Ruud van Nistelrooy will be desperate to end his run as interim Manchester United manager on a high by beating Leicester City at Old Trafford this afternoon.
A convincing win will be even more joyous for the Dutchman as he seeks to leave his name firmly in the minds of Ineos in case things to not go as hoped with incoming permanent manager, Ruben Amorim.
On paper, the Leicester side Steve Cooper puts out today should be much tougher than the one Ruud’s Reds overcame 5-2 in his first game in charge. But for a few first team regulars, that was very much a Leicester reserve side.
Goals for Hojlund
One big challenge the Dutchman will want to crack before he goes is getting centre forward Rasmus Hojlund in the goals and more involved in the play generally.
If Amorim introduces his trademark 3-4-3 system as widely expected (although we are not totally convinced, as explained here), this could be the last chance to prove that enough chances can be created in the 4-2-3-1 favoured by Van Nistelrooy and Erik ten Hag before him.
An obvious tweak he might employ is to reverse the wingers.
Traditionally in football, right footed players make good right wingers and lefties would play on the left. In days of yore, with two centre forwards the norm, the primary job of the winger was to provide crosses for those goalscorers.
Nowadays however, wingers are expected to also provide goals and to cut inside and take shots. This has often led to lefties playing on the right and vice versa.
But in a setup like at United, where there is no deep lying playmaker to provide through balls to run on to, this often leaves Hojlund feeding off scraps.
Van Nistelrooy could aim to correct this today by playing the left footed Amad on the left wing, and either Marcus Rashford or Alejandro Garnacho on the right.
Taking chances
Unleashing Hojlund is part of a bigger puzzle that has dogged United – that 5-2 over the Foxes aside – which is wastefulness in front of goal. Van Nistelrooy will want to leave showing he was starting to crack that.
In that respect, reversing the wingers as suggested above would in theory make it harder for them to score, but it should create more width and thus more space for Bruno Fernandes, the full backs and the central midfielders to run into.
Taking the burden off the wingers to score could help the team overall find new routes to goal. Fernandes in particular has only scored one goal from open play all season, a poor tally by his standards.
Going in for the kill
The final terrible habit United have developed of late is to concede shortly after scoring themselves. It happened time and again under Erik ten Hag but that soft underbelly showed again against Chelsea last weekend and would have happened against PAOK on Thursday but for a terrible miss by the vistors’ forward.
It would be the perfect parting gift from the 48 year old if he could demonstrate United displaying panache and confidence and going in for the kill after scoring a goal, rather than retreating into nervous defensiveness, inviting their weakened opposition to punch their way back into the match.
Kick-off at Old Trafford today is at 2pm.
Featured image Carl Recine via Getty Images
Red Billy
Red Billy is the managing editor of The Peoples Person, author of three books and totally obsessed with football’s transfer market. Billy still insists Matteo Darmian and Alex Telles could have made it at United given half a chance.
