Wide rotations and half-space mastery: how Villarreal or Manchester United can win the Europa League Final 2021 – tactical analysis

It has been a long and gruelling season, and now the end is in sight, with the major European leagues having concluded their campaigns, and only the small matter of the two European competition finals to come this week. While the UEFA Champions League sees an all-English bout with Manchester City and Chelsea locking horns in Porto, we were denied the opportunity for another European final with two English clubs, as it will be Villarreal who take on Manchester United in Gdańsk on Wednesday night in the UEFA Europa League final. The Spanish side prevailed over Arsenal in the semi-finals, while United made short work of AS Roma, and it is an interesting tidbit that these two sides have never defeated each other in their previous meetings in Europe, having met four times in the Champions League in years gone by, with all four matches being draws.

Villarreal are aiming to win their first-ever European trophy, and with it return to the Champions League for next season as well, since they only finished seventh in La Liga this season. Manchester United, on the other hand, were comfortable runners-up to City in the Premier League, and Ole Gunnar Solskjær will desperately want to win a trophy to boost his tenure at the club. Through this tactical preview of the match, we will attempt to predict both teams tactics and try and highlight where this match can be won and lost.

Expected lineups

Unai Emery will send Villarreal out in their usual 4-4-2 shape, with long-serving club captain Mario Gaspar coming in at right-back in the continued absence of Juan Foyth, with their first-choice defensive pair of Raúl Albiol and Pau Torres next to him, and Alfonso Pedraza at left-back. Étienne Capoue missed the second leg of the semi-final against Arsenal due to suspension, but he will return to partner Dani Parejo in central midfield, with Manu Trigueros and Moi Gómez on the flanks, as Samuel Chukwueze is probably not going to be fit to start this match. Up front, we can expect to see Paco Alcácer and Gerard Moreno resume their strike partnership, with Moreno in superb form this season, having scored 29 goals in all competitions so far.

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