Thread 🧵- Tomorrow’s game will be the first time ETH has had Casemiro, Fred and Sabitzer ALL ready/available to play. I do wonder whether he starts all 3 with Bruno coming inside from the right hand side. Especially if Busquets is expected to start, Fred and Sabitzer’s…
Tenacity and aggression out of possession could be massively important to try to deal with the threat that Busquets and De Jong offer in build-up. In the last game, Fred was man marking De Jong and Weghorst was on Kessie 👇
This was because Fred is a great disruptor and has shown in the past his ability to press, aggravate and reduce the impact of important opposition players e.g. De Bruyne in the 2-1 win against City. Fred simply has to start this game, I’m very sure he will do.
But with the POSSIBILITY (we don’t know for sure) of Busquets coming in to start for Barcelona, Erik ten Hag has a decision to make. Weghorst did okay against Kessie but Busquets is on another level altogether in terms of press resistance, pausa, pass accuracy etc
So I wouldn’t be surprised if Sabitzer comes in to try to deal with Busquets, who, if given time, will allow Barcelona to dominate possession and frustrate United. United have to make the game as transitional as possible, like they did at the Nou Camp, in the 2-2 draw.
So I can see a similar shape to last time but with Sabitzer coming in for Weghorst, who may well get pushed up to the 9 position with Rashford left, or Rashford at 9 with Sancho left. Either way, United need to deal with the overloads that Barca’s 3-2-2-3/3-2-5 create.
I think this could be the ideal game to bring both Fred and Sabitzer into midfield, both have limitless amounts of energy out of possession. Bruno I imagine, will play from the right again, and tuck in really narrow out of possession, Sancho possibly to do the same from the left.
The downside to not having Weghorst in midfield is that we will miss his ability to drop slightly deeper during build-up, link play, and give United a way out of Barcelona’s press (which I’m sure will be better tomorrow than last week). There is still the option of Weghorst at 9.
However, Sabitzer’s tenacity, defensive work rate, and engine up against Busquets could be the way to go tomorrow. Possible changes in team selection always involve trade-offs, and ETH has the task of deciding if and what he should change for this 2nd leg. I’m really excited.
Thanks for reading this thread, just a few ideas from myself, Erik ten Hag always pleasantly surprises me with his team selections. I’m sure playing Fred and Sabitzer will cross his mind for this game, though.
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