It has been 10 months since you have last played a game of senior-level professional football. That was against Colchester United in the Carabao Cup, where you lasted 65 minutes before your hamstring gave out.
This keeps happening to you. You get a sniff of first-team action and then something goes awry.
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In October 2019, you were due to start in a back three against Liverpool at Old Trafford but got injured in the warm-up. We remember you running down the tunnel and being replaced by Marcos Rojo at the very last moment. Then, a month later, you spent a good chunk of the international break training with the first team, learning how to work in that back three, only to aggravate an old hip issue that will limit you to only five minutes against Sheffield United in the league. A month after that was the Colchester game.
Hip problems, hamstring niggles, a little tweak to your calf. There’s always something misbehaving. Not too much, and not too serious, but something. You know how good you are and the coaching team around you do too. The fans have a hint of it after being told strange stories of your adventures in the Midlands. If you can get your body to co-operate for a few months, you can prove it.
So you work tirelessly with the medical teams and coaches to get in peak condition again for when your chance arrives. And then it does, partway through the international break after your team loses 6-1 at home.
You start training with the first team on the Wednesday, a bit too soon to make their Saturday trip to Newcastle United, but you’re in. You’re ready. You’re working on a number of defensive systems; how to play in a back four, then how to work in a back three. You talk things over with coaches as to how the team should set a defensive line and how high you push up the pitch, and then you get more information. You’re going to Paris, but the club captain, and bedrock of this defence, won’t be joining you. Suddenly your new team-mate Edinson Cavani (formerly of Paris Saint-Germain) takes a keen interest in you in training, loading you with information about what you might be up against if you get any minutes at the Parc des Princes.
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You make the starting line-up. It’s in a 5-3-2 and you’re playing as the right centre-back. That means you’re up against Neymar and probably Kylian Mbappe if he fancies it. And he does fancy it, running onto the ball by the right touchline some 40 yards from goal. One of the fastest players in the world is sprinting neck and neck with you, trying to get into your penalty area. What do you do?
You back yourself. Mbappe is quick, but so are you. Plus you’ve got the inside track, and as the forward takes a heavy second touch to set himself up in the penalty area, you spot your chance for a tackle.
You have to time this perfectly. This is Mbappe and only 10 minutes beforehand the referee gave a penalty to your team that means you hold a 1-0 lead. If you get this tackle wrong, Mbappe will most probably score, or at least be awarded a penalty. So what do you do?
You get tight…
…you sense his forward momentum…
…and then you use it against him, knocking him off the ball at the opportune moment.
It’s a good tackle. It’s a great tackle. It discombobulates PSG so much that Neymar gets a booking for complaining excessively, so certain he is that you must have broken a rule.
You are 22 years of age and you have just made one of the best strikers in the world sing for his supper.
That “hint” fans got of how good you are? It’s about to get VERY loud.
You are Axel Tuanzebe.
Manchester United were superb in last night’s 2-1 Champions League group stage victory over PSG, with manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer profiting from new tactical plans.
Shorn of club captain Harry Maguire, along with attacking option Mason Greenwood, the Norwegian changed his 4-2-3-1 shape to a 5-3-2, bringing in Tuanzebe to operate at right centre-back alongside Victor Lindelof in the centre and Luke Shaw on the left. Ahead of that trio, newcomer Alex Telles and Aaron Wan-Bissaka operated as wing-backs (one to get forward on the left and one to be a shutdown defender on the right respectively), while Fred and Scott McTominay continued their central midfield partnership with Bruno Fernandes — two boys to tackle, press and cover ground, while one new captain to… also do those things, as well as pass forwards and take penalties (the Portuguese playmaker converted, at the second attempt, to put United ahead). Strikers Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford completed the collective.
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Make no mistake, this was not a repeat of the smash and grab victory that occurred the last time United were in Paris.
While there was a smattering of luck, some oddity (Martial’s own goal) and impressive goalkeeping from David de Gea, United beat PSG because they were the better team, carrying out a superior tactical plan with an intensity their opposition could not match. After questions were raised about his tactical aptitude and potential Plan B, Solskjaer not only devised an inventive way to disrupt PSG for the opening 45 minutes — it was bold to keep his strikers high up the pitch while the rest of the team defended in a middle block, though it kept the home side from compressing the space too much — he also changed it twice to wrest control of a game that had the potential of slipping away.
PSG looked more confident in the early sections of the second half and, following Martial’s unfortunate own goal in the 55th minute, United looked in danger. But Solskjaer was bold, bringing on Paul Pogba for Telles (whose delivery from corners should give Cavani reason to be happy) in the 67th minute, changing the shape to a 4-4-2 diamond.
Similarly to the 4-1 win over Newcastle last Saturday, Pogba’s introduction gave United another method in which to progress the ball vertically, turning what could have been a 20-minute siege on their goal into a more finely balanced game of possession. The Frenchman’s close control was key in freeing Rashford on the edge of the box in the 87th minute, the striker finishing his hardest chance of the game to give United the lead for good.
But not only did Solskjaer demonstrate a plan to turn a draw into a win, he also made changes to secure it, bringing on Donny van de Beek for Fernandes and Daniel James for Martial as United went to a 4-2-3-1 to close out the game.
Where last week observers wondered if the United manager was “tactics-light”, in the space of 90 minutes on Tuesday he demonstrated three tactical plans, including a midfield diamond (that sound you can hear is this author eating humble pie), against one of last season’s Champions League finalists.
Key to all three plans were the defensive levels of his back five and in particular that of Tuanzebe, who demonstrated a proactive approach throughout. The 22-year-old read PSG’s team and individual patterns well and was intelligent in both his body and his positioning to get the better of the majority of challenges put before him. He also demonstrated the recovery pace to sweep up and deal with dangers that arrived behind him. Combined with Lindelof’s marshalling of space and Shaw’s intelligent match reading, it made for an impressive back three. With Wan-Bissaka’s superior one-vs-one duelling and Telles’s attacking ability ahead, United possessed a formidable defensive unit that earned praise from their manager.
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“Axel did fantastic,” Solskjaer said after the game. “He’s been out since the last game against Colchester, 10 months or something? To put up a performance like this against Neymar and Mbappe… I have to say he almost surprised us as well.
“We know he’s a good player but on a night like this, he was fantastic. We might see this system again, of course, we have had some good games in it.”
Solskjaer’s 5-3-2 may not be ideal for every game (an increased distance between Martial and Rashford left the two strikers less able to help each other during attacking phases), and Maguire’s likely return may require it to be tweaked further. But the blueprint is there, both for the manager, and his new centre-back option Tuanzebe, who could see more game time in the next month following an injury to Eric Bailly that could keep him out for a month.
After weeks of gloom, United have begun to have options in all areas of the pitch, and Solskjaer has shown he has the plans to use them.
Manchester United went to PSG and won. Again. Things are looking up.
(Photo: Franck Fife/AFP)
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