Man United are going through disappointing matches as the "Red Devils" have consecutively conceded direct goals from corner kicks in just one week. Matheus Cunha recreated Son Heung-min's corner kick (Tottenham). This shows that the Old Trafford team is having an inherent problem that cannot be solved.
3-4 loss to Tottenham
In this situation, Tottenham is leading Man United with a score of 3-2. The Red Devils decided to keep the familiar strategy when gathering the majority of players in the 5m50 hurdles. There were up to 8 red shirt players crowded in this area, while Spurs only had 3 players participating in the attack.
Notably, Amad Diallo and Alejandro Garnacho were also placed in the penalty area, leaving Man United without any players standing further than 11m from the goal. This reduces the ability to react when the ball is blocked or bounces to the opponent's second line.
When Son Heung-min took a corner kick, goalkeeper Altay Bayindir decided to push Dominic Solanke off the ball to create space to catch the ball. However, this caused the Turkish goalkeeper to lose balance and go too far towards the goal. Worse yet, there is no Man United player standing on the goal line to support the goalkeeper in case the ball passes him.
Bayindir realized that Son's ball was going beyond his reach, trying to retreat but unable to catch up. Lucas Bergvall jumped up and accidentally touched the Man United goalkeeper, giving him a missed opportunity to block. Unfortunately, the referee did not observe this situation and VAR was not applied in the League Cup before the semi-finals.
0-2 loss to Wolves
In this match, a similar problem appeared. Man United continued to gather 8 players in the 5m50 round, but the lack of flexibility became even more obvious when captain Bruno Fernandes was sent off.
This time, Wolves confidently pushed up with 5 players crowded in the 5m50 area and 1 player lurking on the edge of the penalty area. Ruben Amorim's team did not have any players standing in the area far from the goal to support the defense or organize counter-attacks.
When Matheus Cunha took a corner kick, Wolves took full advantage of Man United's passiveness. Matt Doherty stepped back near Andre Onana, while Santiago Bueno advanced from afar, creating a holding position to lock the Cameroonian goalkeeper on the goal line.
Meanwhile, Man United's defenders did not support Onana. Manuel Ugarte tried to push Bien away but was too weak, not enough to create space for Onana to move.
Onana tried to jump to block but was completely isolated. The ball flew straight into the far corner of the goal. The sad thing is that even if the ball did not go into the net, Wolves still had a player waiting at the far post ready to score without being marked.
conceding a goal directly from a corner is not a common thing in the Premier League. In fact, throughout the tournament's 35 years, only 17 goals have been scored in this way. However, Man United have let it happen twice in just one week, exposing serious flaws in their defensive tactics.
