Thread by @nonewthing

The thing with this United team is that... they badly lack fundamentals.

Ingrained fundamentals are what makes any team competitive, what keeps you alive in games and what determines your level over a long period.

United are lacking in too many fundamentals.

(KRAKEN THREAD)

These things are that makes a team and what it can do.

Fundamentals or the lack thereof cannot be easily defined but you can generally grade via eye test or via data if you want. You would want to score 'Decent' in everything and 'elite' at a few things.

The best teams in Europe are usually elite at

1. Buildup.
2. Pressing.
3. Sustained pressure.
3. Ball retention in all phases.
4. Compactness in all phases.
5. Counterattacking.
6. Defensive workrate.

These are fundamentals that make these teams not just difficult to beat but

impossible to keep out.

United under Ole were good or elite at

1. Compactness in all phases.
2. Counterattacking.
3. Defensive workrate.

These 3 fundamentals made them difficult to beat, especially if you were a top team. With so many elite talents in the squad, they even won

the best teams in the world a good few times.

However, these fundamentals are not enough to go toe to toe with the best teams for the big trophies. With the addition of even more elite talents and expectations, United had to start playing like one of the best teams in the world.

One of United's deep-rooted problems had always been sustaining pressure in the opposition 3rd and ball retention in all phases.

If you can't keep the ball well enough in all phases, you can't effectively sustain pressure on teams and if you can't sustain pressure on teams, you

are not going to be one of the best teams in the world no matter what.

United under Ole have always been been generally poor at ball retention in all phases (and sustaining pressure in the final third). This is not just a coaching issue. United is simply full of players that are

too direct and eager on the ball 24/7.

Bruno Fernandes is the chief culprit and his massive influence has made others similarly so such that everyone plays direct and eager even when they ought to consolidate possession.

The likes of Rashford and Greenwood ought to be

taught to take care of the ball better. With someone like Guardiola, they will be forced to learn to take care of the ball better (simply because Pep would use the ultimate consequence to teach as well: not playing games).

If this continues, United risk having many players like

Bruno in the squad which will make it near impossible to play possession football at the required level needed to match the best teams.

United also have Paul Labile Pogba who, when he plays in central areas especially against a good press, loses the ball too frequently for the

good of the team.

The problem is not just that United have these unreliable (in terms of keeping the ball) profiles, it is that they are extremely talented and global figures, too, and as such they must play.

If you fill the team with natural retention profiles like Sancho

you could make it work having one or two chance-creating turnover machines in the team (City have one in De Bryune and Liverpool have Arnold and both are still better at retention until the final action, anyway).

However, when everyone is a turnover machine in your attack, you

will struggle to sustain pressure on the opposition.

In attack, United only have two natural 'make the ball stick' player, one of which they just bought in Sancho and Van De Beek (Mata doesn't matter).

Both play where United's biggest names play, reducing their influence,

gametime and general usefulness.

Because United lose the ball so much, they MUST compensate with ELITE

1. Buildup.
2. Compactness.
3. Defensive workrate.
4. Pressing.

Much ado has been made about United's buildup but it is not bad. It is not elite, either.

If the buildup

was elite, United will naturally get into a settled final 3rd shape more frequently than they already do, which, on paper, should be good for them.

What about compactness in all phases?

The first thing I liked about Ole Gunnar Solskjaer as a coach was the fact that his

teams played compact (if not inspiring) football.

Compactness is a SUPER FUNDAMENTAL. It is what makes teams good enough to win trophies. It is the soul of football.

Compactness can be structural in nature. It is having small distances between your players so that they can

defend easier, prevent progression and press in packs. The secret of Ole-ball in previous seasons was compactness.

Compactness is not just structural, it's also artificially induced by pressing schemes.

You can, for example, create a compact defensive situation by directing

opponents towards the byline and then directly pressuring in packs there. So we can say that effective pressing schemes require compactness (small distances) and that compactness can be created by pressing. Both can be interdependent, even more especially in advanced areas.

Pressing also requires a lot of workrate (although you don't have to work as much when there's small distances between players and if the team doesn't lose the ball too frequently). So all of compactness, pressing and defensive workrate are related in some way, ESPECIALLY in

advanced areas.

Now, United—because of the massive amounts of attacking talents and household names they have haphazardly gathered—have to play with possession in advanced areas more than they have ever done.

You cannot really do that without great buildup, ball retention in

all phases, compactness, pressing, workrate, etc. These are the fundamentals United do not have. They can't even compensate with pressing, compactness and workrate because of a few reasons.

1. Ole's coaching staff do not seem capable of organizing a structurally sensible press.

2. The workrate needed from the attackers to have good pressing is lacking (major culprits being every single attacker apart from Cavani and Dan James who they just sold to Leeds).

3. Compactness is affected by all of the above as well as the need to fit as many attackers in

as possible (attackers who don't press). Structurally, you can only fit in so many pure forwards. Fundamentally, you still need workrate from those forwards to achieve a kind of compactness.

Ultimately, the end product of all of this lack of fundamentals is the inability to

sustain possession and pressure in the opposition final third, which is the holy grail of attacking football and the way United have to and are trying to play.

—United don't have an elite buildup, which is the most direct lead to sustained pressure in the final third.

—United don't keep the ball well enough in every area of the pitch, which affects their ability to build up and their ability to keep the ball in the opposition 3rd.

—United don't work hard from the front and don't have a good shape or good ideas even when they try to, which

brings a lot of pressure on the rest of the team, causing errors, lapses of judgment, drained confidence and energy levels.

All of these things are overwhelming to any team in the world. Why do you think Liverpool, City and Chelsea mostly play safe football until they get to the

opposition 3rd? Why do you think Liverpool have signed Thiago, Keita etc etc? Ball retention in all phases.

I have seen more than good enough final 3rd shape from Ole's United before, so I believe that the lack of retention/control is a pass selection and discipline issue from

the players instead of the coach's fault.

WHAT'S THE SOLUTION FOR UNITED AND OLE?

One way or another, Ole and United have brought this upon themselves with defective squad building. Guardiola thinks about ball retention when he's signing players. That's why he got Grealish and

Silva. There's a reason why Klopp uses a technical profile like Roberto Firmino to link play.

I guess that this was the reasoning behind Jadon Sancho. However, Ole's reasoning was not holistic and the club added to the issue by signing even more players where Sancho should play.

Ole's reasoning was not holistic because it didn't consider butterfly effect issues such as where would Sancho play? If it was on the right, then a capable overlapping RB would be needed (which AWB is not yet). Even if AWB is to be retrained, what about the other flank?

Rashford, Martial, Pogba all play as inside forwards. That's two flanks with collapsing forwards and overlapping FBs. And that's without CR7. But who would cover for the FBs? Especially when Bruno Fernandes, Jese Lingard, Van De Beek, and possibly Pogba have to play in midfield?

There's great tactical friction between the profiles of United's globally renowned forwards and their globally renowned midfielders.

This is why Dan James staying was a tactical necessity, as he can hold width on the flanks which allows an 8/10 and let's AWB stay back.

Ultimately, Ole has thought well about the recruitment but not too well. This is down to the lack of a holistic tactical vision.

However, things would not have been so bad all that much until the United hierarchy muddled in with their great bear feet and signed Cristiano Ronaldo

Now, Ole is in trouble. To get things back on track, Cavani, Sancho, Van De Beek must see more game time. But this is near impossible with the other big names.

If Ronaldo is playing, then one of United's young guns is not. More trouble for United in the long run.

Ole must somehow return back to his old fundamentals and drop some of the biggest names, especially in the biggest games.

3 of those big names are Ronaldo Bruno and Pogba.

It's an impossible job.

Ole is in trouble.