THIS IS TACTICAL ANALYSIS
By Jonathan Wilson (oct 26th)
Despite the potency of Wayne
Rooney, Robin van Persie and the
rest of Sir Alex Ferguson's side, the Old Trafford boss faces a tactical dilemma ahead of the Stamford Bridge fixture
The longer this season goes on, the more unbalanced this Manchester United squad appears.
Like the 1998-99 team, this side has four high-quality centre-forwards.
Unlike the 98-99 team, though, there
seems little clear plan as to how to
use them.
After Javier Hernandez, seemingly
quicker and more muscular than last
season, had scored twice to help
rescue the game against Braga on
Tuesday, Sir Alex Ferguson admitted
his predicament. "He's got me
thinking," he said. "He, Van Persie,
Rooney and Welbeck; I don't know
what to do with them to be
honest." And that's without
mentioning Shinji Kagawa and Tom
Cleverley, the two other candidates
for an attacking midfield berth.
Although Wayne Rooney and Danny
Welbeck can play wide and Cleverley
and Kagawa, who is unavailable for
the Chelsea trip after it was confirmed
he will miss three to four weeks with a
knee injury, can play deeper.
United essentially have six players for
two positions. Which hammers home
the question asked earlier in the
season: why spend £43 million on Van
Persie and Kagawa, no matter how
good the value that represents, when
there are such obvious deficiencies
elsewhere in the team?
Against Braga on Tuesday, United
played a midfield diamond with
Darren Fletcher at the base, Kagawa
and Cleverley to the sides and Rooney
at the tip. With Hernandez and Van
Persie up front, that created three
slots for those attacking players and
incorporated the two who naturally
play a little deeper – at the expense of
United's natural wide men, Antonio
Valencia, Nani and Ashley Young.
The decision to rest Rio Ferdinand
meant Michael Carrick playing at
centre-back. That left United
defensively vulnerable, particularly in
wide areas, but they had enough
going forward to get away with it.
United have employed a diamond
four times now this season: against
Newcastle in the League Cup and the
Premier League, and against CFR and
Braga in the Champions League.
United have won all four games.
"Teams will have to think if we are
going to play two wide players or the
diamond because we have players
capable of doing both things," he said
before the Braga game. "Players like
Shinji Kagawa and Tom Cleverley can
play very well in the type of matches
the diamond offers. And of course in
Nani, Ashley Young, Antonio Valencia,
I've got really good wide players also.
"It is difficult – we have had some
success playing with the diamond.
The history of the club is always to
play with wide players, particularly at
Old Trafford, so I have a decision to
make."
Against Newcastle, who have played
more long balls than any other side in
the Premier League this season, the
ploy was clearly tactical: pack the
middle, ensure Manchester United
were not overrun and rely on their
passing in tight areas to be better than
Newcastle, while letting Rooney
operate between the midfield and
defensive banks in Newcastle's 4-4-2.
For Sunday's game against Chelsea,
the decision is more difficult.
Chelsea's great strength this season
has been the trident of Eden Hazard,
Oscar and Juan Mata in their 4-2-3-1.
Sir Alex may reason he needs two
bodies in that area to bolster his back
four and disrupt Chelsea's flow, in
which case he will presumably go with
a 4-2-3-1 of his own (he could even
try a 4-3-3 and play Fletcher along
with Carrick and Paul Scholes,
although that seems unlikely).
Or he could reason the best way to
stop them is by controlling
possession, to get as many players in
the centre as possible, in which case
the diamond would be the preferred
option.
That's one way of thinking about the
game. The other way is to look at the
vulnerability Chelsea have shown in
wide areas. The fluent nature of the
three in their 4-2-3-1 makes it very
difficult for them to pick up opposing
full-backs and that, at times, has left
Chelsea's full-backs exposed.
The goals scored by Gervinho and
Pavel Pogrebnyak against Chelsea this
season both came from Ashley Cole
being left isolated, while for a brief
time last Saturday, Gylfi Sigurdsson
again and again found himself one-
on-one against Branislav Ivanovic.
In previous seasons, United would
surely have looked to exploit that,
using their wide men on the counter,
constantly looking to drive at exposed
full-backs.
The problem this season is that
United may not have the defensive or
ball-winning capacity to play like that
and, unless Rooney is used extremely
deep, to field Nani and Valencia would
mean only one of the four forwards
getting a game.
Sir Alex is presented with the classic
tactical choice: be reactive and defend
the centre (which counterintuitively
may mean controlling possession), or
be proactive and attack the flanks
(which may mean sitting deep and
ceding possession). His problem is
that his summer signings have given
him options in only one part of the pitch.
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