Manchester United got their biggest win of the season, twice coming from behind to beat Liverpool 4-3 in the FA Cup Quarter Final. But rather than this being a "bad day at the office" for Jurgen Klopp, the game was a long-awaited justification for how Erik Ten Hag has built his team. Adam Clery explains why, despite all the chaos, it's the Dutchman who deserves the most credit.
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00:00All right, so we'll start at the beginning.
00:03This was the Man United side as they lined up and probably the most
00:06interesting thing here is Aaron Wan-Bissaka at left back.
00:09Now, as we saw across the course of the game, he was there for two reasons.
00:13First off, teams are just terrified of Mo Salah and what he can do on the ball.
00:17And Wan-Bissaka is a brilliant defensive fullback.
00:21He wins his challenges.
00:22He's got great pace.
00:23He's perfect to do a man marking job on him.
00:25And he did reasonably well.
00:27But more importantly, from an attacking perspective,
00:29Ten Hag wanted to get at Liverpool in this specific area of the pitch here.
00:34Liverpool had started Joe Gomez at right back.
00:36And while he was pushing up the flank, he was also drifting into the middle,
00:40leaving a bit of a gap there with Gerald Kwanzaa,
00:42arguably Liverpool's least experienced central defender,
00:45having to cover across.
00:47Now, it's pretty straightforward, that one.
00:49Obviously, you're hardly going to target the side that Van Dijk and Robertson are on,
00:52but that is a little gap that Man United could get some joy in.
00:55And so they overloaded that area.
00:57Fernandes kept drifting out there.
00:59Wan-Bissaka, they'll just reach him.
01:01He would push all the way up.
01:02And they kept finding themselves with a nice 3v2.
01:05And it was this overload that led to the first goal.
01:07Man United go back to front really, really quickly.
01:10Gomez has come in field, so he's out of position.
01:12So Kwanzaa has to chase Marcus Rashford into that channel.
01:15And while Liverpool do get men back,
01:17you can just see from their defensive shape here
01:19that they're kind of all over the place.
01:21The two on the left have gone too far back.
01:23And because Kwanzaa and Gomez are kind of both in a bit of a muddle here,
01:27it allows Garnaccio to sneak in round the back he's played through.
01:30And that's how they get the first goal.
01:31So we might then reasonably assume that because Man United got such a big win here
01:36against such a big team in such a big game,
01:39that these massive defensive problems they've got weren't really a factor.
01:43They had a good system for stopping that happening, right?
01:46Oh, no, no.
01:49You see, rather than make the game less chaotic,
01:52what they actually did was they just made it so chaotic,
01:54they were like the only team in the world that could ever hope to thrive.
01:59And they did.
02:00So as we have discussed on the channel a million and one times at this point,
02:03Man United's big problem is that they like to press with these five players
02:07and they get really aggressive with it and they're good at winning the ball back
02:10and that creates them some chances.
02:11But they also defend really deep with these players
02:14and they leave all this space in the middle for young Kobe Maneu
02:18or sometimes Casemiro's creaking knees to try and cover.
02:21And it is about one billion square yards.
02:24And just to use that nice little montage from last time we talked about Man United,
02:28when teams break through this first area of the press,
02:30when they are unsuccessful in regaining the ball in this part of the pitch,
02:34they then just run straight through.
02:36And you don't need me to tell you this if you're a Man United fan,
02:38you've seen it a million times.
02:39This exact scenario just keeps happening and happening and happening and happening.
02:43And indeed, in this very game, it kept happening and happening and happening.
02:47Liverpool kept finding themselves in all this space
02:50between Manchester United's midfield and their defence.
02:53It's the side's Achilles heel.
02:55But again, as we said in the last video,
02:57I'm not some genius who spotted this and Eric Ten Haag hasn't.
03:01This is how he wants them to play.
03:03He wants to be aggressive in this area and he doesn't want to get balls in behind the defence.
03:07So they just leave this gap.
03:09But what was different about this match was that this, as a system,
03:14actually kind of worked.
03:16What is supposed to happen when you're defending this way,
03:18and what if you're a Man United fan,
03:20you hope they will get better and better at the more they do it,
03:23is that you sort of abandon the width that you've got
03:26as you're running back to your own goal.
03:27And everybody just kind of congregates in the centre.
03:31Because when teams have got a fast break on you like this,
03:33they want to be going direct to goal.
03:35It's not about getting territory or possession,
03:37it's about getting a chance.
03:39And obviously the most direct way to do that is through the middle.
03:42So they congest that area as best they can,
03:45completely abandoning the players they're marking out wide
03:47to force the ball to go there.
03:49And around the half hour mark or something,
03:51there was a brilliant example of this actually working.
03:54Because Liverpool do get through that press and they get the ball to McAllister.
03:57He's in loads of space in the middle.
03:59There's only really Scott McTominay who's there to deal with it,
04:01but he can't leave.
04:02I think this is Sobbers' lie, so he's got to kind of just stay there.
04:05A Man United's back four is stretched quite wide.
04:08Dalot is here, he's got somebody to mark,
04:11and they're all the way across to Wan-Bissaka on the other side.
04:14But as McAllister charges towards goal,
04:16they all just kind of just disregard the man marking element.
04:19And by the time they get back to their own 18-yard line,
04:22just look at how much more narrow they are.
04:25The central options that looked like they were on when he picked the ball up
04:28have now gone entirely, so he's forced to go out wide.
04:32He could go, I think this is Salah this side,
04:33he's in miles of space, and Robertson the same on the left.
04:36But because going out wide,
04:38when you're a team who aren't naturally going to look to hit a first-time cross
04:41or have got that kind of target man in the middle,
04:43that totally slows the play down.
04:45Robertson gets it, realises there's no sort of incisive pass
04:48he can make from that position, and they go back.
04:51And by that point, Man United have got back down the field
04:53and they've got numbers.
04:54In the end, they're forced to go all the way back to Van Dijk
04:57and Man United have 11 players behind the ball again.
04:59But this is why, in the intro to this video,
05:02I said that they just went even crazier,
05:04because you're playing Liverpool, right?
05:05And this is a high-risk strategy,
05:06so the sensible thing to do would be to only press with these four, right?
05:10So you've got a little bit more presence in the middle,
05:13no, they pressed with six.
05:16I mean, fair play,
05:18because Den Hoog must have bars the size of grapefruits to try and do this.
05:21They knew that Liverpool's best chance of getting through
05:24was through the centre, so they man-marked every single out-ball
05:27they had through the middle when they had possession at the back.
05:30They kept trying to force them wide, even in their build-up.
05:33And you did see that happen a good few times.
05:35Like, here's Liverpool giving away a throw-in
05:37because there was no pass in the centre.
05:39You can see they're all well-marked and they just panic
05:41and they go out wide and they lose it.
05:43But for how good and how effective this was,
05:45going into the last couple of minutes of this game,
05:47Man United were still losing,
05:49because Liverpool are a really good team
05:51and this system is still quite open.
05:53And this is why I said at the start of the video,
05:55if you end up in a crazy contest against Manchester United,
05:59their best bet is to just simply make things more crazy.
06:03And if there's anything crazier this season
06:05than Anthony not only using his right foot,
06:08but scoring a brilliant goal with it,
06:11I don't want to know.
06:12And when that whistle blew for 90 minutes,
06:14that is pretty much where this game ended
06:17as sort of a sensible tactical joust between two managers.
06:21Because as soon as injury time started,
06:23it just went bananas.
06:26But I think, more than anything else in this match,
06:29this right here is where Eric ten Hag
06:31deserves the biggest amount of credit.
06:33Because how many times have you seen,
06:35in injury time, two tired teams not really going for it?
06:39It tends to be a stalemate.
06:40They just play it out with penalties
06:41or somebody does one little goal somewhere.
06:44That Liverpool team has played so much football in 2024.
06:49They have had so many injuries.
06:50They are relying on so many young players.
06:53They had a game on Thursday night.
06:56Ten Hag looked at that and just thought,
06:57surely they must be more tired than we are.
07:01And this might honestly be my favourite graph
07:04we've used all season, right?
07:05Including the substitutions.
07:07This is what Man United's average positions
07:10ended up being in that game.
07:12That is the most formless, shapeless, chaotic mess
07:17I have ever seen.
07:18So Dalot at right back and Rashford on the left,
07:21they played pretty much the entire game.
07:22They look fairly normal,
07:23but everybody else is just everywhere.
07:26And they come in a big congealed pool in the middle
07:28because that's where it all averages out.
07:30Like, Garnaccio changed sides, so he's in the centre.
07:33And Anthony changed sides, so he's in the centre.
07:35And Bruno Fernandes was here and there and centre back.
07:38So he comes out in the middle as well.
07:40And this isn't me just saying,
07:41oh, Liverpool were tired, by the way,
07:43because there's so much more to it than that.
07:44Man United, after 120 minutes,
07:46had players who were absolutely exhausted.
07:49But Ten Hag moved them around into areas of the pitch
07:52where his fresh legs would tell
07:54and his tired legs wouldn't.
07:55Fernandes going into centre back
07:57is just a great example of this
07:58because you don't want to lose his ability on the ball.
08:01But also after that much football,
08:03you can't be expecting him to press
08:05or to join in counter-attacks.
08:07So you put him somewhere where the running is less important.
08:10But also, and I genuinely think this might be
08:12one of the smartest things he's done all season,
08:13was Anthony at left back.
08:15Going into the final stretch of this match,
08:17Liverpool's right-hand side consisted of Conor Bradley,
08:19who absolutely loves to bomb forward
08:21and had the legs to be doing that,
08:23and then Harvey Elliott and Cody Gakpo
08:25sort of interchanging.
08:27And you've got two players there,
08:28and Gakpo, who won't work back particularly hard,
08:31and Elliott, someone who gets drawn into the middle
08:33and wants to play centrally, so can be out of position.
08:36And the thing about Anthony, right,
08:37is that it's very, very easy to look at all the things
08:40he's bad at, but one thing he doesn't get enough credit for
08:42is that he's actually excellent defensively.
08:45Like, these are his attacking numbers
08:47from the last 365 days.
08:48That is absolutely not what you want
08:50from an attacker who costs that much money,
08:52but these are his defensive numbers.
08:55People forget this, but it was the whole reason
08:57Ten Hag wanted him, because when he had him at Ajax,
08:59he was excellent in the press,
09:01he was really aggressive going forward off the ball,
09:03but he would also work back really hard
09:06and was good at winning it.
09:07Might be a whole other video in this,
09:08but that is genuinely something Man United
09:10should consider doing more, in my opinion,
09:12certainly in certain games,
09:14having him there with the license to get forward,
09:16but knowing you'll work back could actually work.
09:19But yes, anyway, sorry, just to get back to the point
09:21I was originally trying to make,
09:22Ten Hag went after Liverpool's energy levels,
09:25and the thing about energy levels, my friends,
09:28is that yes, they can take a toll on your legs,
09:31but they also take a toll on your brain.
09:35In extra time, Man United were 3-2 down,
09:38but then capitalised on two very tired decisions
09:42Liverpool made to score breakaway goals.
09:44Darwin Nunes ends up with the ball on the left-hand side
09:47and facing infield, and that is not where he wants to be
09:51at all, and what's notable here is that Man United
09:54have successfully cut off all his infield passing options
09:57with three substitutes, so three players who had the legs
10:01and the energy to go and close that off.
10:03Now, they're quite happy with this situation,
10:04because if he just turns back around
10:06and goes to the full-back here,
10:07they've forced them back, that's what they want to do,
10:09but he doesn't do that because he makes
10:10a very tired decision.
10:12He just tries to lump it from left to right
10:15across a congested midfield, which any coach will tell you
10:18you should never, ever do.
10:20Man United turn the ball over from there
10:22and immediately score.
10:24What's even more telling here is this is an incredibly
10:26difficult ball for McTominay to control,
10:28and yet none of the Liverpool midfielders
10:30close the distance to him in time, because they're tired.
10:33And then, the winning goal, and it comes from
10:35one of the most tired decisions I think I've ever seen
10:38on a football pitch.
10:39Yes, Harvey Elliott has come on as a sub,
10:40but he's someone else who has played a lot of football
10:44recently, him and Endo, just neither of them can decide
10:47whose ball this is, and somehow, despite being third-favourite
10:51to it by a mile, Ahmad gets there.
10:54And the mad thing is, when Garnaccio gets this,
10:56you can even see the tiredness in him.
10:58He can't get into a full sprint
11:00the way you would expect him to,
11:01and it's a really tired pass that he gives them,
11:03and the chance nearly goes.
11:05But that is why tactics and ideas and structures
11:07and all just this nerd stuff will only get you so far, right?
11:10Ahmad just takes a brilliant first touch
11:13to open up the shot, and then it is a even better finish
11:16to find the bottom corner.
11:18You can't really prepare for that.
11:19You can't work out a system that's gonna make that happen.
11:22He just does it, because he just deserved it.
11:25And that's not only how Man United won it,
11:27that's why they deserved to win it.
11:30Like, they made the game as open and as chaotic as possible,
11:33and then Ten Hag had the courage to throw on players
11:37who would thrive best in that situation.
11:39And honestly, you just couldn't hope to have
11:41a better example of why this Man United system works so well
11:45and also why it doesn't.
11:46Like, it can absolutely win you a chaotic cup tie
11:50when both teams are gonna do it,
11:51but when you come up against more organised,
11:54more structured teams that are probably happy
11:55to play for a draw, or they're not really gonna be too open,
11:58it can create problems all of its own.
12:00But, Christ, when it works, hoo-hoo!
12:04Anyway, I'm gonna go now,
12:05because not to use a crude metaphor,
12:07but this level of insight and analysis
12:09on that game of football feels to me
12:12like the proverbial hot dog down a hallway.
12:16Don't really feel I've touched the sides.
12:17If you have enjoyed it, though,
12:18then I do promise you it is always this bad,
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12:32New magazine's out.
12:32It's brilliant, and I do have to say that,
12:34but I would anyway, because it is,
12:36so grab that from all good retailers
12:37and the crap ones as well.
12:38Get me on social media, Adam Cleary, C-L-E-R-Y.
12:41I just joined TikTok!
12:43I've got, like, five followers on there or something,
12:45so if you wanna come and say hello, that'd be nice too.
12:49In the meantime, though, yeah, that's it.
12:51Eric Ten Hag's Man United might be
12:53the best cup side in the world,
12:56but also definitely mid-table in most leagues,
12:59but that's football, baby!
13:01Goodbye!