These Manchester United's Tactics Punished Liverpool

These are the tactical reasons why Ten Hag's  Man Utd was better than Klopp's Liverpool. Man United was aggressive in pressing, they  pressed with 6 players in the opponent's half, mainly they tried to cover the central channels.  When Liverpool tried to advance through the sides, one full-back jumped to press and forced Klopp's  side to play backward and United kept pressing. They dropped back with 10 players behind the  ball, leaving free to the opponent's wingers, but they received the ball,

United's full-backs  pressed them, while the midfielders followed Liverpool's midfielders who were running to  the half-space. Ten Hag's side arrived at the final third through offensive transitions with  7 players. Around the ball, they tried to create triangles and a fourth player appeared free  to receive the ball, while one player attacked the half space, Mainoo and Wan Bisska were the  players that attacked these spaces. The opening goal came after Bruno took a quick free kick  and played w

ith Rashford who waited for his teammates. Garnacho ran inside and Hojlund  to the second post, he dragged 2 defenders, therefore Garnacho was free between Liverpool's  center backs. After his shot, Mctominay scored. In Man Utd's build-up, Dalot and Mainoo were  crucial to beat the opponent's pressing, because they were able to find the players behind  Liverpool's midfielders, that's why they arrived in the final third with the same number of  players. Man United tried to create 4 passing lines

for Onana, but Liverpool was aggressive,  therefore Bruno Fernandes had to drop back to receive the ball, however, he was followed and  couldn't play forward, even times he lost the ball in this crucial space like in Liverpool's second  goal. United's pressing was overcome when Gomez moved inside, so he received between the first  two lines of pressure and could play forward. Many times, Manchester United didn't drop back  well, because they left too much space between the defensive and midfield

lines, Szoboszlai  and Mac Allister took advantage of it. The equalizer started when Liverpool put all  their players in United's half, the center-back wasn't pressed by Bruno so he took the ball to  the final third, while Mctominay didn't move back to his position when Liverpool moved the  ball from the left to the right, a space was created when Wan Bissaka moved close to Salah,  Mac Allister was in that free space. Rashford was too soft in marking and allowed the opponent  to cross the ball.

Nu ez moved away from his mark and played with Mac Allister who scored. In the second goal, Liverpool oriented the pressure to the left side forcing Onana to  play with Wan Bisska, Bruno dropped back to receive the ball, but he didn't protect the  ball well and Liverpool crossed the ball, they attacked the second post with Nu ez and D az.  In the shot, Varane moved away from Salah to cover the second post and Mctominay didn't turn his  head to see Salah who received free and scored. In the sec

ond half, Man United couldn't keep  the ball and recover it, that's why many times they pressed uncoordinated and left space  between the lines for Szoboslai, however, Onana made many saves to keep United in the  game. Ten Hag made dared substitutions leaving at the back to Maguire, Lindelof and Bruno. But  these substitutions paid off. Liverpool tried to steal the ball from Mctominay, but after a  rebound, the ball went to Antony, United had 4v4 in the final third. Liverpool dropped back  with

5 players covering 3 of United's players, but Garnacho attracted 3 players and this left  3v3 on the box, giving space to Antony to turn and score. In the last minutes, United was much better  than Liverpool, since they played with Eriksen and Bruno-like center-backs in the build-up. Even in the extra time with more offensive players United kept pressing. Liverpool's third goal came  from a throw in where the midfielders gave space to Elliot. In the last minutes, United was more  aggressive and

put 6 players against Liverpool's defensive line. After one of these crosses,  Kelleher tried to play fast, but the full-back was pressed and Amad recovered the ball. Mctominay  played fast to Rashford to score. The winning goal started from a corner kick where Liverpool had  3 players in the rebound zone, but Amad put very well his body to recover the ball, Garnacho moved  to the right to give more pace to Amad, therefore when he received the ball he could score. Leave your thoughts about Ten

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