MANCHESTER UNITED travel down to North London to face Arsenal in what is, without a doubt, the most high profile match in the FA Cup third round.
With United coming into this match on the back of a promising, and perhaps surprising, 2-2 draw away to league leaders Liverpool last weekend.
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And with Arsenal having lost their Carabao Cup semi-final match 2-0 at home to Newcastle in midweek, both sides are in an interesting moment coming into this match.
From a tactical perspective we know exactly what to expect from both of these teams.
Arsenal will set up in a loose 4-3-3 system with their captain Martin Odegaard given the freedom to step forward into more advanced positions.
The loss to injury of Bukayo Saka, however, has been a significant blow to Mikel Arteta’s side which makes their attack far less effective.
United, on the other hand, will play in their 3-4-3 (or more accurately 3-4-2-1) shape that we have seen since Amorim came into the club.
United’s performance against Liverpool, which showed some tactical variation, gives some idea as to how they will play at the Emirates this coming weekend.
Pressing high and often
One of the most striking features that we saw from United against Liverpool was their willingness to be aggressive out of possession.
They pressed high and often as the Reds were looking to build their attacks.
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This was actually a very smart choice from Amorim and his coaching staff as United wanted to force Liverpool to attack quickly down the wide areas.
They achieved this by pressing from more narrow positions from inside to outside.
Given the tactical systems that the two were playing, 4-3-3 vs 3-4-2-1, Liverpool would have had a natural advantage of 3v2 in the midfield with Ryan Gravenberch typically the deepest midfield player where he would have been the free man.
By pressing Liverpool quickly and trying to force them to play to the outside, United looked to take that advantage away quickly as Liverpool attacked.
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We see the United press here. Manuel Ugarte steps up in the midfield to track Alexis MacAllister and the two attacking midfielders and striker for United are ready to press any attempt at a short pass out from Liverpool.
While United pressed the build-up from Liverpool they also were able to jump out and press the ball whenever Liverpool had possession deep inside their own half.
The front three of Rasmus Hojlund, Bruno Fernandes and Amad Diallo were consistently looking for ways to apply pressure and to either force a mistake or a long ball from Liverpool.
This type of high press that forces the opposition into areas where you are more comfortable would also work well against Arsenal.
While the likes of Gabriel and William Saliba are comfortable on the ball for Arsenal they are less effective when they are forced to play quickly.
Against Arsenal we are likely to see United continue to force the opposition to attack down the outsides of the pitch early.
This will be especially effective against this Arsenal side with the likes of Trossard playing from the right of the attack as opposed to Bukayo Saka.
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Here, we see Bruno Fernandes taking the front foot and looking to jump higher in order to press the ball when Liverpool are pinned into their full-back position.
The freedom of the two attacking midfielders to jump high is underpinned by the fact they have two wing-backs and two deeper midfielders behind them to provide support.
We believe that we are likely to see United play aggressively and from the front foot out of possession against Arsenal.
They are going to look to force mistakes from Arsenal early and in their own half.
Attacking with pace on the counter
The term transitions has been more and more commonly used in football in recent years and Ruben Amorim is very much a coach who wants his team to be effective in these moments of transition.
This means that when his team loses possession, and transitions from attack to defence, he wants them to be aggressive in pressing to try to regain the ball.
It also means, however, that when they regain possession they will be aggressive in their attacking transition as they look to attack quickly and with pace.
We saw the speed and aggressive nature of United on the counter attack clearly in this game against Liverpool.
United were happy to sit deeper and defend when they were in the more established defensive phase.
But as soon as there was an opportunity to spring forward and to attack we saw United move quickly.
They were especially effective when pinning the Liverpool fullbacks with the attacking midfielders and the wing-backs working together to overload the Liverpool fullbacks on either side.
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In this example United have regained possession with Bruno Fernandes in possession on the near side.
Trent Alexander-Arnold finds himself isolated and pulled inside and the pass can be played to release the runner ahead in the wide area.
This results in United pushing players forward at speed to attack the Liverpool back line.
Arsenal under Arteta will likely be more cautious in their approach to building the attack than we saw Liverpool in the match last weekend.
Arteta likes Arsenal to be slower and more methodical as they build their attack but this does not mean that there will not be spaces that United can take advantage of on the counter attack.
This does not mean though that United cannot be effective in transition and on the counter attack against Arsenal.
The North London side have a tendency to look to control possession but when they do move the ball high and wide they will leave spaces that can be taken advantage of by United.
This example is from late in the game vs Liverpool and Amad takes possession deep inside his own half.
In this situation, Amad drives forward but it is also notable that he has support from the likes of Hojlund and Garnacho to move quickly and support the counter attack.
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Focusing attacks down the left-side
Against Liverpool we saw United develop a clear preference for attacking down the left-side of the pitch and we believe that this is something that we will see again against Arsenal this coming weekend.
With Lisandro Martinez progressing the ball from the left sided central defensive position and with Diogo Dalot and Bruno Fernandes effectively receiving and linking play, this strategy had clear benefits for United during this match.
While you could argue that United were trying to attack Trent Alexander-Arnold at right-back for Liverpool but in our opinion this was a clear plan regardless of who Liverpool played on that side.
This means that Amad Diallo, on the other side, had space to attack the area with far side runs off the ball to further stress the opposition defensive line.
These far side runs when combined with the passing and progression on the left-side will be effective in putting pressure on Arsenal’s defensive system.
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United were effective when building down the left because of the movement and intelligence of Fernandes.
Here, Dalot has received possession and he has space to move forward into.
Alexander-Arnold cannot move higher to engage because Fernandes has moved across and pinned Liverpool in that position.
When they are building the play down their left-side do not be surprised to see United choose to go longer from Dalot or Martinez in order to release the runs of Hojlund as the main striker.
The Danish striker is naturally left-footed so he has a tendency to position himself in the channels on that side of the pitch.
Any long balls in the channels here will force William Saliba to have to defend 1v1 against the powerful Hojlund.
Arsenal are more defensively solid than Liverpool but the tendency of United to overload the left-side and mix their approach between short combinations and longer passes will stress the Arsenal defence and allow United to create chances.
Here, we see a moment when Alexander-Arnold has been caught too deep but United are able to take advantage of the space.
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We see Dalot and Fernandes have moved high and Gravenberch has been pulled wide to follow Fernandes.
This takes away central cover and the long ball into the channel releases Hojlund who has bent his run.
It will be interesting to see whether Arteta adjusts his normal approach defensively to take into account the fact that United will focus on that side of the pitch.
There is no doubt that the 2-2 draw away to Liverpool at Anfield will have given United confidence coming into this game against Arsenal.
We think that they will continue to be aggressive both in and out of possession and they will look for ways to attack and unbalance the defensive line for Arsenal.
A win in this match in the FA Cup could well be the start of a strong run for United.
