Manchester United beat Arsenal 3-2 in their previous Premier League game at Old Trafford. In that game, United played with the 4-2-3-1 formation which saw Cristiano Ronaldo up front supported by Bruno Fernandes in the number 10 position. Rangnick is expected to continue with the 4-2-3-1 formation as the United squad at the moment is best suited to that formation, but what would be interesting to see is whether the German manager would play Donny van de Beek in the double pivot instead of Scott McTominay. If Rangnick does choose to play the Dutchman in midfield, this would allow United to have more control in the center of the park and also be much quicker on counter attacks which is a trademark of his previous teams.
Manchester United’s 4-2-3-1 formation against Crystal Palace
In attack we can expect the same front three of Ronaldo, Rashford and Sancho but we might also see a lot more fluidity among the front three’s movement supported by Bruno Fernandes in the number 10 role. As Rangnick would have had only a couple of sessions with United squad, it’s hard for him to make any significant changes to how the team is setup against Palace.
🗣️ Rangnick: “What I saw from Cristiano yesterday, he’s more than willing to do that, to put his input into the team, and the other teammates will have to do the same.”
— UtdDistrict (@UtdDistrict) December 3, 2021
🗣 Rangnick: “I mean, in football it’s all about control. If you want to win games you have to have control no matter if the other team has got the ball or you are in possession of the ball yourself. This is probably one of the major targets in the next couple of weeks.” [MU]
— UtdDistrict (@UtdDistrict) December 3, 2021
🗣 Rangnick: “I saw the games against Liverpool and Manchester City, at Chelsea even though we won a point there, and even against teams like Watford, the team didn’t have control. They didn’t have control over the game and this is something we will try to achieve.” [MU]
— UtdDistrict (@UtdDistrict) December 3, 2021
From his press conference, the thing which stands out the most is “control”. That’s the reason we expect Rangnick to play Donny van de Beek in midfield and probably also move Bruno Fernandes to a deeper role. United should hold on to the ball much better in the center of the part and that’s difficult with Fred and McTominay as both of them are not good on the ball.
