Bergen Blade
Well-Known Member
I've mentioned before that teams have found ways to counter act our style this season. Part of it has been to occupy our wing backs when we are defending. Meaning they've become passive, holding their position, marking an opposition wide player and not helping the midfield out with pressing. The latter point has been the main objective from the opposition teams' perspective. It's not been about actually attacking our wing backs down the flanks - they've just wanted to remove them from our midfield's aggressive pressing, chasing and preventing space.
This has several times isolated our midfield three, and whoever we've put there have struggled to cover enough space. This has seen opposition danger men in more central position find space to hurt us.
Leicester was an example, pushing their two wing backs high up the pitch, occupying our wing backs. Our defence feared the pace of Vardy' so stayed deep. This meant our midfield had acres of space to cover and they couldn't get close to their real danger men, who in turn opened us up.
In the next game we played Southampton, who also pushed players high up in the wide positions. We tried to tweak things, realising we had to reduce the space we gave the opposition in midfield. We did this by trying to play a high line. But this meant there were acres of space behind our defence, which looked disorganised. Southampton saw this and played a number of balls in behind for their danger men Adams and Ings, who looked threatening all game. Eventually we couldn't get close to them at all.
Then we played Man Utd at home and again it was a problem with space in behind. We wanted the entire team to press higher, which gave us the lead, but we shot ourselves in the foot by not being alert/dynamic enough. Jags was blamed, although in my opinion we played a ridiculously high line, and they punished us for it.
So, three of our problems have been:
Last night we got things spot on.
Jagielka was phenomenal in organising our defence. They dropped deeper to prevent space when they had to, but pushed up again to help make us compact. Basham and Ampadu were also excellent, breaking out of defence to make interceptions and challenges, but they also dropped deeper when there was a threat in behind. We haven't seen such a dynamic defensive display since last season. We switched very effectively between pressing high and defending deep.
I think this made it easier for our midfielders to do their job and indeed we saw both energy and composure from them, which we've missed this season. I think their work rate has been good (we've been top in terms of kms covered this season), but they've done so much work in vain because they've simply had too much ground to cover. Last night the distance between our players and between our line were excellent. Let's not forget the defensive work of McGoldrick and Sharp either. We got stuck in and made a lot of challenges, winning a number of balls in midfield. We also managed to play some nice football following us breaking up their play.
There were some things about Man United's team that "suited" us. Their danger men are Rashford and Greenwood, besides Fernandes. So our wing backs weren't just occupied by anyone. They were marking two of the opposition's biggest threats, and they did this very well. Both our wing backs and certainly our wide centre halves were more careful about bombing forward. We were in control when they broke almost every time, a big change from the fixture at the Lane. So it suited us that two of their main threats were in wide positions. Baldock and Bryan coped well.
Man United also had two holding midfielders in Pogba and Matic. Thought they were quite static and often had to get past Sharp and McGoldrick when they started building attacks. They may have been done better leaving the deep playmaking to their centre halves, something Maguire does well, but not Tuanzebe.
Up front Martial had a poor game. This left Fernandes as a central threat. He can be excellent, but he just didn't find space to do real damage. Our midfield, helped by two very aggressive and alert wide centre backs made sure that Fernandes found little space in central areas, and the same went for Rashford and Greenwood whenever they roamed centrally.
After the break they actually did push Telles higher, and they did enjoy some more pressure, winning the free kicks and the corner kick they scored from. Not sure if Burke's arrival a bit sooner may have helped prevented this, but he gave us another threat when he did come on. A that stage they were also looking more vulnerable with the likes of Martial struggling to do his job defensively.
Other things that helped:
To sum up we were excellently organised. When it's like that average players can beat better ones.
Heard a coach whose philosophy when selecting players wasn't just "how good are you". He always asked "Who are you good together with?" Those 11 + subs were certainly good together last night.
This has several times isolated our midfield three, and whoever we've put there have struggled to cover enough space. This has seen opposition danger men in more central position find space to hurt us.
Leicester was an example, pushing their two wing backs high up the pitch, occupying our wing backs. Our defence feared the pace of Vardy' so stayed deep. This meant our midfield had acres of space to cover and they couldn't get close to their real danger men, who in turn opened us up.
In the next game we played Southampton, who also pushed players high up in the wide positions. We tried to tweak things, realising we had to reduce the space we gave the opposition in midfield. We did this by trying to play a high line. But this meant there were acres of space behind our defence, which looked disorganised. Southampton saw this and played a number of balls in behind for their danger men Adams and Ings, who looked threatening all game. Eventually we couldn't get close to them at all.
Then we played Man Utd at home and again it was a problem with space in behind. We wanted the entire team to press higher, which gave us the lead, but we shot ourselves in the foot by not being alert/dynamic enough. Jags was blamed, although in my opinion we played a ridiculously high line, and they punished us for it.
So, three of our problems have been:
- A defensive line that's lacked organisation, dynamism and alertness, whether it's been high or deep
- An isolated midfield struggling to cover enough space
- A knackered midfield struggling going forward because of their defensive work load
Last night we got things spot on.
Jagielka was phenomenal in organising our defence. They dropped deeper to prevent space when they had to, but pushed up again to help make us compact. Basham and Ampadu were also excellent, breaking out of defence to make interceptions and challenges, but they also dropped deeper when there was a threat in behind. We haven't seen such a dynamic defensive display since last season. We switched very effectively between pressing high and defending deep.
I think this made it easier for our midfielders to do their job and indeed we saw both energy and composure from them, which we've missed this season. I think their work rate has been good (we've been top in terms of kms covered this season), but they've done so much work in vain because they've simply had too much ground to cover. Last night the distance between our players and between our line were excellent. Let's not forget the defensive work of McGoldrick and Sharp either. We got stuck in and made a lot of challenges, winning a number of balls in midfield. We also managed to play some nice football following us breaking up their play.
There were some things about Man United's team that "suited" us. Their danger men are Rashford and Greenwood, besides Fernandes. So our wing backs weren't just occupied by anyone. They were marking two of the opposition's biggest threats, and they did this very well. Both our wing backs and certainly our wide centre halves were more careful about bombing forward. We were in control when they broke almost every time, a big change from the fixture at the Lane. So it suited us that two of their main threats were in wide positions. Baldock and Bryan coped well.
Man United also had two holding midfielders in Pogba and Matic. Thought they were quite static and often had to get past Sharp and McGoldrick when they started building attacks. They may have been done better leaving the deep playmaking to their centre halves, something Maguire does well, but not Tuanzebe.
Up front Martial had a poor game. This left Fernandes as a central threat. He can be excellent, but he just didn't find space to do real damage. Our midfield, helped by two very aggressive and alert wide centre backs made sure that Fernandes found little space in central areas, and the same went for Rashford and Greenwood whenever they roamed centrally.
After the break they actually did push Telles higher, and they did enjoy some more pressure, winning the free kicks and the corner kick they scored from. Not sure if Burke's arrival a bit sooner may have helped prevented this, but he gave us another threat when he did come on. A that stage they were also looking more vulnerable with the likes of Martial struggling to do his job defensively.
Other things that helped:
- Getting an early lead
- McGoldrick and Sharp holding the ball up
- Ramsdale being alert to a couple of through balls
- Our players' composure, we played nice football when we could. This gave our defence a break and frustrated Man Utd.
To sum up we were excellently organised. When it's like that average players can beat better ones.
Heard a coach whose philosophy when selecting players wasn't just "how good are you". He always asked "Who are you good together with?" Those 11 + subs were certainly good together last night.
Probably frustrated with himself that he didnt dive and get a free kick.
