Victories against Man City and Arsenal are wonderful moments of the "Red Devils" spirit, which is Man United's brand. However, such victories are not uncommon in recent years even though the team is still in a downward cycle.
How Man United plays proactively, how they face "concrete" defenses, is of great interest. The reason is that only when the ball is held and the playing style is organized, can the shape of the operating system be clearly seen.
One of the simple ways Michael Carrick applied to penetrate deep-lying defenses was a set-piece situation. Casemiro's opening goal came from an aerial duel after Bruno Fernandes crossed from a free kick near the penalty area.
The 2025-2026 season is witnessing many clubs using set-piece goals as a hammer to break through crowded defenses.
Arsenal is the master of this method, they have 17 goals from set pieces since the beginning of the season, but Man United is also not inferior with 14 goals.
One of Carrick's refinement points with the 4-2-3-1 formation being applied is the highest position in attack. The 44-year-old coach did not use a pure center forward like Benjamin Sesko from the beginning. The person chosen in all 3 matches is Bryan Mbeumo.
The Cameroonian striker has good speed and technique, often finding ways to sneak behind the opponent's defense. If not, Mbeumo is ready to retreat deep to coordinate with his teammates in attacking directions. This is also the way Ole Gunnar Solskjaer often used before when choosing Anthony Martial instead of Romelu Lukaku.
If we compare Fulham's defense to a stumbling block, Carrick had many hammers at the same time to break it, instead of using a very large hammer, it takes a lot of effort to lift it up and it is not necessarily effective.
That is how Carrick is breaking deep-back defense systems. And when put in a position to defend, the young coach does not have many options, only focusing on simple things to do his best.
In the past 3 matches, when looking at how Carrick arranged personnel when the team had to defend, fans will easily see the 4-4-2 formation, with only Bruno Fernnades and Mbeumo above.
Man United chose to defend by actively catching small areas and tackling, instead of putting pressure on the opponent right in the opposite half of the field.
Carrick lets the players take the initiative in a position to resist pressure instead of finding ways to limit the opponent from building attacking plans from 1/3 of the opposite field. Man United accepts tackles near the penalty area.
This approach is very dangerous because the opponent will easily have free kicks near the penalty area, even get a penalty. However, its advantage is to maintain strength for counter-attacks and in general, by the 10th minute of injury time of the second half, Man United players can still mark well.
However, this approach is very risky and if there is a better option, Carrick should consider it. The penalty goal conceded in the final minutes or Kevin's super product on Fulham's side made all the efforts built up in the previous 80 minutes seem to have collapsed.
If Fulham is considered a quality test, Man United players have passed it. However, the score cannot be A, A+,... it only stops at level B.
From now until the end of the season, Carrick's task is to continue to maintain stability and gradually upgrade, and should not change anything that disrupts the system as Ruben Amorim has applied.
