Thread by @guillaumevdwege

The good, the bad and the ugly; Manchester United away at Tottenham Hotspur.

A thread on a few heated topics from #TOTMUN 🧵

#MUFC had a good first half, but fell apart in the second. Here's what was good, bad, and ugly. The topics:

🧱BUILDING, CREATING AND FINISHING THE ATTACK
🗜️PRESSING FROM THE FRONT

-HT-

📺SPURS' ADAPTATIONS & UNITED'S STRUGGLES
🪫FITNESS

🧱BUILDING THE ATTACK

After winning the ball, #MUFC recycle the ball to Onana (good stuff).

Open positioning of Varane and Martinez creates a lane for AWB to receive

#MUFC in a 3v4 situation, and they make the most of it

🧱BUILDING THE ATTACK

Rashford's run is good

AWB does well to dribble his man again, finds the right angle to play

What's new is not AWB's good attacking play, it's the off-ball movement in group situations

Great touch out of feet (near foot) by Marcus, good pass into Antony

🧱CREATING THE ATTACK

Mount wins the ball, it reaches Casemiro. Three players too close together so you spread play, AWB's positioning is a good angle to play

4th pic: excellent, quick movement by AWB to open the angle and "pin" the FB.

This is great play by #MUFC

🧱CREATING THE ATTACK

Little lay-off by Rashford to Antony;

We come back to Monday's lessons
🚘Drive inside, lock the defender
➡️2nd player overlaps
⚽️Release when the defender bites

Rashford is too late at spotting it which is why we get this mix-up, but he takes initiative:

🧱CREATING THE ATTACK

Some more of that good play. Outside foot pass into space for Rashford

🕷️AWB, who took the throw-in, waiting for Rashford to DELAY the attack and make it a 2⃣v1⃣

📦Occupy the box: at the 1⃣st post, one on the penalty spot and 2⃣nd post

🕷️Perfect cross

🧱CREATING THE ATTACK

This one especially was neat. A few tweets on this one

Shaw wins the ball, SWITCHES play and finds Bruno. United have a 4⃣v2⃣ situation.

Excellent movement off the ball by Antony & AWB to create space

Casemiro finds AWB. Already much better than Monday

🧱CREATING THE ATTACK

Now in this situation, what should #MUFC do? CREATE SPACE!

Antony should dive in the space to "pin" the defender, and create space for AWB to drive or find Casemiro

2nd pic: Great play by all three

3rd: angle and 🪟 is open to find Antony

🧱CREATING THE ATTACK

Casemiro doesn't try it, he looks to SWITCH PLAY

Garnacho held the width well all game, it's another one of these good old 3v3 games

It's good play; OVERLAP (Shaw), SUPPORT (Mount)

Garnacho cuts inside and switches, Bruno then crosses.

🧱BUILDING, CREATING AND FINISHING THE ATTACK

I'll let this one play out. Look for:

🟡Playing out of 2v2, 3v3 situations
↔️Switching Play
➡️Moving OFF the ball to create SPACE
📦Attacking the BOX

Best chance of the game.

🧱BUILDING, CREATING AND FINISHING THE ATTACK

We were attacking very well in the 1st half. It was a marked improvement on the performance vs Wolves, which is a positive sign.

Areas of focus during the week were:

🟡Penetrating in overloads
↔️Switching play
➡️Moving off the ball

🗜️PRESSING FROM THE FRONT

This part looked good yesterday, but in reality was not good enough. A little bit of strategic backstory:

#TOT inverted both full-backs, which shortened the distances for #MUFC to press. The latter had it easy in covering the spaces and blocking play.

🗜️PRESSING FROM THE FRONT

A narrow Spurs allows #MUFC to cover ground more easily; the CF is supposed to "guide" the ball into the pressing TRAP 🪤

It reaches the trap well, but Shaw isn't close to Kulusevski and Casemiro loses Maddison

🗜️PRESSING FROM THE FRONT

That's a bad sequence by United. You would expect

🦮Guide the ball into the trap
🪤Be compact in the trap
💥When the ball is there, be explosive, dynamic and ready to win
⚽️Get the ball or foul if possible

🗜️PRESSING FROM THE FRONT

Basics of pressing in a two-man press
🗣️Speak when you're going (Bruno ✅)
⬅️Follow through to COVER the free man (Marcus ❌)

Rashford jogs, which leaves Bissouma open for too long.

Spurs don't exploit it, but that is sub-standard.

🗜️PRESSING FROM THE FRONT

Most rotations that Spurs tried didn't come off in the 1⃣st half, because United could easily follow. Passes through the centre weren't well received by the FBs, naturally.

This leads to 📺SPURS' ADAPTATIONS

Spurs put a FB back wide, which increased the distances for United to defend, which didn't go well for them with their waning physical prowess in the 1st half.

The second half was much easier for Spurs to progress, penetrate and score.

📺SPURS' ADAPTATIONS

The wider shape increased the distances for United to cover, and they struggled to do so. Larger distances leave less margin for error on

📐Pressing angles
↔️Switching roles (press & cover)

Spurs often cut through United in the 2nd half.

📺SPURS' ADAPTATIONS

INDIVIDUAL:
🪫Bruno is heavy-footed
🧙‍♂️Garnacho is guessing where Spurs will go: principle is: cover the CENTER first

2nd: Casemiro and Mount flat-footed, free man beyond the line.

1⃣v3⃣ leaves Mount guessing

🤿Casemiro bringing back the scuba mask

United's defending set-up was exploited by not only Spurs' in-game tweaks, but also their fitness levels.

This is what you're probably here for, tune in.

🪫🪫🪫

🪫FITNESS

Here's a little crash course to set the scene

↔️Spurs stretching the pitch = more distances to run

🏹Playing long balls = more distances to run

↕️Not following GROUPS as a TEAM = more distances to run

📏More distances to run = more 🌬️aerobic input required

Spurs' half-time tweaks, and United's sudden urge to send long balls to an isolated group in the 2nd half
+
The demands of winning aerials duels (requiring muscular endurance and power)

All contributed to their physical level WANING in this game.

Let's go over some examples.

🪫FITNESS

Here's an example of how tactics can derail your fitness easily

#MUFC send a long ball to their isolated CF, Spurs win the ball and transition

#MUFC dive in with no COVER (team level), get stretched further

Running back & forth for nothing

🪫FITNESS

A good way to gauge fitness taught to me by @SebC__ is to watch how dynamic the players are. That is best seen when defending - players that are heavy-footed (=leaning on their backfoot, ankles) are conserving energy.

This is a bad sign, especially in August.