It’s safe to say Manchester United and Barcelona are both very much on the way back to the top. They’re two of the most exciting teams in Europe right now, with clear similarities. They’re both high-pressing teams, and they’ve both improved massively at playing out from the back.

On paper, this is how the two sides lined up. Barcelona were very much set up in a 4-2-3-1 shape, while Manchester United were deploying a 4-3-3.

However, it’s important to note that Barcelona’s line-up is deceiving. In practice, they’re a back-three team, with left-back Jordi Alba pushing high up, and Gavi (nominally a central midfielder) coming inside. This creates that 3-box-3 formation we’re beginning to see from elite sides like Manchester City, Spain, and of course, Xavi’s Barcelona team.

So, looking at Barcelona’s high press during United’s build-up phase, it’s notable that Xavi’s team were pressing man-to-man, ensuring United didn’t have an overload. Xavi’s whole thesis revolves around winning the ball back quickly, to maximise possession.

It’s interesting that Ten Hag’s reaction was to switch his front line around, placing Marcus Rashford up front. He did this knowing that their only way past Barcelona’s press would be to go long, and try to dominate aerially. Rashford is very good at stretching opposition defences and is deadly in behind. Ten Hag still wanted Wout Weghorst to play centrally, so he dropped behind Rashford while Bruno Fernandes pulled wide onto the right, with Jadon Sancho switching to the left.

This new attacking set-up allowed United to play long balls, bypassing Barcelona’s high press, and use the height of Weghorst to win the header. He’d either knock it down for a teammate to latch onto or flick it on for Rashford to chase. This worked quite well for United, especially in the first half.

When this became too predictable, United’s widest men would exploit Barcelona’s back-three by dropping in nearer the full-backs, creating wide two-v-ones. Barcelona’s wide centre-backs couldn’t follow them because it would leave them far too exposed. This was another way of manipulating the space and overcoming Barcelona’s man-to-man pressing.

When the roles reversed, and Barcelona were playing out from the back, Manchester United’s press was risky. The important thing to note is that Jordi Alba was totally unmarked. United left him alone. Rashford marked one centre-back, and Sancho would sit deeper, ready to press the third centre-back if needed. United’s midfield man-marked Barcelona’s. Fernandes had a difficult job; he’d press the left-centre-back Marcos Alonso in a way that blocked the short pass to Jordi Alba. This way, United didn’t have to mark Alba.

In theory, that was a good plan. However, Barcelona’s typical movement of Gavi coming inside and Alba advancing upfield caused United’s right-back Aaron Wan-Bissaka a problem. Did he follow Gavi inside or stay at right-back to deal with Alba? He initially followed Gavi, but that left Alba with the whole left flank to himself. Alonso played long balls forward to Alba a few times, which led to goalscoring opportunities.

So Wan-Bissaka stayed at right-back, but Gavi’s movement gave Barcelona their desired four-v-three overload in midfield. Ten Hag instructed one of his centre-backs to step up onto Gavi, as seen below.

For most of the game, United were reacting to clever Barcelona rotations, and by the end of the game, their plan was wildly different. The biggest problem United faced was the left-side rotation between Jordi Alba, Gavi, and Frenkie de Jong.