How Michael Carrick’s Man Utd utterly failed to break down 10-man Man City
The Manchester derby featured lots of kicking, lots of screaming and utter bafflement at some God-awful refereeing decisions, with some football played somewhere in between.
It’s the actual football that concerns us, with United demonstrating exactly why Michael Carrick still has a massive question mark over his head.
Can he finally be the manager to build on a good season and find consistency? Can he turn Manchester United into a ‘calmer’ team that can slowly break opponents down?
Though we’re only four games into the season, there may already be reservations about the latter.
The issues United faced in breaking down a stubborn opponent were strikingly similar to the ones they had on the opening day vs Hull, but this time they played against 10 men for 67 minutes.
You can read 16 Conclusions on the match here, but we’re here for a deep dive on where it went wrong for United tactically.
The Bottlenecked Centre Manchester United were effective last season in attack when playing quick, one-touch passes with many players in close proximity, predominantly in the centre of the pitch. But what happens when there are too many players in that space?
Credit has to be given to City, who channelled their inner Thomas Frank’s Brentford low block and closed off space centrally, forcing United wide. Even by using Antoine Semenyo as a wing-back at times.
Playing a 4-4-1/5-3-1 whilst down to 10 meant the onus was on Man Utd’s players to make something happen, rather than wait for transitions as they have successfully done in the past in this fixture.
As most of United’s attackers like to drop centrally with their backs to goal with the ball fizzed into their feet (Bryan Mbeumo, Matheus Cunha, Bruno Fernandes) it meant City could narrow the middle of the pitch and squeeze the space.
Enzo Fernandez and Elliot Anderson provided excellent cover in midfield, jumping on players to prevent the pass into them from defence.
As Fernandes tries to drop to be an option, he is quickly followed by Ruben Dias as the space was too congested for the Red Devils to quickly play the ball between each other.
A cluster of City midfielders, attackers and defenders prevented Man Utd’s central attackers from getting space in the centre of the pitch, meaning you had most of United’s attackers stuck in the middle, unavailable for a pass.
It’s a lot harder to play quick passes when there are so many players in one zone.
Wide issues for Manchester United So, why couldn’t they go wide to try to score, I hear you say?
Well, their opening game against Hull City already showed us this is where they struggle.
As Man Utd played the ball wide, a wide full-back would go to meet Marcus Rashford or Bryan Mbeumo, and if a full-back or attacker looked to underlap in between the spaces of a City full-back and centre-back, the centre-back would be quick to stick to the player making the run in behind.
On top of that, it was largely fruitless as Man Utd waited far too long to have a player to aim at in the box in Benjamin Sesko. Their severe deficiencies at full-back were on show.
They don’t possess a potent attacking full-back who can cross the ball consistently or overlap unless Luke Shaw is playing alongside Rashford, and it’s no secret the Englishman’s minutes have needed to be managed for a long time.
Even when Sesko came on (too late), City were still swift to push a centre-back out to a player crossing the ball to disturb him from putting a delivery in for the Slovenian. The Red Devils never managed to fashion a chance for the tall striker.
Limited space in the middle and a lack of good delivery out wide left United bereft of ideas for a large portion of the game, even when they were a man up.
Manchester United fluffing their lines in attack Manchester United have grown accustomed to winning this fixture when they play for transitions. City are the ball-dominant team so United – with Bruno Fernandes the orchestrator – have had a cheat code, helped by an Old Trafford crowd roaring them on.
When the script was flipped, United found out how difficult it was. Many of their attackers are so used to taking advantage of attacking big spaces, they often snatched at a chance when they did find some space in City’s half.
Rushing a mishit shot when they should’ve passed, shanking a pass waywardly out of touch or miscontrolling it poorly…in other words, forcing it. Bad decision-making yielded fewer chances created.
United looked like a team that wasn’t accustomed to scoring goals from calmer, more measured attacks. And frankly, though they may be trying, they aren’t a team capable of doing so.
Manchester United spent lavishly on their attack last summer, and it worked. Goalscoring improved and so did results.
Though they were on the end of a questionable VAR call, the worry for Michael Carrick is that on two occasions out of four already this season, a team has quickly figured out United are blunt went forced out wide and their effective middle players are throttled.
The pattern for United over the years has been a promising season followed by a calamitous one.
Though there is still plenty of time for Carrick to turn it around, he must address the issues before the downward spiral is beyond saving.
