Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes and head coach Michael Carrick disagreed over the team's tactics in the 4-1 Champions League defeat at Como. Fernandes said United gave Como too much time and space in possession and blamed this on the staff's decision not to press man to man. United have been attempting to press man to man at times this season, often with bad outcomes.
You can see just how ill-suited the current group are for that approach here. "It's a decision from the staff to not press man-to-man and sometimes leave a little space in behind and try to get the ball in the first moment, to wait for them, to give them the ball. "But sometimes when you give too much the ball to these teams they get confident, they have so many bodies behind the ball that make you run a lot, make people get frustrated, and then obviously when you recover the ball the legs are, and the brain, much more difficult to make it work." Fernandes is not wrong to say United gave Como a lot of space.
The Italian side completed 600 passes, which is more than any other team in a game against United this season. In fact, the three games when opposition teams have completed most passes against United have come in the last three games against Como, Atletico Madrid and Leeds. This has coincided with Carrick's attempts to be more compact and solid defensively.
United, on a seven-match winless run, have not won any of those games. However, at Leeds (1-1 draw) and Atletico Madrid (2-0 defeat) there were signs of improvement in terms of defensive shape. There was no such defensive solidity or compactness in Italy.
But Como's chances did not come after long passing sequences. The most passes leading to a Como shot was 13, culminating in their fourth goal. For context, this season the longest opposition passing sequence leading to a shot against United was 45 passes against Fulham in September.
The reality is that Como chose their moments and efficiently cut through United with ease. The United captain's claim that Como had showed United how it should have been done with regard to the press is also undermined by the numbers: Como won the ball back in the attacking third five times compared to United's four. Fernandes also claimed that United were tired as a result of sitting off Como and chasing the ball down for most of the game which led to mistakes.
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