Beans
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So... how's everyone feeling this Monday? 
Annoying as it was to lose this weekend, I've put together some analysis of the game and a bunch of conclusions to take from it. It digs into our defending, the performances of Fleck, Lundstram, thoughts on the debutants, and a few other things too. Stats and fancy charts galore. I'll not paste the whole thing here as it's a beast, but you can read it all here:
https://www.uptheblades.com/latest-articles/2018/8/6/conclusions-from-blades-swansea
However, here's what I had to say about Fleck's performance if you'd like a little taster:
Fleck Couldn't Get Into The Game
One of United’s stylistic hallmarks under Wilder is that we’ve been generally excellent at getting the ball from defence into the final third, usually through progressive passing across the whole pitch. Yesterday was slightly different, and although we edged the territory stats, it was a grind to get the ball into dangerous areas.
One major disappointment with the game was the performance of John Fleck. I say this not as a criticism of Fleck, who didn’t really do anything wrong per se – just that we weren’t able to get the best out of him. I mentioned in my piece after the Inter friendly about why I was happy with a midfield three of Evans, Lundstram and Fleck: because in that Inter game, Fleck was released to play higher up the pitch and be heavily involved in all our attacks, driving the ball forward, creating and shooting.
Against Swansea… not so much. Here’s Fleck’s pass map from the game (blue arrows are completed passes, red incompleted):
Notice how confined to the left wing he was? And the gaping hole in the 20 yards or so outside of the centre of the penalty box? This was a very restricted performance from the one player in that midfield three who can make things happen. With him playing this kind of game, it’s little wonder that our play felt largely conservative.
So why did this happen? It may be tactical (though I doubt it) – far more likely is that Swansea had done their homework. Check the average positions of the Swansea midfield three (below, info via SofaScore) – ultra-compact, and also shading to the right side of the pitch, meaning the side in which Fleck usually sets up. Furthermore, McBurnie (number 9) dropped into this space regularly, meaning that there was precious little room for Fleck to receive, turn, run, pass – all the things that he typically does.
Plenty more on this, including a deep dive into the ability of this midfield three, right here
https://www.uptheblades.com/latest-articles/2018/8/6/conclusions-from-blades-swansea
Cheers for reading.
Annoying as it was to lose this weekend, I've put together some analysis of the game and a bunch of conclusions to take from it. It digs into our defending, the performances of Fleck, Lundstram, thoughts on the debutants, and a few other things too. Stats and fancy charts galore. I'll not paste the whole thing here as it's a beast, but you can read it all here:
https://www.uptheblades.com/latest-articles/2018/8/6/conclusions-from-blades-swansea
However, here's what I had to say about Fleck's performance if you'd like a little taster:
Fleck Couldn't Get Into The Game
One of United’s stylistic hallmarks under Wilder is that we’ve been generally excellent at getting the ball from defence into the final third, usually through progressive passing across the whole pitch. Yesterday was slightly different, and although we edged the territory stats, it was a grind to get the ball into dangerous areas.
One major disappointment with the game was the performance of John Fleck. I say this not as a criticism of Fleck, who didn’t really do anything wrong per se – just that we weren’t able to get the best out of him. I mentioned in my piece after the Inter friendly about why I was happy with a midfield three of Evans, Lundstram and Fleck: because in that Inter game, Fleck was released to play higher up the pitch and be heavily involved in all our attacks, driving the ball forward, creating and shooting.
Against Swansea… not so much. Here’s Fleck’s pass map from the game (blue arrows are completed passes, red incompleted):
Notice how confined to the left wing he was? And the gaping hole in the 20 yards or so outside of the centre of the penalty box? This was a very restricted performance from the one player in that midfield three who can make things happen. With him playing this kind of game, it’s little wonder that our play felt largely conservative.
So why did this happen? It may be tactical (though I doubt it) – far more likely is that Swansea had done their homework. Check the average positions of the Swansea midfield three (below, info via SofaScore) – ultra-compact, and also shading to the right side of the pitch, meaning the side in which Fleck usually sets up. Furthermore, McBurnie (number 9) dropped into this space regularly, meaning that there was precious little room for Fleck to receive, turn, run, pass – all the things that he typically does.
Plenty more on this, including a deep dive into the ability of this midfield three, right here
https://www.uptheblades.com/latest-articles/2018/8/6/conclusions-from-blades-swansea
Cheers for reading.
