The curious case of Manchester United
Once upon a time, Manchester United’s attack dominated the Premier League, with their quick wing play, aggressive tempo, and pacey counter attacks. But since their last title wining season, it has only been a tragic demise, from the over dependency on aerial threat of Moyes to the static ‘Carom Billiards’ football of Van Gaal. A new manager was needed, and it was up to the Portuguese Jose Mourinho to change the atmosphere at Old Trafford, and to challenge his own demons after a miserable Christmas exit at Chelsea.
In his first season, Jose finished 6th in the league due to the amount of games drew, failing to score more than one goal in each of these games — nine 1–1 draws, and six goalless draws- which were mainly due to poor finishing rather than chance creation. In addition to the static nature of their main striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, which amounted to the lack of movements inside the penalty box. Come the end of the season, United decided to focus on the Europa League to add to their trophy haul after winning the league cup earlier, their opponents in the Europa League journey didn’t cause United any problems apart from Celta Vigo who were close to clinch a place in the final if not for their missed chances in the 2nd leg.
During the summer trasnfer window, United were searching for a striker to lead their lines after Zlatan’s injury and Rooney’s imminent departure, in Romelu Lukaku they managed to acquire a more dynamic striker who excells on counter attacks and runs into the channels. Jose continued with his asymmetrical 4–2–3–1 with a left sided winger, a right sided midfielder who operates more centrally, and Valencia providing the width from the right side.
United’s style of play is lopsided towards the left side, searching for penetrative runs from either Martial or Rashford, or far post crosses from Young which provided the winner in a couple of games such as Southampton away, and home to Bournemouth. However as teams got more familiar with United’s style, they regularly overloaded United’s left side forcing United to re-circulate the ball backwards, knowing that the option of Young denies United the advantage of an overlapping full back. On the other wing, it was Valencia’s runs that caused threat but his injury in late December, and United slow shift of play resulted in the decline of United’s right hand side through the rest of the season.
The smothering of United’s main point of attack, meant that other options should be introduced and the commonly used one was Marouane Plan-B, his aerial threat offers an alternative strong option, but the over dependency on him meant that other sides were prepared for his introduction once United failed to score. Despite that, he managed to give United an edge, as other teams couldn’t handle him, the problem though is that his introduction forces United into an irreversible state of the game.
United’s most convincing wins came away to Watford and Everton, switching to a 3–4–1–2 at Watford with Lingard behind the forwards, Martial and Lukaku who tended to occupy the left and right channel respectively, leaving space for Lingard to invade. At Goodison Park, Jose fielded a narrow 4–3–3 with Martial furthest forward, whose movements towards the left side to combine with Pogba and Lingard meant that there was space for Lingard and Mata to exploit. Lingard’s runs from behind and directness gave United’s attack an extra edge that no other player provided. Also, United were much more effective in reactive situations such as games against other big 6 opponents, this can be illustrated in the home games against Spurs and Liverpool where their main outlet was long balls to Lukaku in aid of bypassing the opposition press.
This season, Mourinho started with an alternated 4–3–3, fielding a number 6 in Andreas Pereira who normally plays as a winger or attacking midfielder, and two games into the season it’s too early to judge whether Mourinho’s idea of a deep lying playmaker would enhance his team’s attack, but the performance in both games is certainly not helping.
For United to improve and try to catch their noisy neighbours, Mourinho needs to prove that he is ‘el puto jefe’ on the field rather than off it.
