Crystal Palace piled the misery on Erik Ten Hag, smashing 4 goals past Manchester United in their biggest defeat of the season. But while the inquest begins at Old Trafford, the result won't have surprised anyone who has been keeping an eye on the Eagles in recent weeks. Under Oliver Glasner, they're starting to look like a very, very good side.
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00:00 *Intro*
00:03 Guten Morgen, Arigato and eee, hiya mate, Adam Cleary from 442 here.
00:08 I'm just so, so sick of having to talk about Man United.
00:14 In a result that's only being called a shock by people who spent the last 18 months either in a coma or on Mars or, I don't know, both,
00:22 Man United went to Crystal Palace, got absolutely scunned, absolutely thudded, absolutely walloped.
00:29 So how then did this team that just a few short months ago were about as edgy and exciting as,
00:35 have you ever opened a tin of Quality Streets at your parents' house and instead of there being chocolates it's just all your mam's sewing stuff?
00:41 That's how Crystal Palace felt. How did they beat Man United 4-0?
00:45 Well, two words, Canada Goose.
00:48 *Ding*
00:51 Now, just, look, right, if you tuned into this video because you're expecting to hear all these many ways Man United are bad,
00:57 we've done it, we've done like so many videos on the problems with Eric Ten Hag and his players and his system
01:03 and there will be a bit of that, obviously, but first and foremost today I want to give the proper amount of credit
01:10 to Crystal Palace and specifically to Big Oli Glasner.
01:14 He's barely been in the job a couple of months and he's already completely converted this side from Roy Hodgson's
01:19 four at the back, no sex please, we're British, to his three, four, three, I don't care if your husband finds out.
01:25 And the best way to describe Glasner ball is that there isn't really any sort of Glasner ball.
01:30 The front three will press the opposition high but they don't do it always and these are dual number tens which is very exciting
01:36 but quite often they will flat out to the flanks and just be wingers.
01:39 It's a back three but also it folds into a back five, sometimes it's deep, sometimes it's compact, sometimes it's aggressive.
01:45 The word you want for this kind of football is pragmatism.
01:49 It's not overly complicated, in fact it's not even overly clever. Glasner just has them set up in such a brilliantly simple way
01:56 that they can alter their approach both with the ball and out the ball to be as difficult as possible for the opposition.
02:03 And part of the way he does that is with squares. In fact there are more squares in this Crystal Palace set up
02:09 than there are in my Warhammer 40k WhatsApp group.
02:12 Hello boys. I've maybe got them set up a little bit aggressively here but these two wide players are Moonoz and Mitchell.
02:17 They're actually the full backs so when Crystal Palace are defending, if you imagine Anderson as a central pivot,
02:23 you get this sort of moveable, adaptable square between the midfielder, the wing back, the defender and the defender.
02:29 And it means when teams get into this area of the pitch all of them can sort of close on that space
02:33 but if it goes up to the other side the same square is there again.
02:36 The most obvious one is when Alise and Eze come quite narrow, that gives them a square with the two central midfielders
02:42 but when they're building out from the back, which they do in this three shape,
02:45 if they need an extra body, Dean Henderson will quite happily step in here and then you've got another one.
02:50 And that's not overly complicated, it's not overly clever but it means in virtually all situations around the pitch
02:55 they've got a fairly good chance of having more players than the opposition in that area.
03:00 The one bit of this that I do think is quite clever though is the way they use the full backs
03:04 because when you've got these dual number 10s sitting quite narrow you still want to be able to get them into the wide spaces
03:10 even if only to just receive the ball and move in there.
03:12 So when they do that the player on the opposite side tends to come into more of a central area
03:17 and then the full back can push all the way up.
03:19 But this then won't leave them unbalanced because the rest of the defence will just shuffle across,
03:23 the other wing back will just sit in ever so slightly and you go to this nice 4-2-3-1.
03:29 Munoz and Mitchell are both really good at doing that sort of dual role but likewise
03:33 Colin Richards and Nathaniel Kline are both excellent at moving in from sort of the full back position to the wide centre back position.
03:39 So there's a good deal of like adaptability, a good deal of pragmatism across their squad
03:44 meaning they can be dynamic.
03:46 Now, okay, so figuratively and also literally here is the tea for you.
03:52 This is how Glasner has made Crystal Palace a much better football team
03:56 but it is not how he destroyed Man United last night.
04:01 The secret, the key to that is in these two.
04:05 Now Eric ten Haag will tell you that there are lots of things that Manchester United do very well
04:09 and you can choose to believe as much of that as you like, it's really none of my business
04:13 but one thing they objectively do not do well, I think even by the admission of all Man United fans
04:19 is control the game in these central areas here.
04:23 And I've overused this little compilation so much there's practically smoke coming off it now
04:27 but Man United fans, how many times have you seen this season that enormous yawning chasm
04:34 between your defence and your midfield as teams run at you, as they break into that area
04:39 as they play the ball into it and you're just so open.
04:43 Now that is, in my opinion anyway, the reason we keep seeing these incredible stats
04:48 about how many chances Manchester United give away against teams of every single level.
04:54 They're currently, and this is scarcely believable, second bottom in the entire league
04:59 for the number of shots per 90 minutes the opposition have.
05:02 Literally only Sheffield United, who have conceded 100 goals now, are more open than they are.
05:08 And from there it's just a really, really simple equation.
05:12 Like if you are a football team that doesn't even have control, barely has presence
05:16 in this central area of the pitch and you are playing the team in the league
05:20 that put their two most creative attacking players, not out wide, not up front
05:25 but directly in that space between the lines, you are f***ed.
05:31 And rather predictably, Eze and Lice just ran wild in this match.
05:35 This is every single touch of the ball they had across the 90 minutes.
05:40 You can see there's loads out of the flanks because they felt free to drift out there
05:44 to get on the ball, but just look at how many times the pair of them were capable
05:49 of doing something right in front of Man United's 18-yard box.
05:53 And as a guy who's looked at a lot of graphs this season, trust me, that is genuinely,
05:57 quite extraordinary. And if we replace the touches, right, with their passes from that game,
06:02 you'll see as well, it's not just a case of, oh, they pressed up against the defence
06:05 and then knocked the ball back or circulated around.
06:08 When they got in this area, look at how much of this goes forward.
06:12 Look at how much of this goes into the box. Look at how forward thinking and aggressive they were.
06:17 And what's just incredibly weird about this is that even though it's just a load of little squares
06:22 with arrows on it, it tells you straight away there's an enormous gap between Man United's
06:26 midfield and defence. Because if all of these are pointing forward, it means that when you receive it,
06:32 you're able to turn, so you're not under any pressure. And when you do turn,
06:35 there's nobody in front of you to stop you passing it. And I mean, take your pick for which of the goals
06:40 you think best sums this up. Like the first one is a really, really basic throw in.
06:43 Alise has wandered into that central area and Man United just have no idea how to deal with it.
06:49 Like, Eriksen sort of gets tight to him, but he shouldn't do that. He should just be goalside.
06:53 And then Maneu sort of come over here for some reason and then gets tight to him.
06:57 But again, should just be goalside. And they allow him to run all the way to the edge of the box.
07:03 And I saw on the coverage last night, I think it was Jamie Carragher asking, like,
07:06 "What the hell are Man United doing allowing him to run all the way unopposed to that shooting position?"
07:11 And I'll tell you what they're doing. They've got loads of other stuff to worry about.
07:15 Like, Dalot can't commit. He's got two players here. And Evans knows Meteta is the real danger in this situation.
07:22 So he can't commit until it's too late. And just... I'm not having a go at Kobe Maneu,
07:26 because he's nine years old and none of this should be his fault. But just looking at that back,
07:31 just catch him. Just catch him and put a tackle in.
07:34 I think maybe I'm possibly being slightly harsh there, but if you look at sort of how Johnny Evans manages that situation,
07:39 I think it's pretty clear he thinks that Maneu's gonna catch him up and put a tackle in.
07:43 And then when he realises he isn't going to, it's too late.
07:46 Anyway, regardless, a goal that comes from this area of the pitch,
07:49 because Manchester United do not exist in this area of the pitch, and Crystal Palace very much do.
07:53 Second goal. Well, would you look at that? Manchester United end up in this area of the pitch,
07:57 and one of those little pressing trap boxes forms around them. They don't even really give it away.
08:02 It's the Palace have the numbers there. They intercept the ball.
08:05 And then because Glasner has them playing with this confidence, their first pass is always, "Can we get that forward?"
08:11 And it's into that space between the midfield and the defence.
08:16 And I also thought, very nice by the way, on the literal anniversary of it happening,
08:20 Meteta dropping that Messi vs Boateng move on Johnny Evans.
08:25 Time is a flat circle.
08:27 It's a very good finish. You could even call it bad goalkeeping if you want to,
08:30 but again, it comes from Manchester United not existing in this area, and Crystal Palace...
08:37 Yeah.
08:38 Aha! But that third goal, that was a succession of corners, Adam.
08:42 No way you're going to make that fit this little agenda you're pushing here.
08:46 And should we rewind? Should we see how those corners came about?
08:50 Aha! Would you look at that? Crystal Palace perfectly aggressive in the press.
08:54 They win the ball back. Their first pass is forward. And who is it to?
08:58 And where is he? It's Michael Alise in that gap between the midfield and the defence.
09:04 He runs forward completely unopposed and also finds Eze, who's in that position, completely unopposed.
09:10 And he slips in Tyrek Mitchell, and that's how they get the corner.
09:13 I'll tell you what, though. One thing I really do like about Eric Ten Hag is that he just seems to know
09:18 that if you've got to do a video about why his team got beat,
09:21 he makes sure you've got loads of clips you can use, loads of footage.
09:25 It's never just one thing.
09:27 The fourth one is actually my favourite of the lot, by the way,
09:29 because Palace seem to have clocked that Man United are panicking about this space,
09:32 and now Evans and Casemiro both sort of see it as their responsibility
09:35 because the midfielders aren't doing anything.
09:37 Anyway, Alise pushes right up onto Jonny Evans as if he is the forward.
09:41 Then he shows short to receive the ball through the lines, thus dragging Evans with him.
09:47 You just see how well practised this is. He knows straight away to drop this back to you.
09:51 I want to say that's Wharton, who himself knows to play that straight forward into the space
09:56 Alise has just vacated where Meteta has made the run.
09:59 Now, Casemiro, of course, does get back over and is trying to shield that out.
10:04 And then I think there's some kind of light breeze.
10:08 He falls over. Palace get the ball back.
10:10 And wow, would you look at that? Would you look at all that space?
10:14 Would you look at all that space Alise has?
10:16 And yes, that one probably is actually bad goalkeeping now that I look at it back.
10:19 But I mean, does that matter? Do you begrudge them it?
10:22 Were they not good value for a fourth goal across that entire game?
10:26 But yeah, it's kind of weird, this video, because I do sort of feel like I should have more graphs
10:31 and more stats and more numbers for you like we normally do to show you this like really sort of nuanced,
10:36 unbelievable thing that most people will have missed.
10:39 But if you watch that game, it was just that Oliver Glasner has Crystal Palace set up with like structure,
10:45 but also with adaptability and also playing with confidence.
10:49 And everybody seems to know what they're doing and is good at it,
10:52 which is like the exact opposite of what Man United are right now.
10:56 Like the whole premise of having Roy Hodgson as a manager is that he takes a team full of very underwhelming individuals
11:01 and then produces a system that's quite functional with them.
11:04 But what it feels like Glasner has very quickly done with this Crystal Palace team, right,
11:08 is implement a system that doesn't just sort of mask over the individual shortcomings,
11:13 but really does like exaggerate the individual abilities and allows them to flourish.
11:20 Like you didn't really rate Matet there, it's OK to admit that.
11:23 And you probably thought Eze and Alisse were really sort of good individual players,
11:26 but played in a team where they were never really going to get the sort of numbers to back up their ability.
11:31 But now he plays the three of them really close together.
11:34 And because the rest of the team is set up in such a way that when they win the ball back,
11:38 they can play forward really accurately, they can play forward really quickly,
11:41 they can find them in space, then they're flourishing because they're now around two other good players
11:48 in a way that maximises all the stuff they're good at.
11:51 And then you compare that to Manchester United, which is a team which has some unbelievable individual quality within it,
11:58 which is, you know, why they are where they are in the league.
12:00 Those players do still get them results and bail them out.
12:03 But when it comes to sort of like it functioning as a system, it doesn't at all.
12:08 And yes, we must of course acknowledge that Manchester United's back four is a little bit weird.
12:13 That's been ten hogs saying and a lot of Man United fans do agree with them.
12:16 How can they be expected to be solid and dependable and watertight when that's what they're playing with?
12:22 And here's my counterpoint. All four members of that back four are senior members of the first team.
12:28 Wan-Bissaka is out of position, but only a little bit at left back.
12:31 And Casemiro is a defensive midfielder in his early 30s.
12:35 Like the transition to centre back with someone as experienced as Johnny Evans next to you should not be traumatic.
12:42 Let's just say for a minute that there's no way that back four could possibly function
12:46 and Eric ten hogs hands are totally tied over having to play them.
12:50 Why then is this the amount of space in front of them?
12:53 If the problem and maybe I'm oversimplifying this is that the back four is such a weak point for you right now.
12:59 Why are you not protecting that back four?
13:02 Why is there not somebody sitting in the space in front of them instead of just Crystal Palace's best two players?
13:09 Now I said at the start, this is not another why Man United are falling apart at the seams video.
13:13 This is why Crystal Palace are so good right now.
13:16 Why Glassner's got them playing, why they beat a team as big as Man United so comfortably.
13:22 And I think, do you know what, now I've got myself in the mood for it.
13:24 We probably will do like a full what are Crystal Palace under Oli Glassner video at some point in the next couple of weeks.
13:31 Like I didn't really touch on Anderson and how his long balls are really helpful here
13:35 and how Richard's been so impressive since he came in and Kline's adapted really well
13:38 or the two central midfielders or how he's got Mateta playing like flipping Adriano.
13:43 If you're a Palace fan and you want to see that or even if you're not and you want to see that,
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14:02 So if you like what you see and you'd maybe like to see more, that's the button for you.
14:07 It's funny in it because I'm always like sort of pointing here in the video,
14:10 but no idea where it actually is in relation to the real screen.
14:13 It's down there somewhere. It's under me. You'll find it. I'm sure you can't miss it.
14:18 Anyway, I have been Adam Cleary, this has been 442, grab me on all the socials there.
14:21 That is Adam Cleary, CLEOI, 442 is in the corner of the video.
14:24 I still haven't brought down the new issue of the mag. Sorry.
14:27 It's the Euros preview one. It's amazing. It comes with like a wall chart and all kinds of cool stuff.
14:33 So pick that up when you're out, please. I guess that's good manners of me.
14:37 Anyway, Crystal Palace, Olly Glassner, very good.
14:40 Domain United, Everton Hogg, very bad.
14:42 Sunny Shining. I'm going to finish my cup of tea and yeah, I'll see you soon. Bye.
14:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]