With a 1-0 win over Norwich, United had to thank De Gea for the whole team. If it weren't for his several heroic saves, the Red Devils might not even be able to eat "Xiangwei Ice Cream". Of course, this round of the Premier League team played "ugly" and relied on penalties to get three points, which is a basic situation.
Looking back, this kind of performance against the Red Devils, the deputy head of the Premier League, is indeed, as Gary Neville puts it, "too strange".
Anything strange has an intrinsic logic, and if interpreted from a tactical level, it boils down to two points: Norwich are finally playing like a relegation team, and the deployment restrictions are very much; Manchester United are gradually circumventing the opponent's restrictions, but the offensive end is completely "crotched".
I believe that many fans will be like boiling water after the game, and want to put "when will Cavani come back" on the "public screen".
Norwich's 451, a little bit of something
Unlike his predecessor Falke, Dean Smith knows how to stay in the Premier League.
In the 19-20 season, Villa was able to finally succeed in relegation, and the hardness of the confrontation was a very important factor. For example, they finished third in the Premier League in their defensive matchup in the last 12 rounds. Even before leaving Villa this season, his philosophy was to increase the number of pressing limits and impact confrontations.
Norwich's player quality is clearly inferior to Villa's, and Dean Smith did not make aggressive high pressuring, but instead built a five-man limit system in midfield when playing against the Red Devils.
Fred's connection with Wheat and the frontcourt has been "severed", and C Ronaldo and B Fee still have no good space to respond after the retraction, which is the restrictive effect of Norwich piling up players in midfield. In this case, Manchester United can only divide sides in order to ensure the success rate of advancement.
But will the fringing have an effect? The answer is not necessarily!
This is the gif display of the static screenshot above, and we can see Norwich's thinking more clearly: there will be no too much interference with Manchester United's ball-holding centre-back, but it will not allow Manchester United to have good space for double backs and retraced B fees and C Ronaldo. As long as United split the side, Nanovic will quickly complete the hardness damage, and the Red Devils want to form a propulsion, which is very inefficient.
Sancho's retracement was the solution, but the front was pulling the crotch again
We all know that the team's offense is divided into four stages: construction, advancement, impact, and termination. In order to bring damage to the opponent, impact and termination are the means, but the guarantee basis is to build and advance.
Under Norwich's restrictions, United's on-field adjustments were thought-provoking: the back increased the retraction to help the centre-back open the width of the back, and the strong points with the ability to play the ball began to retrace to help complete the advance.
Wheat "sinking" is to be expected, so who on the offensive end returns to the midfield to help advance construction? Sancho did more in this game.
Sancho is a player with the attributes of a side forward, and although his explosive power is insufficient, his holding rhythm and vision of the ball are fully up to standard. As a result, United need more no-ball runs on the offensive end to capture space and complete the connection.
What is the specific effect? It can be described as "pulling crotch", mainly reflected in Rashford's point. why? C Luo can no longer continue to provide no-ball running because of his age, and in order to ensure his final advantage, he needs his teammates to run, connect and fight.
B Fei is good at running without the ball, but to play to his advantage, he must have teammates to help and let him work in the spare space. So we can understand why Lonnick replaced Sancho with Greenwood instead of Rashford in the second half.
Is Rashford's handling up to par?
In Figure 1 above, wheat sinks to the bottom and splits the side, and Dalot faces a forced cross to find Sancho who is retreating. Sancho defended the player head-on and found Marcus Rashford by shaking and splitting the ball, while Rashford did not observe the position of his teammates in advance (C Ronaldo and B Fee were in the vacant position at the far end), and could only pass back after receiving the ball.
In Figure 2 above, after Rashford's reception, Sancho has an obvious forward insertion, the purpose is to fight with Rashford against the wall, and also has the operating space to impact the opponent. But Marcus Rashford's choice is still a return passback.
Running without the ball and the last pass, Manchester United is still "childish"
The lack of no-ball running and confrontation in the front is a stubborn problem for Manchester United.
After Sancho's retreat, United's offensive construction and advancement have been greatly improved, so it has also pressed Norwich's formation back to the half in more time, and has been given room for cooperation.
Although breaking the bus is a "worldwide" difficulty, there is a team that can do it, which shows that the bus is not unbreakable. The core key is to run without the ball and the last pass with effective cooperation.
The fee pullback brought out Norwich's right-back Aarons, and the opposing full-back Prachetta had begun to be attracted to Therays. United are holding the ball in the high position by Maguire, who has long passes, and as long as Rashford runs without the ball, it is an opportunity to hit the opponent's defense behind him.
Even if Maguire safely distributes the ball to Telles, the Brazilian full-back can pass the no-ball Rashford from behind.
But what are the actual effects? Take a look at the diagram below
Marcus Rashford didn't run...
You can't put all the problems on Rashford, after all, the team's performance on the offensive end is really miserable.
But Marcus Rashford, as a key point in the front, really did not play the 90 minutes of play time, he is just a representative of The "immature" performance of Manchester United's forward line.
epilogue
Against the backdrop of a full rotation in the Champions League in midweek, United's starting lineup is not physically worrying, but it really shouldn't be in the face of Norwich.
In an interview before the game, Lonnick bluntly said: "The skills of the Manchester United players can support my tactics, but they need to change some of the previous playing habits". It's a very blunt warning that the way Manchester United players have played before is not reasonable.
Lonnick sees Problems with United, but it is not possible to change the playing habits of the Red Devils players overnight. At this stage, if United want to have an improving performance on the offensive end, Cavani has almost become a necessity...