Offside

The Citizens and The Red Devils have a gripping contest on the first matchday following the international break. Both Manchester clubs have had a fantastic start to the season thanks to fresh signings that have worked wonders for both teams.

Manchester United suffered some early-season losses (against Brentford and Brighton), but those setbacks seem to be in the past and the team is on the road to improvement. Their most recent defeat to Real Sociedad was a very unfortunate one. It’s a long season ahead, but ten Hag appears to have made a number of significant tweaks that turned out to be quite decisive; we will cover those changes later in this article. On the plus side, the Devils have put up outstanding performances against Liverpool (2-1) and Arsenal (3-1) and came out on top we will discuss those changes later in this article.

The Citizens, on the other hand, have a 7-2-0 (win-draw-loss) record in all competitions and have been crushing their opponents left and right. Like every season, City is one of the favourites to win the Premier League, but other teams have also shown that they want to win, making this season’s title race challenging.

Returning to the tactical comparison of the two teams, we’ll start by examining the similarities between Manchester City and Ajax, the team that ten Hag previously served as coach for. Guardiola and ten Hag both employed the 4-1-2-3 and 4-2-3-1 formations throughout the previous campaign. Guardiola used 2 attacking midfielder anchored by 1 defensive midfielder whereas ten Hag used to play a double pivot with the most favourable formation in modern football. These formations may look different, but they were more or less the same on the field since they used a 3-2-5 attacking system with inverted wingers to maintain the team’s width and midfielders in the attacking unit between the wingers and the number 9 and inverted full-backs then used to fill up the midfield Both teams utilised this same attacking strategy and played a possession-based style of football, which allowed them to maintain possession for the majority of the campaign. However, whenever they lost possession of the ball, they used to counterpress aggressively and, if that didn’t work, they would set up a defensive formation of 4-4-2 block. Underlaps and low crosses were the foundation of their scoring opportunities. Erik ten Hag introduced this approach to Manchester United. However, The pressing is the biggest weakness of the current Manchester United team in contrast to their city rivals who can press very effectively and are recognised for doing so to win the ball back.

Now that we are aware of the many similarities between Ten Hag’s United and Pep’s City, it is important to remember that individual talent is what really counts. When discussing individual potential, it’s important to discuss Malacia and Dalot of United, who have improved under ten Hag and have replaced the spots of van Bissaka and Luke Shaw. Malacia and Dalot both offer ball progression from deep positions in addition to defensive protection in the event that they lose possession. They also have a great deal of attacking freedom and a tendency to push forward, which is not the case with Cancelo and Walker. Cancelo does join the attacks occasionally for the City this season, but not as frequently as their competitor counterparts. It will be a fascinating match-up, and the full-backs of both sides will have a crucial part to play in the forthcoming encounter. Cancelo was by far the finest full-back last season, but statistically Dalot is superior so far this season.

Manchester United is still making progress with ten Hag, while Manchester City is in a transitional stage with the arrival of Erling Haaland in their squad. With the rate at which he is scoring goals, Haaland appears to be on a rampage and will undoubtedly set records. Haaland is a goal-poaching forward, which differs from Guardiola’s favoured roaming false 9, but he is doing his job well and scoring a lot of goals, which is positive for Citizens. Because of his stature and “poaching mindset,” Haaland poses a threat to City’s opponents. When it comes to the Manchester United sticker, we have observed that ten Hag prefers Marcus Rashford to Cristiano Ronaldo and that the former has taken the number 9 spot in prior Premier League contests. Martial’s injury is sad given how well he played in the preseason. This analysis is primarily tactical, thus considering the advantages and disadvantages of each player is unnecessary.

Manchester United responded well to teams breaking them up in the last few of games; opponents were unable to exploit the defence as a result. The United midfield was constantly there, offering fluidity and flexibility, and United players were able to jump from deeper areas. Due to the cooperation of the full-backs and centre backs, the Devils have a powerful wide area. They frequently narrow their back four when playing against a strong team to protect a wider midfield from the opposition, which can be advantageous because the Citizens also attack from wide areas. If United can manage to drop the midfield deep and attempt to create a 2v1 situation against Haaland, they can keep Manchester City at bay. However, it can also go wrong because Haaland can also be used to pin the two centre backs, creating wide spaces. Due to the size difference between Haaland and Martinez, citizens may also pose an aerial threat, but we believe Varane has this covered. It all depends on how well the defence plays that evening.

In the blue side of Manchester, inverted full backs impact the opposing defenders by their positioning, which can result in open areas that Manchester City can exploit. Manchester City uses positional play and fluidity to weaken the opponent’s defence. Inverted wingers go as wide as possible to breach the defence for City, and the attacking midfielder and inverted wingers play the ball in the space between the opposition’s defence that has been created. They also tend to switch the play from one flank to another as the opposition defence creates a wide space automatically while defending one side of the flank. Although Rodri can play both defensive midfielder and defender like Salida Lapolpiana, adding an extra man to City’s defence, we witnessed Rodri make this play against Portugal when he covered the defensive area. Manchester City is the favourite in this match because of their compactness, their ability to rotate through wider areas, and the calibre of players in Guardiola’s (pardon the pun) arsenal who can effectively exploit it. However, we cannot underestimate ten Hag’s men given that they have already defeated the league leaders Arsenal and Liverpool, convincingly, and given that the team has been strengthened by a number of outstanding players and their incredible potential the tie will be closely contested.