Yup except for the 433.
if you are going in there with Max's game plan of not being particularly agressive and the style of play of "sit back and pick your moment" that we presented, it didn't need to be a 433, against a lightning quick team which thrives in midfield. His approach suited more a 532 or 442 so might as well play a formation which suits your game plan OR change your approach. To me 433 was wrong for the game plan he had.
532 would have pinned us back all game.
442 would have been completely shut down in the center
433 was the right gameplan. 3man mid that would disable ajax knifing through as easily. Fullbacks that made sure they couldnt be all offense cause pretty lethal when going forward (cancelo assisted). Berna that surged forward aswel along with cancelo, and manbro+ronaldo that won a ton of vertical balls
So the issue ?
The issue is that pjanic didnt play well and failed to combinate out of the ajax press. Several times he was too slow or caught in possession when ajax swarmed closely. Our defenders consistantly tried to combine through the press or longball it to the forwards, but pjanic really failed at the combination out of it.
Our gameplan with ajax high press was the fullbacks and wide forwards to be available to reach over the press, but either from a direct pass from a centreback or pjanic. Thing is berna had to be close to his marker and help deep, and it takes a while for cancelo or him or sandro or benta to move up.
Pjanic failed to make us keep possession long enough.
-> we started shooting long to ronaldo and mandzukic, but the midfield was quite deep so tricky to work from there
-> cancelo and benta at times tried to get forward. Cancelo was swarmed, Benta lost possession alot quickly cause sloppy ballcontroll
But we were doing okay'ish. Frustrating Ajax who barely got chances. THen Matuidi had to go off and we had no real replacement with Can out.
So he used Dybala, as D+P usually keep possession more and longer. That kinda worked to some extend but D was quite far off goal.
When we noticed that longballing didnt had the midfield catch up, he got Costa on and shifted the team allowing him to play higher.
We launched and launched costa and Ajax was insanely lucky that we didnt score one of those 3 massive chances. Cause this game would have ended 1-4 if we scored one and they had to take risks to equalise.
Nah. Allegri did well. But we SERIOUSLY need a copy of Can. This is why i believe adding Ramsey will do a huge deal to our team