Man United Still Have No Defensive Identity
When Manchester United concede it's usually because they neither defend deep nor do they press high.
When Erik Ten Hag’s Manchester United lose as they have to Nottingham Forrest, and 8 other times in the Premier League, it’s often because their defensive shape and strategy is poor, and the opposition is able to exploit them.
Manchester United’s setup defensively shows a lack of understanding. Erik Ten Hag is nearing the end of his 2nd season in charge of the club and like a broken record, the team’s identity continues to remain unclear.
Defending can and should vary from opposition to opposition, however, when goals begin to dry up it’s important to have a North Star defensive philosophy to return to.
Manchester United on the field are neither defending deep and parking the bus, nor are they pressing, and this lack of understanding on how to prevent goals is exactly how big teams fallout of the top 4 and fail to qualify for Champions League.
Nottingham Forest’s first goal will do the trick! The play begins with Forest’s Ryan Yates with his foot on the ball, comfortable in possession.
Manchester United’s Garnacho, Eriksen, and Rashford are in position to defend deep and in Rashford’s case, to match the criticism he’s been receiving for a lack of effort, he is neither blocking the Morgan Gibbs-White passing lane, nor is he pressing the opposition’s deepest midfielder in Yates.
Nuno Espírito Santo has Nottingham Forest setup with 4 forwards stretching the United backline. This is a modern offensive setup like you would expect Brighton, or Galatasaray to setup with, both teams to score nearly identical goals as Forest here.
When one pass by a comfortable Ryan Yates can break through a line of 3 Manchester United defending players, we need to look at the defensive coaching setup.
Anthony Elanga, one of the 4 Forest Forwards, receives the ball with the only 2 things a forward in this position needs, either space to run with the ball or an open passing option ahead of him. Similar to the three musketeers above, Diogo Dalot is stuck in two worlds. Dalot cannot press Elanga because that would open up Montiel, nor can he drop to Montiel because that would allow Elanga too much freedom.
Similarly to Ryan Yates previously, Anthony Elanga chooses to break a line of United defenders with one pass to find Montiel. We now have 2 Forrest passes that have broken down over 4 Manchester United defenders.
I believe the secret to beating Erik Ten Hag’s Manchester United is to put your elite level wide-forward like Salah or Saka, or your play-making fullback in the exact position we find Montiel in now.
Remaining on theme, Erik Ten Hag’s Manchester United leave a dangerous amount of open space you would expect to see from a relegation team level team.
This goal scored by Forrest has been conceded regularly by United and in a season where the team has only been able to score 22 league goals (Liverpool & Villa have scored 43 goals) it’s becoming more unclear where this manager is bringing value to his players.