Written by Paul Michael Ezeoha
The Theatre of Dreams hosted yet another breathtaking European fixtures. This tie would, without doubt, go down in the annals of Manchester United as one never to be forgotten.
Quite the ride for the home side who saw a two goal lead in the halftime mark swept off later in the second half by Lyon, with the culmination being the two goals scored by Ryan Cherki and Alexandre Lacazette, respectively, which placed a 10 man Olympic Lyonnais 2 goals ahead in the first half of extra time.
At this point in time,nerves were running high for the fans,coaches, stake holders, board of directors and even the players alike, as Manchester United were at the brink of relinquishing a spot in the semi finals to their opponent- thus& ending the hope of European football next season.
Bruno Fernandez's goal through the spot kick late in the first half of extra time did reignite a spark of hope for the home side.
... And like magic, Manchester United found the back of the net twice late in second half of extra time in less than two minutes to emerge as winners in the tie with a 5-4 scoreline, thereby securing a spot in the semi finals of the Europa League.
A really crazy night indeed !
So, in this episode, an analysis will be conducted on Man United's overall performance in this tie.
MAN UNITED LINE UP
In this tie, Man United maintained a 3-4-3 or 3-4-2-1 formation on paper - one they've become known for this season under young Portuguese manager, Amorim.
The Portuguese made no change to the payers who started the first leg in France: Onana,Yoro, Maguire, Mazraoui, Dorgu,Ugarte, Casemiro,Dalot, Fernandez, Garnacho, and Hojlund.
He made 5 tactical substitutions in this game: Luke Shaw who has just recovered from a long term injury comes in place of Mazraoui in the 47th minute, Mason Mount and Kobbie Mainoo replace Ugarte and Hojlund, respectively in the 87th minute mark, and Amass and Christian Erickson coming in place of Patrick Dorgu and Alejandro Garnacho, respectively.
TACTICS
The Portuguese manager is a fanatical advocate of intense,exciting, courageous and explosive attacking oriented football. He well demonstrated this during his spell at country base club Sporting Lisbon ,where he won five trophies: two Primeira Liga, two Tarca da Liga and one Supertaca Candido de Oliveira. This coupled with his excellent stats: 166 wins from 228 matches(approximately a 72.3% winning rate).
Although we can all agree that his regime at the Manchester United hasn't produced his type of football, yet this game displayed several tactical elements that characterized his football style.
Man United's in-possession tactics during the this game is an area of concentration here.
In this phase, Man United maintained their default formation of 3-4-3 which turned into a 3-4-2-1 in several occasions, precisely when they had the ball in their own half.
The 3-4-3 in-possession system is one that has been well employed by football managers since time immemorial, with the likes of Pep Guardiola, Thomas Tuchel, Diego Simeone, Antonio Conte, Xabi Alonso, among many other coaches have all employed it.
When this system is employed in this in-possession phase of the game, several benefits emerge:
Firstly, it enables the team to efficiently maintain and circulate possession due to the numerous passing lanes it creates amongst players.
Secondly, it creates balance in the team: when in this system, teams could comfortably build up play with the three defenders and the two holding midfielders, this could in turn give the two wingers or wing-backs and the box to-box midfielders the freedom to push higher up the pitch to form a front 5 with the striker. This would therefore aid the three defenders and the two holding midfielders to build play more securely, as the forward positioning of these players would force the opponents to retreat in order to cover space- thus creating free space for them to operate in. In addition to this second benefit, teams can be sure to have good rest defense which could eliminate any potential counter attack from the opponents in situation when they lose the ball.
Man United in their default in-possession shape- 3-4-3: the three defenders alongside the two holding midfielders forming a pentagon, the two wing-backs(Dalot the right wing-back in this scenario is visible but Dorgu is not) who provide width for the team and the front three.
One recurring tactic displayed by Man United is the off-the-ball movement in order to create space in the final third for a long pass from one of the three defenders to the forward runners behind Lyon's defensive line.
This is infact one tactical trend common within teams who make use of this 3-4-3 system during their in-possession phase.
In the scenario below, Dalot's backward movement takes Lyon wide midfielder away from his deeper position and the left full-bak who has been attracted to the event. This creates space behind their defense line which Fernandez attacks. Mazraoui spots Fernandez' run and loops in a through ball to him.
Fernandez receives this pass, finds Garnacho who is free in space thanks to Hojlund's smart movement which attracts two of Lyons defenders to him.
Garnacho gets to the ball and passes it to the advancing Ugarte in the box 18.
Ugarte taps the ball into Lyon's post.
This lure-and-shock approach was what led to Dalot's goal.
Here, Diogo Dalot inverts to occupy an advanced position in the left half space. Bruno Fernandez positioning therefore tempts one of Lyon's defender to jump.
In trying to close down Fernandez, the defender ran the risk of leaving save behind.
Dalot spots this space and then makes a forward run.
A long ball from the sweeper-defender, Maguire, to him led to a clear cut chance which he was clinical enough to convert. United were up 2-0 !
MAN UNITED'S SLOPPINESS
The Red Devils were quite sloppy defensively(this infact has been their major flaw throughout this season) in this tie, but this defensive incompetency became punctuated after they were two goals ahead.
In fact, 3 of Lyon's goals came as a result of their defensive ineptitude.
In the first goal for instance, United couldn't win aerial duels against their opponents in two occasions in their own box 18:
First it was Dorgu,
then Casemiro and Dalot.
Because Yoro wasn't alert to clear the danger, it resulted in Tolisso converting Lacazette's nodded pass into the goal.
In the second goal, we see lack of concentration from United defenders.
Dorgu, United's left back, couldn't take note of Lyon's right winger at his blind side.
The winger gets hold of the ball and whips in a cross which Nicolas Tagliafico who is near United's 6 yards box- behind two of Man United defenders who also failed to discover their opponent- strikes the ball into the net.
Onana attempt to save the shot was futile as the goal line technology had already counted it as a goal since the ball had already crossed the line before he could parry it away.
Alexander Lacazette easily sneaked in-between Maguire and Luke Shaw to put the rebounded ball behind the net- once again bringing to lime light United defenders' lack of concentration.
Here, Fofana keeps three of United's player busy, Lacazette occupies the left wing-back, Amass. We then see the bulk of space which Cherki finds himself in at the edge of United's box 18. But why so much space ?
Cherki then receives the ball and places it at the lower left corner of the post, leaving Onana stupefied.
Man United were also sloppy in that they gave the ball away too cheaply.
The last goal came as a result of this: Casemiro gives a lose pass at a critical area of the pitch, and it falls to Fofana.
Fofana combines with Lacazette to arrive at United box where he was fouled.
The referee signals the penalty spot; Alexander Lacazette converts !
CONCLUSION
It took a late header from Harry Maguire to keep United's European dream alive - a victory they almost bottled mostly because the players' ineptitude.
But still, tactically United weren't that bad. This tactical display in this game is simply a glimpse into the repertoire of football ideas in the head of their young Portuguese manager, Amorim, who would need enough time and resources to produce that team that would reflect his football identity.
Amorim therefore has a mammoth task to carryout in this Manchester United team, with the most pressing being to rectify their defensive ineptitude.
This indeed won't be achievable easily.
