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United’s issues from set-pieces:
United’s issues from set-pieces:
Manchester United are out of the Carabao Cup semi-final following their 2-0 loss against Manchester City. The Cityzens were able to take the lead from a set-piece, which raised questions regarding a major weakness in United’s game.
29% of United’s goals conceded so far this season have been from set-pieces. One goal was Martial’s own goal vs PSG and another one was Ward-Prowse’s direct free-kick. However, there are still 5 other set-pieces United conceded from this season and it’s way too much.
In this thread, I will look at the goals conceded from set-pieces by United this season to reflect on the issues and what could be improved upon.
Firstly, let’s take a look at the setup. United use a mix of zonal and man-marking, with the striker and the advanced midfielder at the near post. Sometimes, there is an extra-man when both Martial and Cavani are playing. This is seen below.
This setup is up for debate in my opinion. I’m not necessarily against Bruno and Martial as United’s first men at the near post but you will see that it cost United twice.
The thinking behind this setup is that the first man will inevitably be beaten by the set-piece taker so there is no need for a player over 6 feet (i.e. Cavani or Shaw) instead of Martial or Bruno. This is seen below with Martial being too short to get the ball.
When you use zonal-marking, you need one of your three tallest players to be in the middle of the 6-yard box and one at the back post. You generally need one at the near post as well but United decided to have two of their tallest players in the middle instead.
When you add Lindelöf to both Mctominay and Maguire already in the middle, you can question why one of Mctominay or Lindelöf isn’t at the near post preventing the situation highlighted above to happen.
You might now tell me that zonal-marking is the issue but most teams are now using a mix of zonal and man-marking, like United.
Benitez’s Liverpool were using zonal marking when defending corners and this aroused a lot of debate. In the majority of cases it was shown that zonal marking was more efficient than man-to-man marking. This is depicted below.
Rafa Benitez also said that the system shouldn’t necessarily be blamed for conceding goals at set pieces but it will always depend on the determination, concentration and ability in the air of the players at the moment of delivery of the set piece.
This is what I want to come to. Even though it’s proven to be more effective, zonal-marking will naturally suppress something extremely important when defending set-pieces: Accountability.
If you are marking a zone instead of a man, you can rapidly become distracted and lose your focus: this is accountability, which was highlighted by Maguire against City yesterday.
United were in a numerical superiority in the box but despite this numerical superiority, they conceded and Maguire was the main culprit for me. You can see him losing his focus which prevented him from clearing the ball out.
But accountability is something that is worked upon after a few months and United are definitely working on these situations, as the setup is almost always the same. So, why haven’t they worked on this yet? I don’t know.
Another case of lack of accountability is depicted below, against West Ham. Rice beats Martial at the near post while both Telles and Pogba don’t defend their areas and let Soucek alone at the back post.
Against Southampton, Bednarek (highlighted in yellow) beat every United player at the near post to score because he is taller than all of them. Against PSG, both Martial and Mctominay didn’t cover the area they should have covered, which resulted in a goal from PSG.
So, what would I do to solve these issues? Firstly, work on accountability on the training ground. Too many sloppy moments that could’ve cost more against West Ham and Southampton and that have cost a lot against PSG and City.
Then, I would probably put Mctominay or Lindelöf at the near post when both Shaw and Cavani are not playing. Otherwise, both at the near post would be enough to prevent a goal from there to happen.
These issues have remained for the past 2 years and should’ve already been fixed. However, I hope United’s coaching staff will solve the issues by working harder on something they already work on on the training ground.
