How Spurs tore Manchester United apart in 45 minutes

If Manchester United want to know what a well-structured performance looks like, they should revisit Tottenham Hotspur’s 3-0 win at Old Trafford. Against a lifeless press and non-existent transition coverage, Spurs tore Erik ten Hag’s side to shreds.

Ange Postecoglou’s midfield rotations proved too much for United’s organization without the ball, while the focus on attacking the wide areas repeatedly cut through United.

In possession, the rotations between Tottenham’s midfielders and wing-backs extended United’s 4-4-2…

…and created holes in the midfield line that were exploited by the falling Dominic Solanke or the other central players.

Here the switch from Dejan Kulusevski and Pedro Porro creates a gap between Marcus Rashford and Kobbie Mainoo as they exchange marks, and Solanke drops to offer Cristian Romero a passing option through that space.

As Romero plays the pass to Solanke, Kulusevski starts to move forward…

…to offer his striker a progressive option, with Brennan Johnson retaining United left-back Diogo Dalot.

Solanke taps the ball towards Johnson…

…and Kulusevski’s third-man run is found by the right winger. Tottenham’s attack down the right attracts Manuel Ugarte, meaning James Maddison is free on the other side as United’s right-back Noussair Mazraoui has to worry about Timo Werner (out of shot).

As a result, Kulusevski switches play to Maddison, while Ugarte is dragged to the other side.

In another example, Kulusevski and Solanke are initially marked by Mainoo and Lisandro Martinez. Tottenham’s centre-forward drops down and offers himself as a passing option…

…and Kulusevski charges forward, forcing Martinez and Mainoo to switch markers as Destiny occupies Udogie Ugarte.

Again, the moment Tottenham advance the ball is the moment they switch positions so they can catch United as they exchange their markers. However, Solanke gives the ball back to Romero because there is no passing option.

While Romero plays the ball wide of Porro, Solanke attacks the space behind Mainoo. Meanwhile, Kulusevski drags Martinez deeper and Ugarte has to mark Udogie…

…which means United cannot cover the space behind Mainoo as Porro’s pass finds Solanke. The striker then plays the ball to Johnson via the right wing…

…and by the time Ugarte crosses to support, the Welsh forward plays it back to Rodrigo Bentancur, who finds Maddison in space.

Maddison then switches the ball to the other end, before teaming up with Kulusevski to almost double Tottenham’s lead.

Tottenham’s movement into central areas continued to stretch United’s possession structure. Here Mainoo and Ugarte initially mark Kulusevski and Maddison…

…but when Spurs move the ball to their right, the Uruguayan midfielder moves across to cover Mainoo. Ugarte’s shift means Alejandro Garnacho cannot commit to eliminating Micky van de Ven due to the narrow positioning of Maddison and Udogie (out of shot).

Romero plays the ball back to Guglielmo Vicario…

…and when the goalkeeper passes it to Van de Ven, Garnacho is late to the press.

With Ugarte rising to mark Maddison and Mazraoui pinned down the left wing by Werner, Van de Ven finds Udogie comfortable in space.

The dominoes then fall as the right side of the United defense is too late to pressure Udogie and Werner, allowing them to combine on the left wing, before the left-back finds Kulusevski in front of the penalty area and Johnson hits the post.

Furthermore, Tottenham’s full-backs and Bentancur cleverly positioned themselves to defend the transition in case United won the ball back.

Here Udogie finds Werner on the left wing after Tottenham have been played through United’s block, and Bentancur moves to that side to provide cover.

Bentancur’s positioning provides a safety net for Tottenham’s left side. When Werner’s cutback fails to find Udogie’s run inside the box and United begin their attacking transition…

… Van de Ven and Romero can aggressively defend the central space and the right side because Bentancur follows Garnacho’s movement.

In another example, Porro and Bentancur drop deeper as Tottenham still attack in the aftermath of a set piece.

When the attack fails and United look to counter-attack, Postecoglou’s side are in a position to defend three different lanes, with Bentancur’s positioning allowing Udogie to defend the central space.

Tottenham’s ability to defend United’s transitions also allowed them to create their own in the other direction. United’s driven approach to counter-attacking always leaves them vulnerable when the counter-attack is reversed.

In this example, Udogie’s narrow positioning allows him to recover when United win the ball in midfield and attack the vacated space.

Van de Ven moves across to defend Udogie’s position and the left back completes this by dropping into the central space…

…allowing him to intercept Garnacho’s pass towards Joshua Zirkzee and cancel the transition.

Tottenham’s transition in the other direction finds Kulusevski, who puts Werner through on goal…

…but Werner shoots straight at Andre Onana.

Ahead of Tottenham’s first goal, Udogie is in position to track down Garnacho in case the ball is lost.

As United win the ball back and the attacking transition begins…

… the left back is in position to defend against Garnacho while Van de Ven and Romero defend the other spaces. Fernandes tries to find Garnacho’s run…

…but Udogie’s presence forces the right winger to play it backwards towards Rashford. Meanwhile, Bentancur drops off to support the defense…

…allowing Van de Ven to sprint and beat Rashford to the ball – just in case Van de Ven is late, Bentancur is already dropping to cover him.

Tottenham reverse the transition the other way and Van de Ven bursts through a disorganized United defense before finding Johnson towards the far post…

…and the Wales forward scores into an empty net.

“We knew that Manchester United’s biggest threat is in transition: they are quite deadly with the frontmen they have,” Postecoglou said after the match.

“We wanted to make sure we could lock them down a bit today and the full-backs, especially Maddison and Kulusevski, had to be really disciplined in their football.”

On the ball, Tottenham’s midfield rotations allowed them to play through United’s block, while their positioning protected them in the defensive transition, from which they could counter in the other direction.

A well-thought-out plan and perfect execution by Tottenham, something you cannot say about Ten Hag’s side in the past year.