Second-half woes on the South Coast fuel concerns with United's structure
Conner Roberts takes a closer look at what was behind an up-and-down performance for the Red Devils against Brighton
Going into Saturday’s WSL clash with Brighton & Hove Albion, Manchester United fans considered this game the toughest test of the fledging season for Marc Skinner’s team.
The match played out in a tale of two halves, with United taking the lead through Grace Clinton in the 10th minute after a strong start for the Red Devils. Then, Brighton came out for the second half a different team. It wasn’t long before ex-United striker Nikita Parris equalized in the 52nd minute.
Skinner said post-game that he felt United were the better team overall, and if you look at the chances United had in the first half, including an effort off the bar by Clinton, it’s hard to disagree.
“I thought it was our best performance with the ball in the first half,” Skinner told the media. “Second half, because Brighton were losing, they came out with a change. The two wide forwards, they weren’t evading enough, so they started to mix their game up a little bit…we got punished.
“I loved our energy in the second part of the second half…I was quite happy with the way we finished the game.”
In the first half, United had less possession than Brighton (54%-46%) but were more productive in the attack; attempting seven shots, with four on target, compared to the Seagulls’ solitary one (per FotMob).
After the break, the possession share stayed almost the same (52%-48%) but Brighton matched United for shots taken, with six, and created one big chance to United’s zero (per FotMob).
Pressing persistence
United found joy in the first half with the most efficient high press we have seen in this new setup for the 2024-25 season.
Out of possession, the team continued in the 4-2-4 shape with Toone and Clinton usually being the ones to close down the player on the ball when the opportunity presented itself.
United held their shape very well in the first half, forcing Brighton into errors inside their own half or by giving away possession back to United close to the halfway line.
The role of Clinton in this particular phase changes depending on which player is closest to the ball – with United waiting for the opportune moment to apply pressure.
As shown in the photo below, the shape has the team high up inside Brighton’s half with the four defenders either on the halfway line or just inside the Brighton half.
The role of Maya Le Tissier is key when the opposition is playing the ball between the centre-backs. She is the furthest defender, and often steps into midfield to apply pressure to the opposition forwards so they can’t bypass the United front four and double pivot.
In possession, United got a lot of joy between Celin Bizet and Clinton who were dragging Brighton players out of position with clever movement on and off the ball. This also created opportunities for Elisabeth Terland and Hinata Miyazawa on the left side. The duo combined for eight of United’s total 13 shots on the day, and five out of seven shots that forced a save.
Dominique Janssen and Lisa Naalsund, in the double pivot, were a lot more involved in the game in the first half too, as they were able to break the lines with forward passes into creative players like Toone and Clinton.
What went wrong in the second half?
The second half saw United drop a lot deeper into their own half with Brighton having more possession further up the pitch in comparison to the first half. Brighton completed 21 more passes in United’s half of the pitch during the second period, with their touches in the United box also rising from four to 10 after half-time.
In the first half, United saw success from an attacking point of view on the right-hand side with Bizet and Clinton. After the break, this was nullified by Brighton who brought on Michelle Agyemang. In turn, Bizet was pushed back into a more defensive role where she looked a bit less comfortable.
Brighton started exploited the gaps left when United initiated the aggressive press. As United became less organized, these gaps were easier to find.
As shown in the two stills below, Bizet gets caught between pressing the Brighton midfield or looking after Agyemang on her shoulder. In this instance, she ends up getting caught in the middle of the two. Poppy Pattinson plays the ball over the top and into the space left by Bizet being caught in the middle of the two Brighton players.
In possession, United failed to keep control of the game with misplaced passes. Brighton focused an intense press on the double pivot of Naalsund and Janssen, which resulted in United being unable to play through the midfield in the same way they had in the first half.
Brighton’s second-half pressure at the base of United’s midfield, combined with Bizet and Clinton being shut down on the right-hand side of the attack, forced Skinner into making changes in order to rejuvenate his team’s chance creation.
In the final 15 minutes of the match, United looked better when Bizet was pushed forward out of the defense, and into a more attacking role. This was achieved by Aoife Mannion coming on to fill the right-back spot, with Miyazawa coming off. But ultimately this was too late to make the difference.
Bigger tests to come
Questions have been raised in the opening few games about how easy teams seem to be able to get in behind the United midfield and wing-backs and this game has only made those questions carry more weight.
Bizet and Clinton have been the stand out performers of the outfield players in the last couple of games so Skinner needs to find a way of keeping them both in the team without giving up the space in behind.
3 wins and a draw is not a bad start to the season in the WSL, however some of the fan base are already skeptical. The last two games (despite not losing either) have shown United will give up chances playing this way. With a tough opponent in Arsenal after the international break, this is something that will need to be rectified.
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While I wasn't expecting much from her this early, Simi Awujo seemed to make a difference to the United midfield. Am wondering if she'll be a better fit for this shape? Especially as it seems the 2 CMs are going to have to cover a lot of ground for the system to work.
This is a good read am of the fans that always observe I don't always shout skinner out or start insulting the manager I watched the full 90mins yesterday and all I can say is I remember talking about recruiting another Rb in the last window cos Jayde is injury prone, skinner made a mistake yesterday cos you can immediately see the game tempo change immediately he brought in Aoife and Bizet moved up, if skinner had made this change in the 60th minutes we would have won the game yesterday but that's done for now, I believe skinner is the type of coach that learns every match day as he always says I've seen him experimenting with RW and LW and I'll believe he learnt his lessons from yesterday game that celin is RW and not a Rb but I believe he had to play celin at RB cos Aoife I think is a CB but moving forward if we setup like this againts Arsenal we will come out with a win cos the football i witnessed them. Play on that first half is one of the best I've seen in the WSL, note to say Jayde is injury prone we can't have only 1 Rb and 2 Lb come next yr January the club needs to recruit for a new RB, all in all I belive the club is making good progress football wise and we're still in the title race. Thanks for this article too