The two managers know each other very well, and the big rout in the opening game did not shake Ten Hag's determination, he used a style of play that was very close to the first game, maybe tonight's performance is what he wants to see at the Etihad Stadium, anyway, congratulations to Ten, this Manchester United played the football he wanted, the suspense of victory and defeat may be in the first line, but what Ten Hag brings to this team and what the players show on the pitch tonight makes me very happy.
From a technical and tactical point of view, Guardiola has done a good job, and even in my personal eyes, this technical and tactical level is still better. For the first man in ground propulsion, Manchester City tried a number of changes in the game tonight and gradually broke the game, which is certainly inextricably linked to their manager. But the form of Manchester City's players tonight is not online, and Pep Guardiola did not dare to replace the big names in the sluggishness, it can only be said that the manager's adjustment is not good enough.
Ten Hag made a lot of changes to the starting line-up tonight, most notably putting two players in positions that weren't what they did best, Luke Shaw at left-centre-back, B fee at right-wing, and Eriksen who was rarely pushed up front. However, he retained the 4231 formation and did not change the formation, and arranged for the team to play a wonderful pressing football.
Strictly speaking, this Manchester United use a median pressing (that is, putting the first line of defense in the attacking zone 2 and not pressing the opponent's goalkeeper), and then it is still a very interesting point, Ten Hag's 4231 high pressing position is off the "mainstream". Generally speaking, if a team playing in the 4231 formation wants to play high pressing, it will usually put the front back forward to the forward line, forming a 442 (more accurate should be 4222) high pressing formation.
But Ten Hag did not do this this time, instead he raised the wingers on both sides to the front line, and maintained a high pressing formation of 4213 overall. Ten Hag also commanded two wingers to limit the dominant foot of the opposing central defender and prevent them from contacting the full-back on the same side.
This is the most memorable and tactical game of this game, what is the purpose and risk of Ten Hag's doing this? Let's look at it little by little. Manchester City made a lot of unforced mistakes on the ball tonight, from the players' form problems and the pressure from Manchester United's high position. First of all, let the winger press the opponent's dominant foot to ensure that the opponent cannot "directly" complete the transfer of the strong and weak side through the central defender, then the opponent's line of the ball can almost be judged, because the winger who grabbed has cut off the connection between the opponent's central defender and the same side full-back. After helping us get rid of a wrong answer through elimination, all the players behind the forward three are all in a human position, each responsible for one person, so as long as Manchester City choose to pass forward, the receiver will inevitably be pressured, which is what Ten Hag wants.
But there is a very big risk for Teng Shuai to do this, the risk is that the "wrong answer to be ruled out" is not necessarily really excluded, once Manchester City contacts two full-backs, they will be in an undefended vacancy, because the full-backs who were originally responsible for pressing them in the 4222 high pressing system have become wingers to press the central defenders at this time, and Manchester United's danger in the first half basically stems from this link.
In fact, if you think back to the Etihad game in the first half of the season, were the gaps behind our two full-backs repeatedly exploited by Manchester City? Maybe the players weren't able to execute Ten Hag's tactics very well at the time, but the players did a good job tonight, except for Marcus Rashford, of course.
Rashford failed to observe the position of the opponent's full-back behind him twice in a row during the pressing period, and did not cut off the receiving line of Manchester City full-backs, although Rashford's defensive positionality has not been excellent, and he has other more important tasks today.
Seeing this, we need to change the perspective, because Ten Hag's layout today has been completely clear, and then we will see how Guardiola solves the game. Guardiola used 3 different ways to solve the game in this game, and the boss is really good.
Let's start with this first plan. It's very simple that since Manchester United now my central defender is comfortable with the ball, then add another central defender, in the latter part of the first half Rodri and Bernardo returned to the central defense line many times to comb the ball, because Manchester United central midfield is a staring position, dare not take the formation one step closer, and so the crack appeared.
The second plan is to let the midfield retreat significantly, not only the midfielder, but also the striker, such as this time through Haaland's over-completion from the back forward.
Ten Hag has three big central defenders on the bench today, and the reason why he has to use Luke Shaw to play central defender is this, he needs the entire central midfield to be full of mobility, because whether the team can maintain a good distance between the three lines is the lifeline of the game in the middle of the press, but today Luke is not too threatened, this move is not as bright as imagined.
Guardiola's third plan is to let the two full-backs take a step closer off the touchline, choose to adduct inward, and let the full-backs take the initiative to adjust the space between them and the central defenders, and find a way to make the "obstacles" on the passing path, that is, Manchester United's wingers, ineffective.
It can be said that it has also achieved good results, coupled with the impact of Marcus Rashford's injury, the high quality of Manchester United's second half has also declined.
These are the main games between the two bald bosses tonight, and City's biggest problem tonight is not the low-level mistakes of the back and forward, and the Blue Moon have done a very bad job defending Manchester United's counter-attack. Manchester City are completely unable to defend Marcus Rashford tonight, who has destroyed the Manchester City defence many times with his speed and confrontation, and since full-backs on both wings usually provide assists, Manchester City's centre-backs need to get caught up in confrontation and sprinting with Rashford again and again.
In addition to Marcus Rashford, Bruno's long pass on the counter-attack tonight was brilliant and creative, and the other Manchester United players were also very clear when they counterattacked, which is to do everything they could to get the ball to Bruno first, so we saw Fred's shot much smoother, because he knew that he only needed to pass the ball to Bruno's feet.
Another problem for Manchester City is poor quality of pressing high. Manchester United's centre-backs did not suffer much pressure today, and the limited number of pressures was also reduced by the physicality of the two full-backs, except for a few scary mistakes by Casemiro, Manchester United played tonight's more relaxed and pleasant shot. And the fat tiger, who was not working at times, also gave an assist.
This goal can see the problem of Manchester City's high end, De Bruyne did not follow people, although he used Rashford's opportunity to change the defensive distraction today to take the lead for the team, but his competitive state today is really not good, completely carried by Fred, who is also wearing the number 17 shirt.
It was a game that wasn't low in terms of technique and tactics, and Ten Hag's side finally showed the football they wanted to play, and I have reason to believe that the Manchester City derbitten manager would like to see that in the first leg. And as the team soars in all competitions, this Manchester United team should be closer and closer to what Ten Hag expects. It was a good game for the whole Manchester United squad, congratulations to the Reds.