The draw with West Ham once again showed Man United's ingrained disease of not being able to find a way to penetrate deep-lying defenses.
In that match, Man United held the ball up to 65% but only launched 9 shots, accompanied by only 1 goal in a rather unbelievable way by Benjamin Sesko in the final minutes. If Michael Carrick had not taken a risk, switching from a 4-2-3-1 formation to 3-5-2 at the end of the second half, perhaps Man United would have gone home empty-handed.
When switching to the 3-5-2 formation, the two wingers of the away team are Luke Shaw (left) and Amad Diallo (right). This duo will help 3 attacking stars Bruno Fernandes, Bryan Mbeumo and Matheus Cunha be more open when the opponent is attracted to other targets.
After nearly 10 minutes since changing their playing style, Man United almost had a result after the combination of Lisandro Martinez and Bruno Fernandes. This may be the way Carrick needs to study and develop further to find a formula to penetrate deep-lying defenses.
Man United's strength under Michael Carrick is fast counter-attacks. In the draw with West Ham, one of the notable situations came in the 23rd minute. Casemiro reacted very quickly after West Ham's clearance from Diogo Dalot's cross. However, Fernandes's effort to pass the ball from Bruno to Casemiro was blocked by Axel Disasi.
Previously, in the 21st minute, once again Man United's sharpness was seen from set pieces. Just like Bryan Mbeumo's opening goal at home against Tottenham, Bruno made a very clever low pass into the penalty area with a large number of West Ham players. Luke Shaw rushed up from the 2nd post to the 1st post position. After that, his shot was cleared by Aaron Wan-Bissaka right on the goal line.
Against West Ham, Man United played less directly than in previous matches, when the wingers pushed high, the center forward and the attacking midfielder retreated deep to lure the opponent's central defenders to push high. Carrick's team also did not often shoot as often as before, especially from outside the penalty area.
The appearance of Benjamin Sesko in the 69th minute showed that Man United had accepted that they needed to have more presence in the penalty area and broke the "concrete" defensive game with high passes straight into the box.
A well-organized combination in the 77th minute, Casemiro lobbed the ball over Wan-Bissaka's head, who was skillfully attracted by Bruno, creating conditions for Shaw to penetrate behind the opponent's defense. Man United had a three-on-three situation in the penalty area, but Shaw chose a not-so-favorable option. He crossed the ball for Mbeumo, who was facing El Hadji Malick Diouf while Amad was ready to volley into the far corner of the goal.
Two crosses from almost identical positions in the 90+4 and 90+6 minutes created the last chances for Man United. Bruno crossed for Zirkzee to head wide of the post. Then, from a better angle, Mbeumo crossed low for Sesko to rush up at the near post and the Slovenian international finished neatly into the net.
This is the 6th draw in 8 away games against teams currently in the bottom half of the table after round 26. Man United has shown that they can defeat top teams with a bottom-ranked playing style, but they are seeing their limits due to tactical lack of understanding when controlling the ball more.
Let's compare Man United's results in Premier League matches since August 2024 when they controlled the ball over 60%, compared to when they controlled the ball with a smaller amount of time. "The Red Devils" only won 4/15 matches when they controlled the ball overwhelmingly but won 11/22 matches when they only controlled the ball under 49%.
After the match against West Ham, Carrick said Man United will aim for a ball control style, despite the fact that holding the ball a lot leads to poor results. To aim for a solid position in the Top 4, The Red Devils need to know how to win more points against teams in the bottom group.
