Manchester United have set up in a low block in order to compensate for one player in particular, this approach will get the side short term results but they will struggle to achieve consistency with it.
@Markrstats on Twitter has produced an excellent graphic which details how high each Premier League side’s defensive line is compared to their pressing intensity. A major shock for some was seeing Manchester United with the lowest defensive line in the league, with their defensive actions averaging at 37.5 metres away from the goal.
This was quite shocking viewing, a club with the stature and size of Manchester United playing the lowest line in the league, something that would often be seen played by clubs towards the bottom of the league. So the question arises, what is so good about a high line, and why can Manchester United not play it?
Why Play a High Line?
Playing a high line allows you to engage with your opponents further up the pitch, limiting their ability to build up and progress through their defence/midfield. It leaves little space for your opponent to play in, and forces them into mistakes with the high pressing/engagement.
It also allows your side to be more dominating in possession as they are able to push higher and force the opposition back towards their own goal. It is a much better and more sustainable way of playing, ensuring you dominate possession and create plenty chances whilst limiting threat to your own goal.
Now, what is required to play a high line. There are a few positions and roles which are a must have in a high line, along with good defensive structure. All of those positions are key to have in order to keep possession and remove threats of opposition attacks.
First, debunking the myth. You do not need a fast centre-back in order to play a high line, Manchester City play it with ease when using Aymeric Laporte & Rúben Dias, neither of whom are considerably fast. It does help to remove some threat by long balls, but is not a requirement at all.
Your centre-backs need to be good on the ball in order to keep possession in the opposition half. They need to be good at long passing as they often find themselves in positions where they need to switch the point of attack, i.e. a quick switch from LCB to the RW who finds himself wide. Luckily for Manchester United, they have 4 excellent ball players in Martinez, Maguire, Lindelof & Varane.
In truth, every top side needs to have a top defensive midfielder. It is one of, if not the most important position on a football pitch. The defensive midfielder provides the majority of cover for the backline, stopping opposition midfielders when they are on the ball and trying to advance. They are also vital in build-up play, they provide the transition from defence to attack by collecting the ball off the CBs and playing it progressively.
Rice, Fabinho, Rodi, Tchouameni & Casemiro are examples of top DMs that can do this consistently, however Scott McTominay has done an excellent job so far in the double pivot alongside Christian Eriksen. Find our other article here where we’ve dived into detail with Scott’s game and why he has been so good this season!
In this setup, you also need players that are capable of pressing. As seen with Erik ten Hag, many top managers use a counter-pressing style which allows their side to win the ball back quickly after losing it. This means that the team must press from the front, hence having a forward like Cristiano Ronaldo, who offers nothing off the ball and barely anything on it, is highly damaging to the side
A sweeper keeper is a necessity in order to play a high line, meaning any goalkeeper that sticks to their line will fail. When playing a high line, you leave a lot of space behind the defence, which can be exploited by fast opposition forwards. The role of a goalkeeper is to command that space, and prevent the opposition from getting onto those long balls, not stick to their line. This means that the goalkeeper that United use must be comfortable with sweeping, and distribution.
Whilst the defence are constantly looking to play the opposition offside by pushing up into their half, it’s not rare for the opposition to beat the offside trap with a fast forward and find themselves in behind the defence. This is where a goalkeeper can be crucial to either clear a long ball away before the attacker gets there, or to close down the angle for the shot.
In order to do this, the goalkeeper must be proactive and keen to get off their line rather than sticking onto it and allowing the opposition time and space to get into.
Why Do Manchester United Struggle With It?
In the Summer transfer window, Manchester United addressed the issue of the left footed ball playing centre-back and a defensive midfielder, as well as making the decision to drop Ronaldo for Anthony Martial, and when he’s not fit, Marcus Rashford appears to be the preferred centre-forward.
They also addressed the goalkeeping issue, signing Newcastle United’s Martin Dúbravka on a season long loan deal, or so we thought. Dúbravka hasn’t had a look in at all this season, missing the two Europa League games so far that fans expected him to start in.
Utilising de Gea in a high line was always a recipe for disaster, ten Hag learned the hard way by losing his opening two games by a margin of 5 goals with the Spaniard largely at fault.
Whilst people argue for de Gea being a good shot stopper, he’s a terrible sweeper and is also extremely poor at distributing the ball. You can find out the other limitations of de Gea’s 2021/22 season in our article all about it!
As seen in the performance model above, de Gea’s seasons from 2019 through to 2022 rank in the lower quartile of the graph, proving his ineffectiveness at both sweeping and cross stopping. ten Hag has therefore had to change his system to compensate for his limitations, and this has resulted in the side performing a lot more low block, box defending as the centre-backs are having to drop off to deal with high balls that the goalkeeper should be claiming.
This is a very unsustainable approach as it means that United cannot constantly apply pressure on the opposition for the full 90 minutes, resulting in heavy momentum shifts and United finding themselves struggling heavily at points during matches.
If the club do want to fix this, then starting Dúbravka would be a step in the right direction. Similarly, they have sweeper keeper Dean Henderson returning from loan at the end of this season, whilst he has been the centre of attention at Nottingham Forest (United fans blaming him for everything), he has had a decent season so far and is struggling due to poor defensive shape. His qualities are on show, and he would easily walk into the United starting XI over de Gea!
