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A tactical analysis of Manchester United's performance, focusing on their struggles with defensive organization and transition play. Discover how tactical decisions and player positioning contribute to conceding goals and what needs to change for the team to improve.
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00:00Manchester United are 16th in the Premier League at the time of recording.
00:03The display against Bournemouth off the back of a hammering in Italy
00:07highlights everything wrong with the current iteration of Manchester United.
00:13So, why has this all happened?
00:16Well, I'm Jacob Oswald, 4-4-2's resident tactician,
00:19and this is where it all went wrong for poor Michael Carrick.
00:26Manchester United dejection!
00:29Carrick mentioned the lack of running after the Como game,
00:32and that has been a gigantic issue during his time at United.
00:35In all but one of their Premier League fixtures, they've been outran.
00:39The only game they covered more distance was against the 10-man Manchester City,
00:43and that is a real problem.
00:46Carrick, before the Como game, mentioned wanting to control games a little bit more,
00:50but you can't control games when you get outran in every single one of them,
00:55bar when you're against 10 men.
00:56Now, that doesn't just mean these lot running a lot to get high up the pitch when United are going
01:01forward, because, as you see, a huge gap opens up when the defence don't follow.
01:05Now, many people may look at Manchester United and go,
01:08well, why can't we even counter-attack?
01:09It's a real big thing if Manchester United can't even hit teams in transition.
01:12That's their whole identity.
01:14But for me, the real issue with this team, in terms of its running,
01:17is the out-of-possession setup.
01:19If United look to even half-engage high, they just lack the mobility to do that.
01:24Here, they're doing some half-counter-pressing, and, as you see, both central midfielders are in shot.
01:29Ideally, they'd have been more alert and jumped toward the ball to prevent a forward pass.
01:33But they aren't.
01:34The ball is then sent long, and Lamont eventually makes a mistake.
01:38But look at the position United's centre-halves find themselves in.
01:41Martinez is wide, so is Yoro, as they make sort of a back three with Harry Maguire at the base.
01:47But they have no support around them if they were to win a first contact, or have to battle in
01:52a 1v1.
01:53In that instance, the defensive setup isn't necessarily why United concedes,
01:57because, you know, the wind holds the ball up, Lamont comes out and makes a mistake.
02:01But the scenario that defence find themselves in, where they're isolated,
02:05they are regularly in these 1v1s, means that teams do constantly look to exploit
02:10the Manchester United backline and the space in and around it.
02:13And that's why so many teams create so many chances against Manchester United on the turnover.
02:19And this might be a real problem for Manchester United!
02:21I want to look at this sequence, because you see the two United midfielders, again,
02:26well ahead of their backline, as they initially had gone high with these two Bournemouth players.
02:30But, look at Bournemouth's front line.
02:33They're 4v4 against Manchester United's backline, forcing them to engage in 1v1 battles,
02:38and thus meaning, Maguire doesn't have the option here to bring this ball down
02:42and let United get back to then play forwards.
02:45Instead, he has no choice but to meet this first time, heading forwards into the massive gap,
02:51which allows Bournemouth to then pick up the second ball and attack in United's half,
02:55without doing much work.
02:56Now, this is very, very easy to sit and go.
02:58This is solely on Michael Carrick.
03:00This is something that he should have fixed.
03:02But there's a reason that there's been these central holes under Eric Tsenak.
03:06Then you've also got Ruben Amorim, and now Michael Carrick.
03:10And that's because these four in the backline just don't fit a team that wants to be even slightly aggressive
03:15in their play.
03:16Maguire through the middle is serviceable, despite the narrative around him.
03:19He's decent in a high lane, but lacks the mobility to be really aggressive if his team presses high.
03:25Martinez has the aggression and mobility to step and support the press, but I'm not sure on his position or
03:31discipline.
03:31And then with the two fullbacks, you have Lenny Ural, who I think is a really, really good young player.
03:37But for me, I think he's better as a centre-half who's dragging wide, approaching a dual diagonally,
03:43where he really just gets in and hits someone early, rather than most static 1v1s when he's having to deal
03:49with how an attacker is approaching him.
03:52And then you've got Diogo Deleu.
03:55Play the clip.
03:59So, on the whole, United don't have the mobility, either in defence or in midfield, to really be this pressing,
04:07high-intensity, aggressive side.
04:08Now, Carlos Baleba, despite the results, I think has had a positive impact, and it's almost negated this slightly when
04:14he's played.
04:16But it's not enough to just have one player out of, what, five who can do that run, who can
04:21do the heavy lifting,
04:22because Manchester United need a lot more than that, and at the moment, it's just leaving them, like sitting ducks
04:27when the opposition move the ball quickly.
04:29Now, can you blame that all on Carrick?
04:31I'm really not too sure, because this Manchester United backline, four of their backline, have been there for nearly five
04:37years now.
04:39That's something that should have been addressed.
04:41In this situation, Cuomo blitzed them, and United concede.
04:44But if we break it all down, Maguire is high in initiating some sort of press.
04:49But look at Mbwemo and Ahmad, although their rules may be for Ahmad to come a little bit wider,
04:54and support against any potential 2v1s against his full-back, and Mbwemo may be trying to apply pressure on the
05:00centre-halves.
05:00I think they've got to take some ownership, and step out of that set-up, to recognise one of them
05:06should 100% be applying pressure to Cuomo's number five.
05:10If just one of them does that, then they'd have boxed in the player with the ball.
05:14Instead, neither look half-interested, the ball goes horizontal, and then through to the Cuomo winger, and Ahmad just does,
05:21basically, nothing.
05:23He doesn't cover either of the two options you'd probably want him to, one being that wide ball, and one
05:28being that central horizontal pass.
05:30This gives Cuomo the opportunity to get into space, and pick out a man who's been left by a United
05:35midfielder.
05:36And Cuomo have one of the easiest goals of the season, with Ahmad being in no-man's-lands, not doing
05:41anything, basically.
05:43Not closing down the progressive five-yard pass, and not walking the winger, who was free on that left-hand
05:49side.
05:50You don't know if this is a tactical thing from Michael Kyrie. It could be an instruction.
05:54However, something we do know, something that we can work out from watching Manchester United and not being in the
06:00dressing room,
06:00is that there seems to be a real lack of accountability in this squad, a lack of just taking ownership
06:06of situations.
06:08And that's not just Ahmad in that instance. I think he is usually someone who works quite hard and does
06:13a lot.
06:14But from the rest of the team, there is no sort of, yeah, I'll put that on me, I will
06:20take this.
06:21Which is what you need at Manchester United.
06:23The first Cuomo goal highlights this perfectly, because Cuomo pull wide, and if we highlight the United midfielders,
06:30we have one, who's been dragged deep by this runner, that's fine.
06:33We then have one protecting that shooting space on the edge of the box, that's also fine.
06:37But what annoys me is, one, how deep the centre-halves are compared to the other two in the back
06:43line,
06:43and two, Matthias Cunha.
06:45He knows his teammate has been dragged deep, so why not tuck into this space that he would be in
06:50and close off that half space?
06:53If he does that, then this Cuomo player's job becomes a lot harder.
06:57Instead, the Italian side just play this ball inside to a free man, and Niko Paz shows a bit of
07:02quality.
07:03Obviously, that's a world-class finish from Niko Paz.
07:06The Champions League's a world-class competition.
07:08Now, if you're a Manchester United player, you're in a tough moment overall as the fixtures have gone.
07:13You see your side under a bit of pressure in and around the 18-yard box, and you see the
07:19space there.
07:19You're not marking anyone because your role's not to go man-to-man, you're marking zonally.
07:23And you see a pocket of space on the edge of your box.
07:25For me, you should be taking ownership and going,
07:27I'm going to make that space, man.
07:29I'm going to actually mark the zones and prevent that player from getting on the ball in the half space.
07:34Instead, Cunha doesn't.
07:36And it does just come across as seriously lazy.
07:41Just like Manchester United's transfer window.
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08:23Right, back to the video.
08:24Players were booed off with real anger by the...
08:27This summer, Manchester United didn't back Michael Carrick.
08:30I know that may be wild to say for a lot of people.
08:33When you look at the transfer mark figures,
08:35they did spend 117 million euros in net spends.
08:39But that means nothing.
08:41Now hear me out, because yes, the money, you know, objectively,
08:45there's a lot of money that got backed at him.
08:47But it's a poor way to use that money.
08:49For the fifth summer, or however many summers in a row now,
08:53Manchester United have spent their money wrong.
08:55Andre Santos felt like a pretty good market opportunity.
08:58And although he hasn't been amazing, I actually don't think that that was a horrific deal.
09:04However, if you then factor in Yuri Tielemans, also arrived in the same summer,
09:08who was also another good market opportunity,
09:11them two together just don't make sense.
09:13You have two players there who don't have exceptional engines,
09:17and probably have players who want to be playing facing goals.
09:20Santos is someone who's maybe a little bit more preservative with his back to goal.
09:23But really, you want these two facing goal, looking to play forwards.
09:26And they're not really tempo setters, controllers and dictators of the flow of a game,
09:31because they don't cover enough ground.
09:33They want to play forwards, potentially a little bit too often.
09:36So that means that you need ball security and serious mobility around them,
09:40if you're going to play one of them in a midfield three.
09:42But if you look at what would probably be Manchester United's best midfield,
09:45we have Bruno, and more often than not, Kobi Mainu next to one of these players.
09:49Bruno loses the ball often because he's a high-volume creator,
09:53whilst Mainu is great at keeping secure possession whilst progressing the ball.
09:57However, he's not someone who's going to eat up ground and cover large distances for a full 90 minutes,
10:02meaning you leave a Manchester United midfield with no real balance.
10:07You then go back to the team that started against Bournemouth,
10:10and you move backwards, looking at the defence,
10:13and you see no outfield defenders arrived.
10:15Now, I won't go into serious detail on this,
10:18because I feel like we've talked a little bit about the backline,
10:20about Manchester United's defensive issues.
10:22But what is important to look at is,
10:24if we look at the squad Manchester United have at the back,
10:27the average age is just shy of 27 years old,
10:31and that's massively dragged down by Leni Jorot and Aidan Heaven.
10:35So what was the plan there?
10:36After rebuilding the midfield this summer, and the summer prior,
10:40rebuilding the attack a little bit,
10:42was the plan to then wait until Nexam and rebuild the defence?
10:45If so, then what?
10:47That doesn't make any sense.
10:49That's not how squad building is supposed to work.
10:51You don't just rebuild sections of your squad every summer,
10:54because by the time they've rebuilt this full defence,
10:57they'll be going, oh, well, we need a new striker now.
10:59Oh, we'll go rebuild the attack again.
11:01And then it just goes in cycles and cycles.
11:03But I suppose this isn't how Manchester United should be operating, is it?
11:08Either way, at the time of recording, it appears Michael Carrick's days are numbered at Manchester United,
11:12and he probably will get the sack in the coming days.
11:16But I'm telling you now, that does not stop the rot.
11:19If Carrick goes, there are so many more problems at Manchester United way, way above him.
11:24He may have got things wrong tactically, and it's fully fair to criticise him.
11:28But the players, the players that are recruited, the way the clubs ran, are nigh undisgraceful,
11:35or have been this season, at the very minimum.
11:38Something that isn't disgraceful is the 442 YouTube channel.
11:41So feel free to like, subscribe, and yeah, we'll be back again for some more top-tier analysis.
11:46Probably about Manchester United's next gaffer.
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