Ruben Amorim's side conceded three goals from corners in four days
Jamie Redknapp pointed the finger at Ruben Amorim’s right-hand man Carlos Fernandes after Manchester United’s set piece problems continued.
United lost their second match in a week as Nottingham Forest left Old Trafford with a famous 3-2 win on Saturday evening. The defeat was Amorim’s first at home and followed on the back of a comprehensive 2-0 reverse at Arsenal on Wednesday to leave United languishing in 13th place in the Premier League.
They were 1-0 down inside two minutes when Nikola Milenkovic climbed highest to power home a corner for Forest. The ease with which he got a free header inside the United box was concerning after Arsenal scored both of their goals from corners earlier in the week.
Amorim explained before the game that Fernandes has taken over from Andreas Georgson as the coach in charge of set pieces – and former Liverpool midfielder Redknapp is not impressed by the defensive set-up he has implemented.
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“Manchester United have changed their set piece coach,” he said in a piece of analysis on Sky Sports. “They’ve got a new guy in, that the manager’s brought in. Carlos Fernandes his name is. Another guy was doing it. But this doesn’t work for me. There are a couple of people in the Premier League who you don’t want to mark from set pieces: one of them is Gabriel [Magalhaes] and one has to be Chris Wood.
“[Manuel] Ugarte, he must be 5ft 10in maximum, and he’s up against Chris Wood. If that ball comes in there it’s a mismatch and it’s a goal. Nobody in this situation is taking control. There’s not one bit of confidence when I look at it.”
Former United centre-back Phil Jones feels that having Diogo Dalot as the first defender on the near post is problematic. He believes that Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt should be positioned more prominently to clear the ball. “There was a real sense of vulnerability, just watching the game, in the crowd,” Jones said. “It was almost infectious, every time the ball went out for a corner you felt that.”
Nikola Milenkovic headed in a corner after two minutes (
Image:
Sky Sports)
He added: “I think he's got a clear identity of how he wants to play, I think he's got a clear message of how he wants every individual player to be in possession, out of possession, that will take time.
“He's alluded to the fact that it will take time to implement his style and the way he wants to go about things. But I do think if you're going to concede goals like they have and set plays then they're going to find it increasingly difficult.”
When asked who was to blame for the poor organisation from the corner, Amorim told Sky Sports: "This is more my fault, because I'm responsible. And we tried to do it in the best way. We did a lot of work in this area, because we saw it in Arsenal. It was really hard.”
United striker Rasmus Hojlund said: "Annoying goals of course, we need to do better, specifically on corners, we've conceded too much now but I'm sure we'll improve.”
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