Muzi Guanhudou | With a shortage of personnel forcing interesting ideas, United need to maintain some certainty after the brittle defeat 

Manchester United has remained the most trafficked club over the past half month.

Anthony's domestic violence case has become more and more specific, specific to the decision of the players and the club to postpone his return to the team after consultation; Sancho refused to apologize after challenging Tenhach's authority by being ejected from the first team.

Regardless of what the outside world thinks about these two things, the problem before Tenhach is the same: the wide attacker directly lacks two options. In this case, how can United use their existing personnel to regain their sharpness in attack while also catching up with their opponents in front of them in the table?

Against Brighton, Tenhach gave an interesting answer.

Before the game, the outside world was waiting for the news that Pellistri was in the 11s, but after the starting list was released, the new name was Scott McTominay, which many people did not expect.

Coming to the field, the position of the front six is very clear, the standard diamond-shaped midfielder 442:

Strictly speaking, it is not the first time that Ten Hach has used the Diamond 442, and it was in last season's FA Cup final that Ten Hach used this idea against Manchester City.

However, compared to that game, Manchester United's new face in this game gave this similar set of diamond-shaped 442 ideas a lot of different scenes.

First of all, when Casemiro is pulling the side or in front, Scott McTominay can appear on the back line, which gives Manchester United an extra layer of protection:

Manchester United's defensive switch in the 9th minute was after Casemiro was bypassed, and Scott McTominay's return and interference allowed the ball to change, thus forming a follow-up attack:

In this way, the problem of offensive and defensive imbalance that has previously plagued Manchester United has been solved to a considerable extent, and Casemiro has plenty of manpower on his side and in front of the back line.

Leaving aside the ability for the time being, in terms of ideas and manpower, this point is of course an improvement.

So under this system, the full-back forward attack will not become a double-edged sword, and Reguilon, who also happened to get his debut in this game, we mentioned when the player joined, his use is still to be put into the offensive end, and he showed his characteristics on the offensive end in the opening stage:

Even if it was the first time he had partnered and worked with Marcus Rashford in a game.

Dalot, on the other side, also has forward freedom under this system, and he also provides his own characteristic help in the attack:

After the width of the attack is opened, Scott McTominay, as a swingman, can also plug in to form a boost, which is also his way of playing to show his physical fitness and ability:

Of course, it is more important that Manchester United have a more existential centre-forward.

Heylen was given a starting chance in this game, and his body plate can make room for the players behind him and provide the ball:

With this help, Rashford's handling space has greatly increased, even in the middle, he can show off his footwork, and he showed a very good form at the beginning of the game:

Unfortunately, he was unable to help the team score with plenty of space.

As a result, the tactical fun did not help United to a crucial victory at home, but rather this uncommon set of tactics exposed the defensive problems.

This is where Manchester United must focus on the training ground after the game, even at a time when the schedule is about to become tighter.

The diamond 442 is essentially a relatively special formation, because compared with 433 and 4231, which can occupy space evenly, the coverage of the diamond 442 on the side is relatively empty.

Therefore, when there is no ball, it is necessary to pay special attention to the opponent linking the two wings, resulting in the formation being moved back and forth and the physical energy being consumed for no reason, which means that when defending, we must not only pay attention to the opponent and the ball, but also pay attention to the occupation of space and lines.

This is precisely the problem that Manchester United exposed in this game.

The failure of this high pressing in the 15th minute stemmed from Bruno's rash prediction that the opponent would choose a direct pass, thus revealing the opponent's horizontal line:

The reason why I want to start at this point is because under this system, Manchester United do have problems with physical exertion, because you have two veterans in the midfield area, Casemiro and Eriksen.

The former was clearly not in good form for this game, while the latter had the heavy task of covering the wings.

As a midfielder on Reguilon's side, Eriksen needs to cover as much as possible to share the pressure of Lisandro Martinez's traverse, but his coverage efficiency is not destined to be very good, so this time will test the awareness of weak side adduction to protect the middle.

The first goal United conceded was from this wing:

In the process, Erikson's defensive support was indeed inadequate, whether it was adduction in the middle or covering the wing, which was the most obvious problem, but after the opponent had already leaned in from this road, Scott McTominay's consciousness was not up to par.

Whether it was from the perspective of covering the space in front of the defender or interfering with the attackers, he was not in place.

Since then, the problem of this road has still arisen, and this is indeed a very clear offensive channel that Brighton has looked at:

In fact, Brighton's two goals since then have been linked to these problems.

The second goal, first Bruno's dream of returning to the Sochaux period, meaninglessly pressed alone, and after being walked monkeys, he directly released space for the opponent to move horizontally:

Next, Scott McTominay and Dalot were pinned down by Mika, and Lamptai stepped forward to bring out Casemiro, and the same problem was thrown to Eriksen, the weak midfielder at this time:

The third goal was clearer, Brighton advanced along the left flank, at this time the back Bruno did not have the consciousness to defend the opponent's second line, and the ball was thrown to the goalkeeper or not:

So, Manchester United lost this game without temper, because there was indeed a clear problem in their own defense, which was easily caught by Brighton, but we still have to say that this is an idea that we can try to stick to.

Because there is room for maneuver.

From the back to front, Casemiro was not in good form in this game, which was a point that clearly needed to be adjusted in the game, but at the time, Manchester United, who were behind and wanted to chase points, had only the option of Bruno retreating.

Don't forget, however, that United now have a back-up substitute.

In future matches, Amrabat, including youngster Menu, could replace Casemiro at certain times, providing additional options when he was underperforming, and after Casemiro's recovery, Amrabat and Menu could also appear in the midfield position of Scott McTominay and Erikson to form a more quality midfield combination.

In this line of thinking, Mount will also have the opportunity to play a more valuable role.

If he were to replace Erikson, Mount could provide better coverage, but without appearing too far back and disrupting the balance of attack and defense as before.

The side midfielder of the 442 diamond-shaped midfielder either has the physical strength to cover the wing or the awareness to thicken the midfield, and Mount at least meets the requirements of the former.

That way, he and Erikson can relay and rotate, providing different roles in the positions of attacking fourth man and defending seventh.

This can be tried and observed.

As for the front court, the role of Heylen needs no further ado:

Especially in Anthony's absence, Manchester United's line from the right side needs to play more in the future.

The result of the game was such that he only played 60 minutes, and Ten Hach still had enough protection for him, which is good for Heylen's personal development.

Relatively difficult to improve is Bruno's defensive positional sense, which has always been his stubborn problem. In this thinking, he is also more suitable for playing in the midfield than in the front, but when he comes to the midfield, the front back will be empty, and Rashford and Heylen are two big men in the front, and they also need players who are flexible enough to connect from it.

This may need to be solved by switching from diamond 442 to parallel 442 frequently.

In addition, after Rashford has space and possession, the problem of hesitation in offensive decision-making is more obvious, but compared to the possibility of solving the various positions behind him, this is not a good way, and it is up to the players themselves to improve the tacit understanding.

In the end, Hannibal saved United's face with a long-range shot, but the 1-3 score and the course of the game showed that United needed more Nuri, but the conclusion should not change because of this:

With a lack of options for wide attackers, the Diamond 442 is an interesting idea, and despite the neat defeat to Brighton, it's worth trying.

Because it can at least restrain Casemiro's single-back development trend, at least form a basic attacking system in which two forwards break forward and Rashford does not need to return to defense, these two points are United's most serious problems before.

The idea of diamond 442 is expected to solve these two points at the same time.

Of course, the course of the game proved that Manchester United's defensive awareness under this system has significant room for improvement, and the team must specialize in training sessions during a dense schedule.

The problem of player status will be solved by substitutes in the future, and the problem of the system will also be improved with the increase of options, after all, Erikson and Scott McTominay are not back-up players at all.

So in experiencing such a brittle failure, Tenhach needs to keep a clear head, see where the source of the problem is, and then remove the dregs and leave the essence, rather than pouring dirty water and pouring the child too.

It takes time to improve, and the results will naturally be affected in this process, so it is more necessary to be determined and patient.