Manchester United – What’s been going wrong?
By Jake Knox
Lack of a Midfield Marvel
However the manager has since changed to a 4231 formation with homegrown Jesse Lingard coming in for Herrera. This is understandable given Lingard is in the best form of his career to date. 12 Goals and 5 Assists in 34 appearances, 14 of which from the bench.
This change has lead to real issues in the centre of the park.
The central midfielder role has been sacrificed to accommodate Lingard meaning that not only is there less available space for Pogba to operate in, but there is no one to fill the void between him and Matic. It’s the lack of an old fashioned central midfielder in the setup which means Matic gets pulled further forward. Thus presenting the space behind the midfield to the opposition attackers.
It was this space which was punished by Spur’s attacking trio of Eriksen, Ali and Son. United had the exact same issue against Newcastle with Jonjo Shelvey exploiting the space.