Opportunity missed: United's disjointed press and lack of outlets against Arsenal
While Manchester United remain unbeaten in the WSL, there were plenty of frustrations after failing to win against another top side.
Manchester United started a busy November by playing an Arsenal side that hadn’t been able to hit their best form at the start of this season and had already made a managerial change by October.
Many fans saw this past weekend’s match as a big opportunity to create a bigger gap on Arsenal in the WSL table; however, a 1-1 draw at Leigh Sports Village has left many United fans feeling frustrated.
Disjointed Press
United started the opening stages on the front foot, pressing from the front as we have seen with this United team so far this season. However, this changed after 10-15 minutes when United adopted a deeper defensive line. Setting up in a 4-3-3 shape, Ella Toone, Elisabeth Terland, and Grace Clinton stayed forward, while Celin Bizet was slightly deeper alongside Dominique Janssen and Lisa Naalsund.
On many occasions, only a single player would initiate the press but this was not followed by the other players nearby.
As shown in the two stills below, Toone decides to press the goalkeeper, but with Terland and Bizet further back, it’s easier for Arsenal to just play around the backline at the expense of United using up more energy. Whereas in previous games, we have seen the front four of United much higher up the pitch - more able to press the opposition centre-backs and full-backs in a block of two in midfield and a block of four ahead of it.
Lack of attacking outlet
Although United haven’t lost a game this season, it’s hard to say many results have been massively convincing despite two 3-0 wins at home against Spurs and West Ham.
Against Arsenal, United only managed three shots on target and 10 touches in Arsenal’s box; compared to Arsenal’s four shots on target and 50 touches in United’s box.
Particularly in the second half, United really struggled to get any foothold in the game, with United’s first shot in the second half coming with Melvine Malard’s equalizer in the 82nd minute. United also only saw 30% of the ball in the second half and only completed 88 passes (69% of all attempted after halftime).
Changes were made in the second half with the introduction of Malard, Jayde Riviere, Simi Awujo, who all struggled to make a huge impact on the game from a defensive or attacking point of view. United tried to play out from the back, but with Arsenal being successful at pinning United back, often Maya Le Tissier or Millie Turner would resort to trying to play it long into the channels for Terland, Bizet, or Toone to run onto. This almost always led to a turnover in possession.
The change that pushed United up the pitch was in the 77th minute when Marc Skinner brought on Geyse on the right wing. This allowed United to have an out ball with the Brazilian’s ability to hold onto the ball and a quick turn of pace to drive United forward. This pace out wide was what seemed to be lacking from United throughout the game, with Clinton and Toone having occupied those positions earlier in the game.
100 Games For Skinner
This weekend also saw Marc Skinner’s 100th game in charge of Manchester United Women.
In that time, Skinner delivered United’s first major trophy, the FA Cup, and also secured Champions League qualification for the club for the first time. Both are huge achievements for the club. However, after a good transfer window and retaining key players in the squad ahead of this season, the talk amongst some sections of the fan base before the 2024-25 season was a desire to see United take that next step and become consistent challengers in the WSL’s top three.
Skinner was presented with a ‘100’ shirt pre-game by sporting director Dan Ashworth, which was met by a mixture of applause and a few boos around the ground - showing the current unrest amongst the fanbase despite an unbeaten start to the season.
Skinner spoke in the pre-match press conference on this achievement: “I want to be here for another 100 games, and to do that we've got to win, and we've got to win games of football, and we've got to win trophies and keep progressing this team.”
With more scrutiny, growing fan pressure, and a talented group of players, most of which have had the taste of winning success either at United or previous clubs, it does feel like a make-or-break season for Skinner.
After back-to-back draws, a win against Aston Villa next weekend feels essential for United to keep on track for UWCL qualification. Or the pressure will ultimately increase even more despite it only being early in the season.
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I think this season we have been better defensively but we really lack something attacking wise. Like last season, the main issue is the midfield but I would say it's gone worse. We haven't replaced creativity of zelem. We know janssen has long range passing abilities at cb, but struggles with pressure in midfield. Similar with naalsund she is not good under pressure. I don't understand the mistreatment of ladd who for me is press resistant and has good awareness on transitional moments. Naalsund has slightly better defensive stats than Janssen, and I think naalsund is having to do a lot more defensive work than last season so we aren't seeing her contribute much attacking wise. Ladd needs to be at 6 which would free players like naalsund and grace from having to do too much defensively and giving them the freedom to attack. And can we please play actual wingers on the wing, just because he sees geyse and celin as RWs doesn't mean u can't play them both on either wing. Celin on left and geyse at right. We saw the impact geyse made when coming on, being able to progress the ball for us high up the pitch to take off pressure from defending so deep.
Geyse has always been important since last season for the team moving forward Geyse does not do side or back passes, she's moves forward no matter if there an opposition there she either try to shake the opposition off by dribbling or doing whatever she can do, Geyse should have started in the wing both Geyse and celin should have started in the wings, imagine the amount of service our attack will get if Geyse and Celin started on both wings, skinner is actually a high school coach he's been here for so many years and still can't beat a top team comfortably