Manchester United have been a source of colossal criticism with their ‘boring’ possession play and not converting them into decent goal-scoring moments. On the other hand, in trying to play free-flowing football, they tend to leave the back-door open.
Let’s glance through some of their movements and how little change of system to alter play causes imbalance:
First, we’ll see how United shape up when they are defending; both full-backs become narrow and get close to their center-backs, wide players track back and take up full-back positions to stop the crosses. The two holding midfielders track back narrowly and look to stop the runs of advancing opposition midfielders. The no 10 remains just about in the center of the field to start the counter whenever possible with target-man striker there in one of those wide positions.
A few problems exist in this system though. Those are:
1.) The narrow movement of the full-backs, wide players coming back and stopping crosses doesn’t help the cause, most of the time 1 v 1 situations are created which more or less concedes the cross.
2.) ‘Ball-watch’ defending by the full-backs at the edge of their area, especially Darmian and Young. Whenever overlapping runs are being ventured out by opposition full-backs, these two see the movement of the ball and not the player which easily enables the advancing full-back to get in behind.
3.) The two holding midfielders have the role to stop the runs of on rushing midfield players into the box, but United’s midfielders have more or less failed to do this when Van Gaal opts for a defensive midfielder and an advanced play-maker in that position. When two defensive midfielders are there, they more or less do their jobs generally.
Next we’ll take a look at United’s movement and positions when they are in possession:
Full-backs pushed forward in advance roles, wide players look to cut inside and allow full-backs to overlap and get in behind the opposition. The number 10 Herrera/Mata/Rooney look for runs in behind to be a headache for opposition center-backs.
The problem is a lack of good crosses and a dearth of players in the box. They have possession but too much passing and then when the chance for a cross comes, the end result is an disappointing one. The main distinctive problem is going for perfection each time they have the ball, when teams sit back, they struggle to find any space and lack of a shoot on sight policy doesn’t help the cause too.
When Van Gaal goes for Fellaini in one of those holding midfield positions, it more or less becomes a situation where Fellaini fails to track back and opposition midfielders have an easy run in the box. Maybe at Anfield, the Dutchman will go for extra cover and not Fellaini in that deeper role.
We can discuss the system of Van Gaal in a long gist of points, but to summarize it we can say that sturdiness in play is lacking each time United feature in a match and a solution has to be found by the Dutchman very quickly as he doesn’t look like he’ll last long at Old Trafford. Ed Woodward will be having a close look at his team and manager when they play at Anfield this Sunday, so it will be pivotal for LVG.
All in all, one could say that United have to play out of their skins to seize anything out of this very important highly advertised game. With no disrespect to the club, it should be said that United will be happy even if they get a point out of this trip and for me go in as underdogs for this game against their deadly rivals Liverpool.
By Mizgan Ahmed on 16th January, 2016
@mizgans
