What Went Wrong For Manchester United Against Porto!? 

There was no game yesterday. It didn't happen.

Ten hag's time at united has genuinely been the most confusing thing i've experienced as a person

I genuinely feel sorry for creators like AJ for putting so much work into looking into the tactical side of things. Obviously, we are powerless as supporters but even our ideas or analysing the game has no affect. ETH is going to do what he is going to do. He’ll continue to pick Bruno. He’ll continue to not respect midfield. He’ll continue to play players who cannot press affectively. AJ has repeated the same faults again and again and again and again and again and nothing changes. Salute to AJ for putting in the time.

This analysis is spot on. Too many spectators when defending. That's why I think he should abandon high press and settle for a mid block because the players are not aggressive or fit enough to press. Marcus, Amad, Ericson, Zirkzee can't pres while Bruno who leads the press is not patient to wait for the others to press collectively and set traps together.

This is by far the best analysis that i have seen. Good pointing out this is likely a systemic failure rather than players fault. Most good teams put 10 men behind the ball when defending, and attack as a team. What we have seen is our wingers are far too high up and leaving only 6 players defending. Hope to see united defending in a 5 4 1 shape, w CDM drop between the CB and leaving 1 target man for attack. Transition should be only front 3 or 4 at counter , which later joined up by the others. Far too often, we are caught behind when we lose the procession during the transition and got countered instead.

It is just embarrassing. Our weekly wage bill is about 6 times as much as Porto. They offset that by being set up correctly and showing heart + taking their chances. I've never seen a team set up with so much space between the lines. It would make sense to either play with a higher defensive line...which we can't do because Martinez and De Ligt don't have the pace (I'm not sure about Yoro) or we drop our attackers down a bit and play more compact and hope to break quickly against teams better than us, or build up with slow possession against teams 'worse' than us. Right now it is just confusing. Chaos ball can only really work if we're going to be clinical and if we had forward players far more committed to the press.

Spot on criticism. This is how to help our team. Bottom line, ETH must deploy a tactic for which he has the players.

I was so confident after those goals, only to be down 3-2 and then end up drawing 3-3. What a rollercoaster of a game!

Man United need to stop this 4-2-4 press. The midfield is left out wide open without the ball making it so easy for opponents to run down the line or play a through ball. Having 4 players high up the pitch with little to no aggression leaves the other 2 midfielders constantly running around aimlessly. Also, our defenders keep dropping deep making it worse for us because the high line is gone--displaying a clear lack of coordination. If we're playing a high line then stick to it. make offside traps

So the big question is: Can Erik see these flaws? He must do. And so, how do we fix this? On the other hand we showed great team spirit, fight and resilience to come back to score the equalizer.

10:00 the goals are identical, both times Rashford is nowhere near where he needs to be, both times he leaves the full back with zero pressure and all the time in the world.

Keep saying we have stop this 424 high press. The wingers and strikers dont work hard enough for it to work. But Ten Hag is too stubborn to change his ways. Shifting to a 4141 or a 451 mid block would solve this issue. Gaps all over the pitch and the midfield double pivot have too much work to do. The players dont work hard enough out of possession but tactically Ten Hag is a clown for persisting with the 424 high press. We'll never stop conceding goals and always be exposed out wide. Ten Hag should have went after the FA Cup final win last season. Tactically inept.

Ten Hag shocked me when he said he watched that 3 nil spurs game ONCE!!!!!

This was the same tactics We beat city with: In that match, rashford was tracking back 2ndly in a situation rashford was too high to recover the team shift to the left... Dalot went aggressive on the winger, mainoo who played Erikson position dropped to the fullback role or follows the runner Casemiro covers mainoo role which he vacated And Amad since he was starting centrally tucked into Casemiro role. This even gives us more numbers by the time rashford returns to position. The formation focus on shifting and leaving full backs Reason we almost died against spurs cos they involve 2 of their fullbacks. The aerial threat was always there but Maguire and varane nullified them Looking at this I think our problem is plenty Erikson not good Rashford not tracking Formation not ideal if we want to play out

The problem remains the system. Porto's striker was impressive. After the match, it's easy to say that starting Maguire would have been a better idea, because he would has physically live up to the challenge. However, the problem remains the system. Rashford is asked to track back. Dallot is in a hybrid role, which sometimes leave a gap on the right. And Eriksen is not also helping a lot, not agressive enough. So yes, it gave some time for Porto to cross precisely. With Maguire, you could expect United to win the headers, but De Ligt and Mazrahoui failed to win these headers. ETH should really adapt his system. I don't know how, but he has no choice.

Maguire said it best they have to believe in the tactics that game them the lead dont let heads drop when they concede and have some accountability as players for it. Also i get bruno was eratic towards the end but he won the ball back for one of the goals and put in some lovely crosses rashford sub at half time made perfect sense as garnacho offers alot more off the ball

I agree with rashford needs to work harder but I don’t see salah or vini having to drop back every game and double up and protect the full back we should have a system in place to negate that. My big issue is Bruno who needs to drop into the midfield. Having him so high up the pitch does nothing and allows him be none factor defensively. We even got better once he got sent off

great analysis! thank you

Perfect, left side is weak but right side is getting weak.

Brilliant analysis

Great tactical analysis. You should join Ten Hag’s staff!

Thank God someone highly intelligent is saying what I've been saying for months... regardless who plays, the formation/instructions are wrong. I'm not saying the players are exempt but the manager isn't helping either

On the possession side of things, I hate seeing all of our attaching players including midfielders are standing next to the opponent defenders when we have the ball in their half. You often see a crazy shape like 2-1-7 and they keep recycling the ball. As soon as one of those 7 players makes a mistake or makes a stupid decision and end up losing the ball, we are so so exposed. No wonder why we conceded 3+ goals so many times under Ten Hag

we are so easy to play through, porto didnt have to do anything special to find the spaces out wide, something really needs to change cause its a mess

Remember when Lampard was at Chelsea and he made Ngolo Kante look like a B-Tech footballer? Then Tuchel comes in and Kante turns into a monster. Poor structure and tactics will make even the best players look out of sorts no matter how hard they are trying.

This lack of high defensive line mixed with lack of intense pressing up front has been a symptom of so many problems for far too long. This team has just been so obviously disjointed in the majority of matches, leaving gaps and space. Its still hard to tell how much of this disjointedness is a system issue and how much is a player issue. As much as I can agree that Rashford might be being put in a terrible position on purpose due to the tactics esp when the other team has the ball, it really feels like he also doesnt have the proper ability to track back and defend like other teams wingers do. It just feels like were stuck between wanting to play a system that should work better but having too many players that cant fit in these certain roles, and it becomes a half stitched together performance 85% of the time.

Leon Bailey is going to have so much fun against us this weekend.

Your opinion on ETH is the issue is so half sided because when we changed the wingers in the 2nd half where was the cross ? So let’s just be honest here Porto knew Rashford wouldn’t track back so they used it to their advantage but immediately Garnacho came in he would chase down anything might not be as good on ball like Rashford but wasn’t going to let down defensively

This is a conundrum. So, is the 4-2-4 wrong (I don't think so, many teams use it), are we using the 4-2-4 in a wrong way (most likely) or are some of the players not suited for the 4-2-4 (also likely). If it is the 2nd issue, then it is on ETH and if it is the 3rd issue, then Idk who we should blame. If we alter the tactics based on a few of the players not suiting this hard working style, we won't progress in the long term. It's like, we must just sacrifice results for an entire season to get these things, this game model right, uk the base foundation right. ETH's biggest fault was to go for results over getting these things right in the 1st season, because we would be reaping benefits of that now. But I don't think fans would be patient with him if he just focused on a style of play with no trophies. The biggest disadvantage of being a Man United manager, you need to please all sorts of people. But being Man United, we can't afford that because of our "prestige". Front-foot football, pressing, high line etc, all these terms are very new to us, never heard them during Jose or Ole's reign. Even if we bring a new manager, he will look to play and should play similar, a front foot, dynamic style, yes, he might close those gaps but it will still be demanding on the players. One thing is for sure, this whole thing isn't a quick fix, either with ETH or with the new manager (unless the new manager just doesn't sit compact and gets us playing Ole ball all over again).

I've said it before, teams have figured out ETH. When lower tier teams start having easy rides against UTd, you know there's a huge problem. It's too easy to dissect his tactics. He needs to start adapting fast or else it's bye bye to him.

I don’t think anything went wrong, it was a standard performance at this point

Martinez needs support especially when playing against target men we can’t isolate him 1 n 1 vs big athletic striker

i think Bruno should play as a midfielder more he pushes high and forgets himself it's not his responsibility to press high we need him to press inthe midfield that's why we are less in numbers in the middle when we are attacked hence watch schobozlai and McAlister's when Liverpool dont have the ball none of them is pressing high, no time i seen gravenbach isolated on counters schobozlai and McAlister's are always there with him winning the second balls and spreading them passes high for Salah and Diaz

Why does he chang back the style he employed in the first season . It was fluid

Our left side is so weak

After watching the game yesterday, i have lost faith in EtH officially. I believe the Manager's job is to create a system that enables all players to play to their strengths and contribute efficiently to the team's play. Our manager just doesn't do that. Players have to reform their play styles to match the confusing and inept tactics he has. With a great tactician manager, even the type of goals we would be scoring wouldn't be individualistic or results of opponents' errors as often as our goals are. Same thing with the goals we concede; they wouldn't be as easy as they are. After 5 transfer windows, major backing, good behind the scenes changes, our current state has removed my belief in our manager.

The system not helping our midfield more soo helping the opponents too much space.

Are these players capable of executing Simone Inzhagi’s 3-5-2 or Ruben Amorim’s 3-4-3 systems respectively? Only time will tell. I’d love to see either of their reactions to Rashford giving the ball away casually and not bothering to track back.

It's the same problem every game. Wingers not defending with enough intensity

The press is supposed to be more of a 4-2-2-2 shape with that hexagon shape we saw in the preseason. However, it regularly turns into a 4-2-4 & there ends up being too much space in the midfield & on the wings. One line-breaking pass & the opponent's attack is on our back 4. Short of just playing in that 4-4-2 mid-block all the time, I don't know what the answer is. The wingers dont have the discipline or aggressivenes to play this way...especially Rashford. Doesn't help that we dont have an actual LB right now either.

I don't think the team can in any way withstand pressure if there's no compatibility in the team. The same way there's togetherness in attack the same thing ought to be applied when defending. I watched it amazingly Rashford, worst of all Garnacho cannot even offer a little bit of complement to Dalot who was totally outnumbered/ outclassed on that left side and it seemed as though he was just a spectator enjoying every bit of it.

AJ you are the best utd channel

At this point the man has failed. He knows his players strength n weaknesses n sees what’s going on yet he seems to tactically play it in his head rather than on the pitch

Don’t know why we don’t just play a compact mid-block and set pressing trap when ball is played into the middle? So simple.

people was saying porto are favs to win the entire tourny but on last nights performance no chance

So not Maguires fault yet again like many bang on about. The witch-hunt against him is ridiculous. Every defence formation we have struggles. There’s not 1 single partnership across the entire team in any formation or personnel he plays, not 1. That’s the issue.

To be fair, on another day Diogo Costa saves both near post shots.

We are shit. The manager has to go

I agree with you, it’s obviously not all on the players. Why can’t ETH see the problems you pointed out? Surely he does, he is just too stubborn to change it?

Why he started eriksen over ugarte is mind boggling eriksen isn't a dm I get mainoo was out with a minor knock but still I'm questioning ten hags decisions on the starting 11

We have to learn to control games after getting in lead

What I don’t get is most managers will see a problem and make an in game tactical switch but ETH does nothing

I feel like this would work if we actually held our line at the half

Playing 4-2-4 in attack is killing us and there is too much space between the attackers and midfield.. Everyone can see it except for Ten Hag. Benni did an interview recently and said that Ten hag is a genius at tactics, i highly doubt that

This analysis are great but this can happen to even the best team my issue is they don’t sense Danger. A team who scores by crosses into the box easier to defend because you can affect it in two ways where the cross takes places and when the cross lands. 10 crosses in ten minutes should tell Rashford drop back help your LB. You don’t have to be the goal outlet all the time. Knowing when to catch your opponent is key that’s why Amad had nothing to do the whole game because if they tried moving the ball to the right and relaxing on the left would give the opposition night mares because they know where the threat is but can’t help themselves with the problems coming from the right

i think 3-5-2 is the way forward. this 3-1-6 formation dont work. erikson and bruno dont help casemiro in midfield, so dalot has to invert to help in build up then moves to far forward to help the front line even though you already have 5 players forward which leaves casemiro on his own, then dalot has to defend left back because theres nobody to cover and rashford dont track his runner and leaves dalot in a 2v1 situation

We humiliate the manager for a month, reverse course but wisely promise a new contract to show full backing. Yet end up just extending by a year under option in existing contract. And we are surprised he lacks authority? I’m open to a definite upgrade if we find one, not possible so far, but we have totally undermined Ten Hag.

My issue is multiple times Porto attacked us through the middle Casemiro was a passenger in the midfield. Second Dalot on the left isn’t ideal good player plays his heart out but the flaws is he is right footed on the left which means an easy step over get him out of position. He third allowing them double or triple against us in the left for crosses

Also look at how the center backs are ready to drop off instead of engaging up the field Has to be tactical instruction

ETH tactics (whatever they are!!) leave United exposed whenever they lose the ball, the wingers don't track back or work hard enough off the ball. The midfield is still a problem and that is all down to ETH. Whatever ETH is trying to do tactics wise he needs to scrap, it's not working. Bruno should not be captain and he needs to be dropped. The 3 man midfield should be Mainoo, Ugarte and Mount. The wingers need to work hard until the 60th minute then they can swap, United have 4 wingers

Can we try playing Martinez as LB, Maguire as LCB, De Ligt as RCB and either one of Dalot or Mazraoui as RB? Just to give one of our FBs a rest. Surely when ETH is talking about rotating, he has to think about rotating our FBs too. Since it doesn't look like he will ever give Amass a chance to start or sub in. If we have identified our left side as the weakness, we should be using Ugarte on the left of the double pivot and Casmiro on the right side. Let Martinez or De Ligt do their long passes over our midfield for our wingers to chase and Bruno be ready to pounce on the 2nd balls.

If we play like this Watkins and Morgan will kill us over the weekend

Honestly. At this moment. I don't think anything went wrong. The system is wrong . No tactics .. we're just lucky to have the two goals lead coupled with the fact that Porto were also dreadful in their last matches .. I think it's time for ten hag to leave

Even when it’s all about implementing a tactical culture at the club, and insisting on certain ways of play, (think Cruyff at Barcelona) it seems that tH is just not capable of creating the collective consistency that gets the best out of his players. They should have won this. The damage of loosing and being incapable becomes too much. I also think that tH needs to speak the language better, when he really wants to make a career in England and premier league football. His minimal ability to express himself becomes a problem when he needs to communicate with players and public.

Rashford isn't high, he's level with rb he like Casemiro and Martinez are caught ball watching. They don't switch on quick enough and they also seem to be caught between the transition attack and transition defend phases of play being in the wrong one at the wrong time. Dalot and Bruno both guilty of this too. This has been going on since Mourinho as Pogba was the same. They think there Messi and Ronaldo at their peaks.

Harry Amass LB Dalot is a RB

Aj don't hate the game ( ten hag) hate the players.

I think our offensive 4 work terrible with our defensive 6 (4 defenders + 2 midfielders). I don't know if this is player focus issue or coach tactics but im thinking more about 1st think, because coach is no random dude he achieved a lot and is known of his tactical knowledge . Example at 7:40. Casemiro goes deeper to cover the gap but Bruno should cover his position then as he is extra midfielder but he stand i position where he is doing nothing. Same with Rashford here why he is not deeper next to the defender to cover long cross. I think there is problem with mentality with our offensive 4, after our coaches got sacked way too easily before and now they just assume tactics are wrong lets wait for new coach to fix it. They don't even try to go for tactics fully from 1st to last second. I see that in all games when they press there is always 1 or more players "pretending" to press but they don't go full in and try to close spaces ASAP. That's why i think we have so much problems. And more often now Mazraoui is scared of going higher with press and opposition have extra man on his side.

I'm convinced Dalot is a liability and the fanbase protect him. Please do a vid on how he costs the defence and has no use when inverting and the whole thing if him being good going forward is a myth.

Almost all the conceded goals this season were from left back position. it is obvious that Luke Shaw is badly missed. Man Utd will continue to lose games if this left back position remains unsolved.

I think 4-1-4-1 out of possession in a mid block will be good for United

why EtH is using this 424 vs teams which play mainly wide, it's crazy. Can't he see not every enemy is like man city. Anyway still need to see left footed LB and how it's gonna affect

I'm trying to figure out where to play Martinez. Could he play in a double pivot? Maybe. I don't like him as a defender, he's average at best. He's not fast, he can't jump, and now he's having trouble passing. That's why INEOS wants Branthwait, they don't rate Lisandro.

Drop Rashford, play garnacho who allows the team to play a riskier game (which suits a transitional team like ours btw) with his superior off the ball work without losing any of the offensive output, play a fast backline to squeeze higher up the pitch and afford less spaces between the lines (yoro injury was such a blow)... and all of these problems disappear. Erik is not stupid. But one tactical choice of his that I still don't get is his continued insistence on playing Rashford. That guy cannot and will not do the defensive work correctly ever. And these days you can't survive the top end of the premier league with even one such player in your starting lineup.

Hang on, Porto are a good side especially at home. I remember them beating better teams than we are now. It’s the 2 points dropped last week not a draw away at Porto surely?

Welcome to man City AJ I love your videos as always . In pep guardiola we trust 🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆🏆😎😎😎😎😎.

It's as clear as day light and apparent for so many years - as long as we persist with a donkey player like Trashford, that left-wing is open. ETH, whether because of Trashfrod's contract or because he's stupid, persists with this player and will be sacked because of it.

ok so rash is little big in from wing to block DM(?), but eriksen takes same man. Dalot takes opponent CF but martinez and delight are both close. Sho who should take opponent winger?

Agree it is system problem, not a player one. Change and adapt the system, that is not happening.

ETH tatics aren't good but i think the players wants him to be sacked too...

Ten hag is too stubborn. Bruno need to be dropped deep and form three man midfield

Is it ten hagg tatic is 💩 or the players bottling it. Ten hagg in or out?

I feel like most of the time united do such stupid individual judgements & errors that I find it really difficult to decide wether its a coach or a player problem, but logic would say after such a long time & such frequency & different players that the problem would be ten hag. I like him as a coach & person and would like nothing more then for him to succeed but the most positive twist I can give ten hag’s united is that he got heavely burned out by all the bagage united brings & just isn’t capable to give his 100% anymore. Its time for both to move on imo

See guys let's just seat back and watch what's going to happen all this analysis isn't working .Aj I really appreciate your work but we just need to be patient... Manchester United need time his current style can work if the players use their half spaces and width. We can't keep creating excuses for this players no tactics is too hard to play it depends on how it's carried out. This same tactics worked in preseason and you want him to change all the sudden because we aren't playing it well .. are we cowards or Manchester United.

You some times wonder why is this coach so stubborn just play the 442 mid block to defend why the cracy 4-2-4

I really no longer have the appetite to watch Manchester united😢

Ten Hag is too stubborn. Forcing a formatin that clearly doesn't work with the players at his disposal. He clearly needs to have more players in the midfield. He also clearly needs to give Amass a chance to replace Dalot.

Nothing went wrong with the match but the coach

Rashford or Garnacho Who do you keep if you must keep one? Your answer will show either u deluded or not

Man Utd are now 21st in this league. If they finish 25th or below they will not qualify for second round.

I'm sorry but what was Casemiro doing for Porto's 1st goal. Not pressuring or marking anyone and somehow is escaping criticism. He is useless.

We have gernacho and i can see why ten haag was insisting on Anthony. Because he is a high intensity winger. If I am getting this right. Ten haag should tweak tactics to accommodate Rashford. And I get that. But what's the trade off? What does Rashford bring to the game that is worth that trade off. Get better crop of wingers. And let over paid con men leave the club

More like, did anything go right for united?

Manchester United should go back to playing counter attack. Clearly we don't have the players to play front foot football.

I said it in the live stream Bruno is a liability but he always seems to start

We need a left back dalot is tired of doing a job that's not his

We want to be challenging for the league & Europa league this season but EtH is a moments manager & lacks people skills to take charge of our club. Man Utd's Ineos chose the 'Joker' Eric Ten Hag cos of the 5min fans (anyone under 30) & flip-flop fan Base! If it was up to Us we would vet or ban the 5min fans & FlipFlop fans & send them to SkyNet Etihad! SAF way & Ole way is the Man Utd way. We prefer Ole otherwise Zidane or Pochettino can do a better Job for Us for the long-term! Keep it in the family!

Rashfrod doesn't work hard enoigh or track back and so does Garnacho. So that change was basically useless.

5:30 so it's all on the manager that our star player isn't intense enough when defending? That's not even a little bit on rashy? Man grow up

But what you are explaining happens almost in every game. So it shows how bad Ten Hag is as a manager, look how many times in just 20 minutes of the game we seeing that problem and Te. Hag didn't address it. Teams are using the wings to beat Man United