Manchester United face Norwich in their next Premier League game on Saturday. United have had a decent run of results ever since Solskjaer’s sacking after the disastrous loss against Watford. Rangnick in his first game against Crystal Palace set up his team in a 4-2-2-2 formation and we expect that to continue against Norwich as well.
The 4-2-2-2 allows United to play two strikers and two attacking wingers/midfielders behind them to support them. Also, the full-backs in this system are expected to play very high and provide the attacking width. This means that United in possession will have many players in the final third to create and finish chances. This also means that when United lose possession, they have the numbers high up the pitch to immediately press and recover possession.
Man United’s predicted 4-2-2-2 formation against Norwich
Rangnick: “We had 45 minutes before Palace and we did quite a lot of video footage with them in order to tell them how we want to play. As we all saw, they did well in that game. Not everything was perfect, but quite a few things worked out well.” #mulive
— utdreport (@utdreport) December 10, 2021
Rangnick: “We were always on the front foot [against Crystal Palace], we had control of the game. Now it’s about taking the next steps. What we showed against Crystal Palace was good. We didn’t allow them to score or give them too many opportunities.” #mulive
— utdreport (@utdreport) December 10, 2021
We can expect United to focus more on pressing the opposition high and playing quick transitions when they win the ball against Norwich as Rangnick has had more time with the squad since his appointment. Bruno Fernandes and Jadon Sancho will have a lot of ground to cover in their hybrid Number 10/Winger role(Can we call this role: The False 10?). They will also be expected to support Ronaldo and Rashford in pressing the Norwich defence when out of possession. Another interesting aspect to observe in this game would be to see how involved Ronaldo would be in United’s press.
