Rob Dawson ESPN: Solskjaer tells players he wants to implement a more attacking 4-3-3 this season.

He's very good at saying/leaking stuff people want to hear.

'High pressing team'
 
Time will tell but I don't think we necessarily need a DM as much if we play a more attacking game.

What I mean is that the dynamic of the team changes if we have a attacking players further up. Simply because we won't invite the pressure we have been doing. Hopefully won't be losing the ball as much.

I think Sancho on the right will mean a different AWB. Simply because he will cover and get back more, Sancho that is. I think AWB got isolated a lot on the right hence his hesitancy to go forward and the last minute challenges when he did.

We have played a style that has seen us consistently under the kosh. A more attacking style with olayers able to interchange and keep the ball will automatically improve us I feel. Opposition defenders and MF will have one eye on likes of Sancho, Bruno and cavani so should be less likely to get forward as much.

Could be wrong but in terms of change in dynamic helping players that will happen I feel.
 
I think biggest beneficiary of the formation change would be our youngsters like Mejbri, Garner and possibly Hansen-Aarøen in near future who should find transition to first team in midfield three easier than midfield two .

And if we are genuinely moving towards 433 how about making cheeky bid for either Pedri or De Jong help Barcelona out a bit .
 
gajender said:
I think biggest beneficiary of the formation change would be our youngsters like Mejbri, Garner and possibly Hansen-Aarøen in near future who should find transition to first team in midfield three easier than midfield two .

And if we are genuinely moving towards 433 how about making cheeky bid for either Pedri or De Jong help Barcelona out a bit .
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Mejbri and Garner could potentially be big beneficiaries of a formation change. But we would need a player in midfield who is positionally and defensively strong. Declan Rice would've been fine for such a role but his price tag is ridiculous. But if we could nab someone like Aurelien Tchouameni, then that would really help us IMO.
 
So the midfield looks something like:

Fred/DM/Matic

Bruno/Donny---------Pogba/Scott
 
Who plays in Midfield 3? Is Fred good enough to play DM role assuming Bruno and Pogba ( if stays) would get the other 2 spot
 
Varane is key to that system BUT if we are to play with 1 DM then we need a DM as Fred or McT ain’t up to that task meaning a DM is just as important as is Varane!
 
Strange when we didnt use it before to get Pogba and Bruno in the same team. Obviously the 4-2-3-1 allowed more holding players to help the defence, but if we had just gone for it with the 4-3-3 I feel like we could have had so much more threat going forward that teams would be more afraid to attack us
 
It'll be McT or Fred as the no 6, with Bruno/Pogba/VdB as the two 8's i would imagine? Surely opens up some game time for Hannibal, and perhaps Garner too
 
He has only one defensive midfielder who could allow that to happen, a 33-year-old Matic.
 
Adnan said:
I predicted he would do something similar, but he needed a CB who had the ability to defend solo in 1v1 situations. Maybe Varane is that CB..
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Everyone with half a brain predicted he would do this!

It was obvious that he played Fred and McT in the middle together due to our defensive core not being as strong as he wanted.

My one issue is scoring goals has never been our issue, keeping clean sheets often was, but hopefully Varane/another DM might solve this issue whilst making us even stronger as an attacking unit.
 
Adnan said:
Mejbri and Garner could potentially be big beneficiaries of a formation change. But we would need a player in midfield who is positionally and defensively strong. Declan Rice would've been fine for such a role but his price tag is ridiculous. But if we could nab someone like Aurelien Tchouameni, then that would really help us IMO.
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I don't know much about Aurelien Tchouameni but JPRouve described him as more of box to box rather than CDM .
Maybe we have someone lined up for that role who we would pursue if we are able to raise some much needed funds after some sales.
 
Ekeke said:
Strange when we didnt use it before to get Pogba and Bruno in the same team. Obviously the 4-2-3-1 allowed more holding players to help the defence, but if we had just gone for it with the 4-3-3 I feel like we could have had so much more threat going forward that teams would be more afraid to attack us
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It's not that strange, when you add Sancho you can change Bruno's role and instead of shoehorning him in the last third you can use his overall skillset and mentality in the middle third. Sancho by himself has the ability to improve our midfield by taking the burden of creating and scoring in the last third while Bruno can now use his aggression and never say die mentality deeper. We saw it during the Euro, on the rare occasions where Bruno was used deeper he completely changed the dynamic of the game.
 
Thus end the Ole and Southgate comparison. If Ole had that England squad I feel like he would have played with 4-5 forwards.
 
Champ said:
My one issue is scoring goals has never been our issue
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We had seven 0-0s in the league last season (and a 1-0 defeat). If you take out the absolutely freak Southampton result, we scored 64 in 37 games which isn't terrible but very much on the low end for a title challenging side. In fact, we haven't won the league with such a low goals-per-game ratio since 1992/93!

So yeah, scoring goals, particularly in games when there's no space to hit the opponent on the break, has been very much issue and we need to significantly improve.
 
tenpoless said:
Thus end the Ole and Southgate comparison. If Ole had that England squad I feel like he would have played with 4-5 forwards.
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Tbh, we have seen Ole try and do it, playing Pogba / VDB in a 2 but the issue is the lack of DM. England have a DM so no reason to play 2 attackers only.
 
largelyworried said:
Id always felt that the lack of a DM that can play 50 games a season was the only reason we didnt do this in the first place and I don't really see what's changed. So either the older rumours about Rice are true and there's negotiations on the go, or we have something else up our sleeve. I don't really think that after 2 seasons of persisting with McT and Fred, Ole suddenly feels one of them is now good enough to play DM by themselves every week.
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Yeah I would agree with this assessment. What has changed in the last six weeks to convince the Manager that the existing midfield can switch to a 4-3-3? To me nothing has.
 
gajender said:
I think biggest beneficiary of the formation change would be our youngsters like Mejbri, Garner and possibly Hansen-Aarøen in near future who should find transition to first team in midfield three easier than midfield two .

And if we are genuinely moving towards 433 how about making cheeky bid for either Pedri or De Jong help Barcelona out a bit .
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That's a really good point about the youngsters, and a huge positive if the proposed change happens.
 
The lacking piece seems to be a good DM for that setup. Not sure Fred can play that role
 
Champ said:
Everyone with half a brain predicted he would do this!

It was obvious that he played Fred and McT in the middle together due to our defensive core not being as strong as he wanted.

My one issue is scoring goals has never been our issue, keeping clean sheets often was, but hopefully Varane/another DM might solve this issue whilst making us even stronger as an attacking unit.
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I said at the time that Solskjaer's preferred way of playing was to press high with counter pressing capabilities. And the reason I stated he couldn't do that effectively was because both starting CBs didn't have the ability to dominate the wide spaces in a higher defensive line without midfield or fullback assistance. I've never had a issue with us playing a two man midfield.
 
Siorac said:
We had seven 0-0s in the league last season (and a 1-0 defeat). If you take out the absolutely freak Southampton result, we scored 64 in 37 games which isn't terrible but very much on the low end for a title challenging side. In fact, we haven't won the league with such a low goals-per-game ratio since 1992/93!

So yeah, scoring goals, particularly in games when there's no space to hit the opponent on the break, has been very much issue and we need to significantly improve.
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Why take out the Southampton result?? Because we scored repeatedly in the same game, those goals don't count?? Strange way of thinking about goalscoring that!

We were the second highest scorers in the league last season, yet we conceded more goals than Brighton, Spurs, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal.

Creativity needs to be addressed in the team before goalscoring, but by playing the revised formation then hopefully that may be addressed, however this cannot come at a cost of leaking even more goals otherwise we will be in trouble.
 
What I'm curious about and my opinion is that Ole sees getting a good CB as the only recruitment needed for this to work.
 
Let's wait for him to actually do it than.

He has talked a good game from day 1 but the actual football is still pretty dreadful 90% of the time.
 
Champ said:
Why take out the Southampton result?? Because we scored repeatedly in the same game, those goals don't count?? Strange way of thinking about goalscoring that!
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Because the question isn't whether we're good at scoring goals in games where the opponent has a man sent off in the 2nd minute. I'm willing to bet everything I own that the vast majority of our games won't be like that.

So yeah, scoring goals is an issue. We don't score enough, and we fail to score too often. Again, we didn't score a goal in 8 games out of 38 in the league. I'm hopeful Sancho will improve that but our relative lack of creativity is not solely a personnel issue.
 
Remember the times when Ole came in and we played 433 with Matic Pogba and Herrera.

Good times.
 
gajender said:
I don't know much about Aurelien Tchouameni but JPRouve described him as more of box to box rather than CDM .
Maybe we have someone lined up for that role who we would pursue if we are able to raise some much needed funds after some sales.
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He's been deployed in numerous roles but is strong defensively and was even used by Kovac in a single pivot against PSG when they were chasing the game. He's a well rounded midfielder who will provide defensive stability aswell as a offensive threat going forward. It all depends on how one uses him.
 
jamesjimmybyrondean said:
What I'm curious about and my opinion is that Ole sees getting a good CB as the only recruitment needed for this to work.
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Regulus Arcturus Black said:
I agree with Ole then.

As I say, in the big games we’ll likely go back to 4-2-3-1 and I think in 90% of games we have a bunch of midfielders that could be asked to sit.
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This would be big for VDB and/or Pogba, but Fred or McTominay need to prove they are up to the task or someone who is emerges. It would also make it easier to get Mejbri games. We currently have more attacking mid-fielders than we do holding (we honestly lack a true defensive minded 6 with high-end distribution). Sancho's creativity and playmaking allow for Bruno to be pushed back a bit, and if we get Varane gives us more athleticism at CB. I think the creativity and playmaking of Sancho is just as vital for this as a CB like Varane. Most of our other attacking forwards/wingers outside of Mata lack high-end passing and vision to be relied upon to be the lead playmaker in the final third (and Mata didn't have the other skills required to be that guy at this point of his career).
 
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