High-end coaches from Mauricio Pochettino and Brendan Rodgers to Zinedine Zidane have been touted as the potential next Manchester United manager but for the time being Michael Carrick, another former United player, will step in as interim boss following Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s sacking.
The 40-year-old has spent the three years since retiring as a player as a first-team coach, initially as part of Jose Mourinho’s backroom staff and then under Solskjaer.
Carrick will face a baptism of fire in his new role with United taking on Villarreal in a crucial Champions League tie in his first game, followed by league matches against Chelsea and Arsenal over the next 10 days.
He will have to be bold and make changes as the general plan under Solskjaer, whatever that might have been, clearly was not working. United have lost six of their last 11 matches in all competitions, conceding four or more goals in three of them.
Here are some of the most pressing issues on his to-do list:
Individuals like Harry Maguire, Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Fred have been criticised for their performances, but there are deep-rooted systemic issues at play. One that has been prevalent in recent months is United’s failure to press with the requisite intensity and organisation to win the ball back. United’s previously successful tactic of sucker-punching opponents on the counter-attack has evaporated, while the lack of intensity without the ball has had the calamitous effect of overloading the defenders, leading to costly individual errors becoming commonplace.
According to FBREF, United rank 16th in the Premier League for tackles attempted in the final third and second-bottom for successful pressures, defined as “the number of times the squad gained possession within five seconds of applying pressure”. The elephant in the room here is Cristiano Ronaldo, who has made fewer successful pressures than any other starting forward in the division.
It seems unlikely that Carrick will drop Ronaldo, given a) he is Ronaldo and b) he has scored 32 per cent of United’s goals this season, but he has to succeed where Solskjaer failed in making United a more cohesive team, both in and out of possession. At times this campaign, United’s strategy has mirrored that of a school football team; run around aimlessly and hope that the striker eventually scores. Perhaps using the tireless Edinson Cavani in the Karim Benzema role will help matters.
A quicker fix could be to make personnel changes to freshen things up. Jadon Sancho failed to provide a single goal or assist in 14 appearances under Solskjaer, but it would be a boost to Carrick’s coaching skills if he manages to extract some form from the £73m summer signing from Borussia Dortmund. The same applies to Donny van de Beek and Alex Telles, both of whom have been bizarrely under-used during their time at United, particularly this season when their positional rivals have been badly out-of-form.
Ultimately, Carrick must succeed in tightening United up, making them more difficult to play through in midfield and piece together a functioning strikeforce. For a rookie coach, it is quite the challenge.
Man Utd team news
Carrick will be without a few first-team regulars for the trip to Villarreal.
Raphael Varane (hamstring), Paul Pogba (thigh) and Mason Greenwood (Covid) are all definitely out, while Luke Shaw is also set to miss the game after suffering a suspected concussion during the loss to Watford.
Alex Telles or Diogo Dalot will compete for the left-back slot, while Donny van de Beek will hope to make a rare start following his goalscoring contribution off the bench at the weekend.
Harry Maguire is available as his one-game suspension following his sending off at Vicarage Road only applies to domestic matches. He will sit out Sunday’s Premier League meeting with Chelsea instead.
Predicted 4-2-3-1 line-up: De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Telles; McTominay, Van de Beek; Sancho, Fernandes, Rashford; Ronaldo
from Football – inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/3DHUMAI
Post a Comment