Tactx

Amorim is a manager who wants his team to play on the front foot. We highlighted this during our analysis of Sporting Lisbon, which you find at the link below. https://tactxcoach.com/program...

You can see this in the initial moments, and this is what we have come to expect from Amorim’s front players. Amad and Zirkzee join Hojlund to press high. Eriksen and Casemiro back them up. The problem is that half the team is on the front foot. The other half is pinned. The wing-backs don’t jump. Both Newcastle full-backs are free.

Again, there was aggressive pressing from the front players one minute in. Martinez is late to press Joelinton, and Newcastle takes the first line of the press out of the game.

Newcastle’s out-of-possession roles looked well-defined tactically. Staying compact to force the ball into De Ligt or Martinez and then jumping to a man-to-man press

Hall would jump from left back onto Mazraoui. Murphy would track Dalot on the other side. This gave Burn and Trippier responsibility for marking Amad and Zirkzee.

An example of Gordon protecting the central space to force the pass into De Ligt. Note that Hall is ready to jump.

And on the opposite side, Guimaraes jumps onto Martinez. Isak is responsible for Maguire while pressing the goalkeeper. Isak does this incredibly well and at a high intensity.

Back to Man United. Casemiro and Eriksen are looking to play on the front foot, which left them with a problem. Outnumbered in midfield, Newcastle developed a free player between the lines. With no Man United centre-back stepping out, who marks Joelinton?

This gave Newcastle complete control, which led to the first goal. All the Man United players highlighted were caught between marking two players and couldn’t exert any pressure on the ball.

With five players on the defensive line and the three centre-backs unwilling to step out, Eriksen and Casemiro are outnumbered 2v5. Newcastle got into the final third and scored the first goal. Amad and Diallo offer no support to the structure, but their initial role is to press high and aggressively.

If Zirkzee did press high, it was simple to play around as the Man United wing-backs remained pinned. Amorim’s wing-backs on the ball side are normally aggressive; we didn’t see this last night.

Newcastle then easily manipulated the press of Man United. As Martinez tracks Guimaraes, Isak moves into the space to receive and turn towards the goal. Four United players are taken out of the game with one pass.

And so Man United are stuck between a rock and a hard place. Press high and aggressively and Newcastle plays around them, as the wing-backs don’t jump on the ball side once again.

The alternative is to allow Newcastle time on the ball in deeper positions. With Casemiro and Eriksen deeper, it’s working against Amorim’s front-footed principles. His centre-backs are 3v1.

This is where the confusion lies. The Man United players are unsure whether to go on the front foot or protect the space. Eriksen goes on the front foot while Casemiro protects. Martinez is late to jump on Guimaraes can receive and play forward.

The second goal build-up comes from this confusion. Outnumbered in midfield, Eriksen presses, Casemiro protects and the centre-backs remain in a 3v1. Amorim’s ideal scenario here. De Ligt jumps to Joelinton, Casemiro jumps.

Amorim teams have been set up to be on the front foot with aggressive pressing from all units. The system falls apart when one player fails to carry out the role. The dysfunction last night was caused by a front five playing Amorim’s front-footed pressing style but with a back five who, against Howe’s tactics, were reluctant to jump from their unit. The players are far from the ideal personnel for this 3-4-3 system. As Amorim said, he won’t change the system. To stand any chance of results, he needs to coach his units to work as one, but even then, as Eddie Howe shows, this is a system that any tactically astute manager can exploit.