Fellaini’s aerial presence redeems United’s start to the season
A poor start to the season for both Burnley and Manchester United meant that their game on Sunday was much more than just 3 points, as both were searching for the catalyst to kick start their season. Ironically, Burnley’s season started much earlier in the Europa League, but their inability to come back against Olympiacos last Thursday ended their brief run in the competition. Despite that, their exclusion from the competition could benefit them, as it means less games, more time on the training pitch, and less travelling for a squad that is focused on organization and physical attributes.
‘Respect, respect, respect’ highlighted the headlines after Spurs managed to beat United last Monday, but United’s performance in the first half was arguably their best this season, and a similar performance was required from Mourinho’s team to get anything from Turf Moor.
Sean Dyche fielded his regular 4–2–3–1 with a couple of changes, highlighted by the absence of Icelandic winger Johann Berg Gudmundsson, who was their most prolific offensive outlet the previous season. In the other dugout, Mourinho decided to go with a 4–3–3 albeit with slight changes. Fellaini whose aerial presence and poor ability on the ball meant that he normally found himself behind Lukaku, was fielded in front of the defence. A place now associated with deep lying play-makers who can build the attacks with their vision and neat passing. As peculiar as Fellaini’s positioning was, it made sense against this Burnley team, a team which has two options for ball progression and a main source of chance creation. Option A is long balls towards Chris Wood searching for flick-ons, Option B is combination passes into the wingers, both options lead to their main source of chance creation which is crosses.
Fellaini’s positioning disrupted option A, as the Belgian dominated long balls aimed towards Chris Wood. In addition to that, his positioning near the defence made it easier for him to be in the best position for Burnley’s near post crosses. Burnley’s second option was negated by United’s defending on the wings with the support of Pogba and Matic maintaining a 3 v 2 situation, Pogba’s job on the right side was much easier as Dwight McNeil tended to tuck in unlike his counterpart Gudmundsson who would in theory have been a tougher opposition to face.
Building up, United regularly excluded Fellaini to avoid him being exploited by any kind of press, mainly working the passes into the wings, and towards Lukaku. The Belgian striker tended to move to the right side, to isolate himself against Ben Mee in a 1 v 1 situation rather than being in a 2 v 1 situation, and also to free up space for Lingard’s runs into the center, who could have opened the score earlier, only for his shot to miss the target. A common theme in United’s attack was Pogba’s diagonals into Luke Shaw, who offered width on the left side, and a faster horizontal transition. From the left side United managed to open the scoring as Lukaku headed a Sanchez cross.
United showed glimpse of their directness and counter attacking threat against Spurs, and here they nearly managed to double the lead but Lukaku’s chip was saved by Joe Hart. Eventually, they managed to take the lead just before the break as after Pogba’s ball towards Shaw, the left back combined with Sanchez to put Lukaku through, who opted to slot Lingard, for the shot to finally fall forLukaku, a scrappy finish that showed a new side of United’s attack from the fast horizontal transition, to the Sanchez-Shaw link.
In the 2nd half, Burnley were due a much predicated swap as Sam Vokes was introduced in place of Jeff Hendrick to switch to a two man front line. The switch added more aerial threat for Burnley, but the United defenders maintained their positive performance on the day after two horrendous displays against Brighton and Spurs. Fellaini’s aerial dominance, and balls into the right channel for Lukaku combined to give Lingard the chance to score the perfect goal, but the winger missed the ball only for it to fall for Rashford who managed to gain a penalty.
After the penalty miss, and a red card for Rashford, United dropped into a flat 4–4–1 to defend Burnley’s crosses, their counter attacking threat was still present though as spaces appeared in Burnley’s defence. Pogba put Lukaku through twice, but the Belgian failed to grab his first United hatrick. Burnley switched to far post crosses in the second half which were more dangerous, but De Gea’s anticipation and reactions made them look easy.
Burnley’s poor form continues, but after a Europa League exit things could get better for Dyche’s team. United meanwhile clinched a 2–0 win mainly due to Fellaini’s aerial presence and quick horizontal transition to the left side. Their next trip is a tougher one, away to Watford, the only team to maintain a perfect record alongside Liverpool and Chelsea.
