Former Manchester United midfielder Michael Carrick has explained the key tactical change against Brighton and Hove Albion that proved crucial in victory.
Manchester United made it three wins in the last three games against Brighton and Hove Albion for the first time since Rúben Amorim took over from Erik ten Hag in November 2024.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s public backing of Amorim in the last international break appears to have worked wonders for the squad’s mentality. United have put in two excellent performances since the break, with a real squad mentality being shown.
Amorim has shown his tactical flexibility in recent weeks. Against Sunderland, the former Sporting CP manager chose to deploy a 4-4-2 formation without the ball, as Mason Mount dropped deeper to fill in as an auxiliary left midfielder out of possession.
However, at Anfield, United reverted to their usual 5-4-1 shape without possession, but Benjamin Šeško dropped out of the side, so the front three could focus on winning the second balls, rather than winning the initial header.
Brighton wouldn’t have known what to expect on Saturday evening, and Amorim most definitely surprised them with a tactical change that former United midfielder Michael Carrick was very impressed by.
Carrick explains four-man midfield concept
Bruno Fernandes and Casemiro once again started in the double pivot for Amorim, but the tactical change saw Matheus Cunha and Luke Shaw also involved in the midfield, allowing United to overload the Brighton side.
Speaking on Match of the Day, Carrick said: “Lots has been said about the midfield two, the pairing and the spaces that they’ve got to cover over the last year or so really. From me as an ex-midfielder, it’s something that I’m really interested in of they get support and help, you can’t expect two midfielders, against a good team, to deal with three and four players, so how do you find the solution?
“They’ve found a solution with the forwards dropping in to this middle zone, that we are showing here, to support Bruno [Fernandes] and Casemiro. They’ve found support with Luke Shaw jumping in on [Georginio} Rutter and staying in there, almost making a three in midfield. In the end, it’s a numbers game and it’s a space game and you’ve got to fill the right spaces.
“Bruno, Luke Shaw, and Casemiro here are filling that middle of the pitch, just kept them solid. There is no way against a Brighton team you could ask Bruno and Casemiro to do that, and the formation was quite fluid.”
Carrick went on to praise the work rate of the United players who were involved in the tactical switch: “You see Cunha backtracking in the left back position here, it summed it up. It was such a big shift from Mbeumo, Cunha, Bruno, Casemiro and Luke Shaw.”
Amorim reverts to Chelsea system against Brighton
Against Chelsea, Harry Maguire started in the centre of the back three, alongside Shaw and Matthijs de Ligt. Like Shaw against Brighton, de Ligt often found himself stepping up into midfield to halt the opposition’s progression.
The Dutchman proved how capable he is at stepping up into the engine room, and now Shaw has as well. Amorim now has options at wide-centre-back for players who can be trusted to step up and track a midfield runner.
In the future, United may be forced to play both de Ligt and Shaw as wide defenders if they are up against a side that plays six across the frontline.
The man-for-man approach Amorim tends to deploy is very risky, but, for now at least, it is working and United are likely to continue with it.
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