Premier League 2020/21: Manchester United Vs Chelsea – tactical preview

The early weeks of the English Premier League season have been anything but predictable with all of the pre-season favourites being on the wrong end of surprising results, indeed the fact that Aston Villa go into this match week as the only side with a 100% record is telling. In a normal season, where teams have had the opportunity to plan through a full pre-season, it tends to take around 7-8 matches for the table to settle down. There is a genuine possibility with the early season results that this season could take up to 15 matches to fully settle down and for clear patterns to form. To muddy things further, for some at least, this week has seen the resumption of the group stages of the Champions League and Europa League competitions with time between games coming at an even greater premium.

This is the context that surrouds the upcoming match between Manchester United and Chelsea, two sides that finished in the top-4 last season and were tipped to do so again this season.

It is interesting to view the differences in the way that the two sides apporached the summer transfer window after their qualification for the Champions League this season. Chelsea were somewhat opportunistic in their signings of Timo Werner and Kai Havertz as the effects of COVID on club finances contributed to expected moves to Liverpool and Bayern Munich respectively falling through. They added more creativity with the mercurial Hakim Ziyech from Ajax and solidified their defensive options with the signings of Thiago Silva, at centre-back, and Edouard Mendy in goal. Manchester United, on the other hand, saw a hugely drawn our move for Jadon Sancho fail to materialise while Donny van de Beek signed to offer midfield options and late business saw the likes of Alex Telles, at left-back, and Edison Cavani, in attack, added.

Those transfers have changed the dynamic of each squad and the early matches this season have seen Frank Lampard and Ole Gunnar Solskjær attempting to find the right system to make the most of the players at their disposal.

Now, with both sides having played their opening fixture in the Champions League a picture is starting to emerge of what we may expect to see in this upcoming fixture. This tactical analysis is designed to give an insight into what we may see from each team tactically and how this will work against the other side. We will provide an analysis of the tactics we expect to see from each side.

Manchester United and the 3-4-3

I was recently on the Two Footed Podcast, part of the EPL Index group, with the excellent Dave Hendrick and we were discussing the decision by Manchester United to sign Alex Telles from Porto. On that podcast, we agreed that the signing presented an opportunity for Solskjær to pivot to a tactical system that is more of a 3-4-3 with Luke Shaw being able to move inside to play as the left-sided central defender. This is a role that Shaw had played at points last season and in which he looked comfortable. The ability of United to then transition from a back 3 to a back 4, with Shaw, stepping forward in the attacking phase would provide tactical balance and the opportunity to build attacking overloads in wide areas or the half-space.

In the 2-1 away win over Paris Saint-Germain we saw United utilise a variation of this 3-4-3 in a structure that played more like a 3-4-1-2 with the Portuguese international Bruno Fernandes playing behind a front two of Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford. The attacking variations available in this structure are very interesting and appear to play to the strengths of the United squad. This is especially evident when United are building out from the back.

In the image above we see an example of the structure that United had in possession against PSG. As Luke Shaw receives the ball he has split wide into the half-space. There is an immediate passing option with Alex Telles on the touchline and he has dragged a defensive player out with him. There is a secondary option as one of the two strikers has moved across to position himself in on an advanced line in the half-space. The third passing option is created by the width generated by the front two who have split apart and occupied defensive players. This spacing creates a gap in the defensive line that can be accessed by Bruno Fernandes, from the 10 position, making a timed vertical run.

These options are all vertical and present interesting options for United to play quick passing combinations that give the option of breaking through the Chelsea defensive block. This is particularly true as we expect Chelsea to use a 4-2-3-1 structure in which there tends to be space that can be exploited between the lines of defence and midfield when Chelsea are in the defensive phase.