Manchester United 3-0 Tottenham: Super Sunday in depth tactical analysis - gameweek 29

17 March 2015 03:36

Selection and Overview - Van Gaal switched to a 4-3-3 formation with Mata in for the suspended Di Maria while Carrick came back into midfield pushing Blind back to left-back. Pochettino meanwhile made one change from the team that beat QPR bringing Danny Rose in for Ben Davies.

Man Utd responded to their FA Cup quarter-final defeat with a fantastic performance to silence all their critics. They blew Tottenham away in the first-half and controlled the game in the 2nd. Tottenham however were shocking lacking any purpose in their attacking and any concentration in their defending.

Man Utd’s left side - Man Utd caused Spurs endless problems by attacking down the left flank and this led to the first goal. Ashley Young and Fellaini’s positions in particular were very awkward for Tottenham. While Young hugged the touchline attracting the attention of Walker Fellaini was positioned in the ‘half space’ forcing Mason backwards to cope with him. This left Carrick a lot of space to move into and when he received the ball Mason had to move forward to engage him and vacated the space for Fellaini to run through on goal. Walker struggled and made a bad decision by following Young to the touchline and leaving a gap to Dier which Fellaini exploited. However this goal could also be traced back to Townsend and Chadli who enthusiastically press Blind but are unaware of Carrick who drifts in behind them, as Alan Hansen would say it was a ‘catalogue of errors’. Despite all this it is important to acknowledge that it was a brilliant team goal from United consisting of 8 passes where they effectively probed an opening by moving the ball from right to left. Around the half hour mark Pochettino took off Townsend for Dembele to try and match United with 3 in midfield and pushed Eriksen out wide. It was another reflection of United’s dominance and when Rooney bulldozed his way through to make it 3-0 (cue knockout puns) it was no more than they deserved and the celebration that followed was classic.

Despite United’s main threat coming from the left, they also did damage down the right flank through good passing and movement from the trio of Herrera, Mata and Valencia. Due to Tottenham’s willingness to press United in these areas United could get in behind them by displaying the confidence to pass the ball under pressure and move.



This is the sort of confidence that United have been lacking for much of the season, which made them look unconvincing under pressure, and it was good to see them display it here. All over the pitch United’s circulation of possession was much more fluid and effective than it has been for much of the season with every player displaying courage on the ball (yes even Smalling!)

Another pleasing aspect of United’s game was the desire they showed to win the ball back they beat Tottenham at their pressing game and forced them into corners where they surrendered possession frequently. As the image demonstrates United marked Spurs players who tried to help Rose play out and the pass to Bentaleb is undesirable here as there is a high chance that Rooney could intercept it.

‘Hurri-Kane’ neutralised -  Man Utd were effective in neutralising the threat of Harry Kane using Smalling and Jones to be mark him tightly and aggressively. Given that Kane’s hold up play is central to Tottenham’s attacks denying him space meant that Tottenham struggled to build any meaningful attacks in the 1st half. It also allowed United to sustain pressure on Tottenham as the ball often went up to Kane but came straight back towards the Spurs defence. Jones and particularly Smalling deserve credit for this given that stopping Kane is no mean feat as Gary Cahill would tell you!



This gave United total control of the game especially in the 1st half which was demonstrated as United enjoyed around 60% of possession and much of the game was played in Tottenham’s half. Unlike much of the season David De Gea was merely a spectator and he would surely have enjoyed what was akin to a ‘day off’. Another problem that Tottenham faced was that Fellaini and Herrera were positioned so high that they forced Eriksen to drop deeper to help cope with the numbers. This meant that when Tottenham won the ball back Kane was the only outlet and he struggled to hold up the ball for the aforementioned reasons and was totally isolated United were thus first to almost every loose ball.

2nd Half

In the 2nd half United were happy to see the game out and let Tottenham have possession of the ball in areas that could not hurt them. They defended in 4-5-1 shape and similar to Southampton focused on defending the middle of the pitch and limiting the space for players like Eriksen to work in.

This meant that Tottenham spent large periods of the 2nd half trying to build attacks either from very deep positions or from wide areas where United would commit 2/3 or more players to congest the play and prevent Tottenham from going forward as the image shows.



When Tottenham were building from deep United’s defensive line also pushed up quite high to congest the ’10 space’ and Tottenham suffered from a lack of runs in behind the United defence as Harry Kane was starved of possession and had to come deep to get it. If Spurs had willing runners United’s defence would have been forced to drop deeper and bring the midfield back with them which would have given them more dangerous areas to work in. Tottenham’s woes in attack were so severe that they only managed one shot on target and this was in the 89th minute with the game done and dusted.

Conclusion - It was a thoroughly convincing performance from Manchester United both in an attacking and defensive sense that the pundits and fans have been crying out for. Exactly the opposite can be said of Tottenham but this was also partly due to United’s brilliance. The result leaves United 2 points off 2nd place and perhaps they should begin to look upwards as well as down in the race to secure Champions League football next season. As for Tottenham it is a case of down but not out as 6 points off the top four is certainly not insurmountable.

Source: DSG