Man Utd’s defending in Istanbul was hard to understand and Calvert-Lewin can take advantage

THE goals Manchester United conceded in midweek to Istanbul Basaksehir were hard to comprehend — especially the first one scored by Demba Ba.

I just don’t get it? If I am watching under-12s football and I saw that, I’d have an issue with it.

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Man Utd’s defending in Istanbul was shocking and Dominic Calvert-Lewin must be licking his lipsCredit: AP:Associated Press

It is incredible — the first thing you are taught as a kid is that if a team leaves a player up, then leave two defenders.

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side’s biggest consistency is their inconsistency — thrashed by Tottenham 6-1, victories against PSG and Leipzig, lose to Arsenal and to Istanbul.

As a result, there has been a lot of talk about formations and tactics.

I have seen United play three at the back, use a diamond, go with a 4-4-2 with split forwards or a 4-2-3-1. But in actual fact, it comes down purely to communication.

When I was playing against top teams, they always had leaders who had voices. Throughout the 90 minutes they wouldn’t shut up. They would be arguing among themselves and bossing each other about.

But one thing’s for sure, they wouldn’t concede a goal like United did. It wouldn’t be acceptable.

I challenge you to name a top team who didn’t have vocal leaders.

Chelsea had John Terry, Frank Lampard, Petr Cech. Man City had  Vincent Kompany and Joe Hart. United had Rio Ferdinand, Gary Neville, Roy Keane, Patrice Evra.

Liverpool had Jamie Carragher and Steven Gerrard, and right now they have Virgil van Dijk, Jordan Henderson, Andy Robertson and Alisson.

I honestly cannot name many like that in United’s side. They have some very talented  players but you need communicators.

The worry is that if the players Ole has in their mid-20s aren’t vocal now, it is unlikely you can teach someone to change.

It is not down to Ole to manage on the touchlines. You need four or five managers on the pitch.

Tony Pulis would be screaming at us from the sidelines at Stoke  but we couldn’t hear him with thousands of fans in the stadium.

So we took it upon ourselves, and when we were beaten it was not down to organisation, but simply because they were better than us.

It is the reason why United look so good playing on the counter. They look fantastic when they can sit in their positions and break, because you don’t need much communication to do that.

But once the onus is on them and they have players moving into different areas of the pitch, you need to constantly be talking and dragging players back into position.

There are players in a team who won’t always carry out instructions — and that’s natural. But the likes of a Neville, Keane or Ferdinand would be there to remind you of your job.

That’s why accusations of the likes of Harry Maguire being slow are irrelevant. Carragher and Terry weren’t the quickest but they were proactive players who spoke throughout the game.

In contrast, United have reactive players. And against the likes of Dominic Calvert-Lewin and James Rodriguez, I cannot see that changing.

Source: Soccer - thesun.co.uk