Why Man United Got Destroyed By Tottenham
Manchester United 0-3 Tottenham Hotspur. After a rocky start to the season for both sides, neither manager would have wanted the scrutiny that would have followed a defeat. However, such was the comprehensive nature of Ange Postecoglu's victory here, that it puts Manchester United firmly back in the box marked 'crisis club'. Adam Clery examines the game to show why Bruno Fernandes' controversial red card was a mere footnote to Spurs' total dominance here.
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00:00Right, yeah, so that was Spurs, that was Manchester United and you're not going to believe me
00:09here, right, but it's actually quite a tricky video to do this because I've seen a lot of
00:13people talking about just how utterly bad Manchester United were but also a lot of people
00:18saying like well is it not just because Spurs were really, really good and the truth for
00:23me is right smack down bang in the middle.
00:27And also, first **** that's absolutely not a red card but second **** that has zero bearing
00:33in my opinion on the overall match.
00:36And actually just a quick point on that, this is a graph I never ever use, right, it's so
00:40far scores attacking momentum chart and I don't ever really show you it because I don't
00:44really feel like it tells you enough but in this particular case, maybe it does.
00:49This is the second half here, Man United, they're the home team, they're on the top,
00:51Tottenham are the away team on the bottom and you can see Spurs do largely dominate
00:56this half, you can see where they get their two goals but that middle bit, that's where
00:59Man United looked all of a sudden really good, where they got sort of back on top and you
01:03thought maybe they might get a goal and get back into this so clearly, to an extent, this
01:07chart works.
01:08But this, this is the first half, prior to the sending off, Spurs had absolutely dominated
01:15this game and were unlucky not to already be two, three or even four up at the time
01:21So the red card, bad, terrible, that's a mistake, they should overturn it but also made no difference.
01:28Anyway, yes, sorry, sidetrack there, so this is Man United's average positions from just
01:34that first half, right, and if you've seen one of these before, you will know, that's
01:41a mess.
01:42Agaté is somehow spending more time in the back line than he is in midfield, I'll show
01:47you Fernandes' heat map, he doesn't get a single touch of the ball in the opposition
01:52third, they can't do anything effective with him, like clearly, in that first half, nothing
01:56was working the way it was supposed to for Man United and you could see that even before
02:01the first goal.
02:02Now Tottenham fans, you may have seen this graph last week during the rounds from Opta,
02:06you've got the biggest distances between your defenders and goalkeeper when you are building
02:11up.
02:12But I mean, this is Orange Ball, like that checks out, like having these massive distances
02:15between these players is incredibly risky because if you lose it, no one's going to
02:19get back in and recover, but also, it enables you to progress the ball up the pitch very
02:23effectively and very aggressively, that's what he does, mate.
02:27But Tottenham tweaked this ever so slightly and it caused Man United so many problems.
02:33Now Man United, when they defend deep, want to do it in this 4-4-2 shape, but when they
02:37press, it sort of morphs into that 4-2-2-2, like Bruno Fernandes joins the centre forward
02:44and they go right up top, the two wide players narrow a bit to sort of like take up this
02:49half space and can get involved in the middle, and then you've got two more behind them.
02:52Now that, in theory, sets you up pretty well against Tottenham because you're kind of man
02:56for man across here because they've usually got one pivot, you can have either of your
03:00two, jump onto them if the ball does go in there, safe in the knowledge that all of his
03:04safer options are now cut off.
03:06It's theoretically a very good pressing trap, that, but all Spurs did to just completely
03:12undo this was push the full backs on much higher.
03:16Now Rashford and Garnaccio kind of have to sit a bit further back and a bit deeper, and
03:21all of a sudden you've got this huge gap in the centre of the pitch, and you combine that
03:25with how big the gap usually is between the centre backs, and neither Fernandes nor Xherxey
03:30really wanted to go anywhere near them, so Tottenham had almost complete freedom at the
03:34back between these three players to start picking out passes, and because you've got
03:39Kulishevsky and Maddison sort of occupying the two of the players in Man United's midfield,
03:44you just had this huge gap between what they were trying to do on the front foot, and what
03:48they were too scared to leave here.
03:50And it made them look, like, really almost scared of Tottenham, like they wouldn't press
03:55them high, they wouldn't leave their positions in the middle, they were totally disjointed,
03:59they were giving up territory, they were letting players have the ball, if Kulishevsky or Maddison
04:03made any movement out of those areas they were normally found really easily, they weren't
04:08even shutting off Bissouma particularly well, like even though that should have been totally
04:12closed off, they found him between the pair of them so, so many times, it just, it's about
04:17as disconnected and unstructured and off-the-ball performance as I've seen this season.
04:24But Tottenham, on the other hand, quite the opposite.
04:29Now, the way that a 4-3-3 and a 4-2-3-1 line up when they're on opposite sides is absolutely
04:35perfect if you want to lock on to the opposition's midfield.
04:38Your most defensive midfielder can sit with their most attacking midfielder, and your
04:42two most attacking midfielders can sit with their two most defensive.
04:46And thus, if you have the bravery to do it, and the energy to execute it, you can almost
04:50constantly force these three players to play facing their own goal.
04:55Now, as with all of these things, it guarantees you absolutely nothing, it requires a lot
04:59of work, a lot of concentration, a lot of discipline, but you can see from the first
05:02minutes of this game, that's what Tottenham had decided to do.
05:05All three of their central midfielders lock on to Man Utd's, they don't let any of them
05:11get turned.
05:12Now, this is what was so good about Tottenham's approach, but what was so good about their
05:16execution is on the next line forward.
05:18Because if you take the fact that you've now got two wide players to match up to their
05:21two full-backs, the problem you've theoretically got here is you've only got one player capable
05:27of applying pressure to the two centre-backs.
05:29But this is why Dom Solanke was such a good buy for this Tottenham side.
05:35He's probably the best forward in the Premier League at pressing two centre-backs.
05:41And what he was so, so good at in this match was applying pressure to one of the defenders
05:45while cutting off the pass to the other at the same time.
05:48He would curve his run between the two of them with really, really intense running,
05:54and thus take them both out of the picture in one move.
05:57Now, from there, the plan was to have both Werner and Johnson sit a little bit off the
06:01two full-backs, so that was the only ball they really had forward.
06:05And then once it went out there, they treat the touchline as an extra defender because
06:08you can't pass that way.
06:10Then they jump in and all of a sudden, that's where Man Utd are in serious trouble.
06:14And from here, Man Utd would have real problems because there's no real forward pass on.
06:19So you've either got to go back into the centre and play an incredibly risky pass to one of
06:24your team-mates who are now marked, or go all the way back to the goalkeeper, who without
06:28time to set himself, because Solanke will continue that press, now has to kick it first
06:33time over the press, to which your two centre-backs will gleefully gobble that up.
06:38And Spurs, in that first half especially, were just so good at executing this suffocating
06:44game plan.
06:45This is all the times Man Utd either gave the ball away with a pass, you can see how
06:50many of those are panicked and long, or these little triangles, how many times Spurs just
06:56directly took it off them, either by intercepting the pass or winning a tackle.
07:00And this here is why I'm so keen to try and find a balance in this video between criticising
07:05Man Utd and praising Spurs, because this is unbelievably just minging football from Man
07:12Utd, but it's only happening because Spurs are putting them under such specific, such
07:17well-executed pressure.
07:18If you think back to Man Utd's best moment in that first half, it was probably that Rashford
07:22chance that was offside from the Inanna long ball, that's the only game plan Spurs left
07:28Man Utd with.
07:29They'll keep a high line, so can we go long over the top of them?
07:33We've got Garnaccio, we've got Rashford, can we find them with a ball over the top?
07:37And the thing is, while that's kind of a good idea in theory, Man Utd would have been hoping
07:41for a situation like this, where there's all the space in behind and the full-backs are
07:45slightly further forward, so there's definite gaps for the wide players to go into.
07:49It's a good idea, but you've still got to manufacture ways of getting your best passes
07:54of the ball, time and space in the areas to hit them.
07:58These are all the unsuccessful passes of Onana, De Ligt, Martinez, Fernandes, Casemiro and
08:05Eriksen across the 90 minutes, so all of Man Utd's best passes of the ball.
08:10You can clearly see the game plan of just get it, go long, hit them in the space behind,
08:14really direct, punish their high line, but they give it away so many times doing this,
08:20because that pass is always either slightly panicked, it's a bit rushed, there's someone
08:24in their face, they have to do it too quickly, so the wide players haven't got time to begin
08:28their runs.
08:29It just did not work, because Tottenham did not let it work.
08:34Just to be fair here, these are all those same players' successful passes across the
08:3990 minutes, right?
08:40And obviously it's a lot messier and harder to figure out, so I'll leave it on screen
08:42for a while here.
08:43Have a real look at this, have a real squint for those long, direct killer balls in behind,
08:49like there's maybe one or two into Rashford here, like virtually none, I can't see any
08:55into Garnaccio, none really, that get into a really dangerous central area, the way Tottenham
09:01were successfully releasing Timo Werner, for example.
09:04Like it's just such a meek, ineffective way of playing in this game.
09:10Like I had Totti Football on, on the Tube Inn this morning, I think it's Daniel Storey,
09:15just describes this as exactly how you would play against Tottenham if you'd never seen
09:21Tottenham before.
09:22And like I mean, if nothing else, like forget the tactics and forget the shape, like you've
09:26got to at least match your opponents for intensity.
09:30Like the opening goal, this is where van der Ven gets the ball, and I'm just, because there's
09:33not one static shot, I'm just going to draw you the line of where he runs with it, right?
09:38There are at least four players who can do something about this, none of them do.
09:43And what I think should be deeply, deeply concerning to Man United fans about this goal
09:47specifically is two things.
09:49The first is that van der Ven did almost this exact same thing against Everton, like turned
09:54the ball over in his own half, saw an opportunity to drive it up the pitch, did so and created
09:59a goal from it.
10:00Like he doesn't get into the final third and panic, he doesn't get a nosebleed, he doesn't
10:03put his foot on the ball and turn around, like when he drives, he drives.
10:07But the second thing is that Man United conceded a goal almost exactly like this against Twente
10:12just like a couple of days ago.
10:14A defender turns the ball over in his own half, then drives forward into all the space
10:19between Man United's lines, they don't get a tackle in, they don't deal with it, and
10:23yes, Eriksen gets it and they lose it again, but it all comes from this, and they concede
10:28a goal.
10:29So if you're Eric ten Hag, you're going into this game knowing that A, that player liked
10:33to do that, and B, your players are vulnerable to that happening.
10:38And yet it happens in two minutes.
10:41And I think what's kind of getting glossed over about that goal as well is that when
10:44he turns that ball over, there is a yard, maybe two, between Dalot and Johnson.
10:50I think Dalot is a fantastic player, like was he not like Man United's player of the
10:54year or something last season, but just look at this.
10:59Just want it.
11:00Just recognise what the player in front of you is going to try and do here and want to
11:05stop them.
11:06And there's just like a million examples in this game of Spurs wanting to do something,
11:10having the drive and the energy to try it, and Man United just kind of looking around
11:14and sort of shrugging as it happens.
11:15Like this is ten Hag's third season and every time you watch Man United do anything, it's
11:19just chaos, and it came up against a team today that was so good at punishing that kind
11:25of chaos.
11:26Ninety minutes in, Brennan Johnson hits the post.
11:28What happens ten seconds earlier?
11:29De Ligt loses a 50-50 on the halfway line.
11:32Why is he on the halfway line?
11:34Why is he jumping in?
11:35That is chaos.
11:36Twenty-two minutes in, Werner cuts the ball back across the box and it could very easily
11:40be another tap-in.
11:41Ten seconds before that, Rashford and Maneu just get confused over who's going with Kulishevsky,
11:46so neither of them do, and the high press just lets a ball roll right through the middle
11:50of it.
11:51How can you not know whose job that is?
11:53That is complete chaos.
11:54Twenty-nine minutes in, Onana makes a decent save from Maddison, but five seconds earlier,
12:00Dalot has zero options in the centre of his own box and just kicks it straight to Solanke.
12:05How can you be set up to not have a single viable option 18 yards from your own goal
12:11line?
12:12That is chaos.
12:13And the second goal, it's in the second minute of the second half.
12:15You've just got them back in at half-time, 1-0 down.
12:19You've reset.
12:20You've given them new instructions.
12:22They've just got to go out there, keep it tight and try and nick something.
12:25And yet, Dalot has gone to close down the centre-back here for some reason.
12:30So Casemiro gets drawn forward and under a ball he can't possibly win for some reason.
12:35So Martinez decides, oh, what I'll do is I'll jump forward into this huge space for some
12:39reason and leave this yawning maw after I fail, predictably, to get anywhere near this
12:45ball.
12:47If you're a Man United fan, or even just like a mammal, right, can you look at that exchange
12:52and tell me what you think the instructions were at half-time?
12:56Because for that to happen immediately at the start of the second half, either the instructions
13:01were insane or they were ignored.
13:05And if all of last season wasn't won enough, I think this game should be a huge alarm bell
13:11to both the fans of Man United and the administration there.
13:15You look at Tottenham, right, a team who were brilliant at the start of last season and
13:19then really struggled for a long time and are now slowly picking back up.
13:23But through all those peaks and troughs, you could clearly see what their playing identity
13:27was, what they were trying to do.
13:29When it worked, it was brilliant, and when it didn't work, you could sort of see why.
13:33Like they had a style, they had a personality, they had a brand of football.
13:37Enzo Maresca has come straight in at Chelsea and you can clearly see what he's trying to
13:41do.
13:43And yet we are coming up to three years now of Eric Ten Haag and it is just this shapeless,
13:50inconsistent, formless mess of football.
13:53Like have you seen all the insane statistics about this game?
13:56Like Tottenham had a higher xG in this game than Man United have had at Old Trafford all
14:01season.
14:02It's the highest xG and away teams ever had in the Premier League since Man City went
14:07to nothing.
14:08Tottenham created as many big chances in this game as Newcastle did when they beat
14:12Sheffield United 8-0.
14:14So yes, to Tottenham Hotspur, a massive round of applause from me.
14:18And to Manchester United, you could delve into every single digital VFX bank in the
14:24world, pull out every single file called fart.mp4, and it still wouldn't be bad enough.
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