MANCHESTER UNITED hit a new rock bottom on Sunday as Ruben Amorim labelled this current team the worst in the club’s history.
A harrowing, humiliating 3-1 home defeat at the hands of Brighton sees the Red Devils slumped down in 13th in the Premier League table.
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And this is also the worst home start to a campaign for more than 130 YEARS.
But exactly what went wrong against the Seagulls as United suffered their tenth league defeat of the season?
SunSport’s tactical guru Dean Scoggins broke down the game in the latest episode of Tactics Exposed…
1. DE LIGT AND YORO WEL BEATEN
At 34 years old, United could do with Danny Welbeck back at Old Trafford. How many strikers over a consistent period have done a good a job as him since he left in 2014?
It was a great performance up front but it was also the way he and Joao Pedro absolutely led Matthijs de Ligt and Leny Yoro on a merry dance.
This is not the first time we’ve talked about defenders getting dragged out by a striker on a rope but this is the longest rope I’ve ever seen.
It was absolutely ludicrous where they were going.
Because both strikers dropped in, both defenders just decided to go with them which then left space for the really dangerous wingers Yankuba Minteh and Kaoru Mitoma to run into.
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As soon as you’ve got those two running in behind, then good luck.
It was 4-4-2 demolishing 3-4-3.
It happened all day, not just once.
Harry Maguire must have been absolutely doing his nut, ‘Just stay with me.’
We’ve talked previously about the positives of a centre-back coming out of the line to meet the ball but that’s when you’re defending on the edge of the box and you go three or four yards to nick it when you’ve got cover behind you, not when you’ve got 50 yards of pitch behind you.
The backline was not even a zigzag – that would be a compliment – it was just this higgledy-piggledy line. De Ligt and Yoro, Yoro particularly, didn’t know whether to stick or twist.
He looked confused and as though the message of what they’re doing hasn’t got through.
For the first goal, De Ligt, where are you going? If he sits, it’s a back pedal and header or a turn and hook clear over his shoulder. It was horrible.
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2. WING-BACKS PINNED BACK
But we also have to give enormous credit to Brighton and Fabian Hurzeler.
It really was virtually an old-school 4-4-2, albeit with the centre-backs dropping so that the wingers could go on.
The United wing-backs don’t trust the centre-backs because they couldn’t afford to push on in case they lost possession as De Ligt and Yoro could not cover as they were occupied by the strikers.
So Harry Maguire was kind of like not doing anything – and that’s not a criticism of Maguire – because there was no passing on of players to pick up.
Consistently throughout the game, the wing-backs were deeper than the three centre-backs which is mad.
Maybe Maguire is being told not to leave that central square and not dragged out of position whatsoever – but they’ve got to be more intelligent.
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There are two solutions.
Either the wing-backs are the ones who actually push on a little bit and invert to cover the space that those strikers are dropping into.
The other option is Manuel Ugarte and Kobbie Mainoo split out and pass the strikers on to them so the defenders can pick up the wingers flying forward.
It wasn’t pretty, they were all over the place, and they didn’t solve it at half-time because it kept happening again in the second half.
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3. I’M A BALEBA
Yes he gave away the penalty for United after Joshua Zirkzee did very well with his pressing but that was his only mistake because Carlos Baleba was excellent.
He was the consistent one, the single pivot who Brighton played off.
With the ball, he can drop in between the two centre-backs then without it, he sat in front and just mopped everything up.
It was 2v1 – Ugarte and Mainoo against Baleba – but he bossed it.
What I liked most was he knew when to go with that direct ball to the wingers and when to put his foot on the ball.
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It was a top-class performance and how Manchester United fans wish he was in a red shirt.
Would he make them better? Yes, I think he’s better than Ugarte but maybe not quite as technical a footballer as Mainoo but has other things.
Plus United haven’t got many players in that position that Amorim trusts.
Brighton have got a big job keeping hold of him.
4. ONANA, OH-NO-NO!
The horrible, horrible error was woeful and let’s not forget at that stage United were still in the game.
The set-up looks good with one centre-back going into midfield with one of the two midfielders, usually Ugarte, while the other two centre-backs split and Mainoo can join Bruno Fernandes in the No10s with the wing-backs high and the centre forward.
They get into a good position, Onana was brought in because he is good with his feet, but he doesn’t play it and I think it’s because he doesn’t trust the centre-backs to play the pass back.
He looks a bit static and doesn’t seem to want to play those ten-yard passes to receive it back to draw the opposition out of position.
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It’s like he’s a bit spooked by the whole scenario and feels like the ball-playing goalkeeper has been stifled by the way that they want to play out.
Maybe it’s time for Altay Bayindir to have a go because they’ve got to sort it out very, very quickly.
United have done well when they can be a low block, they’ve done okay against teams with a very low block but have struggled against a mid-block.
Man Utd ratings vs Brighton
By Ken Lawrence
ANDRE ONANA was back to his worst as Manchester United fell to another Old Trafford defeat.
It appeared Ruben Amorim’s side had turned a corner in recent weeks with a draw at Anfield and an FA Cup penalty shoot-out win at Arsenal.
But dreadful individual mistakes cost them yet again with Onana the chief culprit.
The keeper dropped a huge clanger as he palmed a simple cross straight to Georginio Rutter under no pressure whatsoever.
There were few positive notes for the Red Devils as Amad once again provided a spark.
Here is how SunSport’s Ken Lawrence rated the United display…
ANDRE ONANA: 2 – No chance with either of the Seagulls’ first two goals. But an awful howler to gift them their third.
MATTHIJS DE LIGT: 5 – Certainly doesn’t look like he likes players running at him as Kaoru Mitoma constantly did. Looked unsure of himself throughout.
HARRY MAGUIRE: 6 – The one member of United’s three-man central defence who looked like he knew what he was doing. Beginning to believe in himself again.
LENY YORO: 5 – The £52m youngster is still settling into the Premier League to be fair to him. But he is certainly taking his time about it.
NOUSSAIR MAZRAOUI: 4 – Has been one of the few consistent successes of Amorim’s tactical revolution. Yet he had a real shocker this time around.
MANUEL UGARTE: 5 – Supposedly “tired” in the 3-1 win over Southampton the midfielder looked brighter here. Yet he still doesn’t look that switched on.
KOBBIE MAINOO: 4 – Where is last season’s Kobbie? Looks nothing like the buzzing homegrown midfielder who burst on the scene last season.
DIOGO DALOT: 5 – Did his duties as a left wing-back to the best of his abilities. Another United player, however, who looked nothing like sharp enough.
AMAD DIALLO: 7 – Thursday night’s 12-minute treble hero on a high again – unlike, again, so many team-mates. Sometimes his footwork is just dazzling.
BRUNO FERNANDES: 6 – Ultra-cool from the spot but that goal didn’t do much to raise his performance level. Had one of those days where nothing really clicked.
JOSHUA ZIRKZEE: 5 – “Won” the penalty after being brought down although Carlos Baleba’s challenge would have looked good in a wrestling ring. There’s a footballer in there somewhere…
SUBS
ALEJANDRO GARNACHO (for Mainoo 64): 5 – Struggled to make an impact in a team that was being taken apart.
TOBY COLLYER (for Ugarte 64): 5 – Plenty of youthful commitment but still too inexperienced to lift a side as poor as Amorim’s.
ANTONY (for Mazraoui 84): 4 – Talk about a last throw of the dice by Amorim…
RASMUS HOJLUND (for Zirkzee 84): 4 – Given a thankless task in the closing moments of another depressing display.
5. MISSING IN ACTION
There’s a very, very high-end nerdy statistic about player positions under certain managers which is effectively worked out by if a player is a striker, where he goes other than that striker position – or how much he deviates from his position.
Amorim’s teams – especially Sporting – are very focused and do not deviate much from a rigid structure of what he wants.
It is different from average positions but is more similar to heat maps and how concentrated they are.
This Manchester United team are all over the place.
There was a moment against Southampton where there were seven players in shot and five of them are out of position.
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It’s just wild that they’re that far out of position and that comes from earlier on in a move where you’ve been sucked out.
Mainoo is not unfit or slow but sometimes makes these half-sprints, these jogs out, to the No10 position, doesn’t get there and is played around, leaving Ugarte on his own and he presses and the ball goes around him too then centre-backs are sucked out.
They are just not in their positions at all.
It just wasn’t very good and it looks like, from the shape, that they aren’t trying very hard.
I think they are trying hard. They’re just getting sucked out of positions that they shouldn’t be in.
One mistake breeds the second one, then the dominoes go and then you’ve got five people out of seven out of position.
The solution could be as simple as what a coach does with an Under-11s, Under-12s team and puts the cones out on the pitch and says, ‘You don’t leave your square.’
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