Manchester United followed up the appointment of new manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer with a hard fought 2-1 victory against Watford on Saturday afternoon.
Now up and running as the full-time boss in the Old Trafford dugout, Solskjaer will be eager to avenge his side's recent FA Cup exit when they travel to Molineux to face Wolves on Tuesday night.
Last month's defeat gave the Norwegian his first consecutive losses and did look to expose some fragility in his set-up. But what went wrong and how can he combat it this time round?
Firstly, it is worth nothing Solskjaer relies predominantly on variations of a 4-2-3-1/ 4-3-3 formation, placing a big emphasis on pushing his wing-backs high and looking to build attacks from the back.
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However, this differed from his side's set up at the Molineux.
United played a back four but deployed a midfield diamond consisting of Nemanja Matic as the holder, Ander Herrera and Paul Pogba either side, and Jesse Lingard, who spearheaded the diamond. Meanwhile Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford featured as a striking duo.
It’s a tactic that has worked well on numerous occasions already this season, most notably away at Tottenham back in January.
Lingard’s role proves pivotal in the formation. Occupying the central space, he makes it difficult for defenders to utilise the central midfielders by cutting off the passing lanes when they are in possession.
As the formation leaves United pretty compact through the middle, the opposition will often look to build their attack through the full-backs. This means the front two of both Rashford and Martial are primed in position to counter-attack into those vacant spaces when United win possession of the ball.
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Given the attacking options at the disposal of Nuno Espírito Santo, added with the fact his side were at home, it’s understandable why Solskjaer expected this tactic to be triumphant.
Yet Wolves adapted their set up against the Reds to counter this.
Wolves deployed a low narrow block, as seen above. In this formation, the home side were blocking all of United’s key passing lanes to all their key players through the middle. The Reds would have been better trying to build around Wolves - as indicated by the arrows - yet their lack of width throughout the game made this difficult.
This left United limited when in possession of the ball; through passes were easily intercepted and Wolves were able to quickly transition into dangerous counter-attacks.
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Across all competitions this season, with a total of four, nobody has managed more counter attacks leading to shots on goal against United than Nuno’s men in this match.
Out of possession, United were guilty of pressing the ball and but failing to close the passing lane of their opponents.
As Lingard pressed through the middle, Rashford and Martial were slow to block passes out wide to the Wolves defenders. This allowed Wolves to play around their press and exploit the spaces on the flanks.
To counter this, either Pogba or Herrera would shuffle over to close the space and United wing-backs Luke Shaw and Diogo Dalot would press high. In doing so, they exposed space in behind that Wolves' quick attackers could exploit.
Combating Wolves set-up
Against Southampton a few weeks ago, United faced a similar issue. Solskjaer set his side up in that familiar 4-4-2 diamond formation. But his side found themselves a goal down and struggling to break through the defensive mentality.
On the half-hour mark, the Norwegian changed his formation to a familiar 4-3-3. With Alexis Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku providing width and Rashford playing through the middle, this meant United had more outlets when in possession of the ball.
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Like Wolves, Southampton remained in a resolute narrow shape. However, due to width provided by Solskjaer’s adapted system, when in possession United could stretch Southampton and carve openings through their defence much easier.
The Reds went on to come from behind and win 3-2.
In this game, Solskjaer proved his capabilities of adapting his set-up to nullify the threat of the opposition and break through their purposeful set-up.
Given their success in the last meeting, it’s unlikely Wolves will alter their tactics for the forthcoming clash with United.
It would therefore seem to enjoy victory in this match up, United may need to utilise their width and avoid a narrow set-up.
In doing so, they should be presented more opportunities to break through a difficult opponent in Wolves - and avenge that frustrating FA Cup defeat from three weeks ago.
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