🔴Sterling a world-class talent when in the mood
🔴3-4-3 pinned the Germans back
🔴Low's leaky backline bites again
🔴Grealish Game-Changer
🔴Back 5 helped English midfield (options)
Starting lineup thoughts, the Saka decision was brave and the correct one as he can penetrate space inside and outside. Perfect for a counter attack set up.
Abit too perfect as its effectiveness ended up pushing the Germans back...
As we can see the beauty of the 3-4-3 is that by matching the German formation, England went man for man and the Germans were forced to match them.
This freed up Saka and Sterling from double marking and they were dangerous in the 1st half. Germany got caught out several times.
Germany dropped off and played with a back 5 in an attempt to stifle Saka and Sterling. It worked to a degree.
Kane who was off the pace struggled even more when this happened. He was surrounded with no passes being made into him. His own lack of movement was also a problem.
The only German chances came from transitions and they were not really of a high quality. England generally managed it quite well although there were some scary moments on the far post due to Kimmich and Gosens connecting once again.
Lets also give praise to Gareth's front foot pressing tactic. We mentioned it in our preview but a 3-4-3 allows you to press high up the pitch and England matched the Austrians, Czechs and Swiss by doing this.
It disrupted the Germans rhythm and Kroos struggled to influence.
What a sub by Gareth to bring in Grealish who had a hand in both goals. It pushed Sterling to the right and that is where Sterling was able to make an impact.
Nothing tactically amazing about this, just a great run by Sterling who drove at the space left behind Kroos...
Very few players have the ball mastery of a Raheem Sterling. So good in tight spaces and can eat up yards too.. the English Hazard.
For City he too often passes the buck or flops the finish in the elite games but for England he takes responsibility.
Kane still worries me. He got a goal which is great but it was after the game opened up. Against smaller sides who will shut up shop, he needs to be sharper and move more. Still one to keep an eye on and not get carried away.
Subs are so important in this tournament. The sheer number available and the quality of the benches this year means the momentum of a game can shift like crazy. Tactical versatility highlighted by Tuchel’s recent impact is becoming more and more important.
The comparison between Sven v Gareth is intriguing.
Sven would shoehorn as many stars into a side as he could to not hurt egos and Gareth seems intent on pissing off as many stars as possible.
At least he is focused on what he thinks will win him the game.
➡️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.
Ten Hag’s #MUFC tenure vs Arne Slot brief #LFC reign is a wonderful study in the importance of good coaching.
Failure to sign Zubimendi - was easy for Liverpool’s build up to take a hit and for them to lose ‘control’.
Instead Slot coaches his way out of it.
A THREAD 🧵
Ten Hag’s terrible player profiling especially in the midfield region has really haunted Manchester United during his entire reign.
The 6 region has completely baffled him on and off the ball.
Yet this is the area of the pitch where the modern coach most needs to excel in since the rise of Guardiola…
Slot you could tell from day 1 in pre season was preoccupied with getting this area of the pitch right. Whilst he was also seeking a transfer solution for this role he was nevertheless laying down ground work for the players who could compete for this area of the pitch.
5 KEY DIFFERENCES we’ve observed since Arne took the post.
A Thread 🧵
#LFC #LiverpoolFC
We touched upon this previously but it seems super fast starts to rattle the opposition are Klopp’s bread and butter whereas Slot tends to want to digest the action before unsheathing his sword…
Klopp prior to his last season and his reluctant attempt in trying to bring in Thiago aside generally used his midfield as a way of winning the ball and efficiently getting it to the flanks.
Slot likes his side to really use the midfield to build up play, his side creates more authoritative sexy passing combos in central regions of the pitch and you’re more likely to see deep lying playmakers thrive in a Slot system hence the chase for Zubimendi than in Klopp’s OG Liverpool side.