The Athletic wrote an article about Manchester United's changes this season. The article stated that Amorim's style of play is more direct, and the team's set-piece penalties have also changed. After three consecutive victories in the Pr...
The Athletic wrote an article about Manchester United's changes this season. The article stated that Amorim's style of play is more direct, and the team's set-piece penalties have also changed.
After three consecutive victories in the Premier League, outside criticism of Amorim’s formation gradually subsided. Amorim has always insisted that he will not change his 343 formation, or at least he will only change it according to his own wishes.
Under the coaching of Amorim, Manchester United's overall offense has become more direct this season. There has been talk of a return to a tougher, more direct style in the Premier League as a whole, but United stand out in certain statistics. For example, Manchester United have the third-highest number of long-pass attempts in the league this season, whereas last season their number of long-pass attempts was only average.
In the 2024-25 season, Manchester United's offensive speed was the fifth slowest in the league, and now it has jumped to the eighth fastest. In addition to this, United's number of passes per possession and the number of possessions with 10 or more passes have both dropped significantly.
It is difficult to separate these tactical adjustments from the personnel changes in the summer, especially on the forward side. This season in the Premier League, no team has tried to move the ball more than Manchester United, especially against Arsenal in the first round. Manchester United repeatedly moved the ball to the right to take advantage of Mbemo's speed to hit the opponent behind.
Manchester United's number of crosses has remained basically unchanged, but the success rate has improved. The team has successfully completed 3.1 crosses into the penalty area per game this season, an increase of 62% from last season, ranking second in the league.
One of the most significant changes in the data is the number of touches Manchester United have at the back. Last season they had the most touches in the Premier League, but this season only Arsenal has fewer touches. If we look at the proportion of Manchester United's total touches on the ball, only 30% of the touches occurred deep in their own backcourt, which is significantly lower than in the past three seasons.
This once again confirms the more direct strategy of Manchester United's overall style, and also helps solve one of the many problems faced by Amorim last season. Last season, Manchester United conceded an average of 5.4 goals in their own backcourt per game. Only Tottenham and Southampton had more goals than them. Both teams insist on organizing attacks from the back. This season, Manchester United's data has dropped significantly to an average of 2.4 times per game, which is also second only to Arsenal. In terms of ball possession rate, Manchester United's average ball possession rate this season is slightly more than 50%, which is lower than last season's 54%.
So far this season, set pieces have become a major theme in the Premier League, and Manchester United no longer uses outswinging corner kicks. Last season, B Fee was usually the corner kick taker for Manchester United. Eriksen also contributed a lot of corner kicks. The left-footed player Ahmed ranked third in the number of corner kicks.
Manchester United has always lacked a true left-footed corner kick taker. The arrival of Mbemo has changed this situation. This season, he and B Fee almost equally share the right to take corner kicks. This has greatly increased the number of in-swing corner kicks, while out-swing corner kicks have disappeared. This change has had a significant positive impact, with Manchester United scoring 3 goals from set pieces this season and averaging 0.49 expected goals per game. However, this advantage is offset by an average of 0.53 set-piece expected goals conceded per game, and the team's set-piece defense still needs to be improved.
As far as Manchester United is concerned, the above data shows that although Amorim still uses the 343 formation, other aspects of the tactical system are changing. Even in the faster-paced, more direct Premier League, United are playing at a faster, more direct pace than last season.
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