In football’s history, plenty of teams have come and gone “deserving victories” but not getting them. The difference between deserving to win a game and actually winning it has always been the quality in both boxes.
Manchester United’s issues reach far deeper than just not succeeding in either box:
but they are notably coming short on both ends - in attacking quality and numbers, and quality in the defensive box.
It is easy to spot technical and tactical shortcomings of individuals and remark that they are young and capable of learning - but it would be easier from a recruitment perspective at Manchester United to invest in players with less glaring shortcomings.
As a centre-back, regardless of defending in a four or a five, there’s a set of situations you can find yourself in with regards to defending crosses. There is defending the front post, defending the goalmouth, defending the back post. The delivery can come early, medium or late.
On early crosses, the aim is to have your body opened up as soon as possible; meaning chest towards the ball, ready to clear the ball. Clearing the ball can be done with first touch defending (clearing it in one touch) and is best aimed outside of the funnel.
The key to challenging in aerials duels is the cross-over run; to run backwards crossing over your legs (to not go straight) keeping pace and eyes on the ball.
That is what De Ligt and Maguire do well here. They’re in their clearing position; far foot on or one yard off the 6-yard line, and their body is opened up. Martinez is late, and not in position.
Lisandro Martinez has the height disadvantage over almost any Premier League striker or box-crashing midfielder which compounds issues. But another key difference between Harry Maguire (252 Premier League appearances) and Lisandro Martinez is how they deal with their opponent.
One secret scouting tips is to look at players with buckets of experience at the highest level in successful teams and spot every detail they do or do not do. I consider Harry Maguire to be one of those benchmark players.
I enjoy looking at the timing of contact that defenders make in the box; the end goal is to render the odds of the striker getting a good shot off as little as possible. Manchester City’s defenders nudge and push the attacker away from the posts before the ball is swung in because the referee isn’t looking yet and a challenge is rarely overturned before the ball is actually relevant to the situation.
Maguire makes timely contact with Alexander Isak because he is already in position. The technique of the contact is also key to not give away a foul but also remain in control of the opponent.
The ball is played over Maguire and Isak, but the contact is to get an arm over the arm of Isak. This prevents Isak from moving where he wants to, but also hinders him from getting off the ground (you can’t put direction into a header with no arms).
Referees have a slight bias when there are mismatches; for example a huge player making justifiable contact with a shorter player being given as a foul (remember that Lukaku foul in the 2018 Manchester Derby at home?). That is why matching up to your opponent is key.
Lisandro Martinez (175cm) vs Dan Burn (198cm) in the box as Martinez cannot stop his momentum.
De Ligt could’ve done better to spot the mismatch and take over; he’s now late to the jump and missed the duel (with Dan Burn misdirecting his header). But the solution shouldn’t be to not let your centre-back engage in aerial duels.
Below is an overload situation in which United shouldn’t concede a chance but do.
Martinez’ cross-over run is non-existent, rather walking back straight (losing speed). Ugarte is coming across to defend the channel and is in place to block a potential shot - which is why Martinez should not step out but rather be side-on to force the pass out wide and slow the attack.
As a consequence of the defensive run and the misjudgement to step out, he’s late in the blocking hole. That’s the magical space for the first central defender to defend; between the backline and the 6-yard line. That’s the position you should be in, with other defenders picking up the nearest attackers and midfielders on the penalty spot.
Another secret scouting tip is that per position there are fundamentals that you can benchmark. The secret is that you watching even a handful of plays is enough to decipher whether a player executes those fundamentals or not. That is why you could know in the 2022/2023 season that Lisandro Martinez was actually not good at defending the box.
Oh, this is so simply described. Thanks!