ARE fans of Manchester United right to be worried?

A narrow 1-0 win at home to Wolves was followed by a fairly comprehensive 2-0 loss to Tottenham to leave Man Utd with three points from two games to start the season.

Erik ten Hag will need to rack his brain to solve Man Utd’s current tactical issuesCredit: EPA

United have already faced a staggering amount of shots against them per game

It is fair to say that United fans had high expectations coming into the season with the signings of Andre Onana, Mason Mount and Rasmus Hojlund representing upgrades in positions of need.

With that said, however, the start to the season for United does not necessarily have to represent a disaster.

Remember, after all, the start to last season where losses to Brighton and Brentford left United in something of a crisis.

Instead of starting to panic though, United trusted the process of their coach Erik ten Hag and they ended up with a 3rd place finish and Champions League football.

So, maybe United fans do not need to panic and some perspective is needed.

However, there are some tactical issues that have emerged from the opening two games that will need to be addressed in order for the club to have a successful season.

Pressing high

Bruno Fernades and Co have been guilty of some disjointed pressingCredit: Getty

Pressing is still one of the buzzwords around football with the top teams extremely aggressive in pressing high to disrupt the opposition’s build-up and to create turnovers high up the pitch.

If teams are able to win the ball back quickly, after all, they will be in a position to create goal-scoring chances.

With teams that press high effectively, we also see that they maintain their compactness and spacing behind that high press.

In other words, while players jump to engage the press in high areas they need to be supported by players behind them squeezing higher to cut off the spaces behind the press.

If this does not happen then the team who are being pressed can play past the initial pressure and find players in huge amounts of space.

Pressing has been an issue for United starting this season

In the above example, the United attack has broken down on the edge of the Spurs area and with James Maddison in possession both Casemiro and Mount jump high to press.

Bruno Fernandes, the third midfielder, is already in the area and as Maddison dribbles through the press he is able to drive forward into space.

Man United’s midfield changed from the opening match against Wolves, where Mount and Fernandes played extremely high, to the match against Spurs, where Mount played closer to Casemiro, but the midfield unit as a whole still feels very stretched.

United seem happy to allow Fernandes to operate more as a 10 as he positions himself closer to the striker while Mount seems to be isolated more in a lone 8 position where he is looking to join together the defensive and attacking units on his own for United.

The midfield has been beaten far too easily a number of times

Casemiro saw plenty of the ball against Wolves

Here we can see when the high press is beaten and the opposition are able to play in the space that is left between the attacking and defensive unit we see United being vulnerable to quick passes in transition.

One pass from Yves Bissouma releases Heung-Min Son wide on the right and creates huge problems for United’s defenders

With the three first-choice midfielders, Fernandes, Mount and Casemiro, it feels as though United have the correct balance of profiles.

If Ten Hag wants his side to continue to press and engage the ball high though they need to press their defensive line higher in order to minimise the space between the press and defensive line.

We will continue to see Casemiro isolated at the base of the United midfield in huge amounts of space as opponents launch attacks if they fail to rectify this.

Problems creating the attack and defending effectively

Casemiro has been left isolated in midfield far too oftenCredit: Getty

In the opening match against Wolves one of the biggest issues that we saw when United were attacking was that their wide forwards, Alejandro Garnacho and Anthony, struggled to create any danger.

The attack from United was too obviously going to be funnelled wide and as such Wolves were able to double up in the wide areas and force United to either play a poor ball into the area or turn the ball over.

Once again though, as much as the issues were in the wide areas, there was a lack of structure in the midfield that has prevented United from being able to move into strong attacking positions.

Playing out has been a cause for concern for United

Here, United have played from the back cleanly with the pass being moved forward to Luke Shaw at left-back.

The England international plays a poor ball forward looking for the run of the striker as the ball is intercepted.

United struggled in these instances to connect their passes in the midfield and again this is because each midfielder is isolated on their own lines.

In the match against Spurs when the high press was beaten we saw United’s midfield isolated and overmatched often because Casemiro, as the 6, was positioned too far over to one side of the pitch with Mount struggling to recover.

It is a trend in the best teams at the moment to have at least two players positioned in a compact and central position in order to both allow opportunities to play forward in possession but also to remain solid against the ball when the opposition are in transition.

Mason Mount had a quiet game in midfield for United against Spurs

The team’s shape was poor vs Tottenham

The above image shows how United are pulled out of shape as Spurs launch their attack.

With Mount and Casemiro not playing in a more compact shape, we see Lisandro Martinez stepping high and out of the defensive line to have to challenge for the ball.

For this version of Man Utd to be effective they need to find a way to better support Casemiro on the first line of the midfield.

We see Manchester City do this creatively by moving players from the defensive line into the midfield and Liverpool are using Trent Alexander-Arnold in a similar fashion from right-back.

At the moment with Mount caught between playing deep and playing high the midfield structure for United feels off.

Be more effective playing out from the back

Teams are forcing Man Utd to play into Aaron Wan-BissakaCredit: Rex

Last season the issues that Man Utd had when playing out from the back were laid squarely at the feet of their former goalkeeper David de Gea.

Now, with the signing of Onana from Inter Milan, it was expected that United were going to be far more effective when playing out with the ball at the feet of the goalkeeper.

So far, however, we have seen United continue to struggle with this aspect of their game with Wolves, in particular, sitting off and looking to force United to play the ball out to their right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka.

Opposition teams know that the 25-year-old is the weak link in possession and so far United have struggled to find adequate solutions to move the ball forward.

Wan-Bissaka is considered a weak link

With a lack of options, Wan-Bissaka is forced to try and play a difficult pass into Mount

This time Spurs have effectively forced the ball out to Wan Bissaka and with the pass back to the centre being covered by Richarlison the right-back tries to clip a difficult pass over the press and into the feet of Mount.

His passing range and accuracy though is not strong enough and Spurs are able to challenge the pass to win possession back.

There are signs that United are trying to do something new as they play out from the back, with Varane – not known for his ball-playing ability – stepping out into more advanced spaces.

In the match against Wolves, we saw Onana resorting to direct passes out to the wingers as the central defenders and Casemiro were covered.

United passing options have been too easy to cover

Again the ball is funnelled out to Wan Bissaka but look at the way that Spurs move to cover each passing option man to man.

United had no answer for this kind of pressing and instead, they had to resort to just knocking the ball long)

Part of the issue in United struggling to play out from the back comes again to the midfield block.

There is a tendency at the top level at the moment for teams to build out from the back in a 3-2 structure with two deeper players in the midfield allowing for better angles for their passes.

Once again there is work to do on adjusting the spacing and positioning of the United midfield.

What does this mean? 

Well, it is not time for United fans to start to panic, at least not yet.

There are signs that things are falling into place to be successful this season but the biggest issues at the moment seem to surround United not playing as a cohesive unit and allowing too much space between their defensive, midfield and attacking units.

This is something that can be adjusted and fixed by Ten Hag and his coaching staff.

Soυrce: thesun