How Ruben Amorim unleashed Marcus Rashford with game-changing Joshua Zirkzee role ahead of Man Utd v Arsenal

12/02/2024 04:32 PM

RUBEN AMORIM continued to show why he’s the man to lead Manchester United forward with a 4-0 thrashing of Everton.

The Red Devils made light work of the Toffees at Old Trafford on Sunday.

Joshua Zirkzee and Marcus Rashford each bagged a brace in the rout.

While stars like Amad Diallo and Kobbie Mainoo put in super shifts.

United now face a tough trip to Arsenal in what will be the biggest test of Amorim’s reign so far.

Here, SunSport’s tactics guru Dean Scoggins breaks down all the tips and tricks in the latest episode of Tactics Exposed…

1. Joshua Zirkzee is drawing the best from Marcus Rashford

It’s taken three games, but it’s a little bit more what I expected from Rashford. In that first game against Ipswich, he played as the nine.

In this game, he played as one of those two inverted forwards off the front man. And what this game showed was a flying V, which is really exciting.

Zirkzee was the man who was coming deeper. What's really interesting, Zirkzee's average position was deeper than both of the other two forwards. And so it’s a new role. It’s not leading the line as a number nine.

And what it did, it freed up Rashford. Because what it meant was it gave Rashford the confidence to go beyond him.

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So as Zirzkee came in and linked up play, that meant Bruno again started in one of the more advanced positions. And then dropped back again later on.

Zirkzee's role meant that the two players run beyond. And it’s central attacks running beyond the central forward.

Zirkzee is the nine. But a lot of people were sort of calling it 3-4-2-1, which is not incorrect. However, what we saw in this game was an adaption to that. Where Zirkzee drops in and those two forwards go beyond.

Rashford was running in behind. And not just running in behind. What the difference was here was running in behind with confidence.

Rashford talked about it afterwards, where he talked about connections. And that’s not just connections between manager and players. That’s connection between players.

We’ve seen Garnacho with Hojlund. And with Bruno or Mount as the other forward. And then we’ve seen Zirkzee with Rashford. And we might see those as pairs of connections.

If Amorim wants to play in a way where he wants the centre forward to drop into the line, it’ll be Zirkzee with Rashford running beyond.

If he wants to stretch defences in behind, it’ll be Hojlund playing as the nine, making those diagonal runs.

And then he’s got Garnacho being the busy player in behind. So straight away, three games in, we’re finding connections already.

2. Ruben Amorim's fluid tactics could nullify Arsenal

Amorim's started 21 players in three games. Under Erik ten Hag, the entire time he played 24 players.

I don’t expect them to go to Arsenal and win so early on in a manager’s era, but what they do now go there with is a bit of belief in the system and a bit of belief in Amorim's systems.

So what I mean here is, is that it is 3-4-3. But already we’re seeing that players can interchange and move into different areas.

Kobbie Mainoo, who’s unfortunately suspended for this game, and Bruno Fernandes were switching positions, confident in each other that one of them was allowed to go forward.

What we also saw was a connection between Ugarte and Mainoo, where Mainoo was going and then Ugarte was staying, which was great. Casemiro similarly.

In the first game against Ipswich, it was a clear, clear 3-4-3 on the average positions. You could see it lined up. And then in this game, it was almost 4-4-2.

And that’s really interesting when we look ahead to Arsenal, because we’ve talked about Arsenal a lot defending in a 4-4-2 shape. So that almost goes man for man if he decides to go this way.

And the reason it ended up 4-4-2 is because Mazraoui’s playing as the right centre back is a more natural fullback. So Amorim’s okay with him drifting to that right-hand side.

And then Dalot plays at left wing back, a more comfortable fullback. He almost comes in and makes it a back four. And then Amad was the right wing back, but given the licence to push forward. So you almost end up where a 3-4-3 becomes a 4-4-2.

I’m really excited because three games in, Amorim's turned a group of players who wouldn’t know a tactic if it was thrown at them into a group of players who are all of a sudden understanding that they can move into different positions.

3. Amad Diallo's pressing game is the key to success

Amad had a great big role to play in how he pressed and he hounded people on the right.

And it was because of that shape, which allowed them to almost shift into a four at the back, that frees up Amad to be able to go and hound the left back or the left winger and not be too concerned about the ball being played around him.

Mainoo’s role was really key, he was the trigger for Amad’s press. He comes into the inside right position and allows Amad the freedom to go and chase the ball.

Amad was fantastic, really pressing on. And then when he gets it, the direct running that we’ve been talking about…

Then Zirkzee, Rashford, Bruno, all legging it at the box because they know what he’s going to do.

They know he’s not going to pass it because Amorim has said to them, you run into the area.

And both those goals, the last goal Amad played Rashford in, it was just a little pass right on the edge of the box.

The first goal, get there, cross it. Okay, that’s how they want to play. They’re not going to play these through balls from 30, 40 yards out.

So the attacking players on the edges of the box are not waiting for a pass. They are gunning it at the box.

4. Defenders will have to double-up on Bukayo Saka

We’re looking at Bukayo Saka. Odegaard and Saka on that inside right channel for Arsenal.

And already in that game against Everton, Amorim was planning ahead.

He’s already looking, right, Martinez can’t play, suspended. That’s an in-game decision.

He made a change. Shaw came on. And what I think we’ll probably see is Dalot as the left wing back again.

Or Mazraoui as the left wing back, depending on how he sees it. And then Luke Shaw as the left centre back.

And that basically means two left backs. Playing against Bukayo Saka. It’s about balance.

Amorim likes complementary players on different sides of the field or different positions. So one sort of tackler, nasty piece of work in midfield, and one baller.

You’ve got to plan for Bukayo Saka. You can’t just go, it’s all right, we’ll go…

At West Ham, you saw that if you don’t have a very good plan for Bukayo Saka, you see what happens.

5. New-found focus on set pieces already working

There’s a tactic there from Arsenal set pieces to get the front post man under the ball. So Man United have got to watch that.

If Zirzkee starts, put Zirkzee there. If Hojlund starts, put Hojlund there. Someone physical enough that not going to get a little nudging up.

But let’s focus on United a second, because I saw something for the first time I’ve never seen this week. They did it against Bodo Glimt and they did it again before the game against Everton.

I’ve never seen a team, a professional team, practicing corners on the field in the warm up. You see teams line up and play little interchanges, back fours, you know, pushing up and dropping back.

Sometimes you see fullbacks clipping the ball up the line because they’ve got this ball they want to play to the wingers.

Never seen corners done like this. Man United were actually full on practicing corners in the warm up. Maybe Amorim did so much on the training ground this week they didn’t have time to do corners. So he said, don’t worry, we’ll do it in the weekend.

He’s showing off now because Man United, who haven’t had a clue with them for months and years, straight away had a corner routine.

They all ran from the edge of the box to the six yard line and basically became like a wall of blockers. And all the Everton players suckered, fell for it, went towards the six yard line. Marcus Rashford peels off, side foot in.

It was lovely. It was a lovely routine. And he had to score through the crowd. And whether it was his goal or not is a bit of a debate, whether it was going in or wide.

But all of them did their job. You saw Mainoo holding on to Tarkowski to make sure he couldn’t get out to Rashford. So straight away a corner routine. But they’re going to have to do defensively a bit better against that Arsenal juggernaut.