If Manchester United want to know what a well-structured performance looks like, they should rewatch Tottenham Hotspur’s 3-0 victory at Old Trafford. Against a lifeless press and non-existent cover on the transition, Spurs ripped Erik ten Hag’s side to shreds.
The rotations in Ange Postecoglou’s midfield proved too much for United’s organisation without the ball, while a focus on attacking the wide areas cut through United repeatedly.
In possession, the rotations between Tottenham’s midfielders and full-backs stretched United’s 4-4-2…
… and created gaps in the midfield line that were exploited by the dropping Dominic Solanke or the other central players.
Here, Dejan Kulusevski and Pedro Porro’s switch creates a gap between Marcus Rashford and Kobbie Mainoo as they exchange their markers, and Solanke drops to offer Cristian Romero a passing option through that space.
As Romero plays the pass to Solanke, Kulusevski starts moving forward…
… to offer a progressive option to his striker, with Brennan Johnson pinning United’s left-back, Diogo Dalot.
Solanke flicks the ball towards Johnson…
… and Kulusevski’s third-man run is found by the right-winger. Tottenham’s attack down the right side attracts Manuel Ugarte, which means that James Maddison is free on the other side because United’s right-back, Noussair Mazraoui, has Timo Werner (out of shot) to worry about.
As a result, Kulusevski switches the play to Maddison, with Ugarte dragged to the other side.
In another example, Kulusevski and Solanke are initially marked by Mainoo and Lisandro Martinez. The Tottenham centre-forward drops to offer himself as a passing option…
… and Kulusevski dashes forward, forcing Martinez and Mainoo to switch markers as Destiny Udogie is occupying Ugarte.
Again, the moment Tottenham progress the ball is when they switch their positions, so they can catch out United while exchanging their markers. However, Solanke returns the ball to Romero because there is no passing option.
As Romero plays the ball wide to Porro, Solanke attacks the space behind Mainoo. Meanwhile, Kulusevski drags Martinez deeper and Ugarte has to mark Udogie…
… which means United can’t cover the space behind Mainoo when Porro’s pass finds Solanke. The centre-forward then plays the ball to Johnson down the right wing…
… and by the time Ugarte moves across to support, the Wales forward plays it back to Rodrigo Bentancur, who finds Maddison in space.
Maddison then switches the ball to the other side, before combining with Kulusevski to nearly double Tottenham’s lead.
Tottenham’s movement in the central zones kept stretching United’s out-of-possession structure. Here, Mainoo and Ugarte are initially marking Kulusevski and Maddison…
… but when Spurs move the ball towards their right side, the Uruguay midfielder moves across to cover for Mainoo. Ugarte’s shift means Alejandro Garnacho cannot commit to closing down Micky van de Ven because of the narrow positioning of Maddison and Udogie (out of shot).
Romero plays the ball back to Guglielmo Vicario…
… and when the goalkeeper passes it to Van de Ven, Garnacho is late to the press.
With Ugarte moving up to mark Maddison and Mazraoui pinned by Werner down the left wing, Van de Ven comfortably finds Udogie in space.
The dominoes then fall with the right side of United’s defence late to press Udogie and Werner, which allows them to combine down the left wing, before the left-back finds Kulusevski in front of the penalty area and Johnson hits the post.
Furthermore, Tottenham’s full-backs and Bentancur positioned themselves smartly to defend the transition in case United won the ball back.
Here, Udogie finds Werner down the left wing after Tottenham play through United’s block, and Bentancur moves towards that side to cover.
Bentancur’s positioning offers a safety net for Tottenham’s left side. When Werner’s cutback doesn’t find Udogie’s run inside the penalty area and United start their attacking transition…
… Van de Ven and Romero can aggressively defend the central space and the right side because Bentancur is tracking Garnacho’s movement.
In another example, Porro and Bentancur drop deeper while Tottenham are still attacking in the aftermath of a set piece.
When the attack fails and United are looking to strike on the counter-attack, Postecoglou’s side are in a position to defend three different lanes with Bentancur’s positioning enabling Udogie to defend the central space.
Tottenham’s ability to defend United’s transitions also allowed them to create their own in the other direction. Due to United’s gung-ho approach when counter-attacking, they are always vulnerable when it is reversed.
In this example, Udogie’s narrow positioning allows him to recover when United win the ball in midfield and attack the vacated space.
Van de Ven moves across to defend Udogie’s position and the left-back complements that by dropping into the central space…
… which allows him to intercept Garnacho’s pass toward Joshua Zirkzee and reverse the transition.
Tottenham’s transition in the other direction finds Kulusevski, who puts Werner through on goal…
… but Werner shoots straight at Andre Onana.
In the build-up to Tottenham’s first goal, Udogie is in position to track Garnacho in case the ball is lost.
When United win the ball back and start the attacking transition…
… the left-back is in position to defend against Garnacho while Van de Ven and Romero are defending the other spaces. Fernandes tries to find Garnacho’s run…
… but Udogie’s presence forces the right-winger to play it backwards towards Rashford. Meanwhile, Bentancur is dropping to support the defence…
… which allows Van de Ven to sprint and beat Rashford to the ball — in case Van de Ven is late, Bentancur is already dropping to cover for him.
Tottenham reverse the transition in the other direction and Van de Ven surges through an unorganised United defence, before finding Johnson towards the far post…
… and the Wales forward scores into an empty net.
“We knew that the main threat that Manchester United have is on the transition — they are pretty lethal with the front guys they have got,” said Postecoglou after the game.
“We wanted to make sure we kind of locked them in today and that was the full-backs, and particularly Maddison and Kulusevski to be really disciplined in their football.”
(Catherine Ivill – AMA/Getty Images)
On the ball, Tottenham’s rotations in midfield allowed them to play through United’s block, while their positioning protected them on the defensive transition, from which they could counter in the other direction.
A well-constructed plan and perfect execution from Tottenham — something that can’t be said of Ten Hag’s side in the last year.
https://www.nytimes.com/athletic/5802962/2024/09/30/manchester-united-tottenham-transitions-problem/
