How Ruud van Nistelrooy’s ‘donut solution’ starts Ruben Amorim’s Man Utd revamp early with signs of improvement already

MANCHESTER UNITED were out with the old and in with the Ruud in their first Premier League game since the sacking of Erik ten Hag.

Interim boss Van Nistelrooy saw United put five past Leicester in midweek before the visit of Enzo Maresca‘s high-flying Chelsea.

And a cagey first half between the team’s of the old Malaga team-mate’s, Bruno Fernandes broke the deadlock from the penalty spot after Rasmus Hojlund was brought down in the area by Robert Sanchez.

However, moments later Moises Caicedo sensationally volleyed home an equaliser, which ended up being decisive.

Maresca’s Chelsea are far from the finished product, while United have Sporting CP manager Ruben Amorim coming in to take charge from November 11.

But what did Sunday’s Old Trafford clash show for two two sides going forward? SunSport’s tactics guru Dean Scoggins broke down all the tactics and tricks in the latest episode of Tactics Exposed…

1. Ruud new set up is practice for new boss… but playing out still a big issue

Van Nistelrooy has clearly been doing his homework on Amorim’s Sporting side.

On paper, United lined up in a 4-2-3-1 or even 4-4-2 shape at times, but realistically what they did was move to 3-4-3 in possession, and that is Amorim’s formation.

So Van Nistelrooy, maybe in a little audition to say, ‘I know what you’re going to do, Ruben’.

But the most intriguing player was Diogo Dalot.

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So Dalot, who has been the wingback or the fullback or even inverting as a fullback a lot of times for United, he effectively played as a right centre-back in the first half.

He barely got forward, barely crossed the halfway line, took a couple of throws, got forward for a couple of corners. But that was about it.

And in a defensive set-up, when they turned the ball over, it was Dalot playing as the right centre-back.

Matthijs De Ligt was the centre-back and Lisandro Martinez was on the left side. So there was a clear three there straight away.

Meanwhile, Noussair Mazraoui was on the left and Alejandro Garnacho came in on that right-hand side and played as a nominal wingback in a 3-4-3, which we saw four or five times in the first half.

Van Nistelrooy was quite brave and Garnacho played on that right-hand side, which meant that Fernandes and Marcus Rashford are then the two playing off of Hojlund.

I found it quite encouraging for United that after months and years of Ten Hag and not seeing anything, that in a week, Van Nistelrooy was able to implement something that will start off the Amorim era.

He said at the start of the game, almost with a grin, ‘I haven’t spoken to Amorim, there’s been no contact.’

I don’t believe him because it really, really was like, ‘Here you go, mate, I want to be your No 2.’

2. Midfield two starting to address the ‘donut’ in midfield

This game also saw United playing with a solid two in midfield in Casmeiro and Manuel Ugarte.

Previously United seemed to be playing with a donut in their midfield that left acres of space, like in the Liverpool and Tottenham games, where they are caught pressing upfield but the defence are not committed enough to come forward leaving this big open hole in the middle.

It must have huge part of training in the week for United because we’ve seen before the Chelsea box midfield.

So with the inversion of the fullback, they have four players in there.

And what it meant was Casemiro and Ugarte had a really, really big job to do. And Ugarte, we’ve only seen him play well in fits and starts so far.

But I thought there was a little bit where he showed for the first time what they’ve bought.

He was combative and gave away lots of fouls. We’re going to expect to see more and more of that.

But Casemiro and him in the absence of Kobbie Mainoo played as a two. A proper two. They weren’t ahead of each other, behind each other most of the time.

You’d see them either side of the centre circle. You saw them screening in front of the back four, back three at times. Getting up, up to support, but as a two.

And it’s so important, especially against teams like Chelsea. And it was clearly drilled, showing how that 3-4-3 Amorim formation might look when they play a two-man midfield.

They will play a two in there. And, you know, at times the guys up front and the number 10s will come back in to support them.

And other times a fullback or a wingback will move infield to help them. But it will be a two. And this was the first pointer to that.

Fernandes gets a lot of criticism at times where he does other people’s jobs for them. I don’t think we can criticise United over the last few weeks for not running.

They are running. They’re just a bit erratic. And this was much more organised.

Fernandes, communication-wise, worked very hard with that midfield to make sure they were working as a unit.

They didn’t get overrun by a very impressive Chelsea midfield. You know, Caicedo, Romeo Lavia, Cole Palmer and then whoever was inverting and they didn’t get overrun.

So there was an improvement there. Definitely.

3. United still struggle playing out from the back

However, United struggled to find a consistent method of playing out against Chelsea.

It will be a style they seek to play under Amorim.

He uses the two midfield players and the two centre-backs to bounce passes in and out to the goalkeeper.

And then he expects the goalkeeper or one of the two centre-backs to then find the number tens. It’s direct.

Was there an improvement yesterday? No, absolutely not. But there was an improvement in their positions.

They did this interesting thing where De Ligt went to the right and Dalot came inside to come and receive the ball, but they didn’t pass it to him. So they’re confused in what they’re trying to do.

Gary Neville correctly mentioned on commentary that playing out should be second nature, they should be doing it without thinking.

If I’m getting pressed from the left, I’m going into midfield and he’s going to bounce it right. They should be drilling it time and time again on the training ground. And they’re just not showing it.

Andre Onana is good with his feet and they will get better with it under Amorim, but it was confusing against Chelsea.

Onana nearly gifted it to Nicolas Jackson when they nicked it was a Chelsea trap.

But in the picture you can see that De Ligt was not close enough to Onana to be passed to. Everybody’s got a role in there. It’s not very complicated.

It’s just like if you’re playing a move through midfield, it’s patterns of play. You know, and we practice it all the way through youth levels. Teams will practice it right from the way everyone will do it.

That’s where Leny Yoro can come in. We’ve not seen him yet. And he will be the right centre-back instead of Dalot in that setup, I think. Then De Ligt in the middle so that will make a difference.

Mazraoui, I thought, had a really good game yesterday. Clearly, he could be either one of the two wingbacks.

We might see more involvement from Harry Maguire, and hopefully they get Luke Shaw back fit as well, because he can do this. We’ve seen him do it in an England shirt.

So there are players there who can do it. But for me, it’s drilling it.
It’s gaining confidence in doing it time and time again, repetition. And then it will happen.

4. All action Hojlund – but with more in the box he could be golden

Everyone has been talking about Viktor Gyokeres in the last week despite Man Utd not having the money to spend.

But Hojlund, who they have already spent a lot of money on, showed some really good signs playing as a proper No 9 as they went direct into him.

He wasn’t drifting into channels which is almost an excuse not to have the ball into feet, he’s had a week with Van Nistelrooy and he’s playing combatively.

I’m a big advocate for selfless runners, but the No10’s are the runners in this formation, meaning he has to be the target and he was.

He didn’t have enough touches in the box, but he did win a penalty after his only touch in there, showing they have to get him in the box.

Hojlund drew fouls in the centre of the field, he got them out when they were under a bit of pressure because he won a free kick and he had a good ding-dong with Levi Colwill and Wesley Fofana.

For the penalty incident, he actually goes head-to-head with Caicedo outside of the area and then sells Chelsea with a lovely little peel-off run over the back.

And if he’s going to contact people in front of the goal and then go round the back for another touch, he’s got a bit about him.

I think we’re going to see a lot more from Hojlund under Amorim, given there are certainly similarities between him and Gyokeres in stature and pace.

Man Utd aren’t giving him enough chances to score, but that might change with Amorim.

However, we saw in the game that it is a system that doesn’t suit Rashford.

It worked better with Fernandes but the creativity comes from the two players off the frontman, I think Hojlund has a place there, but for me Rashford was terrible against Chelsea.

It wasn’t down to a lack of effort, but rather confusion over the system and where they wanted him to play.

He doesn’t want the ball to feet or on the turn, he wants it in behind so I do feel a bit sorry for him from that perspective.

But there was a moment in the second half where Marc Cucurella peeled off the back of him who was the left back inverting.

It’s his man, and Rashford starts to sprint and then lets him go, a bit like Dalot in the Tottenham game, and he was very lucky that Chelsea didn’t score from that incident.

A couple of times he chased back quite hard in the first half. But that was really because he’d given the ball away in the first place going the other way. He looks confused. He’s 27 years old now.

He’s not the not the superstar kid anymore. He should be one of the leaders at Man United. And I feel he’s in real danger of being the sacrifice.

I mean, I’ve seen more movement from a lamp post in a storm, to be honest.

Given his salary you could see Man Utd selling him, but he’s a Man Utd boy and Amorim is very tactically flexible. He will play a 3-4-3, but it will be flexible.

So against teams who play with a higher line, you know, there is a role for Rashford.

But does he want and is he going to be willing to be a bit part player and not a starter in that 11? As it stands at the moment, he’s nowhere near it.

5. Enzo Maresca’s baffling Cole Palmer decision

We were very impressed by the way that Chelsea have started and setting up and the tactical changes Maresca has made against the likes of Liverpool.

We previously showed a heat map of Palmer and where he’s getting all his joy, and that’s inside right, a bit narrower as a No 10 this year than he was under Pochettino, which was more from the right hand side.

And then yesterday, it was as if Marseca thought ‘I know, I’ll move Palmer into a different position.’

Palmer is probably best player in the Premier League at the moment And Maresca started with Malo Gusto as the right back and Reece James as the left back, which meant that he inverted.

Gusto and James played more of the time as part of the back three when they were in possession.

Gusto has been playing as a left-back at times as well and they’ve moved it the other way. But Palmer should be the one who’s the right sided No 10.

And what was happening was that’s where Gusto was playing and Palmer was the inside left 10.

And he a few times got into this position on his left foot where De Ligt did very well as a defender to sort of push him wide and block off his shot.

But you know full well from the other side, it would have been a little feint and a ball and then a bend for the back post. And it just stifled him a little bit and they changed it in the second half.

You know, they brought Cucurella on, took Gusto off, and switched it back to where it should have been.

And the game became a bit erratic and a bit confused with United’s formation going a bit all over the place in the second half as well.

It was a bit un-Palmer-like and it’s early days to be saying that, but we’ve come to expect such high standards and he was a little bit anonymous.

For me, the golden rule, just play your best player where your best player should be playing.

So if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.