Manchester United have adopted some new principles of play since undergoing a recent transformation under new manager Erik Ten Hag
Ten hag is a Dutch manager, who’s core principles are passing from the back, attacking play using passes through the lines to break the press of the opposition teams. He has a plan to press the opposition in the higher end of the pitch to win the ball back through final 3rd recoveries, before springing quick attacks. During the blog I will talk about how he is doing, how can it be improved and what the future looks like if he succeeds with United
United line up in a 4231 formation but that can change in attacking and defending phases of play. In attacking play they line up in two different structures, the 316 and the 325. What this means is 3 at the back with 1 in midfield and 6 attackers, or 3 in the back, 2 midfielders and 5 attackers. The idea of the structures is to have a solid base defensively with your 3 defenders, one person in the middle to create links between the passing lanes, help defensively with counter attacks and to push the press further up the pitch. The front 5/6 need to keep width, dragging the opposition back line wider and creating more space. As the picture shows, having 2 players holding the width pulls the opposition full backs towards them, creating gaps in the half spaces. The number 8s can push forward to exploit the space and the striker is centrally keeping the centre back poring tucked in the middle. They don’t know ether to leave their man to press the number 8s who are in the half space, confusion causes people to stall and chances are created easier
The idea is to have a goalkeeper who is excellent at distributing the ball. This means in the build up phase of play your back 3 plus the goalkeeper will outnumber any man to man pressing system, therefore giving you a greater chance to play out from the back successfully. If they push an extra man up to press the goalkeeper then you will have an extra outfielder who’s free. This is where the distribution of the goalkeeper comes in, it’s important that he’s good enough to find the player who is free. If he finds him then that player is in free space with a lot of the opposition team pushed up, you’ve pulled them in to a pressing trap before going direct. Simple football is the best football
These build up structures also are nice to use because they allow for vertical lattices to created all over the pitch. Triangles are formed, meaning every player has a pass to play, usually a forward pass. The goal of Ten Hag is to allow his team to be so good on the ball when being pressed that teams eventually sit in deep, conceding possession because they don’t believe they can actually win the ball back. Defensively, it’s helpful because the 4231 shape can drop into a 451 mid block with aggressive pressing. It makes the team compact and hard to break down but aggressive with specific pressing triggers to win the ball back. I think he’s doing well so far to transfer on his identity onto the team, he needs time.
Thank you for reading my blog. My next blog will be a match analysis on where United can improve and where they’ve done well. Thank you for reading and I hope you come back to read my work again
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