Tactical Analysis thread: Besides the midfield, the one thing that was glaringly obvious in Sunday's match was the need for the forward line to do their part and help the midfield out.
That goes for both helping to progress the ball, and defensively (CONT) #MUFC
Let's take a look at some HORRIBLE defense where United leave Harry Maguire completely exposed and let Trincao have a free run at him.
A defensive midfielder alone doesn't fix this because there are so many breakdowns, especially from the forwards #MUFC
(Pics are annotated so I can save words here). The play starts fairly innocently on the wing. Pogba and James have swapped roles (due to prior positioning) but James tucks in as the second CM. United look pretty well set up, except Bruno and James are both in no mans land #MUFC
As the 10, Bruno should be sitting on the deepest midfielder or between the pivot (he is), but once the ball goes out there, he's gotta pick someone up.
Bruno picks up neither CM, allowing the ball to easily be passed across and causing a chain reaction for everyone else #MUFC
With Bruno not marking Neves OR cutting off the passing lane from Moutinho to Neves, Sancho springs into action to close down Neves.
But Sancho is coming from really far away, and by going to Neves he's leaving Shaw all alone to do deal with both Kilman and Semedo ##MUFC
Sancho arrives late, allowing Neves to move it quickly, and Trincao is able to quickly move it out to a wide open Kilman, forcing Fred to move out and cover him #MUFC
By covering Kilman, Fred is essentially moving into the LW position, meaning SOMEONE has to drop into CM and cover for him. NO ONE does, and no one even follows Trincao after he makes the pass, leaving him all alone in an extremely dangerous position #MUFC
Kilman easily finds Trincao who now can easily run straight at Maguire, which is Maguire's biggest weakness and what United strive to protect.
All of this is avoided if Bruno and/or Sancho just picked up their man from the start or stayed with Trincao! #MUFC
Maybe a more natural defensive midfielder doesn't overcommit to Kilman and let's him carry it in a bit more while cutting off the angle. Maybe.
Either way, someone needs to come in, fill that gap, and help out. No one does!
The forwards need to do their part too #MUFC
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If United finish outside the top four it would be (probably) the largest collapse in Premier League history
If United simply drew all their remaining matches, they'd finish on 67 points
To fall out would require:
Spurs to win 4/5 + 1D
Liverpool to win 4 of 6 + 2D
How feasible is that? Spurs have won four of their last TEN
Liverpool have won three in a row but those are their only three wins in their last seven
Villa play Utd so if Utd draw all their matches Villa would have go to 4/4 rest of the way. They still play Spurs & Liverpool
It's ridiculously unlikely that any of these teams - which have not won at these rate all year, will finish out at these rates
And remember this is all based on United drawing every game, just one win changes the whole picture!
The last two years United had a de-centralized attack that distributed the shots and goals around the team
With Ronaldo it's a centralized attack built around him. So "where would we be without Ronaldo?" We simply wouldn't be playing a style built around one person #MUFC
Since Feb Ronaldo has been taking roughly a third of our shots in each match. That's a significant increase over how the team played over the last two years. If CR7 wasn't here, they wouldn't have built an attack that relies on one person to carry the load thebusbybabe.sbnation.com/2022/4/7/23011…
Carl does a great job breaking down how the where would we be without Ronaldo question is a misnomer
Also a misnomer is "Ronaldo scores goals and wins us games" 10 of his 15 PL goals (66.7%) have come in just five of the 26 matches he's started (19.23%)
CONT
For midfielders being good or bad is not black & white There's levels
Good - help your team win
Bad - cause your team to lose
In between - prevent your team from losing, but also hold your team back and make it more difficult to win
Like we really can't overstate how not 'Premier League champions' quality Fred, Matic, and McTominay are. And Pogba/VDB aren't midfielders either. United have the defenders/attackers to play the style OGS wants, but the midfielders are simply incapable #MUFC
I always laugh at the notion that someone else 'gets more out of this team' because that someone else would still have to deal with McTominay & Fred who can't pass, and Matic who can't move #MUFC
Little Tactical Analysis thread here: I still can't get over this goal from Saturday.
Everything about it, the movements, rotations, etc is the PERFECT way to combat Leeds man-marking strategy, and United carve them apart #MUFC
It starts with Greenwood telling McTominay exactly where he wants the ball. Greenwood is going to have to drop about three steps deeper to make this work. Three steps doesn't seem like much, but if he doesn't do it, none of this happens #MUFC
As soon as McTominay plays this ball, Fred starts running forward. Greenwood is going to drag the CB into midfield, leaving all that space open, someone needs to fill it. Fred spots this and immediately moves to fill it (while Bruno drags his man wide) #MUFC
Well that would be 40 assists which would just about double the Premier League record for assists in a season so, no, I don't really think that's a reasonable expectation #MUFC
The thing about using assists to judge people is it relies on your teammates to finish the chances. This is an incredible ball from Pogba but we're remembering it b/c Greenwood finished this chance. Not many people besides Greenwood are capable of doing this #MUFC
The xG on that Greenwood shot was about 0.08. Greenwood one of the few in the world who you fancy to actually maybe score it, but 9/10 times it doesn't go in.
That doesn't - and shouldn't - take away from how beautiful and perfect that ball was from Pogba #MUFC