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Manchester United do not have a player like Virgil Van Dyck who is capable of accurately playing longitudinal balls for attackers up front; Then Mikel Arteta managed to apply his ideas to win them at Old Trafford.
Arsenal achieved their first victory at Red Devils Stadium since 2006, in a match that witnessed the brilliance of Mohamed El Nini.
Arteta always prefers to apply pressure to opponents to prevent them from getting off the ball. Pressure applied in such a way that the opponent is completely paralyzed if the players follow the instructions of the Spanish coach when using the 3-4-3 method.
In a simple explanation, Arteta asks the three forwards to move forward and close the passing angles on the central defenders and the pivot when he returns to climb with the ball, while the midfielders are under man-to-man supervision with two midfielders; In order for the goalkeeper to be forced to play a long ball that will not be accurately sent and will go to Arsenal.
Against Liverpool, Arteta applied this idea; But the presence of Van Dyck aborted her. (See Van Dyck analysis)
So after the game, Arteta spoke up and said: “They (Liverpool) have various weapons. When you go up to the opponent’s half and push high, they have Van Dyck playing a 60-yard pass to Salah’s chest to get out of their areas.“.
But against Manchester United; The matter is different.
The attacking trio was positioned like this. Here, for example, Pierre Emerck Aubameyang stands and closes the scrolling angle to Victor Lindelof – not shown in the picture – and Scott McTominay, Alexander Lacazette with Fred and Willian with Harry Maguire and Luke Shaw.
And behind them, the focal points are with Manchester United midfielders under the supervision of a man to man like this. Mohamed El-Nani with Bruno Fernandes and Thomas Partey with Paul Pogba.
Here, the same positioning, but Alnni looking at Maktominay.
Note that Lindelof decided to return the ball back due to lack of passing opportunity and this pressure objective was not to push Manchester United forward the ball.
Pressure from Arsenal made the team’s players block the passage of Manchester United players’ passes in the middle of their stadium.
6 interceptions by Arsenal players (circled in blue) in the center of the United Stadium.
As well as in the process of getting the ball. Arsenal players have kicked the ball 6 times from Manchester United’s stadium, left, to just 8.
Despite Arsenal’s superiority in pressure, he did not manage to deal with high balls as Van Dyck used to do, but not with the same abundance and precision as the Dutchman.
Here, for example, Maguire sent a long ball to Willian, taking advantage of Willian’s slow pressure. Mason Greenwood and Kieran Tierney can’t handle it when the young winger enters the penalty area; But the Arsenal players cleared the ball for him before he shot on target.
What made it difficult for Manchester United to get off the ball under pressure from Arsenal was Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s changes, specifically when he retired Fernandes and pushed without Van de Beek.
Whether Fernandes continued or not would not make any difference; Unless Solskjaer changed positions, which did not happen.
Solskjaer van de Beek had to be really inserted, but instead of Scott McTominay, Fernandes would go back close to the defenders to help them get the ball out, and at the same time Pogba freed himself in midfield with the task of getting the ball out for limit their role to moving to receive the ball from their teammates and support them. And not the task of dealing with pressure from Arsenal.
As for Van de Beek, his role is limited to advancing and entering the penalty area, using his insight to escape censorship.
But Solskjaer emptied the center of the United Stadium more with the departure of Fernandes, especially since Pogba did not offer anything great and only passed 35 times, to be the least between Fred and Maktominay.
In this game, for example, Fernandes applied what was explained above, except that Nani recovered the ball, while Manchester United did not use this play again until the Portuguese midfielder left, although he spread the Arsenal pressure cards.
Here Alnni hesitates to advance behind Aubameyang under Maktominay’s supervision because there is a player on the left who is not on the roster.
After that, Alnni asks Aubameyang to go left, and the Egyptian midfielder will take over for Maktominay. Especially since the anatomical position of the Arsenal wing does not block the passing angle of the United player who is not in the image.
Notice where the neni’s arm is pointing.
The ball reaches Fernandes, but Nene intercepts his pass and returns the ball to Arsenal. Bruno chose the ground pass because the Arsenal players were looking at the Manchester United players in the last third of the field and there was no way to play a long ball.
Al-Ni’s roles in tracking and intercepting United’s attacks continued.
Throughout the match, Nene was staring at Fernandeshe and only escaped in the previous game.
Here, Nene returns with Fernandes close to Manchester United’s penalty area, forcing David de Gea to play a long ball, which was won by Héctor Bellerin.
Nene appears here with Pogba, but does not look at him and looks for what Fernandes is looking at to show Barty in the shadow of the Portuguese in the next frame.
