Manchester United’s defeat to AC Milan was a frustrating way to end pre-season, despite the result not mattering, but for Michael Carrick, there will be one legitimate concern.
Ruben Amorim saw AC Milan beat Manchester United 4-2 in Poland on Saturday, which finally gave him his first win as the manager of the Rossoneri side.
It was a performance to forget for United, with half the team still clearly not match fit, and this resulted in arguably the worst display of the summer so far for Michael Carrick’s side.
Obviously, it was just pre-season, but the game did see Amorim expose one concerning trend under Carrick, which needs to be remedied before United face Hull City on the opening weekend.
Michael Carrick’s system struggles against back-three formations
The performance against Milan caught many off guard, but it actually isn’t all that surprising, for a couple of reasons.
Firstly, Amorim’s system works better against a better side, which United are, who play with the ball to allow his side to play direct and in transition.
But it was also slightly unsurprising due to Carrick’s recent history against back-three formations.
Thinking back to last season, other than being run off the pitch by Newcastle, United’s worst outing came against Leeds United at Old Trafford in a very poor 2-1 defeat, with Leeds just happening to have a back three that day.
The manner in which Carrick’s side tries to press and break down a back three or five doesn’t quite work as well as when it is a back four, which Amorim exposed, with his poor defence aided by how much time on the ball they had thanks to the extra man at the back.
While it was also shown against Wrexham in pre-season.
The bad news is that Hull tends to deploy a back three or five against teams that they expect to be defending against more than attacking, and so Carrick might face a similar frustration here.
United should have more than enough to blow Hull away regardless, but this will be something Carrick needs to consider this week and think of alterations to be better equipped against these systems – more for a possible clash against Inter Milan, for example, at some stage in the Champions League.
Manchester United should be fine against Hull City
Despite all of this, Milan only beat United because of poor defending and a lack of mobility from Luke Shaw, Lisandro Martinez and Harry Maguire, combined with Fernandes missing a penalty.
This gives us confidence that United should be okay against Hull even if the system presents some trickiness for Carrick.
Hull aren’t a Premier League-level side this season, and they will, in all events, be heading straight back down; United should be sending them on their way.
No matter the issues of system or fitness, United’s quality alone should be enough against Hull to get off to a hot start.
from United In Focus https://ift.tt/hSjiLWr