My views on yesterday. Great result but there were some concerns.
Defence- Better but a work in progress. Maguire and Lindelof need to get an understanding with their full backs. Both AWB and Shaw were out of position more than once. This will develop over the season so I expect a few lapses like we saw yesterday. Lots of good things there though. When Magure heads the ball out of the box, it stays out of the box.
Midfield - This is where we will come undone in the coming weeks. No problem with McT at DM. He made a few errors but looked more than comfortable. Pogba was Pogba, good and bad. Pereira is where the main issue is. Other than the assist he didn't contribute much at all. Now he is getting the chance he has to start producing.
Attack - Rashford still making the wrong decisions, as does Martial but they had the Chelsea defence on the back foot for long periods of the game. Good to see them get goals early on in the season. Rashfords second one was superbly taken. Lingard had two outstanding runs but early on when we were under pressure was no where to be seen.
The Game
posted on 12/8/19
Comment Deleted by Article Creator
posted on 12/8/19
comment by RedLeyland (U3775)
posted 3 hours, 52 minutes ago
Yeah, the midfield....like a big stat nerd, I looked on who scored: pass completion for most of our players was in the 70 percents, a lot of the city players are in high 80's , some over 90. pep must go for for that kind of player. Not sure if we've got anyone like that in the squad.
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Part of the problem yesterday was that McT and Pogba (in particular) kept getting caught in possession because they didn’t have options.
As I’ve pointed out in my article above, when Jorginho and Kovacic received the ball from their centrebacks, they had one or occasionally both of Barkley and Mount dropping in to make a midfield three to work the ball out of trouble and up the pitch.
Ole kept Pereira and Lingard absolutely miles away from our CMs for most of the game, so if Pogba or McT didn’t have someone to hit over the top, their options were more limited.
If we’re going to play like this we need our movement across and behind the defensive line to be absolutely top drawer *and* allow, at the very least, one of the supporting three to find a bit more space between the lines.
I actually felt for Pogba and McT first half yesterday. They were outnumbered and pinned back and the coaching staff did nothing to help them.
posted on 12/8/19
Ole kept Pereira and Lingard absolutely miles away from our CMs for most of the game, so if Pogba or McT didn’t have someone to hit over the top, their options were more limited.
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Isn't this part of a countering tactic? Keep four players up the pitch and hit them quickly?
posted on 12/8/19
comment by There'sOnlyOneRed's (U1721)
posted 14 minutes ago
Ole kept Pereira and Lingard absolutely miles away from our CMs for most of the game, so if Pogba or McT didn’t have someone to hit over the top, their options were more limited.
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Isn't this part of a countering tactic? Keep four players up the pitch and hit them quickly?
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Yep; the problem was Chelsea often had two players close to each of our holding midfield players, so if they didn’t have a quick out-ball over the top, they were stifled or had to play backwards.
We were just seriously outnumbered in the middle of the park.
posted on 12/8/19
comment by rosso is facking happy (U17054)
posted 1 hour, 17 minutes ago
comment by There'sOnlyOneRed's (U1721)
posted 14 minutes ago
Ole kept Pereira and Lingard absolutely miles away from our CMs for most of the game, so if Pogba or McT didn’t have someone to hit over the top, their options were more limited.
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Isn't this part of a countering tactic? Keep four players up the pitch and hit them quickly?
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Yep; the problem was Chelsea often had two players close to each of our holding midfield players, so if they didn’t have a quick out-ball over the top, they were stifled or had to play backwards.
We were just seriously outnumbered in the middle of the park.
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Yes but that's the way a countering team work, they concede the middle. The defence and midfield stay compact but you leave attackers up the pitch. You win the ball in your defensive third and hit their defensive third as soon as possible. If you didn't do this and were packing the middle, they wouldn't be drawn up the pitch and you wouldn't have attackers to exploit them when they were. In otherwards, you wouldn't be counter attacking, you'd be playing a different game.
Liverpool played this tactic under Rodgers and put midfield was often bypassed, leaving the defence exposed but it then gave our attackers loads of space on the counter which we did well. This is why our games were often high scoring. Chelsea just don't have goals in the team. A better team will be more suited to taking advantage of this.
If you stick to this tactic I can see you scoring loads but also conceding loads. Granted if you stuck Matic in midfield instead of Pogba this would help but then you wouldn't have Pogba's final ball for the counter. It's a fine balance.
posted on 12/8/19
comment by There'sOnlyOneRed's (U1721)
posted 15 minutes ago
comment by rosso is facking happy(U17054)
posted 1 hour, 17 minutes ago
comment by There'sOnlyOneRed's (U1721)
posted 14 minutes ago
Ole kept Pereira and Lingard absolutely miles away from our CMs for most of the game, so if Pogba or McT didn’t have someone to hit over the top, their options were more limited.
---------------------------------------------
Isn't this part of a countering tactic? Keep four players up the pitch and hit them quickly?
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Yep; the problem was Chelsea often had two players close to each of our holding midfield players, so if they didn’t have a quick out-ball over the top, they were stifled or had to play backwards.
We were just seriously outnumbered in the middle of the park.
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Yes but that's the way a countering team work, they concede the middle. The defence and midfield stay compact but you leave attackers up the pitch. You win the ball in your defensive third and hit their defensive third as soon as possible. If you didn't do this and were packing the middle, they wouldn't be drawn up the pitch and you wouldn't have attackers to exploit them when they were. In otherwards, you wouldn't be counter attacking, you'd be playing a different game.
Liverpool played this tactic under Rodgers and put midfield was often bypassed, leaving the defence exposed but it then gave our attackers loads of space on the counter which we did well. This is why our games were often high scoring. Chelsea just don't have goals in the team. A better team will be more suited to taking advantage of this.
If you stick to this tactic I can see you scoring loads but also conceding loads. Granted if you stuck Matic in midfield instead of Pogba this would help but then you wouldn't have Pogba's final ball for the counter. It's a fine balance.
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Exactly what I’ve been saying all day 👏🏻
With counter attacking football you need to invite pressure and to fans it looks like you are being overrun but that in essence makes their ‘back door’ get left open and the forwards have much more space to operate in.
It’s dangerous defensively as you are inviting pressure and better teams will score against us but we’ll score plenty too.
posted on 12/8/19
Yeah, the problem was we *were* being overrun, and we didn’t have an escape route when we did get ahold of the ball. We weren’t being given the time to hit the ball over the top.
We actually worked the ball up the pitch more successfully in the first half when the ball ended up with De Gea and the forwards came deeper to help with the transition; i.e. we looked better when we actually put bodies in midfield and tried to pass the ball through the lines.
The penalty came from a transition through their lines. We weren’t overloading on a fast break. They had six players back against our four.
And they had five in their box for Martial’s goal. Again, the chance didn’t come from an out-ball bypassing the midfield.
It simply didn’t work first half yesterday. After the game opened up after our second, we edged it. Before that they were comfortably the better, and more dangerous, side, first half in particular.
posted on 13/8/19
United in the PL when leading at HT
279 games
263 wins
16 draws
0 losses
That is fkin unreal!
posted on 13/8/19
I think one of Lingard or Pereira was meant to drop deeper in such instances to help out Pogba and McTominay but it just didn't happen in the first half. You do see it happening half way through the second half. It's why we saw a change when he started playing the second half and were much better for it.
There are still issues regarding roles and tactics that need to be ironed out, and we'll see it this season when they don't quite come off.
posted on 13/8/19
comment by Oscar. 2019 YEAR OF THE MACK! #TeamFury (U12980)
posted 10 hours, 11 minutes ago
United in the PL when leading at HT
279 games
263 wins
16 draws
0 losses
That is fkin unreal!
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Isn't that at Old Trafford? Not surprising with the refereeing decisions...