Much is being made of the Manchester United lineup Jose Mourinho will field against Chelsea on Monday. Will it be three at the back? 4-3-3? 4-2-31? Who will the striker be? Here’s how the Red Devils can cause an upset at Stamford Bridge.
Manchester United play Chelsea on Monday as the two meet in their FA Cup quarterfinal. Jose Mourinho has some key decisions to make ahead of the fixture. To have any hope at Stamford Bridge, Mourinho’s tactics and team selection will have to be perfect.
It’s a steep challenge, but it’s do-able. The problem with opposition teams facing Chelsea right now is that nobody has truly exposed them yet. It will happen. It always does. But somebody has to be that first team to lay the blueprint for others to follow. To offer that encouragement and belief.
It will be an uphill battle for United – especially without Zlatan Ibrahimovich due to his recent three-game ban. Selecting who replaces Ibrahimovich as the team’s main striker will be one of Mourinho’s key decisions.
However, the first decision the United boss must make is to select the right system to play. Now, United hardly ever play three at the back, but did so in the Europa League on Thursday. That made everybody wonder whether Mourinho was intending to do the same against Chelsea.
Would it be a good idea? It would be a good, but risky, idea. Other teams have tried the same this season and been demolished by the Blues. That’s the risk you run. But done right, the system can be effective against Antonio Conte’s team.
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Against Chelsea, there are two key things any opponent must do. The first is deal with the front three of Eden Hazard, Pedro and Diego Costa. The trio tuck inside and play quite centrally, so it’s the middle of the park you really need to cut off.
Playing three at the back gives you the extra strength you need in the middle to try and do that. That does make you more vulnerable out wide (as we’ll get to with Chelsea), but the wing backs just have to deal with Victor Moses and Marcos Alonso alone. The center is the priority.
The second key thing you must do against Chelsea is, despite the focus centrally on defense, offensively you must maintain a threat out wide. If Mourinho does play three at the back, playing a system where the wing backs are the team’s only width would be a mistake.
United need two players, with pace, to play high and wide behind Moses and Alonso. That is the area where Chelsea can be exposed. Exploiting that area means the center-backs – Gary Cahill in particular – are then forced to defend out wide against pace and movement.
Ideally, that would lead to crosses for Ibrahimovich, but that obviously won’t be happening. So Anthony Martial, Marcus Rashford and Henrikh Mkhitaryan should be the front three. United need a better combination of pace and defensive work than the likes of Juan Mata in this game.
On the counter-attack, those three should pose a threat and in the right areas, too. Meanwhile, the midfield needs a mix of defense and energy to match Chelsea in that area. Paul Pogba has his obvious strengths, but defending isn’t one of them. Same goes for Michael Carrick.
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However, Mourinho is short of options in midfield. So Ander Herrera and Pogba are Manchester United’s most complete midfield pairing available for now. Herrera gives United the energy and recovery work to cover for Pogba’s inconsistent positional play.
In the back three, Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo both ideally need to play as the central defender. Both are rash and poor decision-makers, so need the protection. But Jones can maybe do a touch better defending in wide areas than Rojo can. It’s close. Eric Bailly as the left-sided center-back should be fine.
It’s not the way Manchester United usually play, and it’s not something the players will be familiar with, but it’s how the Red Devils can win this particular game. Being tactically disciplined, combined with some standout individual performances, and United can get the job done.
The team must be tight as a unit and the transition to counter attack swift. Keep the game compact and play with patience. Let Matic (if he starts) and Kante have the ball. Instead, crowding and suffocating the front three is the focus.
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If Cesc Fabregas plays, then that makes life harder due to his passing ability and vision. But the upside is he makes Chelsea weaker defensively. Chelsea do have holes, like every team. They just haven’t been exploited yet.
With the right setup, United can exploit some of those holes and potentially pull off a surprise result at Stamford Bridge.