MANCHESTER UNITED played out a cagey goalless draw with Aston Villa – but Erik Ten Hag’s set up was miles ahead from the Spurs hammering.
But avoiding defeat to Bayern conquerors Villa has not necessarily saved Ten Hag’s job with United’s forward play still dire.
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In a way, Ten Hag deserves his short holiday over the international break after avoiding the Unai Emery-inspired pasting that many thought was coming his way.
But Sir Jim Ratcliffe and Joel Glazer are still set for showdown talks with club chiefs over Ten Hag’s future in London on Tuesday.
The Dutchman’s set-up may have left United’s top brass and pundits applauding the defensive improvement, but the Red Devils still lacked a cutting edge going forward.
Hojlund solves pressing issue
Man Utd have somehow, for now, worked out their pressing conundrum – but Rasmus Hojlund must play.
Hojlund’s first Prem start this term saw the striker lead a one man press – and he has a better understanding of when to chase than Joshua Zirkzee.
The Red Devils were slaughtered for their poor 2 v 2 pressing up top against Spurs, where Rodrigo Bentancur had a field day.
But this time Bruno Fernandes dropped back into his normal No10 role, having previously been asked to press alongside the striker.
After playing a flat 4-4-2 press this season, Ten Hag switched things up with a 4-4-1-1 and it worked well as Fernandes was more disciplined.
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Kobbie Mainoo and surprise choice Christian Eriksen had a strong positional sense, and a tireless Alejandro Garnacho was more aware of his defensive role.
The new pressing set-up did well to shut down the Villa midfield and was unrecognisable from the system that allowed Spurs the freedom of Old Trafford the week before.
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Selfish runners in attack
While there were defensive improvements, Man Utd’s forward stars continued to perform as individuals against Villa.
Hojlund, Fernandes, Garnacho and Marcus Rashford charged forward selfishly and failed to make runs that created space for their team-mates.
Despite working hard, Garnacho’s efforts to get forward were often misguided runs at the penalty spot, which narrowed the space at the front post.
The Argentine must make more back post runs, to force the opposing full-back to track him and get drawn away from the goal, thus opening space in the box for other players to attack.
On one occasion, Rashford had the ball down the left wing, with five Villa defenders in front of him because his team-mates made selfish runs into a narrow space in the box.
United need more sacrificial off-the-ball movement. It seems maybe they just don’t trust each other and would prefer to try to get on the end of every chance themselves.
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Onana steps up
Adopting more of a Pep Guardiola approach to playing out from the back, Andre Onana often stepped up into the back four.
When the ball was on the left hand side, Diogo Dalot moved into midfield, a centre-half pulled wide and Onana went in as an extra centre-back.
It gave United an extra man higher up the pitch in an almost 11 vs 10 scenario, with Emiliano Martinez stuck between the Villa sticks.
This allowed United to play with more structure and confidence from the back, with Evans – who defended stoutly throughout – going on to win man of the match.
But fans need to see this on a more regular basis.
Brighton have managed to adopt two distinct styles under two new managers since Ten Hag’s 2022 appointment – while the Dutchman’s identity is preferred way of playing is still impossible to fathom.
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