Football analysis. Coach, video scout, opposition analyst.
England
Joined December 2013
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🚨🚨 Here we go!
The first two parts of my comprehensive analysis of Ruben Amorim's Sporting CP.
🟢 General tactical style / 3-4-3 system and broad issues that arise
⚪️ 4-2-2-2 build-up vs man-marking and hybrid presses
🟢 New triple pivot this season
thirdmanruns.wordpress.com/2…
This was not sustained. Killed a potential big change on 59' with his positioning. Playing so narrow in the second half.
Cunha seems to be staying wider today. We've been missing that width in almost every game (especially as we like to switch from right > left).
Already helped to make much better situations today (e.g. Cunha's shot, the one that was killed by Mbeumo being unnecessarily offside).
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Villa are so good at fast attacks from deep. In build-up or transition. Pop it about so quickly with short passes then know when to speed up and accelerate longer. And that's without your typical quick run in behind winger.
McGinn is great at recognising when to twist his body to open up and when to secure and lay off for a third man pattern.
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Could argue it's a psychological effect post-World Cup or some sort of reversion to the mean after a strong first season, but there really does seem to be a technical pattern with these Lammens mistakes.
🚨🎙️Rene Meulensteen [Ex Sir Alex Ferguson assistant] has cast doubt over Senne Lammens' long-term future as the club's number one.
"While Senne Lammens has done well, he’s not yet at the level Manchester United needs in terms of personality, leadership, and certain aspects of his goalkeeping."
"I still think there are some weaknesses there. Furthermore, you’re not in Europe at the moment, which presents another challenge altogether when you have to play in the Champions League against big teams.
For me, every good, successful team that has won trophies had an outstanding goalkeeper, an absolute outstanding goalkeeper."
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Newcastle lost their 2 ball handlers / passers in midfield, got 1 player as replacement and asked him to play as deep as possible, dropping out of midfield. While no one else ahead remotely wants the ball.
Other than hoping Joelinton wins a duel, there's not much of a plan here.
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That Rogers goal - immediately reminded me of Maguire struggling to turn for Bergwijn's goal vs United in COVID.
6 years and the defence has barely changed.
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I assume the decision is because they don't have the money to fire/hire managers (again).
But it's hilarious to brief this as the reason because did they choose to not notice that almost all the songs that day were telling Ratcliffe and Wilcox to, erm, leave, to put it politely?
It did not go unnoticed by the #mufc front office that Michael Carrick received significant support from United fans during and after the defeat to Bournemouth [@RobDawsonESPN, @MarkOgden_]
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Terrible that a club legend has to say goodbye to Old Trafford like this.
The club has failed him. He's not capable of anything more than this as a coach but that's not his fault.
Put the right recruitment, backroom staff etc around him and give him a chance. Gave him nothing.
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Carrick's tenure ending with calamity in a 3-4-3.
INEOS couldn't have hoped for a better circular storyline for their Amazon doc.
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Some similarities between how Como play in possession and how I think Carrick envisages his ideal football.
Short distances between players for central progression, wingers/#10 rotating to find gaps inside, quick short passes to combine.
But the difference in execution is enormous. Ball speed. Understanding of shared intentions between players/units.
And importantly conditioning. You see United pull off one of those possession sequences maybe twice a game. You can't constantly pull off the movements needed for this style if the whole team can't run.
When people criticise the Premier League for being boring, the most common response is that many 90s/00s PL matches were similarly drab. Probably true.
But you'd think after all the billions spent and all the analysis conducted to 'optimise' the game, that people would work out how to make it better than this.
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Fernandes' reaction to Mbeumo not being on the same wavelength for that 3-in-a-line move in the 94th minute tells you everything you need to know about the current state of United's attack.
To Bruno, the pass and situation was a clear communication to create that dynamic to dummy and spin behind. Like the Cherki goal the other week.
Mbeumo thinking of something else entirely, or not thinking at all.
Probably is a game-specific adjustment for Leeds only but I'm not sure how the football world would process it if Carrick's solution to get out of this predicament is through using these 3-4-3 dynamics.
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Guy on the tram is saying Mainoo isn't good enough because he doesn't score or assist, and that we're missing Casemiro.
This game has broken everyone.
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