The College Dropout

There's no number 10 for them. They play with a DM and two 8's like us. Same thing as Brentford. They had 5 proper defenders. 3 hard working central midfielders and 2 strikers. No 10. If teams have weakness in the half space against us - how would we exploit it? We don't play like that. Their wingers are like inside forwards. They want to get 1v1 against fullbacks or run in behind. And even then. RLC got the wrong side of Tonali a couple of times which led to openings they should've done better with. And Florenzi and one of the subs found themselves between defence and attack a couple of times which led to shots on goal. But every team that actually has players looking to exploit that space - Villa, City, Brighton in particular - they've had lots of joy. We setup high from GK's but didn't get close to them. The Milan back 5 has good technical ability to play itself out of danger so that would be why that didn't work from what I saw. No, we weren't in a good shape to turn loose balls into counterattacks. That's why players would run like Almiron and just lose the ball or play an over-ambitious pass. We were not in good positions because everyone was super deep defending Milan. Milan didn't press us so we had decent possession with defenders and could move to the halfway line. But with a little pressure, we just went backwards. Didn't put together a single decent passing move all game - again.

The biggest issue with Burn is that he needs his hands held whenever up against a pacy/tricky winger. It makes our winger play very deep and not in a position to counter. And his distribution is bad. And he doesn't give the opposition winger anything to think about when defending. Teams let him have it and let him have space. Bruno, in particular, won't even pass to him. But he's good defensively in the box and wins most defensive headers. Take him and Joe out the team. Suddenly we look small.

Look at any Xg metric. It's a minimum of 2 goals for them and a maximum of 0.3 for us. That's a 2-0 scoreline. For comparison - our non-penalty Xg against Brentford was 0.6

I don't think this is by design. In fact, I think the players may be short physically. In his post-match press conference, he said we wanted to press the GK and CBs as that is our style but we had mixed results. I missed the first 15 minutes but I didn't see that at all. So any change in approach was situational. Also by the end, several of the lads were dead on their feet it's not like we are conserving energy well. Perhaps the lads are just a little behind physically? Longstaff I understand because he's come back from injury and Isak isn't a pressing machine at all. IMO we don't have a good non-aggressive press setup. Particularly in midfield and defence. One pass splits the whole thing again and again. We were fortunate that Milan played a similar system to us. So they only got space in between midfield and attack when an 8 got the other side of our 8 or someone broke lines with their movement. But they found lots of joy in wide areas anyway. Chukwueze had the better of Burn. Then Isak couldn't track Florenzi and Florenzi put in a couple of great crosses 1 led to a chance, the other nobody attacked. Then he had a few crossing opportunities he wasted and a few decent passing moves that led to nothing. I liked the look of Chukwueze offensively. 20m euros. Pulisic was poor.

If we are to keep building in a 3-2 setup, let Trips be part of the 3 and have him keep pop passes into midfield that he does so well. Get Hall at LB to push on and add some progression from midfield spaces there. Apart from Bruno nobody in midfield spaces picks a forward pass. Hall can do that. Trippier was excellent. Leao rarely troubled him. We did well to block passing lanes into Leao in the main. Leao is so good he still should have scored twice.

Lots of teams build up with 3 back in defence - 2 in midfield. It’s not the main reason we had 1 shot on target. Schar Botman Burn Longstaff Bruno Trippier Almiron Willock Joelinton Isak We often got ourselves into this type of shape last season. That works well. Yesterday Burn couldn’t pass. And when he did Gordon was super wide and not able to trouble Florenzi much. Tonali was pushed up but didn’t do anything and couldn’t connect meaningfully with Gordon or Isak. That’s the main problem.

Milan didn’t look to exploit those areas much. Their wingers were wide and more interested in going 1v1 with our FBs. But they still found plenty of space there. We didn’t come to press so why didn’t we sit in a compact bank? We struggled to play through Liverpools 10 man bank because it was tight and compact.

Aye. Just so ineffective on the ball. Barely gets on it.

I think they’ll be more dangerous on the counter. They are setup similar to us. Don’t really have craft to break a team down. But on the counter they have pace and quality. But if we play well we can beat anyone at home.

Apart from His distribution I don’t think Burn is a massive issue in attack. The striker is isolated. We don’t get our wingers in dangerous positions. The awful passing yesterday I can blame the occasion.

Where do we want Isak to be on the pitch? IMO you want him making runs in behind defences where players can slip him in. You also want him edge of the area in a little space where he can commit a man, or pass and move with a team mate. We never get him into any of those positions. Both positions need players around him to link with and play him in. We aren’t setup for that. And arguably don’t have the personnel fit atm. He was ok first half. Trying to keep the ball. But he didn’t have good passing options. He should try to release the ball earlier when he comes deep. One or two touches, pass and try to spin back up. He takes 3-6 touches. Plays it safe. Then any momentum is gone. I would like us to play 4231. Have him close enough to Bruno, Wilson and a winger to combine with.

We conceded lots of chances. They had An Xg of over 2+ goals and had 9 shots on target. They also worked the ball into promising positions plenty of times. We didn’t offer much in return. Could barely pass it to each other. Aye. Wembley we got done by the goals but Man U had less chances. And we played well. We just lack quality in the final third. Today we lacked quality in build up. In midfield. Everywhere. LC final was an even game decided by moments of quality. I think we played the occasion tonight because we were so bad at the simple stuff. And granted we chased all game but everyone was knackered by 80 minutes. I don’t think Milan were good. We were just bad. I don’t think we were decent in possession. Milan just didn’t press. They are setup to counter so wanted us to attack. Ny biggest gripe is that if we don’t press well we are bad. We didn’t press these and we struggled to stop them getting into dangerous positions. Without the press we can’t build up in possession. This seems like a choice we’ve made to be more conservative in the press. But it’s not working at all. Some of the personnel weaknesses are by choice.

I think it’s more tactical than the need for a 6. There’s a massive gap between defence and midfield. If a team has a 10 or players to drop into the spaces they will enjoy. One pass beats our entire midfield time and again.

I don’t think people would be calling for his head. My analysis of the match doesn’t change considerably because of the result. Had Leao scored his header late on - Schar, Bruno, Botman, Pope still had great games. And we still looked susceptible defensively whenever Milan could string a few passes together.

The shot that went high and wide? Of course not. This isn’t his level. But he tried and did as well as he could.

Aye. I’m more of a process than outcome person. I’m happy we got the point. But I would have more positive things to say had we lost and played well. I’m shouting about all the good things I saw from individuals… but we were bad so I have to shout about the bad things too. But I also don’t get as down on players or managers. They tend to be doing what they’ve always done. Also some people can’t separate result from performance. Everyone is delighted at the result but some think others are unhappy at the result because others have critiques about the performance.

Brilliant.

Rinsed by Chukwueze again and again. Didn’t stop any crosses coming in. Passing was absolutely awful. But he was crucial defensively at times. And I think he got his head onto every set piece.

Yet he still decided to take that left footed curler on from the edge of the box.

Excellent result. But I’m a big boy. I judge performances on their own merit. If we lost but played well - I would have positive things to say about how we were setup and performed. Outside of Villa we’ve not played well all season. We are going to keep looking like conceding goals if we keep setting up like this. The defenders actually played really well but we are so open midfield.

I argued this earlier last season. He’s not a winger. He’s never had to track fullbacks down and he’s not good at it. He was tired. And poor for much of the game. he got worse and worse. Isolated again. He’s not suited to this style of play.

Was excellent. Even managed to pass to his own team mates.

Good clearance. Jacob Murphy in it. This is a dream come true so I’m delighted for him. This isn’t his level and it showed.

Thought he was bad. But we looked worse when he went off. No relationships with the others just yet. Barely gets on the ball.