ARE Manchester United supporters in the right to be concerned?

With a close 1-0 victory over Wolves at home and a very lopsided 2-0 defeat of Tottenham, Man Utd has three points after two games to start the season.

With the additions of Andre Onana, Mason Mount, and Rasmus Hojlund to areas of need, it is safe to assume that United supporters had high expectations heading into the season.

Having said that, United’s season-opening performance does not necessarily have to be considered a failure.

Remember the beginning of the previous campaign when United was in somewhat of a crisis after losses to Brighton and Brentford?

However, United trusted Erik ten Hag’s methods instead of starting to freak out, and as a result, they finished third and qualified for the Champions League. 

Therefore, perhaps United supporters shouldn’t be in a panic and some perspective is needed.

In order for the club to have a successful season, some tactical concerns that have surfaced from the first two games will need to be resolved.

Pressing high

Football’s top teams are aggressively pressing high to obstruct the opposition’s build-up and induce errors high up the field. Pressing is still one of the game’s buzzwords.

After all, teams will be able to create opportunities to score goals if they can rapidly get the ball back. We also observe that teams that effectively press high preserve their spacing and compactness behind that high press.

To engage the press in high regions, players must jump while being supported by players behind them who must squeeze higher to close off the spaces behind the press.

If this does not occur, the team that is under pressure can play through the early pressure and locate players in a ton of open space.

In the aforementioned illustration, the United assault has stalled on the brink of the Spurs area, and Casemiro and Mount jump high to apply pressure as James Maddison is in control.Third midfielder Bruno Fernandes is already there, so as Maddison weaves between the press, he is able to advance into space.The midfield for Man United moved from the first game against Wolves, where Mount and Fernandes played quite high, to the game against Spurs, where Mount played closer to Casemiro, but the midfield as a whole still feels very stretched.While Mount appears to be more isolated in a lone 8 position, trying to link up the defensive and offensive units on his own for United, Fernandes appears to be operating more like a 10 for United as he positions himself closer to the striker.Here, we can see how vulnerable United is too quick passes in transition when the high press is broken and the opposition is allowed to play in the gap that is left between the offensive and defensive units.Heung-Min Son is released by Yves Bissouma with just one pass, wide on the right, and the United defenders are in serious trouble.It appears like United has the right mix of characteristics with Fernandes, Mount, and Casemiro as their three starting midfielders.However, they must push their defensive line higher in order to minimize the distance between the press and defensive line if Ten Hag wants his side to press and engage the ball high.If they don’t fix this, Casemiro will continue to be isolated at the base of the United midfield in vast spaces while opponents launch assaults.

Problems creating the attack and defending effectively

When United was approaching Wolves in the first game, one of the greatest problems we noticed was that their wide strikers, Alejandro Garnacho and Anthony, found it difficult to pose any danger.

Wolves were able to double up in the wide areas since United’s attack was too obviously going to be funneled wide, forcing United to either play a subpar ball into the area or turn the ball over.

But once more, despite the problems in the wide areas, United’s inability to move into advantageous attacking positions was due to a lack of organization in the midfield.

With the pass being moved forward to the left-back Luke Shaw in this instance, United has played effectively from the back.The ball is intercepted as the England international attempts to find the striker’s run with a weak pass forward.Again, because each midfielder is isolated on their respective lines, United failed in these situations to link its passes in the middle.When the high press was broken against Spurs, we frequently observed an overmatched and isolated United midfield because Casemiro, playing as the 6, was placed too far to one side of the field, making it difficult for Mount to recover.

The above image shows how United are pulled out of shape as Spurs launch their attack.

With Mount and Casemiro not playing in a more compact shape, we see Lisandro Martinez stepping high and out of the defensive line to have to challenge for the ball.

For this version of Man Utd to be effective they need to find a way to better support Casemiro on the first line of the midfield.