Replay: United did not add a back, the loose formation was exploded, and Brighton's "split" formation worked wonders

Brighton is a team with "tactical recognition"! From the perspective of team building, there are a lot of small fast spirits in the frontcourt, and the midfield is arranged to be stronger than Suma and Dunk, and at the same time, it will also "rub" into Kukurelia and others with excellent sports confrontation ability. The title of "Premier League Little Manchester City" is not exaggerated.

As a result, United, which lacks confrontation and running, will always be in a bitter battle when they have played against Brighton before.

And this confrontation, Porter's deployment at the tactical level, is very good. Brighton has some "split" positions, but can hit Manchester United to the greatest extent. The focus of today's review is this.

[How "divided" brighton's position is, look at the position]

Let's first look at Brighton's average position in the first half.

Figure 1: Brighton's "sense of separation" in the average position in the first half is very strong

As can be seen from the image above, March and Gross are on the right side of the front; Kukurelia inserts forward, forming a horizontal position on the left rib with Welbeck and Trossard; center-back captain Dunk, midfielder McAllister and the double back form a tight position in the center circle area, and moderately "empty" Wiltman at the high post.

The purpose of this deployment can be seen from the following aspects:

First, the high-level Vilthman is "isolated", and the core is to form an open catch point. In this game, he successfully received the ball 31 times, 24 of which were lateral passes by teammates.

Therefore, Brighton can form an effective response whether it is a high pass at the back or a horizontal pass after the formation of a suppressed front.

Figure 2: Wiltman's catch data and line for this match

Second, the 5-man attack group in the frontcourt formed two teams. March on the right stands closely with Gross, constantly coordinating or passing laterally. At the same time, The left front insert of Kukurelia, with Trossad and Welbeck, can form a very good rib lateral fit.

More crucially, during the process of suppression, United could not guarantee the width of the attack or the area behind them, even if they let the back fill between the centre-backs.

Figure 3: Brighton's forward attack maximizes its breadth advantage

Third, the 4-man group formed by the double back with Dunk and McAllister can ensure confrontation at a high position, thereby maximizing the quality of the offensive and defensive conversions. Let's look at the data: Brighton's top 4 has completed a total of 23 counter-attacks (44% of the total).

Figure 4: Kesedo's counter-attack area for this match

【Fine-tuning in the change of cutting position, completely destroying the Manchester United defense】

Brighton's first goal was the "initial" embodiment of Brighton's split formation effect.

Figure 5: Panorama of Brighton's first goal (1.5x speed)

We can see that after the Brighton ball was damaged by Matic's physique, the youngster Kecedo's forward confrontation directly destroyed Mata's reception. Brighton quickly made a quick defensive turn. In this case, the team's flanks with the impact, as well as the confrontation in the penalty area, so that the Manchester United defense is squashed, while the perimeter hole is huge. In the end, Brighton made two long-range shots to finally hit the world wave score.

But brighton's position is "progressive and changeable".

Lonnick replaced Fred and Cavani after half-time. The purpose is to increase the running coverage of the midfield, improve the elements of the forward center and seek to cooperate with C Ronaldo. But what was overlooked was that the team was fully passive and did not start from the point of protecting the defense line.

Brighton's change, combined with the first half and the position before the substitution, can be seen more clearly.

Figure 6: Brighton's average position in the first half (left) versus before the substitution (right).

The biggest change in the position is Gross's incognito, and the team's lead, Cucurella's moderate recovery. Such a change, visible to the naked eye, is to increase the lateral connection of the offensive end. It is further explained that Lonnick should change to 4312 and add a back (in the case of Nemanja Matic and Wheat, replace Fred) to protect the defense.

But it's a pity that Ronnick's adjustment focus is not here. United scored three goals by Brighton in 11 minutes, further exposing the lack of defensive breadth, and the defensive line was constantly dispatched, thus completely exposing the waist position.

Figure 7+8+9: United's three goals conceded in the second half

In this case, the looseness of United's "long" formation has been pulled apart again, allowing Brighton to play like a fish.

【Conclusion】

From a purely technical and tactical point of view, after this fiasco, there will be some "voices" asking Manchester United to buy a back or centre-back. However, the root cause of Manchester United's essential problem is the inadequacy of its own squad structure. Of course, Lonnick's deployment in this game was "completely exploded" by Porter is visible to the naked eye. But a "temporary manager" like him, while rectifying the team's thinking and doing dirty work, it is also "normal" to present this kind of problem.

Porter used a relatively "split" position to win the initiative at home, laying a good posture for attack and defense. The follow-up seized on the further exposed problems of Manchester United to carry out a deep blow, directly with a wave of crazy scoring, "taking away" the game.