Playing from the back

[OleTheGreat]

I know that Manchester United have been trying to play from the back since OGS has come in. We still don't seem to have a from defensive midfielder or the correct center back who can dribble his way into the opposition half. Was LvG and Jose right to play the ball long and win the second ball from there or can we still try to play from the back and move it faster. Although we have a lot of quality midfielders, I personally don't see even 1 of those who can actually dribble the ball past the opposition midfielders and bring it past the half line. What is the right way to play with this squad of players?

Also I don't see our full backs as an outlet to move forward and create an offensive move. We often play back and forth within our defensive and even when we find a pass going forward it usually comes back to the defense and that slows down the play considerably. It is very predictable and lethargic. Is our midfield not doing enough or is our double pivot a way to guard our defense line and we are going with only the 4 up front instead of it being a forward 6 along with the wing backs in attack.

What is the right way to play to bring our offensive players more involved?

 

[Rozay]

I’m not a huge fan of stupidly trying to play out - which I think a lot of teams do, but I think that we do it well and in a way that at least acknowledges and minimises risk.

You speak of centre halves and defensive midfielders, but much of ours starts wide via our full backs. There was one move against City for example where we beat the press in the right back area and advanced up the field before Bruno fecked up a simple pass which would have out Greenwood through on goal.

Many teams play in a way that if it goes wrong, they concede a goal/shot on goal. Which is stupid in my opinion. Using the full backs is more sensible then straight down the middle with centre halves and DMs. Look at the goal Southampton scored against us last season where they pressed Pogba and won it on the edge of our box and scored. If they had robbed AWB out wide we likely wouldn’t have conceded a goal.

 

[groovyalbert]

I actually disagree that we don't have the CBs or midfield to do this. I think all of Fred, McTominay, Pogba and VdB have the ability to play this way, and Maguire and Lindelof are both good on the ball.

What nullifies us at times is AWB's weaknesses on the ball, and the lack of confidence both DDG and Henderson seem to have playing this way. For DDG it's clearly just a way of playing he's not accustomed to, Henderson is just not very good at it. Him being at Sheffield Utd won't have helped him in this regard, although it did improve his shot-stopping/command of his area.

We also don't play with natural wingers which means, at times, we'll play out from the back with either one of/both RW and LW tucked in. This again limits our out-ball options from the back.

Playing out from the back is something we're going to have to be able to do. All the big teams do it well, and we don't have the forwards/midfielders to successfully battle CBs in aerial duels.

We're a lot better at playing out from the back than we were a few months ago. I think it's a tactic well worth sticking to.

 

[Tallis]

We should mix it up more - play it out on occasion, have DDG kick it to runners. We are too predictable when we try it play it out and invariably get pressed and lose possession.

when we play it from the back, we also need to play it a higher tempo - we are too slow.

 

[Ekeke]

To play out from the back more effectively :

We need a midfielder who is happy to receive the ball under a lot of pressure, or any moment and who our players trust to handle the ball and move on play. That would be someone like Scholes. Pogba should be good enough at this but he is prone to giving the ball away at times and/or our players dont play the ball to him under pressure very often and trust him to deal with the pressing.

And we need a real solid DM who helps the CBs with real defending so they can be a bit adventurous more often, take on a player or play a pass with a tiny bit of risk knowing that if they mess one of these up, we arent going to be outnumbered and disorganized on a counter attack and concede. This player we do not have in the squad. We have DMs who are tall and win the ball in the air, or runners who cover the pitch. We don't have someone who spots danger and snuffs it out in front of the defence

 

[King Azaz the Unabridged]

Although we have a lot of quality midfielders, I personally don't see even 1 of those who can actually dribble the ball past the opposition midfielders and bring it past the half line.

We need a midfielder who is happy to receive the ball under a lot of pressure, or any moment and who our players trust to handle the ball and move on play.

Pogba should be the one doing this, and he's shown he can do it in the past. But yeah, he's made a few too many mistakes trying to beat the press in recent months and none of the other midfielders can be relied on in that sense.

I actually think there's been some improvement over the season both in terms of playing it out along the ground - there was that one glorious moment that stood out in the league game against City where they beat the press perfectly and got Fernandes on the turn in a lovely position - and in mixing it up when necessary - in the Leeds game and in the cup semifinal against City, it seemed like the keepers were hitting it long more often and picking out good passes.

 

[Poborsky's hair]

I know that Manchester United have been trying to play from the back since OGS has come in. We still don't seem to have a from defensive midfielder or the correct center back who can dribble his way into the opposition half. Was LvG and Jose right to play the ball long and win the second ball from there or can we still try to play from the back and move it faster. Although we have a lot of quality midfielders, I personally don't see even 1 of those who can actually dribble the ball past the opposition midfielders and bring it past the half line. What is the right way to play with this squad of players?

Also I don't see our full backs as an outlet to move forward and create an offensive move. We often play back and forth within our defensive and even when we find a pass going forward it usually comes back to the defense and that slows down the play considerably. It is very predictable and lethargic. Is our midfield not doing enough or is our double pivot a way to guard our defense line and we are going with only the 4 up front instead of it being a forward 6 along with the wing backs in attack.

What is the right way to play to bring our offensive players more involved?

In general I think the opposite, we have some very good confident, press resistant players to play that way like Maguire, Bailly and perhaps Pogba and Fred and some decent like Lindelof, Tuanzebe, Matic (although he didn´t played that much, otherwise i would fit him in the very good bracket as well) but you know what´s about to happen when it comes to our fullbacks especially AWB. MCTominay can occasionally carry the ball forward but most often than not he opts for a save pass, putting others under pressure.

Or the other problem is that it takes a bit more time to pass the ball, Matic and Pogba sometimes usual culprits. I think this is something which Ole has to asses and give immediate instructions, sometimes our passing is way too slow and he should say we play more one touch football and pass it quicker, however sometimes Matic, Pogba and Maguire should absolutely keep the ball sicne they are crative players and we don´t need to hurry too much, you absolutely can´t just pass it quickly around but need the dribblers which slow it down a little and have enough vision to pull out a good pass.

Does it take a bit of time and perhaps a tad too long for us to get out of the defense? Yes but it´s a general problem when you play from the back, at least we know we can control the game in this part of the game and move towards the more progressive style of play and that´s one thing we see a bit of difference at least in Ole´s influence. Of course I believe we should mix it up and absolutely odn´t understand why wedon´t focus on some long pass and winning the second ball. We know we don´t have a striker to win it for us but sometimes either under pressure or voluntarily we can just "hoof" it long and be ready to win the ball further up the pitch.

We seem too slow to realize that Martial´s not gonna win nowt there and concede possession only to realize we can just quickly win it back. You can gain many more yards and really start a quick counter without really needing a target man...

 

[Berbasbullet]

Can we not do this v Liverpool?

 

[simplyared]

I know that Manchester United have been trying to play from the back since OGS has come in. We still don't seem to have a from defensive midfielder or the correct center back who can dribble his way into the opposition half. Was LvG and Jose right to play the ball long and win the second ball from there or can we still try to play from the back and move it faster. Although we have a lot of quality midfielders, I personally don't see even 1 of those who can actually dribble the ball past the opposition midfielders and bring it past the half line. What is the right way to play with this squad of players?

Also I don't see our full backs as an outlet to move forward and create an offensive move. We often play back and forth within our defensive and even when we find a pass going forward it usually comes back to the defense and that slows down the play considerably. It is very predictable and lethargic. Is our midfield not doing enough or is our double pivot a way to guard our defense line and we are going with only the 4 up front instead of it being a forward 6 along with the wing backs in attack.

What is the right way to play to bring our offensive players more involved?

Which team has CB's or DM's who dribble there way out of defence? I'd be interested to know!

 

[Dante]

I actually think that United are very good at playing out of the back these days. It's one of our most defining features, and we're easily among the best in the league at it.

The progress the coaches have made in the last 18 months or so has been fantastic.

 

[Adam-Utd]

We definitely have the ability, but we clearly don't focus on it enough or feel it's important.

Often we suffer badly between getting it from the centre backs to the midfield, and often just take the easy option of a sideways pass to the fullbacks. By that point we took so long to decide what to do the opposition have pressed up high, and the fullbacks have to then make a miracle play to escape.

It would be nice to work on this as our forwards are pretty useless aerially also and we rarely win the long ball.

 

[lex talionis]

We should mix it up more - play it out on occasion, have DDG kick it to runners. We are too predictable when we try it play it out and invariably get pressed and lose possession.

when we play it from the back, we also need to play it a higher tempo - we are too slow.

This.

 

[Eurotrash]

We are getting better at it for sure, and I have no problem with us doing it. Mix it up a bit though.

Henderson did a majestic long throw vs Watford, reminded me of Schmeichel. Loved that (even though it didn't lead to anything in the end).

 

[MikeKing]

I actually disagree that we don't have the CBs or midfield to do this. I think all of Fred, McTominay, Pogba and VdB have the ability to play this way, and Maguire and Lindelof are both good on the ball.

What nullifies us at times is AWB's weaknesses on the ball, and the lack of confidence both DDG and Henderson seem to have playing this way. For DDG it's clearly just a way of playing he's not accustomed to, Henderson is just not very good at it. Him being at Sheffield Utd won't have helped him in this regard, although it did improve his shot-stopping/command of his area.

We also don't play with natural wingers which means, at times, we'll play out from the back with either one of/both RW and LW tucked in. This again limits our out-ball options from the back.

Playing out from the back is something we're going to have to be able to do. All the big teams do it well, and we don't have the forwards/midfielders to successfully battle CBs in aerial duels.

We're a lot better at playing out from the back than we were a few months ago. I think it's a tactic well worth sticking to.

A deep lying playmaker would help tremendously with this and be way more relevant to an instant improvement than hypothetically just replacing AWB with TAA.

I think Lindelof is worse on the ball than AWB. He proved that when he played at right back where he wasn't afforded as much time on the ball as when playing CB. He rarely expand opportunities with composure on the ball, he dwells on it but avoids pressure and wont let a defender near him at any time. Both him and Maguire as a partnership has had the habbit of taking forever on the ball, confusing calmness with a lack of drive.