Behind Barcelona’s reversal by Manchester United is the incompatibility between high center and controlling style of play
After the inventory, it is not difficult to find that the La Liga teams that Manchester United “fumbled” in the knockout rounds of the European War include:
Barcelona (Champions League: 2008/09, 2010/11, 2018/19)
Real Madrid (Champions League: 2012/13 season)
Atlético de Madrid (Champions League: 2021/22 season)
Sevilla (Champions League: 2017/18 season, Europa League: 2019/20 season)
Athletic Bilbao (Europa League: 2011/12 season)
Villarreal (Europa League: 2020/21 season)
The only La Liga team that Manchester United passed in the European knockout rounds during this period was Celta Vigo (2016/17 season). Counting down, Manchester United fell in front of La Liga teams 9 times in the 13 seasons of European wars from 2008/09 to 2021/22.It seems that before the game, the disadvantage of the historical record indicates that Manchester United may stop here again.
However, the unexpected fall behind in the early start did not depress Manchester United’s generals. Relying on the return of Anthony’s line of fire after the intermission, Manchester United finally broke through their demons and turned the tide. While ending years of unbeaten Barcelona, they still tenaciously went hand in hand in the four-line battle.
starting lineup
Due to multi-line combat, injuries and other reasons, both sides have made many adjustments in the starting lineup.
For Manchester United, Lisandro, who was suspended in the last Europa League game, returned from the suspension, Luke Shaw returned to left back, and Malaysia appeared on the bench. Although there is only one adjustment in Manchester United’s starting lineup, great changes have taken place in the formation and the positioning of the frontcourt players. In the first round of the game, Sancho appeared on the wing, Weghorst retreated and Fred partnered with the midfielder Rashford to advance forward.But today, as soon as it came up, Rashford moved to the left, Sancho appeared in the front midfielder, and Weghorst played the position of the single arrow.
The only main injured man for Manchester United is Eriksson, who has been absent for a long time, while Barcelona’s situation is much worse. Pedri and Dembele were injured and unable to play, and Garvey was suspended for accumulative yellow cards. This made Harvey have to make many adjustments in the starting personnel arrangement, especially in the midfield. The only good news is that Busquets, who did not play in the first round due to injury, returned to the team today.
In the absence of major generals, Harvey had to use Roberto in the midfield position. In addition, in the left half of the defense, Harvey chose Alex Bald and Christensen. The combination of Alba and Max Alonso in the previous game sat on the bench. In terms of formation,Harvey followed the four midfield configuration used in the previous game, and did not arrange Zhengyin’s left winger。
game review
first half
The battle between the two coaches Ten Hag and Harvey was brilliant from the beginning. Operations such as “seeing a trick and dismantling a trick” and “predicting other people’s predictions” are emerging in an endless stream. The tactical arrangements of the coaches of both sides have their own ideas.
Ten Hag chose to let Sancho appear in the front midfielder. Naturally, he wanted to use his unique dribbling rhythm to complete the offensive organization and connection in the middle, especially to have some linkage with the B fee on the right. In fact, such an attempt is a very good response plan that Manchester United explored when Anthony was absent some time ago.
Manchester United does not have a Zhengyin right winger, soIf B Fei chooses to play a guest role, he must cooperate with the players in the middle in order to better play his threat on the offensive end.. This had a good effect in Sancho’s goal against Leicester City last weekend and in Manchester United’s League Cup home game against Forest.
When B Fei’s cameo on the right side cannot effectively cooperate with the players in the center, he is prone to wandering, which can easily lead to a decline in the team’s offensive quality. This has happened in the previous games between Chelsea and Arsenal. Therefore, whether B Fee and Sancho can form an effective connection will directly affect the quality of Manchester United’s right-wing offense.
Barcelona’s layout is also very targeted. On the one hand, De Jong, who appeared on the left midfielder today, pays great attention to retreating to protect the defense of the left half. His defense on this side makes the connection between Sancho and B Fei very limited.
In the first half, most of the effective contact with B fee came from Casemiro’s long pass and Wan Bissaka’s back set.
Sancho’s few balls in the middle are more connected to his teammates on the left.
On the other hand, against Rashford who appeared on the left, Barcelona deployed heavy troops in the defense today. In the right half of the defense zone, Barcelona chose Araujo and Conde, who are extremely mobile and can play as central defenders and full backs, to defend Rashford.
Against this background, Rashford’s breakthrough on the left in the first half was extremely restricted, and several attempts to go down and inside were hardly successful.
By contrast, in the other half of the pitch, Barcelona responded better in the first half.For a long time, one of the gaps between Manchester United and Europe’s top teams has been the full-back’s ability to return to defense, especially when Rashford appears in this position.
Perhaps because of more tactical tilts in the process of offense and counterattack, Rashford’s participation in the team’s defense has been relatively limited. This point was well utilized by Barcelona in the first half. In the last 10 minutes of the first round, Barcelona almost completed the lore against Manchester United through the offensive routine of passing the ball from the wing to the far post area.
At the opening stage today, Barcelona continued to use this idea in their offense. The place where the cross from the side was initiated was the side where Rashford returned less defense. Through the pass from this side, Barcelona made a penalty and took the lead in breaking the deadlock on the field. In the time since then, Barcelona has also made several good attempts at pilling on this side.
Going back to Manchester United, due to the limited scene of Sancho taking the ball in the middle, several times in the process of switching attacks, he mainly relied on Casemiro’s one-footed straight and long pass to lead directly with B Fei, similar to this For long-distance connections with relatively small adjustment space, the success rate is naturally not high.
In addition, Rashford’s advancement on the other side was blocked. After Manchester United lost the ball in the first half, the offensive end did not improve for a long time.
second half
In the first half, Manchester United’s two wing attacks not only failed to bear fruit, but also caused a very big hidden danger to the defense. After the intermission, Ten Hag saw that the situation was not good, so he immediately chose to adjust the personnel.Zhengyin right winger Anthony replaced Weghorst, who had limited number of support in the first half.
Such a subtle adjustment quickly revitalized Manchester United’s frontcourt offense. The presence of Zhengyin right winger Anthony brought B Fee back to a more threatening center, and Rashford also broke away from the encirclement of Barcelona’s right half fan and appeared in a forward position. The left side is reserved for Sancho, who holds the ball more rhythmically.
precisely,The rotation of Sancho and B Fee quickly helped Manchester United instigate an equalizer goal.
At the beginning of the second half, Sancho took advantage of Barcelona’s mistake in handling the ball in the backcourt to grab the ball. After holding the ball, he successfully passed the ball to B Fee in the middle under the defense of Barcelona’s side. B Fei took advantage of the situation and knocked the ball horizontally to Fred who was advancing forward. Fred did not hesitate too much, and simply stabbed the goal neatly.
This goal exposed Barcelona’s untimely response to the rotation of Manchester United’s frontcourt players. Manchester United’s position adjustment not only helps the team get bonuses on offense, but also the team’s defense on the wing has also been excellently stabilized.
Anthony’s several key return defenses better restrained Barcelona’s side attack. In the middle of the second half (before Manchester United’s reversal), there were only a handful of threats in Barcelona’s attack, and Conde’s header was one of the few bright spots.
Of course, Anthony and Sancho appearing on both sides also have some natural flawsthat is, the speed of sidewalk advancement is too slow. In fact, after Manchester United strengthened the protection of the wing in the second half, there were several opportunities to launch conversion attacks through long passes from the backcourt.
For example, after contacting Anthony this time, he was almost single-handedly. However, due to Anthony’s lack of reverse foot ability, he could not directly complete the burst shot. At first, he was in the dominant position and was also interfered by De Jong who was chasing back. , his cross was intercepted by the latter.
After realizing that Manchester United lacked speed in the wing attack at this time, Ten Hag played the second card in 67 minutes, replaced Sancho with Ganacho. After the left side was accelerated, within a few minutes, Manchester United ushered in a reversal goal.
Luke Shaw and B Fei completed a wonderful cooperation near the bottom line. Ganacho moved to the rib area at high speed on the left, received the ball in the second gap and took advantage of the situation to complete the shot. After the shot was blocked, Fred followed up and made a supplementary shot. After being blocked, Anthony seized the second penalty opportunity, pushed the ball and sent the ball into the net.
Throughout the scoring process, Manchester United’s acceleration on the left played an important role, which helped the team form many good opportunities to hit the goal. In addition to this goal, Ganacho used his quick breakthrough in the final stage to create a yellow card for Busquets. The acceleration on the left wing helped Manchester United regain the initiative.
Harvey, who felt that the wing attack was blocked, also made personnel adjustments around 70 minutes. After Zhengyin left winger Fati played, the team returned to the 433 formation. This intention is actually not much different from the first round, that is, to strengthen the offense on the side. In the final stage, Ferran Torres came on the right and posed a huge threat to Manchester United’s defense.
Unfortunately, exactly the same as the first round, Barcelona was a hair’s breadth away from scoring. Putting aside some elements of luck, another important reason why Barcelona failed to score an equalizing goal in the final stage was that the team failed to form a good connection with Lewandowski in the sports battle. Ten Hag has a very targeted deployment of Lewandowski’s defense, and the scenes of Lisandro defending Lewandowski are endless.
It wasn’t until the stoppage time that Lewandowski “appeared” in Barcelona’s offense relying on the conscious delivery of the midfielder:
Summarize
Throughout the game, the high center forwards of Manchester United and Barcelona were all “jailed” on the court. The difference is that today Manchester United has more personnel options on the attack line,Ten Hag removed the center forward in time and replaced Anthony on the right winger of Zhengyin, helping United take over the game in the second half. The absence of Dembele has greatly affected Barcelona’s explosive ability in wing attacks.
The process of this game is somewhat similar to the Manchester Derby last month. Manchester United reversed their opponents after falling behind by one goal. Although some of the penalties in the Manchester Derby are very controversial, it is undeniable that,One of the main reasons why United were neutral and unbeaten in that game: the team did a good job of cutting off the link between the Manchester City teammate and the high center forward Haaland。
In today’s game, the high center forward became Lewandowski, and Manchester United’s overall restrictions on him are still very successful. Although Manchester City and Barcelona are not exactly the same in terms of tactics, they still have many similarities in style of play. As the teams that Guardiola has coached, from a macro point of view, both Manchester City and Barcelona play “controlling football”.
Recently, images of Haaland being isolated in the game have emerged one after another. It seems that the existence of a high center forward and the “controlling” style of play are somewhat incompatible.So, how can the existence of the high center forward and the “controlling” style of play be organically combined? This will be a topic worthy of our deep thinking.Return to Sohu to see more
Editor:
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