Manchester United advanced to the quarter-finals of the FA Cup, thanks to Casemiro's stunner. In this way, in the first half of March, Manchester United will play Manchester City, Everton, Liverpool, and hellish fixtures.
In terms of the depth of United's current squad, it's hard to say whether the team will survive this road of death. Against Nottingham Forest, Manchester United piled up almost all the forward resources at their disposal, and the only one who could rotate the forward line was Folsen, a young man under 20 years old.
The midfield has been severely attritional, and Ten Hag has made targeted adjustments. Back to the game, in order to reduce the consumption of players, Ten Hag actually played at the tempo of this game (51% possession per game in the Premier League this season, 61% possession in this game). United's high pressure did not continue, so even with low possession, Nottingham Forest's advance remained unimpeded, with a pass completion rate of 828% – By comparison, Nottingham Forest averaged 40 per cent possession per game in the Premier League this season, with a pass completion rate of just 78 per cent.
In response to the advancement of Forest, Manchester United is not without a solution. Once the opponent has advanced through the centre circle, Casemiro and McTominay will go forward at the same time to limit the opponent's advance in the middle. In order to prevent a direct penetration from behind, Amrabat, who played at left-back, had to often adduct in the positional battle stage to resist pressure for the two central defenders.
In this position, Amrabat has to play inside in the middle, but also to play back to the left, and if necessary, to do the work of advancing for the midfield. Sooner or later, things went wrong under the pressure, and we saw Amrabat get past three teammates in a row and pass the ball to the opposite miracle ......
This is also an old problem under the 4231 system: the double midfielders cannot form a triangle position, and the middle cannot rely on ball control to stabilize the rhythm, and can only rely on the wing to play a single point control. When it comes to the defensive end, the double back cannot achieve full coverage, and once the wing is unable to defend back, the full-back can only be chased and beaten by the opposite side.
As a result, Ten Hag is often forced to play fast rather than deliberately seeking speed: only when the intensity of pressing up front does the defensive flaws in the midfield and backfield not be targeted.
But with such a game, Manchester United's idea of slowing down and controlling the tempo has finally come back. Antony started just one game in 24 years, playing 73 minutes and making one dit with Garnacho, but made 80 of his 90 passes and controlled the ball from the wing.
You could say that this routine is a bit of a waste of space on the wing, but with the involvement of the wing, Manchester United's central side can get the space to move freely, so B Fee sent 6 threatening passes in a single game, and Casemiro, McTominay and B Fee combined 13 times in the whole game. After Casemiro's winning goal, the three midfielders have scored 20 goals in the season, and in comparison, Anthony Rashford, Hojlund, Garnacho's season goals totaled 26 ......
After experiencing the worst wave of injuries in team history, and almost three systems in less than a season, Manchester United this season is indeed not easy. This goes some way to explaining that even if the Sun broke the news that Rashford and Ten Hag didn't communicate much, United still had to rely on Rashford to start - but with Hojlund's return, Garnacho and Antony have shown good adaptability on the wings of possession, how many opportunities do Rashford have in this system?
The original address of this article: **Commentator Lao Miao).