The 2021 Europa League final was one of the few games I had seen that year, and having recently seen a very good football data website, fbref, I was very interested in revisiting the level of statistics between the two opponents at the time, Manchester United and Villarreal.
Manchester United attack vs Villarreal defensive
First, let's talk about United's attack. We disassemble the offense into passes, balls, and shots to deconstruct the data.
- Pass
Before the Europa League final, Manchester United's passing level in the Premier League was still remarkable. The team is ranked 5th in the Premier League with an average of 55.8% possession per game, and ranks 5th in the Premier League with 11.51 passes per minute of possession, slightly behind 4th-place Arsenal by 11.57.
Judging from the composition of passes (short passes, mid-range passes, long passes), Manchester United has 4.68 short passes per minute of possession time second in the Premier League, second only to Manchester City; 90.5% of the pass success rate is the third in the Premier League, second only to Manchester City and Chelsea.
The passing that dragged the team's hind legs was mainly 15-30 yards of mid-range passes, and Manchester United's passing frequency and success rate per minute of possession time in this passing data ranked only 8th and 5th in the Premier League, the former was only better than Tottenham Hotspur in the traditional semifinals, while the champions Manchester City were both 1st in the Premier League.
On the long run, Manchester United's statistics are still relatively outstanding, with 1.83 passes per minute of possession time tied for second-to-last with Manchester City (this is the normal frequency, all the traditional top six teams in the Premier League are in the bottom half of this data). However, United's long pass success rate reached 66.2%, the Fourth Place in the Premier League.
Short pass, medium distance pass frequency and high success rate, long pass frequency low and high power, this is the general strong team pass control characteristics, Manchester United in the composition of the pass is mainly the middle distance pass frequency dragged the hind legs. However, this is ultimately flawed, with a high success rate of passing blessing, Manchester United can break the opponent's pressing in the attack, and quickly form a counterattack, such as the following round.
- Shot
In addition, a good passing foundation allows United to make the most of the possession time to create shooting opportunities. This team has a shot on goal every 3.69 minutes of possession time to rank 6th in the Premier League, but this team has many players who can shoot, and the shooting resources are very rich, and its 38.1% shooting accuracy rate is properly ranked 1st in the Premier League, and every 9.69 minutes of possession time is formed to form a shot to rank third in the Premier League.
Another goal statistic shows that United's shooting skills are the strongest in the Premier League. The FBref website uses the difference between the actual number of goals scored and the expected number of goals to measure the level of the team's shooting, and I measure the team's shooting level by (actual goals - expected goals) / positive shots (let's call the shooting rate). As a result, Manchester United finished second in the Premier League at 5.02 per cent, behind Tottenham. In other words, as long as the ball can be hit as far as possible into the box, United players can most likely score goals with excellent shooting level.
All in all, the excellent level of passing (the reason why "excellent" is used here is because Manchester United's passing level is not yet at the top level of Manchester City), coupled with extremely good shooting skills, Manchester United has exploded the second largest firepower in the Premier League (73 goals), and there is no obvious shortcoming in the attack as a whole.
- There are balls
If you have to say that there are any hidden dangers in this team's attack, it is the lack of more reliable dribbling masters.
The team makes a dribbling attempt every 2.6 minutes of possession time, ranking 6th in the Premier League, and the frequency of dribbling attempts ranks 1st in the traditional top six, but the 57.8% success rate is only 6th from the bottom of the Premier League.
Football data website fbref has a technical statistic that measures the data on the ball, called Carries, and Manchester United's performance in carrying the ball into the box is once every 10.59 minutes of possession time, ranking only 9th in the Premier League.
It can be said that the performance of this team in terms of having the ball is relatively unsatisfactory, especially the dribbling is a typical human dish addiction.
After introducing United's attacking style, what is the level of defense of their opponents, yellow submarines?
- Shovel
Statistically speaking, Huang Qian's team is not good at shoveling ball carriers, and the frequency of the team trying to shovel ball carriers every 2.68 minutes of net defensive time is only the 7th in La Liga that season, and the 60.07% shovel success rate is the second-to-last in La Liga.
This team is particularly afraid of dribbling masters with the ball. The team's attempts to dribble against the ball carrier every 2.61 minutes of net defensive time la Liga are 6th in La Liga, but the 30.5% shovel success rate is only the second-to-last in La Liga.
Doing more and making more mistakes is a true portrayal of this team's shoveling of ball carriers. However, the opponent Manchester United does not have an absolute dribbling master, so in this regard, it more or less masks Huang Qian's defensive weaknesses.
- oppress
If Huang Qian's steals are typical of doing more and more mistakes, then Huang Qian's ability to oppress is a relatively mediocre level.
First, the team adopted a very conservative approach to oppression. The team has 2.63 net defensive presses per minute, ranking only 4th from the bottom in La Liga. Of course, this frequency does not explain anything, because behind this team are Real Madrid, Barca, Sevilla. However, the team's pressure success rate is only 28.5%, 10th in La Liga, and is left behind by Real Madrid, Barcelona and Sevilla. The team is in an oppressive posture a lot of times, but it is not easy to get down and grab the ball, such as the following round.
The shoveling and pressing were poorly done in terms of quality and quantity, and the consequence was that Huang Qian gave the opponent a shot every 3.73 minutes of net defensive time, and the frequency was the fourth highest in La Liga.
Of course, Huang Qian's defense is not without highlights.
- Blocking
If Huang Qian's shoveling and oppression are not satisfactory, their blocking ability is the forefront of La Liga.
First of all, their ability to block shots is excellent. The team blocks a shot every 12.97 minutes of net defensive time, finishing first in La Liga. Although this team frequently allows opponents to form shots, but with excellent blocking ability, the opponent's shooting accuracy rate is only a small 30%, the second lowest in La Liga. That is to say, the logic of Huang Qian's shot at the opponent is: you shoot casually, I can't stop it, but you don't want to shoot at the target at will.
Another blocking ability of Huang Qian is the ability to block the pass. The team completes a pass block every 3.3 minutes of net defensive time, and is 5th in La Liga. Huang Qian is better at cutting the opponent's pass, and can always intercept the opponent's pass in the right position, such as the following round.
summary
In general, Manchester United's attack on Huang Qian's defense belongs to the embarrassing situation that their respective long boards are on the right side, but their respective shortcomings are not on the right side, so in this case, who wins and who loses is actually difficult to say, and whose long board can only be fought, so in the end, the draw between the two sides in regular time is a more reasonable result.
Some Manchester United fans have blamed Ole Gunnar Solskjaer for not winning the yellow diver in this game, which I think is a bit too harsh, at least on the offensive end, Manchester United does not crush the absolute offensive strength of the yellow submarine defense.
Next article to analyze the yellow submarine attack vs Manchester United defense.