Against vice-captain Norwich, United must score 3 points at home, which is a "bottom line". Therefore, Lonnick has a "big job" in the absence of multiple players: the front court frantically piles up offensive elements.
Stacking offensive elements can indeed hit Norwich, but some fragmented offensive and defensive defenses also keep the defensive line under pressure to the greatest extent. Essentially, after the loss of pressure in the front field and the lack of defensive protection due to the decline in Elanga and Jesse Lingard, the problems in United's waist position will be completely magnified.
To cash in on 3 points, Ronaldo was instrumental, with a 37+veteran using a hat-trick to bring some reverie to United's scramble for the fourth place.
[Stacking offensive elements, what steps did Lonnick do?] 】
United's attack structure in front of the pitch is clearly problematic today, and Lonnick is always looking for a balance. Key points: how to give Sancho the opportunity to make a positive impact, how to balance C Ronaldo's retracement strategy and the end of the front plug, are the two most critical points. Even, the radical output of the B fee has been overwhelmed.
What deployment did Lonnick hand over today?
First, Jesse Lingard relied on running, maximizing his support for Sancho with Tres on the left rib. The signature manifestation is to cruise to the empty seat to meet, and then send a pass to Sancho to make a positive impact. What is avoided is the lack of lethal damage caused by sancho's back and half-side attacks due to the lack of explosive power.
Figure 1+2: Lingard supports Sancho
Second, Elanga completed the running, confrontation, and strategy. The main area of activity is not only on the right side, but also in the penalty area to complete the confrontation strategy. The purpose of this is that when C Ronaldo responds with the withdrawal, Manchester United will not be left alone in the penalty area, and Dalot, who is moderately inserted on the right side, cannot find a coordination point. United's second goal in the corner was a combination of Erlanga and Dalot on the right, and C Ronaldo sent a diagonal pass from a high position to create a chance to shoot in the penalty area.
Figure 3+4: Representative performance of The Erlanga offensive end on the right and in the penalty area
To support this deployment, Lonnick chose an offensive position that was nearly similar to Thataucho's deployment against Everton before the start of the season. The difference is that Dalot takes on more retracements and premise runs on the right side, and B fees and Pogba have shorter front and back standing distances.
Figure 5: United's attacking position in this game
Figure 6: Preseason warm-up against Everton, Sochaux's 316 layout
[Running brings suppression, but after the decline in physical fitness, the problem will fully erupt]
In the first leg against Norwich, United did not play well on the road. Lonnick pointed out several problems after the game, one of the key being that United did not succeed in suppressing their opponents. After all, a team like Norwich, which does not "play hard" and has an average defensive quality, can form a very effective blow as long as it completes the pressure.
The appearance of Erlanga and Jesse Lingard has made the running suppression of Manchester United's frontcourt a more obvious improvement. Therefore, It is very understandable that Eilanga steal Ben Gibson assisted Ronaldo, and 5 of the 7 successful steals in the first 35 minutes occurred in the opposing half.
Figure 7: United's steals in the first 35 minutes (7 of 10 attempts)
But the crux of the matter is that after United completed the attrition of the front, the problems caused by the 4141 formation were very obvious. Moreover, the back is still Pogba.
In fact, in the advantage stage, Manchester United has continued to show the defensive space in the waist position. It's just that at that time, Dalot still has the physical strength to support the defensive footsteps to stick to the defense, and Lindelof can still have the strength to raise the limit. By the time Lindelof completed the protective sliding tackle at the end of the first half, his attrition doomed him to lose his lift.
Figure 8: Before conceding the ball, Manchester United had a lot of spare space in the waist
The rest is that after Manchester United lost the high pressure in the front, Norwich can easily send a direct pass to attack Manchester United. At this time, Erlanga and Lingard can complete the return defense of the strong side of the defense, but the co-defense follow-up and the retraction protection of the far end are no longer available.
Figure 9: Panoramic view of United's conceded goals
As can be seen from the above figure, Manchester United's high position did not bring the ball to Norwich to suppress, after the opponent split the ball on the side, even if Elanga retraced to form a local 3vs3 situation, but the decline in physical fitness led to running and co-defense protection problems, so that Phuket got the opportunity to obliquely insert rib space. At the same time, the problem of Pogba only standing in a fixed position and not cooperating with the air defense position reappeared. All that's left is for Phuket to complete the cross after receiving the ball on the ribs. At the far end, Lingard's recovery was not in place, and Manchester United's substantial 2-defense 3 directly brought Lindelof and Tres inwards to let the opponent score a header in the open position.
Such scenes happened frequently in the second half, and the second goal conceded was the most direct embodiment.
[C Ronaldo wearing a hat, Manchester United scored the 3 points that must be obtained]
Rationally speaking, any team counting on a 37+ veteran to save his life is not reasonable in itself. Even if C Luo, an old minister with strong combat strength and still has a lot of offensive qualities in the decline period, it is difficult.
Lonnick has always been looking for a balance, finding the right partner with Ronaldo and completing the construction of offensive elements in the front. The most direct example is the "old combination of C Ronaldo + Cavani", which once became the bottom line of the offensive end, as can be seen.
Let C Ronaldo increase the large-scale drawdown strategy, the essential problem is still Manchester United's forward generals, lack of this quality. It is not difficult to understand this conclusion. After the retraction of Ronaldo, Manchester United has shown that no one can make up for the embarrassment of the quality of the center, Rangnick has tested the Pogba premise, but the Frenchman's comprehensive strength and physical fitness can only meet this requirement in a relatively short period of time.
Looking back at the beginning of this article now, Lonnick's use of Lingard and Erlanga's deployment was actually excellent. But the problem is also very obvious. After being chased by two goals in a row, it was not easy for United to fight back: Sancho and B Fee were in very poor form.
Ronaldo scored a free kick to complete the hat, from which aspect, it is super valuable.