Red Devils sent to the abyss

Tactical overview : What went wrong for Ole Gunnar Solskjaers men

Denzel Kimani 11

Oct 25, 2021 - 22:30 Updated: Oct 26, 2021 - 10:35

Liverpool's Egyptian Pharaoh Mo Salah celebrates his equalizer against Manchester United yesterday at Old Trafford.

Decimated

Obliterated

Slaughtered

Flogged

Whipped

Horsewhipped

Floundered

Flail

Scourge

Squirm

These are all what we can use to describe the extent and magnitude of the thrashing handed to Manchester United by Liverpool.

In case it still hasn't sunk to you how bad Man United is I'll enlighten you. Arsenal started the season winless in 3 games without a single goal. They are now tied on points with ' the best team in English football' Manchester United. Basically Arsenal gave United a 3 game headstart with 0 Goals. Shocking isn't it?

Let's be real, we all saw it coming. We all saw United losing but to the magnitude and manner they did is preposterous. Team was disjointed with no structure at all. Let's dive in depth shall we?

Firstly, I'll leave you off with a guide. Kind of a key. Yeah I know it brings back SST/GHC vibes but it'll help anyone missing out or any new interested party get a gist of what I'm talking about :

FBs- Fullbacks

CBs- Centre Backs

LB - Left Back

LCB - Left Centre Back

Def- Defence

Mid - Midfielder

C.F.- Centre Forward

FW- Forward

VVD - Virgil Van Dijk

AWB - Aaron Wan Bissaka

TAA- Trent Alexandre-Arnold

United lined up in Oles preferred 4-2-3-1 while his counterpart Jurgen Klopp opted for his usual 4-3-3. Klopps 433 functions as follows :

Fullback I.e. Robertson and Trent drop off usually closer to the by-line to provide outlets for the CBs normally Virgil Van Dijk and Matip/ Joe Gomez but in this case the only difference was who was partnered alongside VVD which was Ibrahima Konatè.

So as the opponent you can handle it in 2 ways : drop back and let them progress the ball and come to you or look to extinguish the attack early by pressing the man/spaces for the passing lanes.

United would look to press, cutting off passing lanes to the FBs and force the CBs to go wide. However this was not the case. As I mentioned in my previous analytical article, (link is at the end of the article), United aren't exactly good pressers. Pressing should be done uniformly and strategically. The target man/C. F./ Forward triggers the press and the rest of the team follows suite. The Press will not be effective if only one man ignites it as seen numerously by Bruno Fernandes who presses aimlessly resulting in gaping holes in the midfield for the opposition to operate and run through.

Pressing has never been part of CR7s repertoire and probably never will so they(United) couldn't cut lateral passing lanes nor could they stop CBs ball progression. We'd see Konatè or VVD drive the ball forwards unmarked. This could've been curbed if United sat deeper and compact or if they iniated an effective press where they'd cut off the passing lanes.

United knowing CR7s defensive and press shortcomings would look to reduce his workload by deploying Bruno Fernandes alongside him hence formation would shift to a 4-4-2 which is quite good to counter the Liverpool press as they have an extra man in the midfield. Liverpool of course adapted to this and would have a free midfielder and since Firmino has a tendency of dropping deep as he's a false 9 this means that Liverpool overload the mid with Naby Keita operating in between the lines.

The biggest liability for the night or rather in general for United is basic fundamentals which include basic structure I.e. defending as a unit as well as knowing when to commit or not which is a tactical aspect of the game that is usually gone over by the coach. United look(ed) as if they have never been guided through this aspect of the game let alone had a training session together.

If you look at the root cause it was all down to AWB as he went forward much more than he's expected to. Instead of staying deep and maintaining the numbers at the def he would repeatedly go forward yet there is an excess of personnel forward with likes of CR7, Rashford, Greenwood and Bruno already up top. At times Fred would join to disrupt any chance of the Reds snapping up a loose ball or be in for the rebound.

Back to AWB. 'Spiderman' as he's usually referred to was drawn high by Robertson which in turn left Diogo Jota free on the right. Seeing this, Lindelof would seek to reduce the distance by inverting. Maguire would do the same to reduce the distance between him and Lindelof. Luke Shaw would then deep centrally acting as a Left Centre Back (LCB) in order to maintain shape. All this would leave acres of space on the right for Salah to operate in as well the overlapping TAA.

Shaw constantly would shift to CB as the CBs were constantly out of position. Not that it's any of their fault as they had been dragged out by the Liverpool attack. All this was as a result of Red Devils press being disjointed which in turn left half of the team upfront while the rest of the team would seek to combat the opponents attack. This left United's mid and def unprotected as they had gaps and acres of space both in front(space vacated by their forward line) and behind them(space that they vacated to close down the opponents attack). This scenario can be likened to a guy having sex with a broken condom and expecting the girl not to conceive a baby. Now do you get the point?

Uniteds attack i.e Bruno and Rashford failed to track back and keep TAA and Keita at bay. On the opposite flank Mason Greenwood is equally a poor presser and instead of cutting out passes/ covering lanes to the LB. And it's not something new. He's been at it since his breakthrough but it was hardly noticed due to his efficiency in front of goal(just like CR7). Basically rather than a 4-4-2 or 4-2-3-1 United operated as a 4-2-4 with 4 forwards not pitching in defensive duty hence the 2 midfielders Fred and Mctominay have to cover the spaces vacated by the forward line as well as Man marking, stopping any attack/build-up as well as keep def protected. All this is too much for 2 people on their own. And let's not forget that both of these guys aren't natural CDMs but rather box-to-box midfielders converted forcefully to 6s. Mctominay in his early formative years played as a hybrid 8/10 arriving in the box to finish whereas Fred is more of an 8.

Liverpool would've comfortably won the game 8-0 or even more but took the foot off the pedal after the red card awarded to Paul Pogba for a rash challenge on Naby Keita. Imagine the scenes if it ended 9-0 just like how the Red Devils decimated Southampton last season. Karma wouldn't you say?

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's shortcoming was United was looking to press the best pressing team with non-pressers/ dormant pressers as well as seeking to match Liverpool's momentum. Of course you're destined to fail. They should've stuck to a more pragmatic approach i.e. stay compact and hit the Reds on the counter like they always do. You can't go against the Reds at their own game.

The only team that can go toe-to-toe and match or even eclipse Liverpool's tempo and press intensity is Manchester City and Bayern Munich(saying this with a smirk on my face as I know my team Bayern on it's day will rampage past these bunch). I for one know that this will be a match for the ages as both teams currently are on impeccable form with the latter having stepped up their defensive game ever since the introduction of Julian Naglesmann to the helm. We truly pray and hope we get to see at least one encounter between the two, a semi-final with two-legged encounter or a final to be exact. If only the 'gods of football will allow it. An extravagant and exquisite clash it shall be.

Liverpool should be grateful that United granted them a quality opening training session to get ready with against Preston. Meanwhile United should look at this setback and strive to better their approach as well as address the issue of uniformity and acting as a team(Pressing, attacking and defending). United should also seek to buy a natural 6 - destroyer as well as a good passer of the ball/ ball progressor in the next transfer window. I'd say a Wilfried Ndidi, Declan Rice or Aurelien Tchouameni(can operate as an 8 as well as a 10) but the latter has yet to mature and isn't Premier League proven compared to the last two.