Fonseca’s failures: How Roma were dismantled by Man United after a solid first-half display – tactical analysis

Manchester United and Roma played out one of the best European ties this season in terms of entertainment in the first leg of the UEFA Europa League tie between the two clubs. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side came away with a deserved 6-2 victory despite being 2-1 down at the interval, truly a tale of two halves as the cliché goes.

The tie is all but over now and United certainly have one foot in the door of the final after an incredible second-half performance. The first half lacked a lot of quality from both sides although Roma were certainly the better and more organised team tactically.

However, as the Giallorossi have shown time and time again this season, there seems to be a massive mental block partnered with tactical naivety from Paulo Fonseca and his side as Roma came out in the second half, leaving an extraordinary amount of space for United’s quality forwards to play into as opposed to being more conservative and trying to protect a shocking lead.

After Edinson Cavani equalised to make it 2-2 merely minutes after the commencement of the second half, the Roma players’ heads dropped and eventually succumbed to a plethora of quality attacks from the home side.

In this tactical analysis article, we will discuss the tactics used by both sides. It will be an analysis of both sides’ weaknesses and strengths as well as tactical tweaks by the managers which ultimately led to the absurd scoreline.

Lineups and formations

There was nothing surprising about the lineups or formations from both sides when the team news was announced an hour before kick-off. Both Solskjaer and Fonseca are quite rigid in their tactical approaches to games in terms of the formation and personnel that they choose and so this match was no different.

Manchester United lined up as expected in a 4-2-3-1 formation with David de Gea in net, protecting the goal behind a back four comprising of Luke Shaw, Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka. This has been the main back five this season although Dean Henderson has become the first-choice goalkeeper for United in their Premier League games recently.