We played really high up almost to the half way like against a particularly fast opponent. Unless we get a literal speed demon there's no way to work around that. If we want the FBs high up the pitch and supporting in midfield they can't also be goal side of every fast attacker in every instance. Emerson's defensive strength and understanding is that despite playing infield he was still there challenging Rico Henry, who is just faster than him in a foot race. Not really a lot he could do in that situation.
Man U will be a better test. Brentford's strategy is about sitting deep and hitting the quick counter. And Man U has much better defenders who press and transition into attack quickly.
Aye, we will need to show a lot of awareness of the gaps that will appear. Fernandez loves to hit a first time ball into space so we need to be on our toes. At the same time they aren't likely to be as compact in defense hopefully allowing us a little more space of our own to transition.
The refs might have to play nice too since they might be under more scrutiny.
