Was at Old Trafford today and one thing I noticed which isn't so obvious on TV is our off the ball movement isn't up to scratch. A lot of times Carrick and Bastian picked up the ball and looked up I was waiting for Rooney or Martial to make a run but neither often did.
To be fair, I've noticed quite a bit of movement from the wingers and forwards, but Carrick and Bastian were hesitant to play the pass to the runners. Lingard, Martial, Mata, and Rooney made lots of runs beyond the defenders, but they were rarely played through by Carrick and Schweinsteiger (particularly Carrick), who preferred to play the pass to someone's feet.
In this case, Herrera improved on this when he came on as he was playing more passes through West Brom's line than Carrick and Bastian were. For the vision and passing ability that Carrick and Bastian possess, I'm quite surprised that they don't attempt more passes in between the lines. Those two were the reason our pace was so slow in the first half whilst Blind was the opposite of those two. In the second half, they did pick up the pace, but it was stupid to see us lose control of the match after going up 1-0, preferring to sit deep and clear balls away rather than tire out West Brom.
Overall, though, I saw some signs of encouragement and progress that I didn't see before. At least our front 4 are starting to play more passes in between the opposition's lines and into dangerous areas. Having Lingard take on players is also a breath of fresh air, and this leaves us less reliant on Martial. The combination play among the front 4 is also improving, though it's still sloppy at times. The only issue is how safe and slowly the deeper midfielders play in general. When Carrick and Bastian turned up the pace against CSKA Moscow at home, we were relentless, but when they decided to slow down things and keep things safe against West Brom, it made it easier for West Brom to sit back and organise themselves. We cannot just rely on the front 4 to break down teams that park the bus. The front 4 need the deeper midfielders to up the pace of the game with their movement and the tempo of their passing. Schweinsteiger and Carrick is a good midfield pairing to have to see off the game and bring some calmness but not to break down an ultra-defensive opposition. The pairing only worked alright against West Brom because Blind was quicker and more adventurous with his passing.
One more thing: we cannot have Mata playing out wide against opposition that park the bus. He's great at combination plays and making runs in between the lines, but he's not a good dribbler at all. We need dribblers at both ends of the pitch in order to break down such teams. It's too bad that Memphis is off form at the moment else we'd have had an easier time against West Brom. Rooney would have had an even better performance with two dribblers causing havoc at both flanks.
even better!!
