UEFA Champions League 2021/22: Young Boys vs Manchester United | OneFootball

The UEFA Champions League started for the 2021-22 season on Tuesday. Swiss champions Young Boys hosted Manchester United at home to kick start the season and they did it in style defeating a 10-man United 2-1.

We’ve broken down all the key stats for you to digest, including;

* shot maps

* xT (expected threat)

* pass networks

* xG timelines

* defensive duels

* average positions and much more!

We also try to answer some questions for you with the visuals:

Did Manchester United make a mistake with their defensive approach? Who was Young Boys’ biggest threat?

To navigate that stats gallery simply click on the numbers to move through the pages.

At the end of the gallery, you’ll be able to download the full PDF stats report.

The home team started with a 4-5-1 formation with Meshack Elia as the lone forward, Nicolas Moumi and Christian Fassnacht operated as the wide mids on the wings.

Average positions show that Young Boys played predominantly in the opposition half through the centre of the pitch, with even the full-backs pushing forward .

Manchester United took the centre stage with a 4-2-3-1 formation. Cristiano Ronaldo lead the charge with Bruno Fernandes, Jadon Sancho and Paul Pogba behind him providing the support from midfield.

United spent most of the match defending deep in their own half. The positions above show how close they were placed to each other to cut off the passing lanes for the Young Boys players.

Manchester United started the game on a high note scoring inside 15 minutes and dominated more than 60% of the ball in the first 30 minutes. However, after Aaron Wan Bissaka’s red card in the 35th minute , the tide started to shift towards the home team. They enjoyed more ball possession and sealed off a historic victory in the injury time from a horrendous Jesse Lingard back pass.

Manchester United’s high ppda(16.1) tells us how much they were confined in their own half for majority of the match while Young Boys took 18 shots with a xG of 0.96. United managed only two shots within the first 25 minutes and had no shots for the rest of the game yielding to a low xG of 0.36.

Nicolas Moumi was the biggest attacking threat on the pitch for Young Boys taking four shots with a xG of 0.50, the highest in the game, scoring one goal. Sandro Lauper had the most passes into the final third.

Cristiano Ronaldo had the highest xG for Manchester United of 0.36 taking the only two shots they managed in the game , scoring from one of them. Luke Shaw won the most aerial duels in the match (4).

Young Boys had managed to take only three of their 18 shots inside the box due to a tightly knit Man United defence. However, they scored from two of those shots and tested David de Gea many times from distance.

Manchester United just managed two shots throughout the match, both inside the box. One of them saved by the goalkeeper and the other one ended in the back off the net.

The xT timeline clearly speaks how Manchester United dominated the game in the first 30 minutes and were clearly the better team. However, Young Boys took control of the game after the red card to Wan Bissaka and finally killed the game off in injury time.

Young Boys enjoyed 57% possession in the match with midfielder Sandro Lauper attempting the most passes (74) also receiving the most passes in return (58).

Manchester United had 43% of ball possession with centre back Harry Maguire receiving the most passes (40) as well as attempting the most (53)

Young Boys played most of their passes near the midfield on both the flanks attempting quite a few smart passes. They played a lot of crosses into the box from both the wings.

Man United played most of their passes near the centre. They played three smart passes, none of them being successful. They played four crosses, three from the left and one from the right. Luke Shaw played the most crosses(2) while Ronaldo scored the only goal from Bruno Fernandes’ cross.

Young Boys have their highest xT zones near both the wings. Sandro Lauper had the highest passing accuracy of 94.59%.

Ulisses Alexandre Garcia Lopes had the highest xT from both passes(0.72) and dribbles (0.109)  even after considerable amount of misplaced passes and failed dribble attempts.

Manchester United had their highest xT zones around the opposition penalty box. Harry Maguire had the highest passing accuracy in the team with 92.16%

Even after a lot of misplaced passes, Bruno Fernandes had the highest xT from passing (0.44) in the team.

Paul Pogba had the most xT from dribbles (0.024) while Cristiano Ronaldo’s all failed dribble attempts lowered his xT.

Young Boys won the majority of their defensive duels in the midfield and defensive third. Garcia Lopes won four of his duels while Christopher Martins won three but lost out on seven.

They were extremely poor in the air losing out most of their duels. Meschack Elia and Silvan Hefti lost all of their duels.

They were better in loose ball recoveries where Christopher Martins won four duels. Sandro Lauper and Silvan Hefti were impressive .

Manchester United did win a lot of their defensive duels in the defensive third. Harry Maguire and Diogo Dalot won three duels each.

United won almost all of their aerial duels. Everyone in the team was impressive, Luke Shaw being the stand out with four duels won. Wan-Bissaka lost all three duels before being sent off.

Luke Shaw again won the most loose ball duels (4) while Paul Pogba lost five .

Manchester United’ defensive approach nearly came out as a success but Young Boys’ heroics proved to be stronger for them. With better ball players, Manchester United should have done better than what they managed.

If you want to download the stats in PDF format you can do so here: UCL Stats Analysis: Young Boys vs Manchester United