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Manchester United traveled to Selhurst Park to face a Crystal Palace side who were riding high after a thumping win over Leicester City last weekend. United had problems of their own though - as many as 5 first team members were injured and the situation was so grave that Solskjaer had to bring in a few teenagers into the matchday squad.
Solskjaer made 3 changes to the team that drew at Old Trafford. The back five remained the same, but in the middle, Fred replaced the injured Ander Herrera to start alongside Pogba and McTominay. Lukaku and Sanchez started up front. Marcus Rashford, James Garner and Tahith Chong remained options from the bench.
The home team started the game on a brighter note but United managed to find their way back soon. The away side took the lead through Lukaku in the 33rd minute and the first half ended 0-1 to the visitors.
In the second half, Lukaku scored once again in the 52nd minute to double United's lead. While it seemed like United would cruise through the game, Palace got a goal back through Ward in the 66th minute. That set up for a frantic last quarter of the game but Ashley Young eased the nerves by scoring United's third in the 83rd minute.
In the end, United ended the night with a hard-fought three points and here are 5 tactics from Solskjaer that won the game.
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#5 Keeping the formation intact
Solskjaer made 3 changes to the team that faced Liverpool last weekend but managed to keep his shape intact. It was the Norwegian’s tried and tested 4-3-3 formation, but with a few changes in personnel.
Even though Fred failed to impress in the first half, McTominay had another assured outing. Up front, Dalot was full of spirit and kept Van Anholt busy. Lukaku held the ball pretty well and used his physical presence to cause Palace a few problems. Sanchez, on the other hand, regularly moved inside, making space for Shaw to run into.
In the second half, Solskjaer brought on Rashford and Bailly to replace Dalot and Sanchez. The Ivorian moved to right back, while Young took on the attacking role on the right and Rashford moved to the left position. Fred was replaced by young James Garner and all the moves were carried out with the formation intact.
In the end, the continuity in the system allowed Manchester United to flourish, even in the absence of their key players and helped the Red Devils win the game.
#4 Pressing Football
Solskjaer was wary of the threat posed by this Palace side. Affording them any room on the field was out of the question, as they had shown against Leicester City. As such, even in the absence of key players, Solskjaer set his team up to play pressing football, to deny the home team any time and space on the ball.
Even though Palace started out strong, United held their shape well and refused to budge. On the ball, the Red Devils were composed and fast. But when they were without the ball, United did not allow Palace any space to impose their authority on the game.
It was a tough act to follow in the absence of Herrera and Matic in the midfield, however, McTominay and Fred tried their best to disrupt the Palace midfield. Pogba joined in the act and together the three of them managed to prevent Palace from taking control in the middle. Sanchez was also very effective in the pressing, as he was full of running until the 77th minute when he was replaced by Rashford.
#3 Alternating Back 4 and Back 3
There was a lot of initial confusion regarding who among Young and Dalot would start at right back. After the start of the game, it was noticed that Young had continued in his right back role, while Dalot joined Lukaku and Sanchez in the attack. However, contrary to his regular tactics, Solskjaer made a subtle change to the roles entrusted to his two fullbacks.
While Shaw enjoyed his normal role, Young was a lot more restrained. He rarely ventured forward to join his attackers, preferring instead to let Dalot do all the attacking. When United went forward, they switched to a back 3 of Young, Smalling, and Lindelof. This denied the Palace attackers and speedy wingers any room or opportunity to count counter attacks. When United lost the ball they reverted back to a back 4.
As such, Wilfried Zaha had a quiet game and even though Palace did have the odd chances, they failed to cause United too much trouble. A loss in concentration in the second half did allow the home team to get back into the game. But Solskjaer responded by moving Young forward in an attacking role and the Englishman grabbed United's third.
#2 Attacking freedom to Luke Shaw
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer seems to have recognized the abilities of Luke Shaw, which explains why the Norwegian has continuously selected the young Englishman in his team. In fact, ever since Mourinho’s departure, Shaw has quickly established himself as the first choice left-back and has been one of the players of the season.
Against Palace, Shaw continued in his left-back role and regularly bombed forward. As Sanchez moved inside from the left, it opened up a lot of space for the left back to run into and Shaw made great use of that area to make deadly runs from the deep.
His combination with Sanchez worked wonders and the Englishman required no invitation to take on the Palace defense. It was from one such run in the first half that United got their opening goal. Shaw embarked on a mazy run, almost taking on the entire Palace defense. That freed up Lukaku in the middle and once the Englishman entered the box, he found the Belgian in space, who scored the first goal of the game. Shaw was also involved in the build-up to the third goal and Palace had no answer to his attacking exploits.
#1 Playing with 2 creative outlets
Palace started with a narrow back four and placed their midfield in close proximity to their defense. This meant that there was very little space between the midfield and defense for United to exploit. To counter this, Solskjaer made a few changes of his own.
He started Pogba on the right of the three-man midfield, moving the Frenchman from his normal position on the left of the midfield three. With Alexis Sanchez also cutting inside from the left, this meant that United had two creative outlets on the night and it was what helped the Red Devils break open Palace.
Pogba had a deeper role, mostly preferring to use his long passes to influence the game. Sanchez on the other hand, enjoyed greater freedom on the night, popping out almost everywhere and trying to feed Lukaku with the final balls. His movements kept Palace on their toes, while Pogba took charge whenever the Chilean was marked.
As the game progressed, Pogba took greater responsibilities and ultimately, he freed up Ashley Young in the dying minutes of the game to score the decisive third goal to seal the three points for United.
