FA Cup 2019/20: Wolves vs Manchester United – tactical analysis

One of the tastier ties that the FA Cup third-round draw threw up was the clash between Wolverhampton Wanderers and Manchester United at Molineux. However, the resulting 0-0 draw did not quite live up to the billing that was promised and a replay at Old Trafford now awaits the pair.

After a hectic festive fixture list being endured and the knock-out stages of the Europa League coming up, both Nuno Espirito Santo and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer would have had an unnecessary extra fixture as the last thing on their Christmas lists.

While the tie was by no means a classic, this tactical analysis will dissect the FA Cup clash and highlight key areas of the two sides’ tactics, using analysis to explain how they led to the match’s outcome, a frustrating stalemate.

Lineups

While the graphic from Wyscout lists the Old Gold’s starting formation as 5-4-1, it was actually much more similar to Nuno Santo’s much more regularly used, 3-4-3. Of course, however, the formation does look more much like the graphic shows when Wolves are out of possession. Over the ten games previous to the United tie, Wolves only deterred from the 3-4-3 twice and on both occasions that was for a 3-5-2. Following the 2-1 defeat to Watford in the Premier League, Wolves made five changes. Rui Patricio, Ryan Bennett, Joao Moutinho, Jonny Otto and Raul Jimenez made way for John Ruddy, Max Kilman, Ruben Neves, Ruben Vinagre and Benny Ashley-Seal.

In the opposite dugout, again, the starting formation looked a little different to that as shown on the Wyscout graphic. Instead of the shown 4-4-1-1, Solskjaer used his preferred formation of choice, the 4-2-3-1. A formation which he had used for the 11 consecutive games prior to the tie with Wolves, going back to the 3-3 draw with Sheffield United, where a 3-4-2-1 was deployed. In their lineup, seven changes were made from the 2-0 defeat to Arsenal. David De Gea, Luke Shaw, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Fred, Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial made way for Sergio Romero, Brandon Williams, Ashley Young, Andreas Pereira, Juan Mata, Tahith Chong and Mason Greenwood.