From taking over ahead of January’s Manchester Derby win over Manchester City, Michael Carrick led Manchester United to a seven-game unbeaten run in the Premier League, which ended against 10-man Newcastle United at St. James’ Park in March.
That game marked the start of a turbulent four-game run, which has seen the Red Devils win once, against their UEFA Champions League qualification rivals, Aston Villa, draw once, against AFC Bournemouth, and now lose twice, with Leeds United joining Newcastle in placing a blemish on Michael Carrick’s managerial record.
Leeds approached Monday’s match with the goal of Premier League survival in mind.
They have now put six points between themselves and 18th-placed Tottenham Hotspur, making their win at Old Trafford a potentially vital one in the relegation battle.
Manchester United remain third, with Champions League qualification still in their hands, but they will need to start putting more points on the board to avoid slipping below Aston Villa (with whom they are level on points) and Liverpool (trailing Manchester United by three points behind).
This match analysis article shares tactical analysis of what Manchester United did poorly in the first half of Monday’s game, before Lisandro Martínez’s 56th-minute red card, which is where the Whites truly capitalised on Manchester United’s subpar performance in two key areas with and without the ball to win the match.
Manchester United Vs Leeds United Lineups & Formations
Michael Carrick set the hosts up in a 4-2-3-1 shape, with Senne Lammens between the sticks and behind a back-four consisting of Noussair Mazraoui, Leny Yoro, Lisandro Martínez and Luke Shaw (from right to left).
Manuel Ugarte stepped into midfield in place of the injured Kobbie Mainoo and alongside Casemiro, behind Bruno Fernandes as the ‘10’.
Amad Diallo played on the right wing opposite Matheus Cunha on the left, while Benjamin Šeško led the attack at centre-forward.
Daniel Farke set the visitors up in a 5-4-1 shape with Karl Darlow in goal behind James Justin, Jaka Bijol and Pascal Struijk at centre-back.
Jayden Bogle and Gabriel Gudmundsson started at right and left wing-back, respectively, with Ethan Ampadu and Ao Tanaka in central midfield.
Brenden Aaronson played on the right wing opposite Noah Okafor on the left, with Dominic Calvert-Lewin up top.
Figure 1
Manchester United’s Lack Of Threat In Front Of Leeds United’s Defence
Manchester United struggled to progress into the final third and access the space between the Whites’ midfield and defensive lines due to a lack of presence in those areas.
For much of the game, Bruno Fernandes was Manchester United’s sole presence between the opposing midfield and backline.
That’s not a bad player to have in that position, but it was too easy for Leeds to cut off passing lanes into Bruno Fernandes via Ampadu and Tanaka.
Furthermore, as Leeds had three centre-backs, they could easily afford to send one out to press Bruno Fernandes aggressively from behind if he did receive in between the lines, trapping him between the centre-backs and midfielders with little support due to the lack of presence in that area from other Manchester United players.
Figure 2
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Fintan O'Reilly Fintan O'Reilly
Fintan O'Reilly is the Editor-In-Chief for TFA. A French football enthusiast who is passionate about all things scouting, recruitment, and tactics.