The Anatomy of a Disaster: Breaking Down Manchester United’s Collapse at Chelsea

On Sunday, Manchester United put up a display to rival any of the worst performances of the David Moyes and Louis van Gaal eras. For Red Devils fans, it was utterly dispiriting to see how ill-equipped the side was to deal with adversity, how total their collapse was under not particularly intense pressure.

Chelsea did not have to be at anything like their best to cut through United’s back line like a razor-sharp, super-heated knife through a pat of room-temperature butter and emerge with a 4-0 victory. Stamford Bridge will not play host to many such gracious guests between now and season’s end.

And all this came about with a United side that had been theoretically set up to form a solid defensive unit, as it had done against Liverpool. The only change from the side, which had often played as a back six at Anfield, was Jesse Lingard replacing Ashley Young—a fairly like-for-like change in terms of defensive contribution.

The whole thing was set up for the bus to be parked once again.

However, it took less than a minute for the script to need a dramatic rewrite. United’s defensive resilience against their bitter north-west rivals was replaced by a total meltdown here.

Daley Blind is not a defender, he gets caught out time and time again. Just as Toni not a right back. Pogba really poor, Rashford not at it

— Barney @Red News (@barneyrednews) October 23, 2016

Pedro made a simple run in behind the Red Devils defence. Daley Blind—in at left-back for Luke Shaw, who had impressed in the Europa League on Thursday—abandoned his runner. Chris Smalling briefly checked his run, assuming Blind would be cleaning up behind him.

David De Gea, for reasons that were hard to fathom, even after several replays, completely misread the situation and United were 1-0 down.

Moments later, Gary Neville remarked on Sky Sports’ coverage that Marouane Fellaini and Paul Pogba were both playing ahead of Ander Herrera—meaning United were set up in a more traditional 4-3-3 than they had been at Anfield.

Whether that was the plan all along or a reaction to the goal, it did not work. At all.

The Daley Blind Fullback Experience has been especially experiential recently

— Michael Caley (@MC_of_A) October 23, 2016

For a little while after Chelsea’s opener, the game looked like it would settle into a more normal, competitive encounter than it ended up being.

United’s defence was clearly supposed to have a flexible shape. Smalling, for example, followed Diego Costa into Chelsea’s half when the striker dropped deep and pressed him when he received the ball.

The first sustained period of Chelsea possession saw United shape themselves into a back five rather than the back six that had shown itself against Liverpool. Marcus Rashford tucked in with the ball over on his side, but Lingard remained up the pitch in position to press.

The sense that this could be a competitive encounter did not last long. There were almost immediately warnings of what was to come. Chelsea won their first corner—United had all 11 men back and still struggled a little to clear the ball.

Daley Blind starting to have something of a nightmare. Almost looks like he’s been targeted by Chelsea.

— Rob Dawson (@RobDawsonMEN) October 23, 2016

After 12 minutes came the first sighting of the true back six. A line formed from Rashford (on the left this time) across to Lingard on the right.

Chelsea still won a corner, and again it was clear something was wrong. Somehow, Eden Hazard ended up with the ball at his feet, completely unmarked by the penalty spot. When the second goal came, United could not claim they had not been warned.

Both wingers were playing the whole length of the pitch, an extremely demanding role. Rashford tracked back well to break up Victor Moses’ counter-attack, but the amount of defensive responsibility on his and Lingard’s shoulders at 1-0 down seemed unbalanced.

Both are hard-working and intelligent players, but neither is a defender. …

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