- 1 hour ago
Manchester United's start to the season saw them suffer the defeat to Arsenal many had predicted. However, performances from new arrivals Matheus Cunha, Bryan Mbeumo, and a returning Mason Mount meant they left the field simply unable to believe they hadn't taken all three points.Adam Clery explains how Ruben Amorim got the better of Mikel Arteta, and why that bodes will for their season ahead.
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00:00Right, hello there everybody, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel, welcome to Adam Cleary and happy first Monday since
00:07the Premier League came back to all who celebrate.
00:11And as you will have no doubt seen yesterday, Arsenal started the season with a win, a really big win,
00:16another set-piece goal, a clean sheet and a performance from Martin Zubimendi that I think's got big implications for
00:24the rest of the season.
00:25So today we are here to talk about Manchester United because in spite of everything I've just said, I thought
00:32they were more interesting.
00:36All right, so this is your shiny new 25-26 Manchester United side and the good news is that on
00:42paper you've now added Matthias Cunha and Brian Umbermo, literal new signings, to Mason Mount, a proverbial Leica new signing.
00:52But the bad news, again on paper, is that you've still got the same goalkeepers, the same defenders and the
00:57same midfielders as last season when things were extremely not good.
01:02Now obviously, yes, I'm aware that they lost that game and they didn't even score a goal, so there's clearly
01:08no magic bullet in this XI, but if you did watch them, you will know they looked like an entirely
01:14different animal to last season and I'm going to explain why that was.
01:19But before I do that, I'm going to show you the exact moment in this game, right, where I sat
01:26forward on the sofa and thought, okay, this is different.
01:31Nine minutes in, they lose the ball from the set piece and immediately you're thinking, oh shit, they're in real
01:37trouble here.
01:38Three versus three and that back line with De Ligt and Shaw and Yoro and Casimir in front of it
01:44is not quick.
01:46It is not well set up to defend counter-attacks.
01:50But if you just get the old eye drops out on that one, you'll notice that's not who those three
01:55players are.
01:55It's actually Patrick Dorgue, Brian Umbermo and Mason Mount who single-handedly takes responsibility for Pakai Osaka and stops him
02:04entering the penalty area.
02:05That is the Vi player, none of whom are supposed to be there, reacting to the situation, showing drive, desire,
02:13getting them out of a hole.
02:15And never mind new signings or clever systems or a range of sick Adidas outerwear with a club barge on
02:21us, right, that, for Man United, is brand new.
02:24They were not showing that sort of fight last season.
02:26If you roll it back as well, Umbermo is on his Kawasaki the second Raya collects that ball.
02:33Like, not to just, like, massively overanalyse this one small moment, but that, to me, felt like the first time
02:39since, like, early Oli, maybe, that Man United showed a collective desire to collectively outwork the opposition.
02:49And if that is a sign of the season to come, I'd be pretty excited if I was a Man
02:54United fan.
02:54That's what you want your team to be doing.
02:56But back to the game at hand, though, I thought despite the result, Man United still looked really exciting in
03:02this game.
03:03And that is because, and this is a slightly weird idea to articulate, right, but I thought both teams were
03:10set up in a way to really well exploit the other team's best attacking characteristic.
03:17Does that, does that make sense?
03:19No, no, not really.
03:21Sorry?
03:22Oh, you want me to explain it to you, do you?
03:24Right then, okay.
03:26Your Majesty.
03:27So Man United have wing-backed, which you obviously already know.
03:30And if you're playing against a team like that, apologies, Arsenal.
03:33I've got you in blue here.
03:35And you decide to bomb your full-backs on.
03:39You can end up with a 2v1 in those wide areas with your forwards.
03:44Case in point, the first decent bit of structured build-up Arsenal had in this game, which came in the
03:5025th minute, by the way.
03:52Wah-wah-wee-wah.
03:54Bukayo Saka has Dogu pinned all the way up here.
03:57And Ben White marauds, if that is indeed a word, up that same side to join him.
04:02You can see the problem this makes.
04:04Because Bruno Fernandes does not really want to have to step in and deal with this.
04:08Because him coming across would leave this inside pass to Martin Erdogan, which he will almost certainly have been specifically
04:15instructed, never too allowed to happen.
04:17But somebody has to deal with it.
04:18So it drags Luke Shaw out the back line.
04:21Ben White hurdles him like he has a very low hedge.
04:24And if they work it slightly better here, I think they could slip Bukayo Saka into this space here.
04:30And this, this whole thing here, get the 2v1s in the wide areas, is pretty much Arsenal's only really effective
04:37approach.
04:38And it's actually, in a roundabout way, what got them the goal in this match.
04:41Like, yes, Man United make a total hash of clearing it, which is where the corner comes from.
04:46But who's literally Arsenal's furthest player up the pitch?
04:49Jump-scaring Lenny Yoro.
04:52Boo!
04:53It's Riccardo Calafiore.
04:55Now, the eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted that it is quite insane to do this against the front
04:59three.
04:59Because you basically leave yourself a man light at the back.
05:02But Arsenal are very comfortable and confident doing this.
05:04Because they now have Martin Zubomendi, and he simply loves to drop into the defensive line.
05:10This little sequence here, you can see he's basically become a third centre-back when they're in possession.
05:15Calafiore and White are both up on a much higher line.
05:19They make a dog's dinner of it, lose the ball.
05:21But that's okay, because he's there to add protection out of possession as much as he is to add options
05:28in possession.
05:29And just to really keep beating this point until it's gone all purple, you'll never guess what Arsenal do with
05:35it when Zubomendi gets the ball back.
05:37Calafiore makes an underlapping run this time, and if they just work that slightly better, once again, they have an
05:43Arsenal full-back in behind the Man United wing-back.
05:47Like, this game plan had Arsenal, like, what are we saying here?
05:51A yard, two yards away from Jokeres getting one of those squared tap-ins he scored 40,000 of at
05:58Sporting Lisbon.
05:59Arsenal going 2-0 up early on, probably winning this very comfortably, and this being a very different video.
06:05But this isn't the what-if channel, is it?
06:07It's the look of what these two absolute bastards managed to do with this much space channel.
06:13So to circle back to the point I have been laboriously making for the last five minutes,
06:18Arsenal's best attacking weapon opened the door for Manchester United to look really, really scary again.
06:26And what I mean by that, right, are these are all the Manchester United passes that led directly to a
06:32shot.
06:32So nothing else has to happen, you just play this ball, and then someone else has a goal, right?
06:37Right, and four of them, four of them are in their own half.
06:43Like, you almost never, ever in the Premier League see an assist that comes from your own half.
06:48And Man United, with better finishing, could have had four of them yesterday.
06:52And I'm going to show you why that was.
06:54Now, you've probably heard the word transition a lot in the last couple of years.
06:58It's become a bit of a trendy thing, hasn't it?
07:00All it basically means is that when possession changes hands, or feet, I suppose,
07:06the structural changes that have to take place for you to get from your attacking shape,
07:11which might look like this, back into your defensive one, or obviously vice versa.
07:17And in the moments when Arsenal were doing that, so they weren't quite set properly,
07:20and they were wonky and lopsided,
07:23Umbermo, Mount and Cunha were having a flipping field day with them.
07:28First chance Man United get in the whole game, Zubamendi is in the back line,
07:32Calafiore has pushed up, but the ball is turned over,
07:36and Umbermo has drifted off Gabriel into the space that transition, remember, has left.
07:43Now, Gabriel reacts well to cover, but they still get in, and they still get a shot away.
07:47The next good chance, look at where Ben White and Riccardo Calafiore are.
07:51They are here, and they are here.
07:53Zubamendi is the cover, but because they're so high up,
07:56he's now stepped out to also be a creative option.
07:59Man United again, win it back.
08:01This time, Cunha has moved on to Gabriel, so we can't go over and cover Umbermo,
08:05who has again himself moved into all that space that has been left by the fullbacks.
08:10The ball is directly out to him, and bang, again, Arsenal are in trouble.
08:15This is a 2v2 Man United have created with just one pass.
08:21And when you look back at it, they should really score here,
08:23but I think Cunha makes the wrong decision.
08:25He should be pulling Saliba out here to leave the 1v1.
08:28But that is not bad play.
08:31That is just a lack of synergy, knowing what the other one is going to want to do.
08:35That will come as they play more games together, theoretically.
08:39I can keep going here.
08:40Like, five minutes later, they do it to them again.
08:42This time, they're so pulled over to this side.
08:45Calafiore has to, like, stay here and cover centrally,
08:48but it still leaves all of this space, and they work the overlap.
08:52But wait a minute.
08:54Dalo gets into a really great position.
08:56And can you just do me a really quick favour here
08:59and count all the Man United players that are in the box
09:03ready for this cross and or cutback?
09:06Do you need a few seconds there?
09:08No, of course you don't, because it's literally zero.
09:10Which brings us to our final and most important point of this video.
09:14The reason Man United were able to open Arsenal up time and again
09:18with the spaces they were leaving,
09:19but did not win the game or even score a goal,
09:23is because of this situation here.
09:26Game plan clever?
09:27Yes.
09:28Movement great?
09:29Yes.
09:30Work rate excellent?
09:31Yes.
09:32Focal point to benefit from literally any of that?
09:35Er, no.
09:36Take Patrick Dorgus' chance a few minutes later.
09:38If your wing-back has received it this high up,
09:41your centre-forward needs to be here.
09:45It gives you a passing option.
09:46It gives you a crossing option.
09:48And if you really must insist on just twatting the thing,
09:51it potentially gives you a rebound option as well.
09:54And they don't have any of that.
09:56Time and again for Manchester United,
09:58great little openings like this just came to nothing
10:01because none of these attacking players here
10:04want to be pushing the defenders back,
10:07hanging on the shoulder.
10:08They all want to be in this space here,
10:11which sounds like a criticism.
10:13It's not.
10:13That's just the kind of players they are.
10:15But of course, you know who is that kind of player,
10:18don't you?
10:18Benjamin Sesko.
10:20He was diagnosed at a very early age
10:22with having centre-forward brain.
10:24And the second he came on the pitch,
10:26all of a sudden,
10:26Man United did have a player in this position.
10:29And even just looking at that as a still there,
10:32like his presence alone has made this space for Cunha
10:35for pushing Arsenal another three or four yards back.
10:38It's left the back post area gaping for Dorgou.
10:41Like it did sort of feel like he didn't really do anything
10:44after he came on the pitch,
10:45but he did by just sort of being there.
10:48The problem was by this point in the game,
10:50we're into the last 25 minutes,
10:51and Arsenal had moved into this prison yard style
10:544-4-2 block specifically to stop Man United
10:58playing over and through them
11:00and direct like they had been in the first half.
11:03But the thing is for that opening like hour
11:06when Man United were able to play direct
11:08and quick and aggressively through Arsenal,
11:11I thought honestly, they look brilliant.
11:14And I know I focused on the three forwards in this video,
11:17but that approach of trying to manoeuvre
11:19Arsenal's defenders out of position,
11:21and then just hitting the space,
11:23regardless who could get into it,
11:24was like Man United's entire game plan
11:26and everybody seemed to benefit from it.
11:28Like just a final example,
11:29look where Mason Mount has managed to drag
11:32Ben White out to here.
11:34And he should, he should take a touch
11:36and try and find one of these two
11:38and get possession back.
11:39But instead, he knows where the space is
11:42because he's the one who's made it.
11:43So he just wraps his foot around the ball
11:45and he gets Dorgou into this absolutely yawning void
11:50of his own creation.
11:51And that's pure game plan.
11:53That is just like hit the space.
11:55And just to circle back to something
11:57that adds nothing really to the overall quality of the video,
12:00but certainly makes me feel very clever,
12:02that aforementioned Dorgou chance
12:04where he just scutters it off the bottom of the post.
12:07Look at the ball that puts him in for that.
12:09Man United regain possession.
12:10They go immediately into the space behind the fullbacks.
12:13And that, just like the other ones we've mentioned,
12:15if it had gone in,
12:17would have been a goal assisted
12:18from inside their own half.
12:22The great tapestry of football.
12:25Now, I'll bet you've seen the stat
12:26about Man United having 22 attempts on goal here,
12:29which is loads for them against Arsenal.
12:32It's loads for anyone to have against Arsenal.
12:35But the one I liked was 36% of the ball Arsenal had.
12:39They never had possession that low last season
12:42in any game where they had 11 men on the pitch.
12:46So not a good result for Man United,
12:48but they impressed me.
12:50Maybe that's worth something.
12:52So yes, there you go.
12:53The Premier League is back.
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13:19I have to get the clipper boat home today.
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13:24I end up looking like the guy
13:25from the United Strand.
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13:34Bye.
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