Manchester United rose to third place in the Premier League courtesy of a second-half turnaround against Crystal Palace, powered by Michael Carrick’s half-time tweak.
To borrow an age-old footballing cliche, it was a “game of two halves” for Manchester United against Crystal Palace.
An insipid first-half performance saw them trail at half-time, before surging levels sparked a turnaround in the second half.
The players deserve credit, but the improved performance was down to Michael Carrick’s genius tactical tweak at half-time, which worked like a charm.
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Manchester United's Portuguese midfielder #08 Bruno Fernandes (L) congratulates Manchester United's Slovenian striker #30 Benjamin Sesko
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Michael Carrick saw Man Utd problem vs Palace
Carrick made the expected call in his team selection as Amad made way for Benjamin Sesko, who is on a hot streak.
However, Sesko was starved of service in the first half, as his one chance was limited to a header he struck straight at Dean Henderson.
Palace found it extremely easy to sit in a narrow block, close the spaces between the lines, and funnel United’s attacks out wide.
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United were left with hopeful crosses as their only avenue of attack, and Palace were looking comfortable.
That was because both Matheus Cunha and Bryan Mbeumo kept cutting inside on their stronger foot, leaving United with no width.
It played directly into the hands of Palace’s narrow block, and with Noussair Mazraoui also playing on his “wrong” foot on the left, it added another underlapping option occupying the same central space instead of providing width by overlapping.
Carrick noticed that and made a tweak at half-time.
Carrick’s tweak at half-time was genius
Carrick didn’t have the personnel to play a game with width, since both Patrick Dorgu and Luke Shaw were unavailable, and there’s no right-footed right winger in the ranks.
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Instead, Carrick instructed both Cunha and Mbeumo to start from wider positions, even if they were always going to come inside.
Those wider starting positions forced Palace to mark them, leading to gaps in their shape horizontally, opening up space for Bruno Fernandes to operate in the half-spaces.
Furthermore, Mazraoui also held the width, and Dalot overlapped a lot on the right side as United attacked with numbers.
It gave United a proper 3-2-5 shape in attack, with Mazraoui tucking in as the third centre-back, and Mbeumo-Cunha-Fernandes-Sesko-Dalot forming a front five.
The width issue was solved, the midfielders had more space to play progressive passes, and that’s how the penalty was won.
Fernandes crosses for Sesko from the half-space out wide, and United continued to threaten with a simple tweak of Carrick, instructing his wingers to stay high and wide in the first phase of the attack.
Little things like that won’t show up in stats, but they hammer home Carrick’s tactical mastery, which is flying under the radar.
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