20 Tweets Jan 05, 2023
Manchester United’s ATTACKING play vs NEWCASTLE- A thread 🧵
Following the 0-0 draw against Newcastle there’s been lots of talk about United’s lack of clinical nature in front of goal, let’s take a look at some moments from Sunday’s game ⬇️
2ND minute:
United build an attack really well- Dalot plays an excellent pass into Antony, who plays it onto Casemiro who finds Ronaldo. He should turn towards goal, but he passes backwards and out of play, a wasted attack when NEW were under pressure.
6TH minute:
Martinez wins possession high, Fred finds Sancho who plays an overhit pass which Ronaldo can’t get to. Another big moment wasted to create a chance. United struggled in the pre-chance creation moments on Sunday.
9TH minute
Here, Bruno regains possession for United and Ronaldo looks for Sancho but cannot find him. Again, no chance is created because of a poor pass that should be better. This is in the 9th min- we’ve already had ample pre-chance opportunities.
13TH minute
Bruno looks for the harder pass to Ronaldo, the ball falls to Sancho who fires high and wide. Again, United make the wrong decision in the final 3rd. The right pass was probably to Antony.
18TH minute
Antony receives the ball in a wide area but blasts a shot over the bar. United had FOUR players in the box,wasteful again. We know ETH wants to overload the last line of attack with the 2-3-5 or 3-1-6- not making the most of these overloads.
25TH minute
Ronaldo does well and finds Bruno, who crosses early and wins a corner. Again, lack of precision in the final 3rd. Bruno often looks for a killer pass very early, will be interesting to see how ETH (if at all) looks to adapt things.
31ST minute
Sancho does well to find Ronaldo, who gives the ball away. Another attack breaks down. United lack that tidy combination play in and around the penalty area- something that Martial brings when he plays.
45TH minute
Antony looks for a cross but overhits it- again poor end product from United. Looking to force passes and crosses all half- I think Ten Hag will want more patience and intricacy from his players in future games.
45 + 3RD minute
A lovely piece of skill from Antony finds him in space, but he picks the wrong option, looks for Ronaldo rather than a shorter pass into Bruno. Poor decision making all half from United- having got into so many promising positions.
51ST minute:
Fred drives forward with the ball, finds Antony, pass should be played ahead of Antony, slightly slows the attack down, Antony looks for Ronaldo but couldn’t find him.
54TH minute:
Bruno finds a pass into Ronaldo’s path and Trippier deals with the situation. It’s a coming together but Ronaldo should do better- when he pulls off to the left he rarely succeeds in these tight situations.
58TH minute:
Casemiro plays a nice infield pass into Bruno, who finds Sancho, who should have got a penalty, clearly fouled in the box by Longstaff. Another promising moment from United which should have led to a pen.
74TH minute:
Antony does well to beat Dan Burn but then opts to use the outside of his left foot again- he should go with his right foot here and square the ball to Sancho. Has to work on his decision making and improve his output with his right foot.
88TH minute:
Bruno finds Rashford with a great pass in behind the NEW defence, he finds Fred but Fred fires wide. Rashford showing again how his runs in behind can disrupt opposition lines + we should score.
90 + 5TH minute
Casemiro puts a peach of a cross in the box with the outside of his right foot, Rashford heads wide, huge chance.
This thread has hopefully shown you (and me) that we created so many good opportunities in the game on Sunday, many “nearly” moments where our attacking players weren’t efficient with their decision making, final pass or finish. There’s promising signs here.
Thank you for reading this thread. This was more of a descriptive piece, I just wanted to highlight how many good positions we got into, often without getting a shot in. The stats relating to total shots (15) and shots on target (2) did not really do our performance justice.
Please do LIKE, RETWEET AND FOLLOW @ThreadmanChaza for more threads like these.

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