At the moment of writing the article, Manchester United Women are at the top of the FAWSL with 32 points, one point ahead of Chelsea who are yet to play a match, and three points ahead of Manchester City who are battling for the title as well. Then, they are followed by Arsenal who are holding the fourth place actually with a match left to play. As things stand, the Red Devils have got some serious chances to keep the second spot or eventually battle for the title.
This, however, will depend on how long can the team resist and how many losses they can avoid. It will be extremely important for them to keep their good run of form going in order to gain extra points on their direct opponents and guarantee a top three and why not a top two position.
This might sound very optimistic but if the team believe in their chances and have confidence in their abilities, it can become a realistic goal that can be achieved. In this tactical analysis scout report on Manchester United, we will be exploring what is helping them perform well and win most of their FAWSL games so far and especially how they can keep their run of form going and improve their performances even further by addressing their weaknesses and proposing potential solutions.
Pizza chart analysis
Based on this pizza chart in our first image, and while considering the team’s recent performances as well, it is fair to say that they have been excellent in terms of goalscoring in the last period and they will have to build on this positive aspect in order to reinforce their attacking performances, especially against their direct opponents because that’s where they usually struggle in attack.
Nevertheless, their ability to score more than two goals per match, as they did against Reading, Brighton, Everton, Arsenal, Aston Villa and Liverpool, clearly highlights the team’s goalscoring upgrade compared to last season.
At the same time, they will have to be more attentive in defence since they often concede against their direct opponents and therefore risk losing even though they showed that they are able to score goals even when facing such teams, as they did against Arsenal in their 3-2 win against them.
To consolidate these convincing attacking performances, a little bit more focus on the defensive aspect and tactics would help the team a lot and make them more difficult to beat even when facing the likes of Chelsea and Manchester City.
Moreover, the pizza chart highlights the fact that Manchester United play with efficient high pressing and a high possession average per match. In addition to this, the team’s passing quality is excellent and Manchester United’s key passing rates are very high as their passes to the final third are also good enough, but not as good as the key passing rates.
Comparison with Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal
To concretely assess Manchester United’s ability to earn a UWCL spot or battle for the title, it is fundamental to compare the team’s statistics to those of their direct opponents which are mainly Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal. By analysing the following pizzas, it should be said that just like Chelsea, Manchester United have actually surpassed their xG and are scoring a higher number of goals than was expected from them.
They are also the most aggressive in terms of high pressing (at the time of writing, they have the lowest PPDA in the WSL — 6.7) which helps them to equal Manchester City and better both Chelsea and Arsenal in terms of possession averages.
Manchester United need to monitor and eventually improve their xGA per match, though, as it is the highest among the four teams. So, while they deny their opponents many passes before committing a defensive action against them, they are not performing well enough at denying goalscoring opportunities.
Strengths and weaknesses
In terms of strengths, Manchester United’s attacking performances are surely among the team’s most positive points this season as both Ella Toone and Alessia Russo are putting on some convincing displays regularly and are helping the team concretise opportunities with accurate assists from Toone and clinical finishing from Russo, who has been at her best since Euro 2022.
The following goal action against Liverpool highlights both players’ importance in Manchester United’s attack as the chemistry between the two players is outstanding and is helping them reach their opponents’ goal in a smooth and somehow more direct way. For instance, in this action, Toone didn’t overcomplicate things when she received the ball after her teammate’s interception. She immediately provided a through pass towards the direction of Russo’s run without the ball and the latter didn’t even need to control the ball but went automatically for the shot towards the bottom far post. This means that the whole action was formed of two accurate and dangerous touches: one pass and one shot.
Moreover, Manchester United rely a lot on crosses from Ona Batlle, Nikita Parris and Hannah Blundell as Leah Galton and Hayley Ladd’s additions inside the final third are always very useful whether by shooting from distance or by joining the box to be at the end of crosses. In this next example, Batlle crosses the ball towards the head of Toone who finds the net without complicating things.
Galton’s penetrations inside the box and her use of her physical abilities provide an extra solution for the team’s midfielders as they know they can always rely on Galton’s penetrations and finishing. For instance, Toone waits for Galton’s run here and provides her with an excellent assist at the back of the defensive line. As you might have noticed, Toone is usually at the heart of most of Manchester United’s attacking actions.
At the same time, Manchester United do have some notable weaknesses and recurring mistakes, especially from a defensive perspective.
The defensive line plays bad passes quite often when they are trying to build up from the back and these types of errors cause the team much trouble, especially against teams who rely a lot on high pressing and who are clinical attacking-wise.
That was exactly the case against Chelsea when both teams met recently in the FAWSL. Millie Turner had the ball at the back and somehow lost concentration and provided a wrong pass towards the direction of an opponent. Within a second, Kerr found herself with the ball against a non-organised defence and therefore was able to dribble past Maya Le Tissier and shoot towards the net.
What also needs some work and improvement is preventing opposition shots on goal and being able to deviate or intercept the ball before shooting. Le Tissier indeed attempted a sliding tackle to deviate the ball, yet it was not a well-timed one.
If Manchester United would like to keep competing with the top FAWSL teams, they will have to step up and make some defensive improvements to be able to make more positive results against such teams. Otherwise, it will be complicated for the team to keep battling for a second or first spot until the end of the season because winning the rest of the matches wouldn’t really be sufficient.
Here is an example of another Manchester United defensive mistake and more specifically a rather marking mistake. It was during the match against Arsenal that Katie McCabe crossed the ball accurately towards Laura Wienroither who was coming from behind and surprised her marker. She was ultimately able to score the goal and the blame here goes to her direct marker who is apparent in the picture.
She was looking only at McCabe and at the ball and didn’t notice Wienroither who was running at her back and this was a big mistake. Such concentration and positioning errors are often exploited by opponents and Manchester United players are required to always position themselves in a way that doesn’t allow such penetrations. Moreover, being attentive to opponents’ movements, particularly during set-pieces and crosses has always been essential to avoid conceding goals, and Manchester United will need to improve this aspect as well.
Conclusion
Overall, Manchester United have got a good chance of finishing second but they are unlikely to win the title because Chelsea appear to be more balanced and more powerful from both a defensive and attacking perspective. Nevertheless, the team will have to believe in their chances and battle until the end because they have all that is needed to create surprises. At the same time, failing to finish second at the end of the season would more likely mean a failure since Manchester United are actually looking better than their direct opponents for the second spot, Manchester City and Arsenal.
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