Long time lurker who’s been meaning to get into more tactical analysis. Feel free to let me know anything I missed or anything you disagree with. Sorry for the long read.

First half started brightly. We lined up in a combination 4-2-3-1/4-2-2-2 and Bournemouth in a 4-4-2/4-4-1-1. Our pressing was very impressive as a team and led to several chances, especially the Rooney > Ibra chance. From what I saw, when Bournmouth defended they lined up in 2 banks of 4 about 10 yards apart. We looked to break this up by either having mata/rooney drop into the space between or having a vertical run from Pogba or one of the fullacks. Once Bournemouth had their defense in their box in the final third we stuck to our usual game plan of keeping possession until we could get a vertical or diagonal run into space to get behind them with one-two’s or lofted through balls. It was hard to tell Bournemouth’s attacking plans because of their low poessesion but it looked like they planned to either counterattack through their two forward players or work the ball towards the final third and then look for diagonal runs in the space behind our fullbacks. Despite their low possession they did create a couple good chances. Our first goal was a decent finish but really should have been tracked better by their defense. Their penalty was off of a dive in my opinion and should not have been a pen.

For individuals. I thought Shaw and Martial took about 15 minutes to grow into the game, but looked very good after that. Martial created several chances that should have been finished and Shaw looked decent trying to go forward and did not hesitate in tackles, which was good to see. Mata is such an intelligent player and made a ton of runs that helped break up Bournemouth’s shape. Our finishing overall was poor but Ibra especially could have had 2-3 goals in the first half. Pogba should have done better on his one-on-one, but thought his overall play was good as he looked to be an attacking outlet. One final player related thought, but its amazing how much more confident and composed Rojo looks as a CB rather than at LB, he looked good all first half.

As for the ref, I think he let too many fouls slide in the beginning of the game. I thought the one-on-one with De Gea ended in what should have been a penalty and overall he let the game flow. This was good in the beginning but I think towards the end he was starting to lose control of the game and used his cards to try to get control back.

Other than the penalty, which was a dive, we had a good half. We just can’t finish chances for some reason. If we had been more clinical it could easily be 3 or 4 to 1 and like most of our games I hope it doesn’t bite us in the second half.