

Well according to Mourinho we do a mix of zoning and man marking. The players are coached how to defend corners, there was an individual error at hand.

 

[Bobski]

She was just being polite.

Quite probably.

 

[noodlehair]

I'm guessing we train to defend set pieces but we take them the same way we do in games. So our set piece training is just Fellaini heading the ball away at the near post over and over again. Then when we play games and teams put decent balls into the box we have no idea what to do.

 

[SadlerMUFC]

Well according to Mourinho we do a mix of zoning and man marking. The players are coached how to defend corners, there was an individual error at hand.

There difinitely was. Pogba wanted Lidneloff to switch with him but there seemed to be a lack of communication. I still think we should have someone camped out right around the area where the header was won though...

 

[SteveW]

Care to name games where's he's been bossed? Most games I watch he likes to mark a big physical striker and is more than a match for them in the air, for speed and on the ground. Maybe I miss all the games where he tends to struggle with them, but I do watch the majority of games, so maybe it's not a trndancy, more a few poor games every now and then, like all defenders have.

Arnautovic is the only one I can think of. It's Smalling though so people are happy to assume negatives about him.

 

[Adisa]

We're not a physical side, we're not a technical side, we're not a quick side, we're not a pressing side. It's difficult to figure out what kinda side we actually are

Bingo.

 

[::sonny::]

I’m not the one who signed Bailly, Lindelof, Fred etc

 

[Rozay]

It is not the size but what you do with it that counts.

Pogba and Lukaku are both rubbish defensively from set pieces, switch off, lose their man, or react slowly. Matic is fairly average aerially. For all that Utd have a lot of tall players it is only only really Smalling and Fellaini who attack the ball with any conviction. Rojo as well maybe but he is a bit of a clown.

Pogba wins loads of defensive headers, very regularly.

 

[Deleted member 101472]

It really is hard to understand how we concede so much from set pieces and aerial duels. This has been an issue for many seasons now. You'd think adding the likes of Lukaku, Matic, Pogba and having Smalling starting, we'd be able to cope one game without Fellaini but we seem to be so easy to score against.

Surely we will make signings to address this but why is this such an issue for us? We make it seem as if we have midgets defending for us.

One of the things I picked up on during mourinhos post match interview was that he admitted to playing a mixture of zonal and man to man defence from set pieces. So the physicality of the team doesn’t really matter, as any team can quite easily put blockers on some of the man to man guys and attack the zone that’s free. Thinking about it, if I’m responsible for opposition analysis and I look at the way Man Utd set up from set pieces, I can probably set up some pretty good plays to take advantage of it.

Man to man is the way forward because it’s the only way to ensure your matching up physically, at least as much as possible.

 

[arthurka]

I would put decent money on that Pulis could turn this team into a monster set piece unit

 

[SirAF]

She was just being polite.

Beat me to it

 

[Skills]

Another example of his awful coaching. Struggling on set pieces? Let's just chuck as many 6ft+ players in the box. That will sort it. While we're getting killed by the actual movement in the box.

His approach to defending is the same? Need to defend? More men behind the ball. Need a goal now? Let's stick fellaini up front and keep pumping the ball in.

 

[ivaldo]

What's the context of that quote?

 

[Ish]

We're not a physical side, we're not a technical side, we're not a quick side, we're not a pressing side. It's difficult to figure out what kinda side we actually are

Good point.

She was just being polite.

 

[FrantikChicken]

One of the things I picked up on during mourinhos post match interview was that he admitted to playing a mixture of zonal and man to man defence from set pieces. So the physicality of the team doesn’t really matter, as any team can quite easily put blockers on some of the man to man guys and attack the zone that’s free. Thinking about it, if I’m responsible for opposition analysis and I look at the way Man Utd set up from set pieces, I can probably set up some pretty good plays to take advantage of it.

Man to man is the way forward because it’s the only way to ensure your matching up physically, at least as much as possible.

Yes, Mourinho and his staff setup our set piece defence in such a rudimentary way that even random fans on a forum can easily just take it apart. Makes sense.

We got scored on because a player failed to do their job, not because they weren't setup right.

 

[SqueakyWeasel]

If we set up overly defensively then we've not got the freedom to please everyone because we're not attacking enough. We were solid defensively last year but eventually even the "weaker" just promoted opposing teams started to smell blood and line up accordingly. they would have the balls to take the game to us (even at home which is unthinkable).

As good as you are defensively, there's always someone in today's PL teams will more than likely find a chink in the armour or just plain get lucky in 90 minutes.

This is when the problem starts: an opposition that is not afraid of you goes ahead, home fans turning against you, lack of belief from some of the worlds most expensive players (seemingly purchased to become defensive cannon fodder for Monday mornings press).

If we lean more towards the more attacking formation (pushing the strengths that the majority of fans want, and pay, to see) then we will sacrifice a fair few goals at the other end initially but Jose, and we, will buy ourselves time to plug those holes in subsequent transfer windows.

It's what Liverpool were criticised for last year and … oh look they fixed their defence.

I don't think it's about being overly physical. It's intent. Hazard will run head on into Fellaini or Lukaku (with no hopes of physically overpowering them) but 9 times out of 10 the foul will go the way of the player trying to "play" football!

 

[SCP]

Man to man is the way forward because it’s the only way to ensure your matching up physically, at least as much as possible.

Most top teams don't defend set pieces man to man.

 

[SirAF]

Yes, Mourinho and his staff setup our set piece defence in such a rudimentary way that even random fans on a forum can easily just take it apart. Makes sense.

We got scored on because a player failed to do their job, not because they weren't setup right.

This

 

[Canagel]

We don't need to be overly physical to defend. Not more so than other teams at least. It's the positioning, awareness that has to improve.

 

[Charles Miller]

He wants to buy more giants

 

[Garethw]

We don't need to be overly physical to defend. Not more so than other teams at least. It's the positioning, awareness that has to improve.

Exactly. We need to be coached better all over the fecking pitch.

 

[Canagel]

Exactly. We need to be coached better all over the fecking pitch.

The manager first needs to realise there are other ways of defending beside throwing on as many 6 foot players as possible. We just need to improve our football intelligence in general. Players need to learn to keep the ball, not to hoof aimlessly with the slightest pressure or kick the ball out of bounds for no apparent reason, draw the fouls which a team chasing the game will usually make etc etc. We can do all of that without adding one player.
Jose has to move with the times.

 

[Jojo <3 Mou]

He wants to buy more giants

Or, he wants the current giants (and midgets) to tussle, win 50/50s, headers; you know, .... be physical?