Manchester United’s backpost weakness at corners laid bare by The Athletic – Man United News And Transfer News

2

Manchester United have failed to defend set pieces adequately for a long time but this season seems even worse than normal.

In the recent 2-2 draw with Tottenham, manager Erik ten Hag, ripped into his side’s inability to do the basics when facing corners.

The Dutch coach bemoaned his side’s failure to stop Richarlison equalising for Spurs with a header which saw him enjoy the freedom of the Old Trafford pitch.

Naturally, United’s set piece coach Eric Ramsay has faced a barrage of fan criticism for his apparent inability to counteract the problem.

The Athletic have taken a deep dive into exactly what is going wrong at United in terms of corners and what they found is startling in its simplicity.

The outlet states that “they (United) have a clear vulnerability towards the back post in those dead-ball situations, which teams have been exploiting all season”.

“It was the fourth goal scored against United from a corner in the Premier League this season, leaving them with an average of 3.0 goals per 100 corners conceded”.

“Looking at that goals per 100 corners conceded metric for the 2023-24 Premier League — which creates a fair and level playing field across the 20 clubs, as one team might face more corners than another — United have the seventh-best rate”.

On the surface this isn’t great but it isn’t terrible by any means. However, a deeper look into the statistics is where the real worries emerge.

The Red Devils “have the division’s third-worst expected goals (xG) per 100 corners conceded (4.2) figure. On average, Ten Hag’s side are conceding higher quality chances from corners than every team in the Premier League bar Brighton & Hove Albion and Aston Villa”.

The problem with this is it isn’t bad luck and terrifyingly, they probably have had good fortune not to concede more. Therefore, unless the problem is rectified teams will continue to target it and will score regularly.

When a team doesn’t score much like this current version of United, giving away goals at corners becomes a massive obstacle to success.

One area which has proven to be “particularly vulnerable” is United’s back post, “especially when defending corners from the right side of the attacking team”. Arsenal and Villa constantly targeted and brutally exposed this tactical design flaw when they played United.

“United’s plan on defensive corners is a mix of zonal and man-marking, with the zonal players usually focusing on defending the front post. The rest of the setup consists of man-to-man orientations and a player defending the far post — this is often Diogo Dalot”.

Both Arsenal in September with Declan Rice’s crucial additional time winner, and Aston Villa on Boxing Day “aimed for that back-post zone — away from the zonal markers while manipulating the man-markers to make sure they have an advantage in the targeted area”.

In simple terms, both sides were able to feign that they were attacking front and central areas of the goal, while blocking off United’s man markers. This pins the defenders in place so the opposition can send a player to drift off to the backpost in wonderful isolation to score or assist.

The Athletic also highlight Bournemouth’s third goal at Old Trafford in December when once again, an opposition player enjoyed the freedom of Manchester.

The outlet finishes by stating, “United’s defensive set pieces aren’t as bad as their attacking ones, but they are still an ongoing and obvious issue that needs to be fixed”.

“It’s time for United to focus on their set pieces. Ten Hag has noticed the issue, now it’s down to him, his players and his staff to solve it”.