Bolton Wanderers 2-2 Manchester United | Evans, O’shea, Evra, Rooney …

On a day when United can put pressure on Chelsea, they wasted the opportunity to do so. To be honest though they have 66% of the position… still chased the game and are behind bolton twice. Interestingly  managed 13 shots to Bolton’s 15 and committed more fouls than bolton.

BWFC v MUFC lineups

United went with the same side that won against Liverpool with Rooney and Berba upfront with Scholes and Fletcher running midfield. Bolton also played 4-4-2 with Davis and Elmander upfront. Bolton started brightly and they maintained the same pace throughout the game. Game is not very much tactical to write in depth analysis but there are few interesting things about manchester united.

United continued their habit of leaking goals from the defense. For more embracement its again Johnny Evans who was at fault for first goal along with confusing position of Evra in the goal post. Then Nani sent a brilliant strike into goal to level the score. At half-time team talk, SAF told them to send the ball to Nani as much as possible but Nani was not able to send many crosses into the box. But Nani was unsuccessful through out the match to send the crosses into the box except the the one that Owen scored. The second goal which was deflected off Fletcher is not entirely his fault, had Evra or Evans did their job, that cross would never have reached Fletcher. Fletcher’s substation was not surprise since we have a midweek CL match and finally Struggling rooney was subbed. The goal was Owen is simply super and it send a reminder to SAF that, he had an option to turn to, instead of sticking with Rooney.

How many of you had observed and agree with me that, Van Der Sar is poor in this game? After the first 10mins, i started counting how many times pass from VDS finds a united player. All his long passes went to Bolton players…expect one 1 out of 13. Which means for every 8mins, Bolton’s attack came through a goal kick or free kick.

Edwin Van Der Sar ball distribution against Bolton

Observations:

Evra: Everyone is saying Rooney is not in form but the one who is surely struggling from that Worldcup hangover is Evra. He is not at his best in any of the games so fat this season. On the left side, we always get crosses from Evra more than the left winger many times but in the last 2-3 games those are limited to 3 or 4. Match against Bolton, he had 4 attempted crosses and just one is successful.

O’shea: Don’t know why he is still a preffered right-back this season. He is slow and not creative. Not getting into more attacking positions or crosses. in the match against Bolton, he had just 1 unsuccessful cross into the box to his name. We all know, Neville is old and not a good choice now but we have young Rafael waiting for opportunities. He may did a mistake against Bayern Munich that defeated us but he deserves a chance so is his brother. Don’t know when SAF will fix this right back issue.

Johny Evans: I’m sure he has lots of talent otherwise he will not feature in those many games for United. But this season, so far he is struggling. Against Bolton, he didn’t have a tall striker or someone Tevez, still against Davis he struggled. Also we saw Evans giving away a penalty to Torres in the match against Liverpool. Which suggests that, he not dealing properly with strikers who moves more or run around the Penalty box. Evans need to step up to cover this in his defense game, otherwise he may not be wearing that United shirt for long.

Rooney: First time, i though we could have started with any other striker. His choices are wrong and not showing any confidence. He needs to move on and make his on-field scoring count. Now, Owen has sent a signal that he is ready for action… so it would be interesting to see, if SAF opts for Owen in future.

Manchester City 1-0 Chelsea | Sit back and counter is the key to win

first big game for chelsea. Lot of talk in the media, about the money they spent in recent years and the quality of the signings etc..but the main talk is  about injuries even before the game kicks off. Manchester City were hit by defenders crisis and Chelsea lost their star midfielder Lampard. City turned to their young defender Boyata and Chelsea field the same team announced by Ancelotti on friday. The goal from Tevez which came as a result of a small counter attack is enough for City to grab all 3 points from the champions.

Both teams formed similar formations with packed midfield [4-3-3/4-5-1].  City are fielded their usual Barry-De Jong-Toure holding midfield. Chelsea placed Essien-Mikel-Ramires in the midfield. Since both teams went for same formation, it looked like everyone is cancelling out their counter parts.

Manchester United 3 – 2 Liverpool Review | Berbatov – A genius at work

A much awaited fixture of the English premier league between the great rivals with huge history and passion. Not a derby game but was described as mother of all derbies. Everyone expected a lot from this match. In the end its Manchester United’s new hero Berbatov sealed the deal for them with sublime Hat-Trick. But United defense which was sloppy for 10mins in the second half, allowed Liverpool to comeback into the game with a penalty and free kick.

Here is the starting lineup of both the teams for this match. united Opted for 4-4-2 with rooney and Berbatov upfront, as expected. Liverpool played 4-4-1-1 with Torres upfront with some surprises in the midfield. This the first time SAF deploying 4-4-2 in a big game after a long time. But given Berbatov’s form and Rooney’s workrate … it seems he went for the right option.

Manchester United vs Liverpool Starting lineups

We expected either Cole or Gerrard to play behind torres but coach RH gave Meireles that role. And Maxi started on the right side. Poulsen started along with Gerrard in the midfield. For united Fletcher and Scholes in the midfield and O’shea returned to the defense.

First Half

United Started very well with their midfield getting the ball to the wingers very early. This kept Liverpool in their own half for most of the time and they defended with numbers. In the midfield Meireles marked Scholes, means Torres is the only man upfront for Liverpool. Liverpool defended really well in the first half till 40th mim.

Liverpool defended well with 2 lines of defense

As you can see here, Liverpool formed 2 lines of defense. In the above pic, Nani is having the ball and you can see five liverpool players are around him. but as you can see they left one of the united players unmarked always. Poulsen also tracked Nani through out the game because Konchesky is not upto the mark.

First Goal

As we all know, United attacked through their wide players especially Nani. Their midfield attempted long passes to the wide players and then they got in the crosses which liverpool found difficult to handle with. Here is the series of actions for first goal:

United's first goal

Nani received a long ball from the midfield and he drove forward and sent a cross into the box. did you observe the 4 Liverpool players behind united’s front 3 men in the picture? So its initially 3v3 up front and as you can see Berbatov didn’t started his run and rooney is sprinting forward this allows United’s front 3 to exchange the passes and if required send the ball to the midfield which is in space. When Giggs took the corner from the left side, it really surprising that Torres has marked Berbatov and he was caught on the wrong end. Berbatov looked like running opposite side but when the cross came in, Torres is just holding him and gave a free header.

Torres and Midfield

In the whole first half Torres managed just 3 passes. So what Liverpool midfield is doing ? Here is a stuation from the game when Liverpool is in attacking position from the first half.

Liverpool's midfield was poor and sent the ball either back or sideways

Liverpool player  on the ball is Poulsen, he had options to send the ball forward or to Cole on the left who is not in this picture. He is in ample of space but he sends it back to a player who is near to Rooney and the pass goes to Maxi and comes back to Poulsen and finally ends up with a pass to goal keeper. Did you observed Torres there between the central defenders? what was he doing there with his hands on hips… watching liverpool midfield’s artistic work? They never played ball to him, the only time ball went to Torres is when they attempted long balls which happend just 2 times in first 45mins.

Here is another moment from the first half where they kept torres.

Liverpool's midfield was poor and sent the ball either back or sideways

Look at number of options the Liverpool player had. But he opted to pass the ball to Cole on the left wing which finally comes back to Poulsen.  This means in the first 45mins they never tried to attack the united’s midfield. Instead they passed the ball either sideways or backwards.

Second Half

In the scond half, Gerrard started pushing forward and Liverpool added some pace to the game. Still they did the the same thing they did in the first half. But United didn’t changed their style of they. They got the ball to the wide players and depended on the crosses.

United's Second goal - Another long ball another cross

Second goal

This is a brilliant moment of the game, from Berbatov to give united a 2-0 lead. He collected the ball from Nani on his knee and tried a bicycle kick which ended with hitting the inside of the top bar and landing inside. Again its a cross from Nani that lead to the goal. you can see in the picture, still nani is tracked by 2 liverpool players and Giggs who is on the left wing is free and unmarked. Even if the the cross went over the united forwards, giggs can make most of it.

United defense and Liverpool goals

At this moment it looked like united are all set to win without any hurdles or twists. But for 10mins, united defense was fragile and Liverpool made most of it with a penalty and freekick. Irrespective of his success in the past, Torres finds it difficult with Vidic this time and he has chosen to attack Evans in the second half. When Torres for the ball be ran into the 6yard box and Evans fouled him which lead to a penalty and Gerrard converted it.

Liverpool Substitutions :

Roy Hodgson made a substitution on 66th min by Replacing Maxi with Ngog. This changed the liverpool’s formation to 4-4-2 with Ngog playing just behind Torres as second striker. Cole and Meireles moving to wings with Gerrard and Poulsen controlling the Midfield.

Formations after Liverpool Substitution - both teams 4-4-2

This change brought life to Liverpool with Gerrard moving forward freely but they lost the midfield advantage they have in the first-half. Gerrard moving forward means, they left one of the United player free in the midfield and it is Scholes. And Scholes started controlling the midfield and sent more long balls to forwards and Nani.

O’shea Yellow card and second goal

O'shea foul on Torres and yellow card

Many may argue that O’shea should get Red card for this foul but Referee got it correct. As you can see in the picture, When ball was played forward, Torres, Van der sar and Defender are moving towards  it. Then O’shea clipped Torres leg and fouled. It is very clear that other United players are in good position to get the ball. So the referee gave him Yellow card and awarded Liverpool a free kick. When gerrard took the free kick, Fletcher moved slightly away from the wall and gerrard is cleaver enough to send the ball through that gap. Now the score 2-2.

United Substitution:

with the score settling at 2-2 SAF had brough in Macheda for giggs and with this change United now had 3 forwards upfront with Berbatov in the middle. As i wrote earlier Paul Scholes who was free in the midfield sent a long cross to O’shea on the right, who sends a cross to Liverpool penalty box and again Berbatov rose and heads home a winner, and his hat-trick.

Now SAF Replaces Berbatov the new hero who went into the bench with standing applaude from the United fans, wtih Anderson and Nani with Gibson. This changes United shape to 4-5-1 and closed the shop.

Conclusion

In the end it was 3 crosses, 3 goals for United. But they found a new hero in Berbatov, who was described by SAF as a Genius before the match and he proved that he is a genius at work. He may have just 22passes to his name in the whole game but every time he got the ball, it looked like he is about to do something. Now we all know, what tempted SAF to send 30mi on a player. United deserved their victory and for Liverpool the score line may be flattering but they need to work on a lot of things and its a surprise they created little and scored on the united’s defense errors.

Manchester United 3 – 0 West Ham United : Review | only 74mins of football

The below formation diagram shows United Lineing up 4-4-2 and Westham playing 4-2-3-1 but Westham played 4-1-4-1 with parker moving to front of the defense and Noble and Boa joining the forwards.

The first 30mins of the game is dull and it looked like United is playing after a long time, as they created less no of changes and game is off the pace. But in this period webstham defended very well . The 5 westham midfielders stuck the roles assigned to them. They tracked both fletcher and Scholes well and it looked like man marking at many times. With Parker moving deep, Boa marked Fletcher and Noble tracked Scholes. Parker took the role of sweeper in front of the defense.

Jonathan Spector had fouled Ryan Giggs with an unnecessary tackle in the penalty box. He opted to tackle even when some of the defenders are available to track Giggs. This resulted a penalty which Rooney took and scored. With that he ended his five-month wait for a goal.

United’s left and right backs pushed higher up the pitch as both Nani and Giggs are cutting inside. Just before half time. Vidic lofted a long diagonal ball over the West Ham defence for Berbatov, who knocked it back for Nani, whose shot was tipped onto the woodwork by Rob Green. Just after few minutes, Nani licked the ball over the crossbar when Giggs chipped the ball through for Nani for a one-on-one with Green.

The observations from the first half are: United opted to attack from the middle. Nani played inside and looked more comfortable on the right side. Berbatov dropped deep to, in front of the midfield. WestHam tried to stop the united attack higer up the pitch.

The second half started brightly for United. 5mins into the second half, Nani scored a brilliant goal to United 2-0 lead. The second  half Scholes looked more lively and played long passes to berbatov and Giggs more. In the second half it looked like Westham lost the plot. Their midfield didn’t tracked the united midfield properly, like they did in the first 30mins. This leaves Scholes and Fletcher to move freely and as a result united created more opportunities . Third goal came when a cross from Nani found Berbatov unmarked near the goal and his perfect airborne volly found the net.

Then United made 3 substitutions at 74th minute: Carrck for Scholes, Owen for Berbatov and Smallings for Evans. The main playmakers of the first 70mins Scholes and Berbatov were off suddenly and suddenly it looked like these substations killed the game. And nothing exciting happens for the next 15mins and the score line stayed 3-0.

Manchester United 3 – 0 Newcastle United | how old is scholes and Giggs ?

Manchester United began their Premier League campaign in style with a comfortable 3-0 win over Newcastle.

United went to this game with 4-4-2 by putting rooney along with Berbatov upfront and Scholes started along with fletcher in the midfield. Nani and Valencia are the wingers. O’shea started in the right back position with Vidic and Evans patrolling the center of the defense.

First 20-25mins of the game was dull as united took time to settled in  but the credit should be given to Newcastle for the way they defended. United had kept the position and showed the patience which in general is they style of play in the beginning of the season. Newcastle also had few good chances in this period but they couldn’t convert them.

The breakthrouh came in the 33’ when Scholes played a through pass to Berbatov who is just onside. Then Newcastle defense didn’t tracked the pass properly and Berbatov showed his class and scored his first goal of the new season and first for United.

The second goal came when Evra attacked on the left side and sent a cross which found Fletcher near to the goal and he scored a simple goal. The second half was bright for United as they created many chances but couldn’t convert many. Then Rooney was substituted by Hernandez and he looked like adding another to his impressive list but he was judged offside. Then Giggs who came on as substitute for Nani collected the precise pass from Scholes and scored a beautiful volley for the third goal on 85th minute.

It looked like Rooney was off color but still his work rate is good. He missed ball many times in the box and now he is 13games away from his last goal for United. Nani also again showed that he not so comfortable on the left side but did good defensive duties which allowed Evra to move forward. Valencia did his job on the right wing by providing straight runs and crosses into the box.

Did anyone observed? Vidic got forward more in the game. that is because, Newcastle played 4-4-1-1 and the second striker had join the midfield which leaves the united central defense with not much worries and vidic took the opportunity and got the ball forward when ever he can.

Now, how did paul scholes managed to control the game ? Scholes actually played deeper than Fletcher, means Fletcher moved forward more often. When he moved forward, the newcastle midfield has to follow him leaving some space for scholes which he used effectively. At the same time credit should be given to Fletcher as well since he dragged newcastle mofield towards him and made many diagonal runs and passed the ball to wingers and overlapped with them.

Now for Berbatov, isn’t this kind of display all United fans have been waiting for from him? He looked constant threat in the game. Also he played very deep at times and his link up play was wonderful. He scored one goal but failed in a one on one with the keeper in the second half. When he dropped deep and started hitting the ball forward and then making the runs….isn’t this berbatov we all saw at Tottenham? So, we can hope that this time he will have a good season. Even SAF told that this could be his season which shows that there is some change in Berbatov that SAF might have observed in the training sessions.

Definitely good signs for united as they are able to keep the position and create opportunities. United’s golden boys, Giggs and Scholes looked in good touch.