Man United has received 2 bad news before the clash with Chelsea. First, Harry Maguire is suspended for another match for improperly reacting to the referee after receiving a red card in the match against Bournemouth. Second, the club has failed to appeal Lisandro Martinez's direct red card in the match against Leeds.
Plus Matthijs de Ligt and Leny Yoro are injured, Man United only has 1 true center-back left, Ayden Heaven, before facing Chelsea in the 33rd round of the Premier League. Therefore, Michael Carrick is forced to use a full-back to pair center-backs with Heaven and the chosen person is Noussair Mazraoui.
The English coach surprised everyone because the person who was previously predicted to partner Ayden Heaven was Luke Shaw. Previously, since Ole Solskjaer was still leading the team, Shaw once played as a left-back center-back. With that patched-up center-back pair, no one thought Man United would stand firm against Chelsea. Although it cannot be denied that luck smiled on the "Red Devils" at Stamford Bridge, it does not deny the commendable efforts of this mismatched pair.
Right from the beginning of the match, Heaven had a fierce tackle on Liam Delap in the penalty area and he succeeded. He continued to win in a similar dispute with Delap in the 33rd minute, rushing to receive the ball after a careless touch of the Chelsea striker. Those were calculated actions, showing the determination to prevent the opponent's attacks from the 19-year-old star.
The biggest minus point, and possibly the only one for Heaven, is the tackle on Cole Palmer in the penalty area. If the Chelsea midfielder hadn't lifted his leg in time, it would definitely have been a penalty. At the end of the match, Heaven had 4 tackles and 4 successful aerial situations. This performance recalls the time the former Arsenal player won the MVP in the match against Newcastle at Boxing Day.
This is only Heaven's 9th start this season, the most recent match was against Burnley under Darren Fletcher interim on January 7.
Heaven must be praised when he is still very young and has not played much. Training every day has helped him have a ready state" - Carrick shared.
The partner with Heaven is Mazraoui, who used to play in this position under Ruben Amorim but it was in a 3-4-3 formation, not 4-2-3-1 as at present. The only time before that the Moroccan international played in the center-back position in a 4-defender formation was when wearing Bayern Munich's shirt against Preussen Munster in September 2023. In that match, Bayern easily won 4-0.
To help Mazraoui and Heaven pair up in the center-back position, Carrick shared about his discussions with both of them in tactical meetings. To limit the weaknesses of this pair, Carrick also instructed Senne Lammens not to pass the ball too short, focusing on passing straight up to the forwards.
With a pair of patched-up center-backs, Man United has been closer than ever to the door to returning to the Champions League next season. They are 10 points ahead of Chelsea (6th place) when there are only 5 more matches left. This is also the first time Man United has won away against the Arsenal, Liverpool and Chelsea trio in the English Championship since the 1984-1985 season.
After serving an additional suspension, Harry Maguire will return to the squad for the match against Brentford in the 34th round of the Premier League. As for Lisandro Martinez, he will have to wait until after the match against Liverpool to be able to reappear. Good news is that Leny Yoro may also recover by the end of this week.
