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Manchester United have did not defend set items adequately for a very long time however this season appears even worse than regular.
Within the current 2-2 draw with Tottenham, supervisor Erik ten Hag, ripped into his facet’s incapability to do the fundamentals when dealing with corners.
The Dutch coach bemoaned his facet’s failure to cease Richarlison equalising for Spurs with a header which noticed him benefit from the freedom of the Outdated Trafford pitch.
Naturally, United’s set piece coach Eric Ramsay has confronted a barrage of fan criticism for his obvious incapability to counteract the issue.
The Athletic have taken a deep dive into precisely what goes fallacious at United when it comes to corners and what they discovered is startling in its simplicity.
The outlet states that “they (United) have a transparent vulnerability in the direction of the again put up in these dead-ball conditions, which groups have been exploiting all season”.
“It was the fourth objective scored in opposition to United from a nook within the Premier League this season, leaving them with a median of three.0 targets per 100 corners conceded”.
“Taking a look at that targets per 100 corners conceded metric for the 2023-24 Premier League — which creates a good and stage taking part in area throughout the 20 golf equipment, as one staff may face extra corners than one other — United have the seventh-best charge”.
On the floor this isn’t nice however it isn’t horrible by any means. Nevertheless, a deeper look into the statistics is the place the actual worries emerge.
The Pink Devils “have the division’s third-worst anticipated targets (xG) per 100 corners conceded (4.2) determine. On common, Ten Hag’s facet are conceding increased high quality probabilities from corners than each staff within the Premier League bar Brighton & Hove Albion and Aston Villa”.
The issue with that is it isn’t dangerous luck and terrifyingly, they most likely have had luck to not concede extra. Due to this fact, until the issue is rectified groups will proceed to focus on it and can rating repeatedly.
When a staff doesn’t rating very like this present model of United, gifting away targets at corners turns into an enormous impediment to success.
One space which has confirmed to be “notably weak” is United’s again put up, “particularly when defending corners from the proper facet of the attacking staff”. Arsenal and Villa consistently focused and brutally uncovered this tactical design flaw once they performed United.
“United’s plan on defensive corners is a mixture of zonal and man-marking, with the zonal gamers normally specializing in defending the entrance put up. The remainder of the setup consists of man-to-man orientations and a participant defending the far put up — that is typically Diogo Dalot”.
Each Arsenal in September with Declan Rice’s essential further time winner, and Aston Villa on Boxing Day “aimed for that back-post zone — away from the zonal markers whereas manipulating the man-markers to ensure they’ve a bonus within the focused space”.
In easy phrases, either side had been in a position to feign that they had been attacking entrance and central areas of the objective, whereas blocking United’s man markers. This pins the defenders in place so the opposition can ship a participant to float off to the backpost in great isolation to attain or help.
The Athletic additionally spotlight Bournemouth’s third objective at Outdated Trafford in December when as soon as once more, an opposition participant loved the liberty of Manchester.
The outlet finishes by stating, “United’s defensive set items aren’t as dangerous as their attacking ones, however they’re nonetheless an ongoing and apparent problem that must be fastened”.
“It’s time for United to deal with their set items. Ten Hag has seen the problem, now it’s right down to him, his gamers and his workers to resolve it”.
