Thread by @SensibleUtd

Thread:

#mufc's squad has 2 primary issues that need solving

1. Midfield Balance
2. Depth vs Balance

Let's take a look at each:

Before I start — this is NOT an 'excuse'

1. Mufc ARE unbalanced
2. Mufc should STILL have won yday

BOTH of these can & is true

Now let's dive in:

1. Midfield Balance

A balanced midfield should:

- dictate play
- maintain tempo
- hold def shape
- press/counter press
- create
+ Lot more

Our options

Pogba, Bruno, VDB, Matic, Fred, McT

No 3 man combo from this can do all of that
Only a 4 man mid can but 💎 has flaws (FBs)

This is bc we've many mids who offer very similar or the same thing

The diff btwn Fred/Matic/McT are evident BUT for each of them to work, you need to start one of the other two at least. Exact same case with Pogba, Bruno, VDB.

They're different but not complimentary - issue

Mufc aren't the only teams to face this:

LFC & City both faced sim issues & they fixed it by handing one/more of the said duties to their fullbacks.

LFC FBs create, City's invert & help with shape & tempo.

But our fullbacks aren't well rounded enough to take up an extra role.

So a 3 man mid w McFred is solid but no creativity, other way around for PP/Bruno

4 man mid means our FBs are asked to provide all the width which they can't do

So our options are:

1. Pick a 3 man mid - sacrifice 1 role
2. Pick a 4 man mid - sacrifice width

None offer balance

This lack of balance - not having players who complement each other is our biggest issue

Now if we'd Sancho, instead of trying to shift an extra duty on to our full backs we couldve shifted the creative role to our wings & played a workman mid — balanced

But we dont have an RW

Now coming to the wings:

We have 0 out & out wingers. We have 2 inside forwards in Rashford & Martial & 1 CF being played as an RW in Mason who in practice basically plays as an RF

No balance thanks to no complimentary profiles on the wings either - why a creative RW was impt

That brings us to the 2nd point

2. Depth vs Balance

United've a lot of depth
- We can easily start 2 different XIs now and they can both look competitive on paper.

But w/o balance in profiles what we have is 2 copies of the same abv mentioned issue.

Depth doesn't mean Balance

vs PSG & Leipzig, we masked balance issues with:

back 5 vs PSG: solid mid, creative role helped by FBs

💎 Vs RBL: balanced 4 man mid

BUT:

- w/o Telles (like vs PSG), can't play a back 5 well
- w/o superb FBs 💎s only work vs certain teams

Balance will haunt us in other games

None of this means the XI put out yday should've lost — none of this is an excuse

We lost yday and to Arsenal bc we didn't apply ourselves — neither tactically nor in person

Fault is with Ole & with the players

But this squad is still unbalanced — don't let the results mask it

The solution isn't as far away as it seems:

- one solid RW could've covered it for the time being

- One solid RW + a complementary 8 who can play well in a pivot + a mobile DM who can progress play solves the issues for good

But unfortunately none of that happened.

Last season we had the same imbalance but we masked it & we went on an unbeaten 19 game run at the end to secure third with Pogba, Bruno & Matic in mid.

But towards the end teams figured out a tight press can expose our imbalance. Now all team press us tight - that's football

By the end of the season we knew the imbalance would need to be sorted as teams had figured out how to play against us

We went into the market with this idea, we got a 10 who's a complimentary profile to Bruno but failed to get a complimentary profile RW - now we pay the price

Again this is NOT an excuse, this is the reality

We WERE poor yday but no amt of coaching/tactics can mask this imbalance forever. It can be masked for some games but not all. The board hasnt helped

And thats the same reality a new manager will walk into just like the prev four