Como 4-1 Manchester United: Coach Cesc Fàbregas Found the Space United Chose to Give Away

Manchester United spent the night at the Sinigaglia arguing with themselves about pressing. Cesc Fàbregas had settled that argument before kick-off. Como’s coach built his side to live in exactly the spaces United’s plan was designed to give away, and what followed in the Champions League was less an upset than a diagram carried out as drawn.

The coverage has fixed on the aftermath: a captain questioning his manager on television, a manager apologising to the away end. All of it is real, but it explains United’s collapse as a mood. The better reading is structural, and it starts in the other dugout, with a coach whose name English reports have already attached to Michael Carrick‘s job.

The plan Bruno Fernandes described

United’s captain gave the clearest account of the visitors’ approach in his TNT Sports interview, quoted by Reuters. “It’s a decision from the [coaching] staff not to press man-to-man and sometimes leave space behind and try to get the ball, wait for them,” Bruno Fernandes said, “but sometimes when you give space to these teams they get confidence.” Asked whether that was criticism of Carrick, he answered: “That’s on the manager and staff to see, not me.”

Take the politics out and Fernandes is describing a zonal mid-block: hold the shape, concede the ball, step out only when it enters your area. Against a side that builds slowly, that is coherent. Its weak point is the player who belongs to no zone, because a block that waits instead of following never picks him up. It only passes him from one defender’s area to the next.

Nico Paz, free between the lines

Fàbregas had that player, and he freed him the day before. Both teams lined up in a 4-2-3-1, according to QuiComo, but Como’s version was lopsided by design: at his pre-match press conference Fàbregas confirmed that Tasos Douvikas would lead the line rather than Nico Paz playing as a false nine again, leaving the Argentine behind the striker with licence to drift.

After the match Fàbregas traced that role to his own playing days, in comments reported by Football Italia. “When Pep Guardiola played me as a striker, I really liked that,” he said. “Messi and I were given the freedom to sense where the spaces [were] and go find them. While others focused on positional play, we could do something extra.”

The opening goal was the pattern in miniature. Lucas Da Cunha found Paz at the edge of the box and, in 101 Great Goals’ account, he “was given far too much time to turn” before curling a left-footed shot past Senne Lammens. Nobody had followed him, because the plan did not ask anyone to. Como’s second came from a Da Cunha, Martin Baturina and Paz combination that ended with Paz sliding Douvikas through, the club’s official report says.

A press aimed at United’s midfield

The other half of the design was what Como did without the ball. “We try to study their weaknesses, but also don’t forget what we do best,” Fàbregas said before the game. QuiComo’s live report logged repeated errors by Noussair Mazraoui playing out from the back before the break, and the third goal came when Paz pounced on a blind pass from Carlos Baleba, the half-time substitute in midfield, and ran on to score.

When this desk previewed the matchday, the open question was whether Fàbregas would aim his press at United’s midfielders. That goal answered it. The fourth showed the confidence Fernandes had warned about: centre-back Jacobo Ramón made an unmarked run into the box to head in a cross from the substitute Kaiki.

What the numbers add

Paz scored in the second and 57th minutes and set up Douvikas in the 49th; Ramón made it 4-0 in the 76th before Joshua Zirkzee’s stoppage-time consolation. Opta had Como on 2.04 expected goals to United’s 1.05, and Como’s starting XI on a combined 62 Champions League appearances before kick-off, against 242 for United’s. United are now winless in seven matches in all competitions for the first time since 2015.

Carrick did not hide. “I’ll take responsibility for the overall team and performance; it stops with me, and I’m fine with that,” he told TNT Sports. “I’ve got to apologise for the performance.” Jamie Carragher, on CBS Sports Golazo, turned the tactical complaint back on the captain, arguing that “for years, Bruno Fernandes has meant Manchester United can’t press”. Whichever of them is right, the wait-and-see block was a choice made around a constraint, and Fàbregas built his plan around the choice.

The coach in the other dugout

Como were in Serie B three years ago and finished fourth in Serie A last season. Fàbregas, who arrived as a player and rose from the youth team to the senior job, refused before the game to say whether he would want the United post, “out of respect for Carrick and an institution like United”. Afterwards he pointed at his own side’s inexperience: “some of our players were having the third Champions League game of their entire careers.”

United host Roma next in the competition, and Roma’s staff will have the same footage. The space between United’s lines was a decision, not an accident, and the coach most often named as Carrick’s possible successor has just shown everyone how to use it.

Tags: Hansi Flick, manchester united, Michael Carrick, Cesc Fàbregas, champions league, Como