nssmuckers
Active Member
- Jul 2, 2013
- 284
- 900
Regarding Etienne and Nabil:
This is the second time that Capoue really struggled early in a big away match. It was very similar at the Emirates with him; he could barely complete a simple pass for the first 20 minutes . Looked very nervy under their early pressure.
That said, I thought he did a very good job restricting space in the center of the pitch. He didn't do anything that's going to show up on a stat sheet, but I was watching him specifically for a while and he was chained to Rooney, not letting him do much in advanced positions. United dominated the ball but they never really penetrated straight through the middle--almost every good situation they created from open play originated down their right. Rooney kept dropping deep and spraying it wide, which I'd much prefer to him getting on the ball near the edge of the box.
I think the timing of the Bentaleb substitution was potentially interesting, and I wonder if it was a specific response to the double change United made. United dropped Rooney into central midfield in the 61st minute, and almost immediately afterwards we dropped Capoue for Bentaleb.
It was probably as simple as Etienne being gassed and us just needing fresh legs, but I kind of want to believe it was a tactical response to no longer really needing to account for Rooney in advanced positions. Bentaleb is tidier and safer with his passing than Capoue (at least today) so maybe we wanted someone on to get on the ball, give us a few little spells of possession to relieve the pressure a bit.
Indeed Bentaleb averaged almost 3 passes per minute, whereas Capoue had averaged about 2. Of course this could be because United no longer had a numbers advantage in midfield, but Bentaleb also completed 90% of his passes to Etiennes shocking 58%.
Possibly over-analyzing but I do think there might be tactical rationale for it.
This is the second time that Capoue really struggled early in a big away match. It was very similar at the Emirates with him; he could barely complete a simple pass for the first 20 minutes . Looked very nervy under their early pressure.
That said, I thought he did a very good job restricting space in the center of the pitch. He didn't do anything that's going to show up on a stat sheet, but I was watching him specifically for a while and he was chained to Rooney, not letting him do much in advanced positions. United dominated the ball but they never really penetrated straight through the middle--almost every good situation they created from open play originated down their right. Rooney kept dropping deep and spraying it wide, which I'd much prefer to him getting on the ball near the edge of the box.
I think the timing of the Bentaleb substitution was potentially interesting, and I wonder if it was a specific response to the double change United made. United dropped Rooney into central midfield in the 61st minute, and almost immediately afterwards we dropped Capoue for Bentaleb.
It was probably as simple as Etienne being gassed and us just needing fresh legs, but I kind of want to believe it was a tactical response to no longer really needing to account for Rooney in advanced positions. Bentaleb is tidier and safer with his passing than Capoue (at least today) so maybe we wanted someone on to get on the ball, give us a few little spells of possession to relieve the pressure a bit.
Indeed Bentaleb averaged almost 3 passes per minute, whereas Capoue had averaged about 2. Of course this could be because United no longer had a numbers advantage in midfield, but Bentaleb also completed 90% of his passes to Etiennes shocking 58%.
Possibly over-analyzing but I do think there might be tactical rationale for it.
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Walker's done some crazy things, but that was truly wonderful to watch.
