Thread by @dharnishiqbal

Ipswich Town-Manchester United Tactical Analysis: (a thread)

▪️What did we learn from Ruben Amorim's first game?

I felt like most of the game was based around whether or not Man Utd could break Ipswich's press. For different reasons it was sometimes successful but often not, though at the very least you could see the players were doing what Amorim wanted to do even if the execution was off

For the goal, United successfully attracted Ipswich's press high up the pitch and when the full-back pressed Diallo, Fernandes was free in the half-space attracting Ipswich's centre-back, creating space for Diallo to burst into and cross for the goal

For large periods, United found progression tough as Ipswich surrounded Eriksen-Casemiro, and as their front 3 pressed United's back three, there was always a player in front of one of the advanced 10 attackers (Fernandes) blocking the pass off or a defender stepped out

With either a defender following Fernandes-Garnacho it made central progression difficult, as this is the key way to get the ball into attack through Amorim's style. Leading United to having to often look wide to progress the ball, with the wide Ipswich forward closing down a FB

With Casemiro-Eriksen marked and a forward closing down Dalot, what worked is whenever Dalot stayed wide or high and Garnacho would drag Tuanzebe in then out running off him to create space. Ipswich's press was good and pushed United back but this is 1 method to explore more

Because of Ipswich's press sticking tight to the players in the half-spaces, often United were pushed back and it's why we saw them go long often to Rashford. It was players getting used to a system but also not really having an answer to a good game plan from Mckenna

There were some occasions where they were able to pull Davis wide to Diallo and get Fernandes into the half-space but whenever they did, either execution was off (bad touch, stray pass) or decision-making in the final third was lacking. Again, right blueprint, bad result

United want more of the above to happen, as this is how they'll score most of their goals under Amorim, but a cause for concern may be that Ipswich when dropping Hutchinson were a threat, especially with Casemiro slow to mark the central midfielder in the press

With United's front 3 pressing Ipswich's defence, Casemiro is slow to press Morsy, or whenever Hutchinson dropped, he would dive in too quickly with him evading the Brazilian, add in the fact Evans was instructed to close him down deep in his own half and he was a huge threat

Just behind United's 3-2 press, Hutchinson would pick the ball up and dribble past Evans, you would think that with Ugarte and Martinez in instead of Casemiro and Evans, it could tighten the press up a little but Ipswich were smart, had a plan and executed it well

On the plus side, Amorim's early 2nd half changes were clearly to stop these attacks and gain control back in the 2nd half, pushing Fernandes deeper and bringing Ugarte on, United had more control but similarly again, the patterns of getting a 10 in the half space were awry

Bad decision-making/execution contributed to this but at the very least, Ipswich's attacks were quelled. With players to return the build-up has more possibilities, but Ipswich were brilliant without the ball, as time goes by though United will get better at these patterns

I think Amorim ran into a manager who setup well vs his style of play and finding solutions to progress vs teams that setup will is going to be crucial

End of thread! Apologies for the delay, the graphics took a while.

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