Man Utd let Man City win the Community Shield as the Red Devils gave up victory not just in the 90 minutes but penalties as well.
Despite the defeat though, there were more positives to take from this loss than negatives although there were some issues that continued from the previous campaign.
1. Setup
The first thing I noticed (and I'm sure many of you did as well) was that Erik ten Hag asked his team to setup in a 4-2-4 formation whenever City had the ball and built up from the back.
This isn't something that we've seen too often from ten Hag and United throughout the Dutchman's time at Old Trafford but was evident in the Derby loss.
The back four remained as they were with Casemiro and Kobbie Mainoo ahead of them with the quartet of Amad, Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandes and Mason Mount in front of the midfield pivot.
Between Bruno and Mount, the two of them were playing as pivot false 9's if you will. As the two of them were 'strikers', they pressed almost together resulting in this 4-2-4 setup.
Usually, we see the striker initiate the press by himself and the rest of the team move accordingly. This time it was both Fernandes and Mount that began that press.
Perhaps this new setup was because of the two false 9's and isn't something that we'll see too often as most of the time, we should have an actual centre-forward on the field instead of two makeshift strikers.
Or, perhaps this is a new implementation from ten Hag, van Nistelrooy and Hake?
We'll just have to wait and see.
2. Wingers
This one is both positive and negative with the negative potentially being pretty big.
But how good are Amad and Garnacho?
These two boys out on the flanks will take us to the next level in our attack. What the two of them have is something special.
Every time they get on the ball, things happen. We saw that with our first meaningful attack as Amad made that run through a couple of the City defenders before placing his shot wide.
This gave him and the team that confidence boost to get on the ball and make things happen.
He was a constant threat down the right-wing as whenever he got the ball, more often than not, a chance was created. The play between him and Casemiro for that cross was just pure sauce 👌.
Unfortunate that Mason Mount was on his heels otherwise he would've had a pretty straightforward finish.
It is (and has been) the same with Garnacho for a while. When he came on, there was this air of inevitability that something was going to happen. He just makes you move closer to the edge of your seat.
Much like Amad, Garnacho was always threatening and should've had an assist if not for poor finishing from Rashford.
Just 20 minutes after coming on, and the star boy then gives us the lead. A typical cut-in off the flank and go for goal attempt but unusually, off the right rather than his preferred left.
He made his way into the box and placed the ball in the bottom corner with his weaker left-foot. A very good finish from the 19-year-old.
He and Amad HAVE to be our starting wingers, HAVE to. There's no two-ways about it. The two of them always have the ability to make things happen and are quite direct as they are not afraid to take on their man. And in Amad's case, is unselfish.
We've had a problem for a while where the wide men don't pick up their heads and play the pass resulting in a missed opportunity and frustration for all. Amad is more of a team player as we saw with that Mason Mount opportunity.
Nobody would've blamed Amad for shooting in that position but instead played a simple pass across goal for what should've been a tap-in for someone more on the front foot.
That's what we need from out wide.
But the big problem is Marcus Rashford.
To be fair to him though, this one is more on the manager rather than the player. I mean, Rashford doesn't pick himself.
Erik ten Hag has been a long time admirer of the number 10. He's backed him to the hilts throughout his two years as MUFC boss. Even during the player's more difficult periods, ten Hag stood by his side.
But this is where the problem lies.
With Rashford continuing his poor form from last season, he shouldn't be in the starting XI. We know that his favourite position is left-wing but Garnacho is definitely better than him on that side. Rashford doesn't like the right and even if he did, Amad is better than him as well.
And while he can do a job as striker, Rashford is no true number 9.
His best position at the moment, is on the bench.
Whether Erik ten Hag will actually bench him or not is something that remains unclear. There is no sign of it though, because despite his crap performance again, the manager kept him on the field, moved him to striker and took off our best player in Amad.
I understand that for a player of Rashford's quality and wage, keeping him on the bench is difficult. However, ten Hag needs to do what's best for the club and that is to bench his star man.
This favoritism towards Rashford is something that annoys several and is an issue that the Dutchman has had to face since joining the club.
It could lead to his downfall.
3. Substitutions
When looking at the changes made by the manager, they were a little strange to say the least.
Erik ten Hag brought on Garnacho, Toby Collyer, Scott McTominay and Facundo Pellistri. He took off Amad, Mason Mount, Kobbie Mainoo and Harry Maguire.
Mainoo I can understand. He hasn't played since the Euros final so getting a complete 90 minutes out of him would have been a tough ask. Although he did keep Lisandro Martinez and Bruno Fernandes on all game despite it being their first game in a while as well 🤷♂️.
Starting Mount was a surprise but as he had an average game, substituting him was perhaps warranted too. Harry Maguire didn't feature in the game against Liverpool because of a precaution and there were question marks of whether he would play in this game at all. Obviously, he couldn't continue but to bring Pellistri on in his place was crazy.
I don't get that change either.
That saw Pellistri move to right-back (I don't think he's ever played there) and Dalot to left-back with Martinez moving next to Jonny Evans. He could've just brought on Harry Amass for Maguire, put him at left-back and moved Martinez to his usual position.
And why he took Amad off as well, God knows.
He was our best player and has been throughout pre-season. I saw no reason as to why he couldn't complete the whole game. This would've also given us a chance to see him and Garnacho down the flanks.
But McTominay coming on meant Bruno moved to the right-wing, Scott to CAM, Garnacho to the right and Rashford to centre-forward. All players out of their best positions.
It is also a mystery as to why he kept Rashford on for that long and brought on Jadon Sancho for him when he has his new signing Joshua Zirkzee on the bench.
I still can't understand why we didn't see Zirkzee at all.
These changes made absolutely no sense.
4. Periods of good football
This was another one of the positives for United and ten Hag as there were some standout moments for his side going forward.
A couple of instances saw the Red Devils play some neat, intricate stuff to get in behind City's defence with Amad being chief creator.
Between him and Casemiro, they played a great give-and-go that led to the Mount chance and there was also another piece of play where United again, manoeuvred the ball really well on the edge of City's box.
This sucked Guardiola's defence in which left space out wide for Rashford who ended up missing that guilt-edge chance.
Even for Rashford's shot that hit the post, while the play wasn't anything as neat, that one time cross by Garnacho isn't something we often see from United's wide men as they are wont to hold onto the ball for too long.
The goal itself did see some good build-up play as well. Pellistri made a driving run with the ball before it found it's way to Bruno who played a pass out wide to Garnacho. He then did his thing to score the goal.
This will be something that Erik ten Hag and his new coaches will be very pleased with. It's a pity nothing came from these pieces of play - other than the goal - but as the manager said in America, at least the opportunities are being created.
5. Familiar issues
This point actually has many sub-points as there were some familiar problems that arose for United.
As I've mentioned already, we weren't clinical enough up front. Although we created those clear openings, failure to take advantage of them is why we lost the game with Ruud van Nistelrooy having to get back to the drawing board when it comes to the finishing.
United only scored 57 in the league last season and had a goal difference of -1. We also only scored 6 in pre-season before this game with half of those coming in the win over Real Betis. These missed opportunities were much too similar to the defeat against Liverpool. We should've scored a few in that game as well.
We've had a problem with our midfield for the past season as it can be quite open allowing oppositions to get an easy run in to our goal.
I thought Casemiro had a bit of a mixed performance as he did make some good tackles and blocks as well as making quite a few ventures forward. However, he was a little slow to react to things at times and because he was caught up the field, the midfield was wide open.
Either this is an order he's carrying out from the manager or he's doing it out of his own accord. Either way we cannot be having a midfield as open as this moving forward.
The defence was makeshift and it appeared so with 5th-choice 35-year-old Jonny Evans, a not-so-fit Harry Maguire, a right-back in Dalot who was playing his first game in pre-season and a centre-back playing at left-back in Martinez.
Yes, it was never going to be quite as comfortable and strong as usual, but we still gave the ball away in stupid areas when trying to build up from the back. City's best chance before the goal was thanks to a mistake by Martinez of all players when he wanted to pass our from defence.
When looking at the goal conceded, it was far too easy for City to create that chance.
Evans, Maguire and Dalot all looked like players who haven't played in a while but they really need to sharpen the screws as Friday is just a few days away.
There were also quite a few long balls and mainly to Rashford which is something that makes us quite predictable especially when playing the better teams.
It was also not something that worked too often last season so I'm not sure why we did it in this game as well.
Something that we were notorious for in the previous campaign was switching off.
United had the tendency to lose focus not long after scoring as multiple goals were conceded after MUFC put the ball in the back of the net.
Garnacho's goal came in the 82nd minute with Bernardo Silva's equalizer coming just 7 minutes later. Concentration is something ten Hag has mentioned on several occasions as an area of our game where we need to seriously improve.
I understand that the fitness and sharpness of these players aren't quite at the standard required yet especially the players playing their first game.
However, I still felt that we were a little on the back foot at times, City were quicker to the second ball, some of our passing was off. A lot of this was also from the guys who were on pre-season and have played some football recently.
It is a bit of a concern that we still appear a little off the pace just a few days out from the first league game.
These were all problems we had last season and appears as if they haven't been addressed so far for 24/25.
And another extra observation was that Pep Guardiola was NOT wearing a suit.
The first time I've seen him use one in a while was in the FA Cup final in May.
They lost.
He went back to his more traditional caual wear and his side won.
I think that was the last time we see Mr Guardiola in a suit 🤣.
Background Image: Casemiro and Alejandro Garnacho | Creator: David Rogers David Rogers | Credit: Getty Images Copyright: 2024 Getty Images via Man Utd News