It wasn’t a good day at the office for Ruben Amorim and Manchester United as Old Trafford was witness to another nightmare, this time in the FA Cup.
After squeaking through against Leicester in the previous round, there were no repeat heroics/questionable offside calls to save Man Utd.
Joshua Zirkzee and Victor Lindelof missed their penalties in the shootout to confirm a painful defeat in a game that United did manage to create enough to win.
Despite the loss, there were plenty of positives to take, from Chido Obi outshining Rasmus Hojlund to Joshua Zirkzee showing endless grit and stamina.
Amidst everything, one new tactical pattern from Ruben Amorim also caught the eye and the early signs were extremely promising.
Ruben Amorim’s new tactical pattern at Man Utd
Amorim instantly installed his signature formation at Old Trafford upon arriving but he’s been careful about how much change he introduces within it.
The players have already shown they’re incapable of taking on too many instructions with these disjointed performances, so it’s a tricky balancing act.
The team does look more fluid in chance creation though which provides hope for the future.
Maybe Amorim has also noticed this, which is why he’s started to introduce new layers of attacking patterns to the team, one of which was visible against Fulham.
With Fulham defending extremely narrowly, there was an opportunity for United to get at them from out wide, isolating the fullbacks against United’s wing-backs, with the attacking midfielders creating overloads.
This was achieved by Matthijs de Ligt repeatedly playing quick cross-field passes to Diogo Dalot at left wing-back after they lured Fulham into pressing heavily on the right side.
It left Dalot free in acres of space on the left. The Portuguese couldn’t capitalise much on it, although he did end up with an assist for Bruno Fernandes’ goal.
However, the early signs were extremely promising as United finally looked capable of breaking down a block instead of passing around at the back.
Patrick Dorgu will supercharge this pattern
There’s some sympathy to be had for Dalot because he was playing on his wrong foot and if forced to change positions all the time.
With him on the right and Patrick Dorgu on the left, De Ligt’s passes will become much more dangerous since Dorgu will be able to take them in his stride and run on the overlap.
That will stretch the defence instead of collapsing it in the centre, which happened with Dalot since his tendency is to come inside on his stronger foot.
Stretching the defence will create more spaces in the middle for the deeper midfielders/attacking midfielders to make runs off the ball, from where they can be found on cutbacks/layoffs.
Amorim can use this season as a testing board for his ideal setup and what figures to be a key trait in this system going forward showed its first signs in action against Fulham.
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