UEFA Champions League 2020/21: RB Leipzig vs Manchester United – tactical analysis

The final round of fixtures in the UEFA Champions League group stage was by no means a dead rubber, especially for the teams in Group H. Manchester United, Paris Saint-Germain, and RB Leipzig were all tied on nine points heading into this week with the latter needing a win to qualify while the other two needed just a point. PSG hosted İstanbul Başakşehir who had already been knocked out and with their firepower, and were the favourites to advance leaving United and Leipzig to battle it out to ensure their qualification without needing results to go their way.

Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s men had trumped Julian Nagelsmann’s Leipzig at Old Trafford, beating them by five goals to nil but last season’s semi-finalists were sure to put up a fight. In this tactical analysis, we will look at the tactics of both Manchester United and RB Leipzig in their fixture and through our analysis, we will see how their tactics evolved over the game.

Line-ups

Nagelsmann opted for the 3-5-2 formation with Angeliño and Amadou Haidara as the wing-backs. Dayot Upamecano missed the fixture through suspension and Willi Orbán, Ibrahima Konaté, and Nordi Mukiele made up the back three. Kevin Kampl, Marcel Sabitzer, and Christopher Nkunku started in midfield while Dani Olmo, starting ahead of Yussuf Poulsen, lined up alongside Emil Forsberg up front. The home side’s formation offered them ample protection at the back but Nagelsmann’s impressive use of wing-backs has seen the likes of Angeliño flourish in attack, and by no means were Leipzig out to defend for huge chunks of the game.

United also opted for three defenders at the back and went for the 3-4-1-2 formation, a slight variation of that of the hosts. Luke Shaw made his return from injury to form the back three with Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelöf while Aaron Wan-Bisakka and Alex Telles filled the wing-back spots. Fred missed this fixture owing to his red card the previous week, hence why Scott McTominay played alongside Nemanja Matić in midfield with Bruno Fernandes starting just above them. Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood completed the forward positions with both Edison Cavani and Anthony Martial suffering injuries. With just three out and out attackers, it did seem like Solskjær had opted for a more conservative approach to this game.