Manchester United’s Notes: Tactical strengths alternately show power, Ten Hag has to think about substitution choices after having a center

Casemiro’s suspension has a huge impact on Manchester United, plus more games in the middle of last week
In a make-up match, Manchester United’s physical fitness is also at an absolute disadvantage.
Being killed by the opponent at the last moment is bound to make many Red Devils fans angry, but the content of the game is extremely exciting and worthy of analysis.
In particular, Ten Hag has been slow to replace Aishen to strengthen the defense or change the three central defenders. After essentially having a center forward, there is a temporary problem with his on-the-spot selection.

The focus of this note is still to conduct “point selection analysis” to try to analyze part of the tactical game between Ten Hag and Arteta.
Strive to use concise descriptions to present the author’s own point of view.

[The release of Xhaka was born in the representative battle, and Manchester United’s right rib defense appeared loose]

Arteta has made many tactical fine-tunes this season, one of which is the release and premise of Xhaka.
The adduction of the left back gave Xhaka enough support to allow him to continuously penetrate into the penalty area and the rib space, to contact the winger and attacker, or to aim at the open space behind the defense.
Xhaka has sent 4 goals and 5 assists in all competitions, which is the sum of the past 3 seasons.

Figure 1: Compared with the past two seasons, Xhaka’s premise this season is very obvious

Xhaka completed 1/4 of Arsenal’s threatening passes in the field. In the first half, he sent effective lateral passes on the left rib 3 times, including an assist to Nketiah.
The arrival of Jinqinke allows Arteta to make more tactical fine-tuning on the offensive end to maximize the advantage of the attacker, and the premise of Xhaka has become a “hidden but extremely important” link.

Picture 2: Xhaka’s premise and movement, which brought a very high tactical effect

The right winger Anthony was very active on the defensive end (2 steals from the ribs on the defensive end, 2 chases against counter-robbers), but still failed to effectively prevent Manchester United’s defense from loosening.

[Anthony still has difficulty contacting his teammates effectively, Rashford once again played eye-catching performance]

Anthony, who carries the title of “Mr. Billion”, can bring back defenses, catch the ball and confront, and even complete a certain frontal depth impact in the near future.
At the same time, Anthony’s real shortcomings began to emerge: still unable to effectively “horizontally connect or hit the penalty area.”
To put it simply, his delivery quality is not up to standard, which will cause his overall value to drop significantly.

Picture 3 4: Anthony’s problems with passing lines and strength are already very obvious

Even now that he has a stable output on the offensive end, it still cannot be said that Rashford has come out of the “sequelae” of stress fractures.
But from the current structure of Manchester United’s frontcourt personnel, Rashford is still the strongest point.
Ten Hag’s system very much needs Rashford to complete the impact and receive the ball, and then face the defensive player to seek the end.
Coupled with the fact that Manchester United’s frontcourt high pressure has been greatly improved, seeking offensive conversion has become a top priority.

Figure 5 6: Luke Shaw restricted Saka twice, Rashford made two frontal impacts

[Saka bypasses Luke Shaw and singles Ai Shen, Arsenal let the strong point get the best output space]

Arsenal’s frontcourt attackers all have very strong ball-holding, confrontation, and impact capabilities, and Odegaard can bring unusually comprehensive running tearing and technical support, which puts great pressure on Manchester United’s rib defense.
At the same time, Erdegaard and Saka’s right ribs are connected in series, and they can form a very good linkage to complete impact cooperation or create strong singles opportunities.

Luke Shaw, who has excellent overall quality, once formed a very good confrontation and follow-up restriction against Saka, which is very detrimental to the output of Arsenal’s offensive strengths.

Picture 7: Luke Shaw’s one-point limit on Saka was once very good

However, Arsenal’s detailed adjustments on the spot directly grasped a major hidden worry of Manchester United: Eriksson’s single defense ability is relatively weak.
Fu’an Jianyang, who came off the bench, started to make a big premise, and Odegaard’s off-ball running appeared again. Saka aimed at the junction of Luke Shaw and Aishen for an inward impact, which directly brought tactical effects.

Figure 8 9: Saka succeeded in consecutive singles against Ai Shen, and the pressure on Manchester United’s defense surged

How to make adjustments is a test of Ten Hag’s choice.

[The offensive depth is unsustainable, and Ten Hag’s adjustment in a passive situation has been criticized]

In this case, the mainstream view is to replace Fred on Ai Shen and increase defensive coverage.
Ten Hag did this, but instead of substituting Ayersen, he asked Fred to replace Anthony.
Similarly, Ten Hag did not change into three central defenders to increase the width of the defense to protect the ribs under the situation of a draw and high pressure.

Figure 10: It is difficult for Manchester United to form an effective counterattack in the final stage

The vacancy on Manchester United’s defense line is getting bigger and bigger. The frontcourt players have almost no physical fitness to complete the running and positioning to help defend. Mai and Aishen can’t complete effective coverage in local areas. Similarly, the vacancy in the ribs is also very obvious
.
The picture in the lower right corner of the above picture shows that after the 2-2 draw, it is difficult for Manchester United to complete a continuous attack.

Ten Hag’s choice attracted more criticism after the game, and “Men Wan” gave him a low score of 5 points in this game.
But what exactly can Ten Hag expect?
It is still the left-side deep system formed by Huang Qian’s away win in the last round of the Europa League.
It’s just that Rashford’s excellent condition is still worth “gambling”. Weghorst can bring the support of the center, so that it is convenient for B Fee to send a deep pass to Rashford.

Figure 11: Ten Hag’s final stage attack on the opponent’s depth is expected to show

Ganacho has now shown a certain depth impact quality