Manchester United 1-1 Chelsea, Premier League: Tactical Analysis

Today at 11:11 AM

Another draw... of attention by Sánchez

This is now the eighth draw in the Premier League in our last thirteen meetings with Manchester United, and you can honestly say that this was a deserved result. In fact, there have now been more draws between our clubs (27) than any other two in the Premier League since its formation. Once again, similar to our midweek match versus Newcastle, while the momentum and shots favoured us, we were bested in xG and our play created very few big chances.

Indeed, almost half (5/12) of our shots were blocked and only three of those ended up being on target, not including Noni Madueke's header that hit the post. It is becoming frustrating to see how often we are stifled because of slower buildups and low defensive blocks, and it is clearly an effective tactic to keep us at bay from the opposition's goal. Meanwhile, hitting on the counter for United showed just how vulnerable we can be defensively, and they were able to generate 4 big chances simply because of that.

I have seen quite a few complains on various social media about how, despite bringing him in this summer from Brentford to increase our attacking threat to enthusiastic responses, Bernardo Cueva has done little to help us become an attacking threat on set pieces. We have yet to score directly from one (although Moisés Caicedo's goal was the result of an initially cleared corner) and our defending of them has been shaky at best. There was a golden opportunity to grab one against United in the 14th minute, but Madueke and Fofana could not sort out who was better located to head the ball. Some simple communication should have had Madueke ducking out at the last second because Fofana was behind him and would have more easily gotten his header on target, but the lack of calling for the ball meant Madueke did in fact head it and could only hit the frame of the goal - which he has now done three times this season, more than any other player in the league. I have also attached an aerial view of all the attackers runs for the same corner, and it seems clear that a ball to the near post and congesting that area is our go-to move on corners.

Playing Reece James on the left has not been ideal, because it minimised the service that Pedro Neto was receiving and even directly led to one of their counter attacks because of his preference of playing the ball inside with his dominant right foot. Malo Gusto failed in similar fashion when he was deployed there against Liverpool, and so let's hope this was the last time we find ourselves trying this experiment. By essentially nullifying our own left side of the pitch, it also has exposed the lack of production from Noni Madueke on the right, and his starting position surely is becoming more and more in jeopardy with each performance where he is barely noticeable.

Who remains very clearly noticeable, and for all the wrong reasons, is Robert Sánchez. There is absolutely no reason he needs to concede the penalty that he does - close down the angle and then either stay on your feet or, bare minimum, pull your arms back and let Rasmus Højlund run wide of the goal. These are very simple decisions to make that one would expect a keeper from a top English club to handle readily, and yet he continues to astound us with shocking decisions on and off the ball.

In fact, the only person that is seemingly resoundingly sold on him as the starter is, unfortunately, the one who actually makes that decision. His passing is inadequate and perhaps the only thing that is keeping him in that starting position is that his greatest attribute, shot stopping, is also Filip Jørgensen's greatest attribute. That said, Jørgensen is only 22 and surely on the rise, while Sánchez is about to turn 27 and fell out of favour at Brighton before getting this move to Chelsea, lucky as that seems for him. Below is a comparison from just this season against some of the keepers whom I consider to be top quality and who are all performing better statistically than Sánchez - and for fun Jørgensen stats from the League Cup because I consider that stiffer competition than the UEFA Conference League.

Now, those need to be taken with a grain of salt, especially the latter two, simply because Nottingham Forest play an entirely different style of football and Jørgensen is our 'B' team keeper. The fact that he is making more passes than all the others is both relative to the style that we play and how often the ball is in our defensive territory. His long passing accuracy is shockingly poor and he loses possession, often at the worst possible times, far too often. All that aside, this remains the position most highly in question as to our efficacy in that position.

The final decisions that were influential in this game came via the substitutions made by Maresca. After an underwhelming overall performance, including a 70% passing accuracy that including connecting on zero of his crosses in addition to winning zero challenges, putting in zero tackles, and collecting just one interception, Gusto was removed to bring on Marc Cucurella. The issue is simply that these fullbacks are not designed to be in the final third, but with the defensive double pivot of Moisés Caicedo and Roméo Lavia, Maresca has opted to push his fullbacks beyond the pivot and into a more attacking position. It has not worked well, and in each of the games it was deployed we struggled to both score and dominate the final third of the pitch. The clear answer here is not to play the inverted fullback but rather bring a winger inside and push a fullback farther up the flanks, where especially Reece James has proven to be more than effective. Maresca is either opting against this to protect James' hamstrings or because of tactical stubbornness. I also believe that Lavia in particular could push on from the pivot and effect the game in a more advanced role, but Maresca seems unwilling to give that a go for whatever reason.

That said, his pivot partner Caicedo has been absolutely phenomenal this season, and his beautiful volley just caps off a season of extremely high ratings from almost all of the veritable sources that rate players, including our own here at WAGNH.

KTBFFH.