⚽️Malen over Weghorst was a mistake, as Czech press and then dropping deep when Dutch got through made a physical presence up front important
⚽️Blind nullified and exposed
⚽️De Ligt 😱
The Czech man-marked the Dutch from Steklenburg's goal kicks adopting an aggressive 4-3-3 marking a 3-4-3. This made it impossible to play out from the back and forced the Dutch long... where there was no Weghorst as a target man.
This destroyed Dutch rhythm and confidence.
Before the sending off... Czech's failed to put enough men into the box despite dominating the right flank and putting in good crosses.
Soucek was not gambling enough, but after the sending off was another story as the absence of De Ligt have the Czech's confidence to bomb on.
When the Dutch were in Czech half, there was no end product. Depay was smothered and there was no point of crossing as there was no aerial presence in the box.
They used counter attacking lineup against a team set up to frustrate - this is why De Boer is not an elite manager.
We spoke about Schick's battle with Blind before the game. On paper he is Blind's kryptonite. In game it took the sending off before they directly confronted each other.
Blind was neutralised in possession today. Too focused on defensive duties due to the aggressive Czechs.
Sorry for the delay - wouldn't upload on Chrome!?
Gutted to see the Dutch go but the Czech's were brilliant. They and Austria are two old school great nations who proved tactical masterclasses can turn over any level of opponent regardless of form.
Positive football tactics.
Whilst we didn’t get the result right... we did mention the fact that the Dutch would be suspect from Set Pieces.
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➡️ Silva was City's deepest mid? Pep has lost the plot
➡️ Fired up Trent, dominates passive Szoboszlai's zone
➡️ Van Dijk humbles Haaland + dominates set pieces
➡️ City no vertical penetration in wide areas
➡️ Akanji positioned too high
As we can see from City's position/pass network, that there is zero width down the right. Everything seems geared to getting the ball to Nunes... but why is Pep treating an out of position B2B as his new Eden Hazard?
A bizzare move which proves he's not in his right mind atm.
With regards to Liverpool, they mostly built up through the right with Trent, Gravenberch, Szobo and Salah creating squares and parallelograms, running City's left side ragged with their sharpness and moving the ball around quickly.
➡️ Walker is finished - STOP STARTING HIM!
➡️ Pep's OOP Structure is abysmal, no CDM??
➡️ Kulusevski bullies Gvardiol by making him defend
➡️ Haaland needs to trust his right foot
➡️ In possession City did look slick but lost confidence
City started well but for me Haaland's lack of willingness to use his right foot meant that some great opportunities were squandered and this then allowed Spurs to stay in the game.
He refused to use his first touch to push the ball into space in front of him and kept working it back onto his left which allowed Spurs time to get back in and make blocks.
Kyle Walker can someone explain this misguided loyalty angle from Pep? it is usually a sign of a manager who has lost his hunger when he starts making basic errors like this from a selection POV.
Pep needs to recover his ruthless streak. Son an old man winger was made to look in his prime, and kept tearing him down the line.
Maddison was also given so much freedom to operate and ghost into the box as none of those City midfielders were able to track back and physically bully him.
➡️Pentagon Press (3 forwards, 2 CM) backed by WB
➡️Ugarte unleashed as ball hunter
➡️Feed Forward - CF centric service plan
➡️Rest Defence (5-4-1)
Full Video:
#MUFC
[A THREAD] 👇
Amorim presses in a very structured manner. It is called a 'pentagon press' where he uses a 5 man unit to hunt for the ball... the CF supported by the two inside forwards, which is then supported by a second wave of two midfielders who vacate the space in midfield. It can lead to potential gaps between midfield and defence.
The near side wing back also supports the press whilst the other side moves back to form a back 4.
If the press is bypassed, Amorim likes to drop off into a back 5.
The midfield 4 still act as a unit, moving to the side where the ball is and looking to shield the backline but also squeeze the ball back from that side by using the touchline to pin opponents in.
➡️ Cucurella seems to have Saka's number?
➡️ Gusto's best defensive performance?
➡️ Odegaard invisible but decisive, Palmer the opposite
➡️ Caicedo stepped up as defensive shield
➡️ Raya swept to perfection
➡️ Rice at LCM is too vanilla
Arsenal erred today by using Rice as a LCM off the ball, which meant he couldn't get to grips with Cole Palmer who arguably had his best big match display this season in terms of 'involvement'.
Having said that, Cole Palmer didn't make the most of it with some poor decision making in key moments but it was overall a step in the right direction as he didn't ghost but tried to impact the game.
His rival Odegaard had returned from injury and he was a ghost for the most part. Very little involvement but then when the key moment came, he managed to make it count with a great ball to Martinelli who put it away despite a torrid display prior to it.
➡️ Palmer ghosts (played in front of Ugarte/Casemiro) ➡️ Mazraoui inverting sets traps for Madueke
➡️ Hojlund made it stick too much (release earlier)
➡️ Maresca stop A team v B team
➡️ Chelsea vulnerable out wide
#CFC #MUFC
Palmer was given a free ride against Newcastle, with plenty of space to operate in.
In this game, United had two defensive minded players in midfield (but both with a tendency to leave space in behind). Palmer failed to exploit this space, dropping too deep to connect player and letting United midfield get set up.
Maresca needs to show some more balls or inventivenss here and be prepared to take Palmer off, or combine him with anoher playmaker in these type of games where he is stifled especially bigger games where space is at a premium.
He wasn't the only one. Look how much Chelsea showed a general lack of penetration with their passing, only Neto is looking to get in behind... everyone else is too close in their own half and not really looking to turn United and get right at them.
❌ Large distances in midfield (3-1-6)
❌ Lack of quality overlaps
❌ CB's either too slow or feeble
❌ CF's starved or undercooked
❌ Lack of legs/positional IQ at CDM
❌ Bruno, Rashford - Hollywood Ball
❌15 min press
A THREAD 🧵
#MUFC
How often did we see United play this absolutely moronic 3-1-6 shape in possession where there was zero relationisim in the midfield region, no chance for the deepest midfielder to find consistent options to pass it to and create some triangles... a key concept for when a team is trying to control chaos.
Eriksen, Casemiro, Mainoo... all suffered at times as the sides deepest pivot only to see their partners flying forward to pick up pockets of space with no real chance of the ball getting there and watching their team mate swarmed under pressure.
Not to mention this also left the team pretty vulnerable on the counter which we will touch upon later.
Anthony is now officially a meme and truth be told, he should shoulder some blame for that but Ten Hag hung him out to dry from a tactical point of view and he's not the only one.
Rashford has also recently begun to suffer due to Ten Hag's full back choices.
Wan Bisakka behind an inverting winger didn't make sense, hence it was Garnacho at RW which fixed this issue. He then moves Garnacho left this season, and replaces AWB with another mostly defensive full back in Mazraoui?
So where are the overlaps coming from when Dalot likes to invert? none of this is coherent or makes sense.