Erik ten Hag’s first game as Manchester United coach - A tactical insight

Pre-season's fun if you're a Manchester United fan isn't it?

You just witnessed your team thrash arch-rivals, Liverpool, four nil and also, picked up the most aesthetically pleasing trophy ever known to mankind along the way.

However, I hate to break it to you that pre-seasons are nothing more than an illusion, my friend.

Nevertheless, what wasn't an illusion was the discernible difference in the style of play that new manager Erik ten Hag instilled amongst his players and that's something to look forward to for United fans.

Here onwards lies a short tactical rundown of the system that ten Hag played Tuesday night.

Formation on and off the ball:

Man United were set up in a 4-2-3-1 and the shape remained consistent on and off the ball.

Off the ball, the players stayed very narrow, leaving space in the wide areas, which Liverpool did exploit in the first half but were unable to score.

The tight, narrow and compact shape had its perks as the nature of the shape allowed quick counter pressing whenever United lost the ball as they always had a lot of players in close proximity to one another.

Aggressive Pressing:

Ten Hag's teams in the past have always been known to be a hyper-aggressive pressing unit and that was evident in the way United players put pressure on opponents whenever the ball was there to be won.

The most obvious thing was that there was lots and lots of movement off the ball, which was assisted by the very high line that United played.

In spite of all the fluid movements, the pressing was very structured and the Pool players found it difficult to progress the ball centrally.

Contrary to popular beliefs, pressing isn't initiated as a mechanism to win the ball directly; it is merely a means to win the ball back by laying traps for the opposition and provoking them into making a mistake.

That is exactly what happened during Anthony Martial's goal where he won the ball by the virtue of a structured team press and the goal was the reward.

Vertical Ball Progression:

EtH was quoted, not too long ago, that he wants to play proactive football on and off the ball.

It was evident in how quickly United progressed the ball from back to front.

There weren't any boring sideways passes with no venom, a trait of days gone by.

United looked for line-breaking vertical passes to the forwards and most of their attacks initiated from similar methods as the centerbacks or midfielders always looked for incisive forward passes so that the strikers could get behind the final line of defense.

Ball progression was aided by constant overlapping runs from the fullbacks, blended with underlapping movements from the inside forwards.

This is a welcome change for United fans who have for long wished for faster progression of the ball.

Different De Gea:

The issue with David de Gea was never about his positioning nor his shot-stopping abilities.

The question marks were always about his inability in building up play from the back.

However, Tuesday night actually saw him providing better ball distribution and what stood out was the few times he came off his line as a sweeper keeper.

It was confirmed by defender Rafael Varane in a post-match interview that de Gea had worked on this newer style of play in training.

'Zinedine' Zidane Iqbal:

Pre-season is all about giving exposure to young talents.

It would be fair to say that Zidane Iqbal grabbed this chance with both hands as he played 45 mins of matured football, blended with sweet little twists and turns to beat opponents and good circulation of possession against the first-choice Liverpool midfield.

A four-nil scoreline can be misleading.

The manager himself stated that he saw a lot of mistakes in the display.

Mistakes that would never go unpunished in competitive games.

Nevertheless, EtH couldn't have asked for a better start.

His football is high risk.

With high risk, there come high rewards as well.

Only time will tell how big the rewards from those risks will be.