Tactical Analysis: Burnley vs Manchester United | OneFootball

Manchester United are set to face their first match without Ruben Amorim at the helm as they travel to Burnley tonight.

Following Amorim’s dismissal yesterday, Darren Fletcher will have the honour of leading Man United during their match at Turf Moor, where he’ll hope to get his tenure as interim manager off to a strong start.

While the team may struggle to deal with the turbulent change of staff ahead of this match, it’s important to remember how well the team has been pulling together in recent days, as was evident in the match against Leeds United on the weekend.

Still, there are some important considerations that Fletcher should have in mind if he hopes to come away with a decent result against Burnley this evening.

Pick a strategy and stick with it

While Amorim was often guilty of remaining stubborn in terms of his formation and tactics, his rapid changes in recent times have also been the subject of much criticism.

Gary Neville pointed out how Amorim’s abandonment of his 3-4-3 formation helped to improve United’s performances, only for the former United manager to revert to his previous setup during the 1-1 draw with Wolves.

Fletcher would do well to avoid this mistake. With life at United turbulent enough, stability is needed. In addition to dealing with the aftermath of Amorim’s departure, United are severely short-staffed due to AFCON as well as injuries.

The best thing Fletcher can do is to assess the strengths and weaknesses of the players at his disposal and select a formation that is best suited to his squad that will travel to Burnley.

While a manager should be adaptive to different scenarios, some stability will be needed if United hope to get a positive result tonight. Also, given that Burnley are one of the weakest teams in the league, ensuring the comfort of his players should help Fletcher to get them over the line.

Return to the United way

What’s important for Fletcher to understand is that the transformation that needs to take place at United extends far beyond tonight’s match.

One of the main issues that the Scottish manager will need to address is restoring the United way of playing. From the moment that Amorim arrived at Old Trafford, he sought to gut the system, bringing in his own coaching staff, purging the squad with a whole host of transfers, and adopting his 3-4-2-1 formation.

While his tenure was turbulent to say the least, the most alarming issue was how the “United DNA” seemed to be thrown out the window.

If there’s one thing that Fletcher and his assistant for the match, Jonny Evans, know, it’s the United way.

Both were former players under Sir Alex Ferguson during a golden age for the club and will do well to bring back the fast-paced, attacking football that United were known for back then.

Even if the result against Burnley is somehow compromised as a result, Fletcher and his players would do well to begin a rebuild now with a long-term vision in mind.

Featured image Michael Regan via Getty Images

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