In the 25th round of the Premier League, Manchester United welcomed Southampton at home. With a strong start and a clear advantage, United still didn't have a good start, and they lost control of the rhythm of the game afterwards. In the end, United drew 1-1 with their opponents. After conceding two points, United are still unable to reach the top four. The situation of teams competing for qualification for next season's Champions League remains uncertain.
In terms of formation, Ronnick discharged the 4141 formation. In the backline, Maguire, who has been underperforming in the past period, continues to get the opportunity to start, partnering Varane in the centre-back position, on the right-back position, Dalot continues to play, and the left-back is Luke Shaw. Scott McTominay took on the single back. Pogba and Bruno Fernandez are in front of him, with Pogba at the back, combing and scheduling the team's attack; Bruno Fernandes in a relatively front position, responsible for the offensive strategy in the front. Sancho appeared on the left and Marcus Rashford was placed on the other flank to play as a right winger. In the center position, it is still C Ronaldo alone to break forward.
After the start of the game, Southampton, who played away, was not conservative, and the two sides launched a wide-open attack and defense. United continue to use the tactic of high pressing, although it is still difficult to create effective scoring opportunities in position battles, but in terms of defensive counterattack, Manchester United's progress in this game is very obvious. Both Pogba and Bruno Fernandez have a very clear passing line on the counter-attack, that is, to use more direct passes from the middle and long distances, taking advantage of the speed advantages of Sancho and Rashford to attack the area behind the two full-backs. This offensive deployment is ideal, and the attacks on both flanks are very threatening. Sancho, in particular, is in good shape in this game and has handled the ball several times to seem very reasonable.
With tactical thinking working, United's goal also came. Bruno Fernandes took the ball in midfield, Rashford quickly stepped forward, then Bruno Fernandez got rid of the defense and sent a precise direct pass, Rashford, who had already started, completed the breakthrough in an instant, took the ball all the way into the opponent's penalty area, and passed the ball to the goal without being defended, and Sancho who was inserted from the left side of the road arrived and easily pushed the goal. Judging from the process of this goal, Manchester United's cooperation is very clear and smooth, with the shadow of the team's peak period. However, Southampton, who are in a backward situation, gradually gained an advantage on the field. Especially in the second half of the first half, although Manchester United continued to carry out high-level pressing, Southampton's passing and cutting cooperation was very tacit, the attack was relatively smooth, and it obviously occupied the advantage on the scene. Their attacking focus is also on the two flanks, the ability to cross from the flanks is excellent, and the pressure on Dalot and Luke Shaw is relatively large.
On the Manchester United side, the team's problems on the defensive end are still very obvious. As a single back, McTominay is relatively high in position, frequently involved in attacks and high presses. The immediate consequence of this is that the space left behind him is very large. Although Pogba will properly reclaim the position and protect when Scott McTominay is inserted, his defense is more formal and difficult to have a noticeable effect. In addition, Varane and Maguire had to put more positional premise to protect the area before the defensive line. After the start of the second half, Southampton scored quickly. They took advantage of the fact that McTominay and Pogba did not appear in time for the defensive position to complete the breakthrough in the right rib area of Manchester United and successfully scored.
From the perspective of the whole game, the reason why Manchester United did not achieve the desired result was mainly due to two reasons: First, Lonnick lacked changes in the platoon arrangement. With a continued lack of defensive defense at the back, Lonnick did not choose to adjust the formation. This has left the team's midfield defence in vain, with Southampton taking just a few passes to easily get past United's midfield. After the equaliser, Southampton have had several very good scoring opportunities in quick succession, and if it were not for the poor shooting skills of their forward players, United would even soon have suffered a reversal.
Second, as the team's main player, C Luo still does not show signs of recovery. He didn't do much of the time and missed 2 very good chances. Although he tried hard enough, he did move away from his best, and the frequency of the movements was obviously not ideal, and he could not convert the opportunity into a goal. Cristiano Ronaldo has been unable to score in 6 consecutive games in all competitions. (The picture comes from the Internet, if there is infringement, please contact to delete)