With Doku infield, it was Leny Yoro – United's proper centre-back – who was tasked with pushing up aggressively on him.
That may be a tough ask for a pure central defender, particularly with Doku dropping as deep as his personal half, and it was made tougher as Foden additionally occupied these areas.
Yoro's front-footed defending made the midfield battle a 4 towards three – somewhat than 4 towards two – at occasions, however he would usually retreat when Metropolis's gamers moved deeper as he didn't need to find yourself too removed from his backline.
By not committing solely to backing up the press in a man-to-man vogue, United's press was disjointed – which means Metropolis had a free man someplace.
United captain Bruno Fernandes touched on this after the match, admitting his group wanted to be “extra courageous with full stress” to stop the opening purpose.
“Metropolis take that danger towards us – we have to do the identical,” he stated.
“I used to be making an attempt to press Rodri as a result of the intention of the midfielders was for one to leap on Rodri, with one of many defenders on Foden.
“Within the first second, I can cowl each however Leny comes up so I am going extra on Rodri. And Leny was going backwards due to a miscommunication and we find yourself giving an excessive amount of area on the pitch.”
A team-wide man-to-man press would guarantee simple passing choices aren't out there for the opposition.
As Fernandes mentions, it was the job of one of many defenders – particularly Yoro – to leap on Foden. However the intelligent positioning of O'Reilly and motion of Doku meant he was left in two minds.
Foden was capable of obtain the ball beneath no stress and carry it up the pitch – a scenario that was replicated later within the sport.
