1. Wing play, Blind & Rashford didn't really combine, same as against Liverpool, Martial had 4 players on him, but our manager didn't instruct the LB to go forward and combine with him. We give the ball to Rashford, then the players just stand and expect him to dribble past the defenders, where is the movement? It's a style that screams "get it to the winger & hope for some magic". Now, if that's what you're going to do, you're better off starting Martial, he's more of a wide player, has the trickery & pace to do it.
2. Zlatan, 14 PL goals but like Giroud for Arsenal, our general attacking play suffers because of his style. At 35, he doesn't have the legs, doesn't occupy defenders, doesn't drag them about with his movement & he doesn't run in behind, hence, we must play it to his feet, the problem with this is that, as a team, our use of the ball is not great & our passing is slow.
3. Midfield, when Carrick is not on his game, we lose control. Pogba takes too many touches, the players are too far apart, everyone wants to take an extra touch, when will we see United play one touch football? How about allowing a CB to bring the ball into midfield? Rojo is very good on the ball, Hull conceded a lot of space in midfield, it was begging for the CB to step into that space, attack it. It's very clear that he was instructed not to do it.
4. System, we started with 4141 formation, but Mhkitaryan spent all his time in the middle, so once again, onus was on Valencia, the right back to provide width on the right, which means, more crosses, and more basic, route one attacking play. Then he brought on Rooney & Mata, at one point, I didn't know what formation we were playing but whatever it was, it wasn't working. Mourinho's answer to our dysfunctional attack seems to be to bring on more attackers and hope for the best.
5. Improvement? If you analyze how we created our so called chances, you'll see a clear pattern, it's either from a cross, a long ball or a knockdown, I think the only time we cut open that Hull defense was when Zlatan flicked it to Pogba, what happened there? Simple, someone was willing to run past Zlatan, to get in behind, not rocket science. Our attacking play is so basic, it's so predictable, in fact, I can tell you how the ball will go from De Gea, to Rojo, to Carrick, then to Pogba, Pogba to Herrera, then to Valencia on the right wing, then a cross for Zlatan to knock down, most of our attacking play follows this pattern. It's not sophisticated, it's not incisive and it lacks imagination.
33 goals after 23 PL games, Crystal Palace, 18th & fighting relegation have scored 32, 14th placed Bournemouth have scored 32, Everton in 7th have scored 34. That's how bad we have been in attack.
