Sadly, our style was/is tailor made for the way United play.
Our tactics in the first half were also inexcusable, either Pep got it completely wrong and was made to look like an amateur by OGS or the players just didn’t do as they were instructed.
We’ve been highly successful in stopping the counter attack as our whole team pushes up high and doesn’t allow much space between our CBs and MF. If the long ball goes right over the top we usually have Walker’s speed to mop up or Eddy in a high starting position.
In the first half yesterday we pressed high up but the defence just backed off, meaning that once they beat the initial press, a simple long ball meant that their front four was straight at our defence.
In the second half we were more aggressive in defence and didn’t really give them much of a sniff but the damage had already been done by then.
I also think that the lack of legs in MF and lack of aggression at the back is affecting our attack. I think we seem to be scared of taking risks and losing possession as we know we are vulnerable at the turnover of possession. Therefore we play much slower with the ball and allow their players to regroup so we don’t get caught out.
Indeed. I wonder when teams will become wiser to the hobbit's bus-parking/counter-attacking tactics and acknowledge that they're pretty good at it. Literally every team that played them with an attacking intent got hurt.
Just give them the ball and the problem's sorted because they wouldn't know what to do with it.