- 2 days ago
Manchester United heaped the misery on Liverpool this weekend with a shock 2-1 win at Anfield. But while Arne Slot's team spiral further into their terrible run, are Ruben Amorim's players finally starting to turn the corner? Adam Clery looks at how Man United were able to hurt Liverpool so effectively.
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00:00Right, hello everybody, welcome to the Adam Cleary Football Channel.
00:03Manchester United, as you may have seen, have just beat Liverpool and we're going to show you how they did
00:09that.
00:09Now, I've already seen a lot of people saying this happened because Liverpool were terrible,
00:13I've seen a lot of people saying it was because Man United were brilliant,
00:16and where's the slider? I would say it's about there, right?
00:21So you can make your own mind up.
00:23And also, just a heads up, if my vibe is incredibly weird in this video,
00:26please keep in mind, I literally watched it in my friend's apartment in Manhattan,
00:30got on a plane, came here, walked into the studio, and I'm now recording this for you.
00:35So this video is brought to you proudly in partnership with the tiny little toothbrush and toothpaste they give you
00:41on British Airways.
00:45Alright, so we're going to start with the game plans, right?
00:48And this was Liverpool's XI, and the reason I'm showing you Liverpool's XI and not Man United's
00:52is because this will contextualise what Man United did,
00:55so just bear with me.
00:56Okay, the problem they've had is they can't get enough out of Alexander Isak,
01:00so here, they wanted both Sobberzlai and McAllister to be as close to him as possible.
01:06Now, Sobberzlai's there to help off the ball, he's Liverpool's best presser,
01:10so putting him up around Isak takes some of the responsibility off him.
01:13And McAllister is an excellent creator, so you put him in that area,
01:17then theoretically, you've got someone who can feed him the ball.
01:19Now, that is, I think, quite smart, and it is a lot better for Isak,
01:23but the consequence, the knock-on effect, is that it keeps Gakpo and Salah a lot wider.
01:29They're not really getting into these spaces, because they need to play out here.
01:32And you could see that really early on.
01:34Salah especially was being forced to have a lot of his touches out on the right-hand touchline,
01:38which is obviously not ideal for him, but I'm just going to put in, right,
01:43Man United's back five that they have when they're defending.
01:46I think Arna Slott's hope was that by keeping Gakpo and Salah wide,
01:50that would create a really big gap between Man United's centre-backs and Man United's wing-backs.
01:55And then, because you're tucking in both the full-backs here,
01:58they can make these underlapping runs into this space.
02:02That, to me, is what Liverpool were trying to do.
02:06But wouldn't you just know it before we got a single idea as to whether or not this would work?
02:11Man United score in the second minute of the game.
02:15Oops.
02:16And I did not see him getting a lot of praise for this at the time.
02:19Obviously, as I say, I've been on a flight all night.
02:22I may have missed the discourse this morning.
02:24But Bruno Fernandes' role in this goal is top, top draw.
02:29Because I think 99% of players release this too early,
02:32but he is brave enough to hold on to this ball until the chance just materialises in front of him.
02:38Like, I think most players just immediately try and release Diallo over the top into this space,
02:43but he keeps a hold of it and waits for Van Dijk to vacate his space here to close him
02:48down.
02:49Which does nothing for Diallo.
02:50The chance he has at the start here now vanishes.
02:53But when he does play it out wide,
02:55look at the arrangement of Liverpool's defenders.
02:58Look at the shape he has moved them into.
03:00You can see it a lot better from that weird spider camp thing.
03:03But if you look at Umbermo here getting his head down for this run,
03:06he knows there is a disruption he can capitalise on.
03:09Diallo slips him in.
03:11He runs off the back of Van Dijk.
03:12It's a great finish.
03:13It's 1-0.
03:14And Manchester United now immediately have something they can hold on to in this game.
03:20So they can be a lot more disciplined in the areas where they're getting targeted.
03:25And just as a total aside to all of this,
03:28obviously in the build-up to that goal,
03:30Van Dijk absolutely clatters McAllister.
03:33And I have seen people saying to the game not to have been stopped.
03:35I don't know.
03:36I assumed it would have been, but it wasn't for whatever reason.
03:39But I think the knock-on effect of McAllister getting hit so hard,
03:43he had cartoon birds flying around his head for the rest of the first half,
03:47did have a big impact on Liverpool.
03:50Like, the guy doesn't win a single duel or complete a single defensive action in this entire game.
03:55And I think getting your shit rocked by the biggest player on your own team
04:00at this early juncture probably is a reason for that.
04:04But yes, anyway, that's just an opinion.
04:06Anyway, Manchester United from the second minute in this game are in a position
04:09where they can be very smart defensively, which they were, and I will show you.
04:14But I actually think it's how they set up to get at Liverpool throughout the whole game,
04:20which is the best and most impressive thing about this.
04:23But to start, right, these are Liverpool's average positions across that 90 minutes.
04:29As you can see, Salah is quite wide out to this side.
04:32And Isak, for a change, is actually pulling more out to the right-hand side than he is to the
04:37left.
04:37So theoretically, Man United have a big problem in this area.
04:41But now, let's also overlay Man United's average positions and look at Fernandes and Casemiro.
04:49Now, normally, it's Casemiro on the right, Fernandes on the left,
04:52because they're both a lot more comfortable with the passing angles available to them on those respective sides.
04:58But here, Fernandes is sort of like the left-sided central midfielder and very deep.
05:04And Fernandes is pushed on almost as a 10.
05:07But just to go back to Casemiro here, his positioning is the important thing,
05:11because now they've got a player just basically sitting in the areas where Isak wants to receive the ball,
05:17in the areas where Salah wants to carry the ball,
05:20and in the space where Conor Bradley, undoubtedly the more dangerous of the underlappers,
05:25he does that better than Kerkhez, would have been running into.
05:29They've just got a wall there.
05:31There's a great moment early on where Casemiro is just sitting in this exact area.
05:35Liverpool play inside to Alexis McAllister,
05:37and he just flattens him so hard that he sends him flying into Mateus Cunha,
05:44and Man United get a foul for that.
05:47Like, Casemiro uses McAllister as a bowling ball.
05:51And annoyingly, actually, the best example of all this, Sky managed to miss,
05:55because they cut to a close-up of Mo Salah as it's happening.
05:58But use your imagination, fill this in.
06:00Like you can see here, him and Fernandes, they have swapped around on the sides they're usually comfortable with,
06:04and Casemiro just tracks Isak all the way into the box.
06:10He abandons his position and goes and sits on the danger instead.
06:16The dangerous man, the danger man.
06:18I'm so tired.
06:19And of course, when Liverpool do eventually just stick the ball in the box,
06:22he is the one who was there to clear it.
06:25Now, the thing is, I'm not showing you this because it was defending that won Manchester United the game.
06:29Like, Liverpool had plenty of chances.
06:31They could very easily have gotten something from it.
06:34But it's interesting because it shows individual adaptation within their overall structure.
06:41Like, it's not as rigid or as naive as Man United are often accused of being.
06:45Like, people say Amarim doesn't make changes.
06:48Well, here are some very useful changes.
06:51So then, how did they win the game?
06:54That's what we're all here to talk about, isn't it?
06:56Well, cast your minds back to that very first goal.
06:58It comes from a long ball from Lammons, not particularly clever or accurate or even into an area where Liverpool
07:06are weak.
07:07Like, you would normally try and get into the spots behind Salah and Gakpo and get at the full backs
07:12because they're not great defensively.
07:14But no, he doesn't do that.
07:15He just goes straight down their throat.
07:18Just straight into an area where, theoretically, they are strongest, certainly, in the air.
07:24You've got Van Dijk, you've got Canate, you've got Gravenberch.
07:26That is not where you would want to put the ball.
07:29But, if we look at Lammons' distribution across the entire game, right?
07:34This is every single pass he made, successful and otherwise.
07:37That is exactly where he was putting the ball.
07:40It's where he's putting the ball pretty much every single time.
07:43Now, don't get me wrong, there's a handful into the space behind Mo Salah, like one or two,
07:47and everybody does that against Liverpool at some point or the other.
07:51But, no, he's going direct into their most defensively resilient area.
07:57Strange.
07:57But what's even stranger is that they went for this game plan of putting the ball into the area
08:02where Liverpool's centre-backs would dominate without picking Benjamin Sesko.
08:08Like, he is Man United's best aerial threat.
08:10He might not have won every header against Van Dijk or Canate,
08:14but he would have won some instead of none.
08:17But that was precisely the idea.
08:21As the first ball comes in, Liverpool's entire back four is here,
08:26with the two midfielders practically sitting on top of them.
08:30And what has happened here is that Liverpool's back four and the two in front of them
08:34have dropped off, anticipating that this kick is going long,
08:38which is the sensible thing to do.
08:40But it does create this enormous disconnect between those six players
08:44and the four they're using to press.
08:46And because, as we have discussed many times on a slot,
08:50always wants that extra man at the back,
08:52that plus one, as it's called, and Man United are attacking with five,
08:56then none of these six players can really, at this point in the game,
09:01join in with the press.
09:02So, when the kick comes long, all six of these players drop back,
09:07making the gap even worse,
09:09and look where Man United have positioned their best players.
09:14There are four of them just all stood in a line.
09:18Diallo, Fernandes, Cunha, Dallo over there as well,
09:21in that gap between Liverpool's pressers and their not-pressers.
09:28If there's proper words for them, I can't remember.
09:31And Van Dijk wins the header, but it comes straight back.
09:34And because Liverpool are so on top of themselves here,
09:36they get in a mess.
09:38Man United pick up the second ball.
09:41I'm going to be saying that a lot.
09:43There is practically no intention to win the first ball.
09:47Like, Umbermo's the one nearest to it,
09:48but he just lets Van Dijk go and head it.
09:51But because they are so well-positioned here for the second ball,
09:54they're between the lines,
09:55they've got players running beyond,
09:56attacking the space in behind,
09:58they are in.
10:00And Man United did this exact thing the entire game.
10:04They would go long into Liverpool centre-backs,
10:06competing for the ball just about,
10:08but never winning it,
10:09but then crashing the second ball,
10:12winning that,
10:12and then starting their attack from there.
10:14And honestly,
10:15the next best chance of getting this half is just the same thing.
10:18Again, like,
10:19Lamins kicks long from his hands,
10:21and Burma puts the pressure on,
10:22but doesn't even jump.
10:24Liverpool clear,
10:25Man United pick up the second ball,
10:27and immediately hit the space down the side,
10:30when Kirkhz jumps out to try and help them compete for it.
10:33Better touch from Mason Mount when that comes into the box,
10:35and that is rinse and repeat 2-0.
10:37Now, look, right,
10:39this may not be the most detailed video I've ever done,
10:41because I do quite desperately need to sleep,
10:44but suffice to say,
10:46Arnaslott recognised what was going on,
10:48he made some adaptations to this,
10:50he made Liverpool more competitive for those second balls,
10:53and that allowed them to assert more and more control on the game.
10:57And because that was happening,
10:58Man United sat further and further off,
11:00they got less aggressive with what they were doing,
11:02to the point where there was nobody even there
11:05to compete for those second balls.
11:07There's a moment, I think,
11:0870-something, 72 minutes in,
11:11when Lamins goes long,
11:12and there's just not a single player in Liverpool's half.
11:16It rolls straight through,
11:17they get it back,
11:18and they attack again,
11:19and it was at this point,
11:20watching it,
11:21where I started to think,
11:23ah, they may be in trouble here.
11:25Amram even brought Cesc on
11:27to try and compete for the first balls
11:29for the first time in the game,
11:30and drag the team up the pitch behind them,
11:32but that didn't really stick.
11:34So the Liverpool goal,
11:35when it finally arrives,
11:37had been coming.
11:38Like, they've got seven players in the final 30-year,
11:41and yes, it's incredibly scrappy,
11:43and you'd be gutted to concede it,
11:44but that is what sustained heavy pressure can do to you.
11:49But the most important thing
11:50about this entire game
11:51is that Liverpool do equalise,
11:53and they've got the momentum,
11:54and they've got the crowd,
11:56and Man United do not have a history
11:57of doing well in these situations,
11:59and yet,
12:01Man United do not crumble.
12:05In fact, they go on and win it.
12:07So, why?
12:08Why?
12:09Well, the boring answer,
12:10which is true, annoyingly,
12:12is that they got themselves
12:13into a really compact,
12:15really deep,
12:16proper 4-5-1,
12:17match Liverpool up man for man,
12:19and then just made it hard
12:21for them to break them down.
12:22But the fun answer,
12:24which does also happen to be true,
12:25is that they scrapped them for it.
12:27It is that exact same competitiveness
12:29that gets them the first goal,
12:31right?
12:31It is shanked out by the goalkeeper,
12:33and Maguire aggressively steps up
12:36to win this header.
12:37And he is 100% fouled here,
12:39but Man United,
12:41you owe this referee
12:42an enormous debt of gratitude,
12:45because he puts that whistle to his lips,
12:47and just decides at the last second,
12:49I'll see what happens here.
12:51He plays on,
12:52and maybe because it looked so much like a foul,
12:55Cescou, Fernandes,
12:56and Cunha are a lot more alive
12:59to this loose ball
13:00than Canate,
13:02Wurtz,
13:02and Sobberslay.
13:03And it's a little interchange
13:04between the three of them
13:05of genuine,
13:07genuine quality
13:08that gets Cunha in
13:10and forces Liverpool
13:11to concede the corner.
13:13Like,
13:13the referee gives that
13:14as a free kick.
13:15I don't think Man United
13:16commit too many players forward.
13:18Probably nothing comes of this,
13:19but the fact he plays on,
13:20and those three want it more
13:22than Liverpool do,
13:23get them a corner.
13:25And,
13:26well,
13:26you remember what happens.
13:27Like,
13:27the delivery's fine,
13:29and the shot from Umbermo is fine,
13:30but that first-time return
13:31from Bruno Fernandes
13:34is as good,
13:35if not better,
13:37in fact,
13:37it is better,
13:38it's absolutely loads better,
13:38than that little moment
13:39of composure he had
13:41for the first goal
13:42to bait Van Dijk out.
13:43I,
13:43I don't know how many players
13:45in the Premier League
13:46are capable
13:47of this ball,
13:48first time,
13:49this deftly,
13:51this accurately.
13:52And if you will be so kind
13:53as to recall
13:54when the narrative around him
13:56was he was somehow
13:56Man United's
13:58biggest problem,
13:59and we did the video
14:00saying,
14:01if Bruno Fernandes
14:02is your biggest problem,
14:03you have bigger problems,
14:05you've just got to look
14:06at moments like that.
14:07That is a special,
14:08special thing to do,
14:09and very few players
14:10can do it.
14:11And,
14:11more importantly,
14:13it gets them their first win
14:14at Anfield
14:16in 64,000 years.
14:19Now,
14:20I've seen some people
14:20saying the marking
14:21was terrible here,
14:22right,
14:22but Gakpo and Jones,
14:23as attackers,
14:24I think understandably
14:26when that ball is cleared
14:27are thinking,
14:27right,
14:28we've got to win this game,
14:29let's get out
14:30so we can receive it
14:31if we get it back.
14:32So they push up,
14:33but Man United
14:34all stay in the box
14:35because Man United
14:36know what Bruno Fernandes
14:38can do.
14:39They're not worried
14:40about this ball
14:40not coming back in.
14:42And if you just stop it
14:43at this exact moment,
14:44you can see Curtis Jones
14:46realise the mistake
14:47they have made.
14:49He looks all too late
14:50to realise they have left
14:52three players
14:53at the back post.
14:55And if it wasn't
14:55Harry Maguire
14:56who scored this,
14:57it would have been
14:58Dogu
14:58or it would have been
14:59Delict.
15:00And I just,
15:00I have to be completely
15:01clear about this,
15:02right,
15:02Liverpool still had the chances
15:04to get back into this game.
15:06Christ,
15:06they had the chances
15:07to win this game
15:08over the course
15:09of the 90 minutes,
15:10but this is just
15:11what you have to do
15:13no matter how bad
15:13form they're in
15:14if you want to go
15:15to Anfield and get a win.
15:16You set up smartly.
15:18You find a way
15:18to show your own quality
15:20and hope
15:21they don't show theirs.
15:23And I'm not trying
15:24to take the fun
15:24out of any of this,
15:25right,
15:25but if you think back
15:26to that early
15:26Isak chance,
15:27that really bad
15:28Gakpo miss,
15:29Mo Salah somehow
15:30forgetting
15:31how feet work.
15:32Liverpool
15:32on another day
15:34probably win this
15:35quite comfortably.
15:36But,
15:37if you're a Man United fan,
15:39so fucking what?
15:39They didn't.
15:41This is the closest
15:42that Man United fan
15:44big hair guy
15:45has come to having
15:46a trim
15:46in like 13 months.
15:49It's fun to explain
15:50how it all happened
15:51to you,
15:51but I wouldn't
15:53deep it too much.
15:54Just enjoy it.
15:56Anyway though,
15:56yes,
15:57I could have done
15:57a full other 10 minutes
15:58in this video
15:59explaining why it still
16:00isn't working for Liverpool,
16:01why the fullbacks
16:02are a really big problem,
16:04why they somehow need
16:04to play Dominic Sabozlai
16:06in three different positions
16:07at once.
16:08But one,
16:08I do suspect it'll be
16:10mostly Man United fans
16:11watching this
16:11and lol as if you care
16:13about any of that.
16:14And two,
16:15I'm not kidding,
16:16if I don't sleep soon,
16:17I'm going to start
16:18seeing things.
16:19Ah,
16:20but fear not though
16:20because we will cover
16:21all this Liverpool stuff
16:22in this week's
16:23members live stream.
16:24I did say Tuesday for that,
16:26but it's starting to feel
16:27more like a Wednesday
16:27thing to me.
16:28So if you'd like to watch that,
16:29be a part of it,
16:30tell us what to put in it,
16:31join us in the live chat.
16:33Information about becoming
16:33a member is down below.
16:35It's really fun,
16:35and I like that we do that.
16:36You should join,
16:38you can get me across
16:38all the social medias
16:39at Adam Cleary,
16:40C-L-E-R-Y.
16:42And if you haven't already,
16:43subscribe to us here
16:44at ACFC.
16:46Maybe not the best
16:47first video to have watched,
16:48my eyes aren't normally
16:49this red,
16:49but the vibe is consistent
16:50and hopefully it was good.
16:53I can't tell.
16:54Until next time though,
16:55thank you very much
16:55for watching.
16:56Back to back wins
16:57for Ruben Amarim's
16:59Man United
17:00and one of them
17:01was at Anfield.
17:03Football, eh?
17:04Bloody hell.
17:06Goodbye.
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