Analysis : Dimitar Berbatov | Whats wrong and what changed ?

I’m one of the fans of Manchester United, who argued that Berbatov is not flop at Old Trafford. I defended him every time some made a comment on this either it is about his laziness or lack of goals etc.. Many United fans nick named him Berbaflop but the same people are now eating their own words after seeing him this season.

Was something changed or is he changed ? No… he wasn’t changed but the difference is the arrogance is back in Berbatov. 🙂 . this statement looks funny but its true. In the last 2 seasons we didn’t saw the arrogance of berbatov much.  He is the best when he drops deep, collects the ball and then plays it to the front player or target man. when i wrote arrogance, its the way he passes the ball. He doesn’t care about his pass but it will be accurate enough to find the right person with good timing.  You saw the in the last match when he took his shirt off after scoring that brilliant airborne volly.

With Tottenham

Remember his days at Spurs. He and Keane formed a wonderful partnership and he is the focal point of the spurs attack. Here is his passes from one the matches he played well for Spurs. You can see here that he likes to drop deep and involve in buildup play.

First season at United

Now at United, in his first season he has Ronaldo and Rooney. Ronaldo used to be the target for United attack and rooney played on the left. This left Berbatov with limited chances to score. Here is Berbatov’s average positions from his 1st season at Old Trafford.

He may have just nine league goals to his name, but he has 10assists also. He even finished fourth in the overall Actim index with 586 points, with his 652 passes the eighth most in the league.

Second season at United

Now into the second season he played along side Rooney when we lineup 4-4-2 but later we switched to 4-3-3 with Rooney alone upfront. Here is the Berbatov’s position diagram.

Generally, the second striker will not play a huge amount of passes, but will look to provide key passes that will lead directly to goals. But Berbatov has more passes and involved more in the build up play. The role that SAF gave him is unique. His game is to keep position in tight situations up on the pitch and to keep the attacking play and importantly to provide the pressure on the opposition team.

Now, in this season he played well and did what exactly he has been assigned. He played in support of Rooney as a second striker. it is common that the second striker generally gets less number of passes. but he has huge contribution to the team. Look at these stats below.

He was a creative, deep-lying, playmaker sort of striker. we need to see him as a striker who could do things besides scoring goals better. So he was always going to be unsuited to being a lone striker.

Sadly when he was alone upfront, the team didn’t delivered him what they does for Rooney and he was also suddenly into new shoes which he never tried before.

United played [attacked] more on the wings last season.

If you see the berbatov’s passing, he mostly plays through the middle and short passes and also will pass very few to the wingers. This means when berbatov plays as lone striker, we have less no of chances coming from the wings unlike when we have rooney, who prefers sending the pass to wingers and wait for cross.

Otherwise, the midfield has to feed the ball to wingers, at which i think we failed towards end of last season.

Third season at United

A lot has been talked before the season starts. There is a talk of his transfer, Sir Alex finally loosing faith in him etc.. But before the pre-season SAF made it clear the he is staying and no question of offloading him. In the pre-season games he showed good form and scored some goals. now United is playing 4-4-2 with Berbatov behind Rooney. Things started working…. here is his passing map from guardian chalkboards

Look at that passing… he was everywhere on the pitch except defense. He played more infront of Scholes and Fletcher. Did you observed it? He is passing the ball more to wingers especially Nani who is on the right side. He is excellent so far in the last 4matches. He is making a good partnership with Rooney this season and we observed that he is well suited for Hernandez. To Berbatov’s game, an out and out striker in 4-4-2 is well suited.

The one word that almost most of hte united fans are behind in this summer is ‘play maker’. You have Paul Scholes in your team and with this new improvements of Berbatov, you have second play maker. If you don’t think so look at what happens when we substituted berbatov in the games so far this season. Also look at the passing and attack when both Scholes and Berbatov are taken off in the game against Westham. Do you agree that we took long time to understand him?

So what changed for Berbatov ?

1. Nothing 2. He is involving in build up play and linking well with Nani. 3. His teammates started to pass him the ball more. 4. Behind the rooney he is playing like connector between midfield and attack. 5. He started passing ball to wingers more 6. He is clear on his role and responsibility 7. I think we’ve found where he is more effective.

Didn’t we, finally learned what he brings to team and how to watch him?

Fulham 2 –2 Manchester United | pay penalty for that penalty miss

Manchester United made 2 changes to their lineup from the match against newcastle. Rooney who is suffering from some stomach bug replaced by Hernandez who got his first premier league start. Park replaces nani on the left wing. United opted the 4-4-2 formation. While Fulham played 4-2-3-1.

United started the game very with Fletcher and Berbatov combining and Scholes doing the same as what he did in the newcastle match. Park played inside to compensate the fulham’s 5 men midfield. Berbatov dropped deep off the Hernandez and has been key in the build up play. Fletcher made more forward runs in the first half. United got the break through when the free kick from the left found berbatov who laid the ball to Scholes who scroed his trademark goal and his 150th goal. It looked like United didn’t pressed enough after this goal. Vidic didn’t tracked Zamora properly. Fulham leveled the score before half time.

In the second hald, united looked a different team. Scholes and Berbatov disappeared means, they are not creating any changes to score. Also it was observed that Fulham’s Etunu has made many forward runs at the goals causing problems in the united midfield. Then SAF made changes by replacing Hernandez with Owen, Park for Nani and Giggs for valencia. It looked like united are getting back on track but still didn’t created any real opportunities. Then united got a lucey own goal gift from Fulham in 84th Min. And soon they were awarded a penalty which Nani couldn’t able to net. This is costly miss as Fulham for the moral boost from that penalty miss and they started moving forward more. Again in the last minutes of the second half, Fulham scored from a corner through Hergland who compensated his earlier own goal with this header and the score is now 2-2.

United got draw at Fulham on the away game with 2-2 scoreline when they have change to make it 3-1 before that penalty miss by Nani . But may be better than the last years 3-0 defeat.

Notes from the match review:

1. Park played inside …not as a winger since Fulham played 4-2-3-1.
2. We know the issue of the left wing and both Valencia and Nani are not good.
3. When you attack on the right through Evra’s runs… you should be able to switch the ball to other flank. Which requires O’shea to be in an advanced position…..this didn’t happend
4. for valencia on the right, there is no one to attempt a diagnol cross when there is space to work on the left wing as park is playing inside
5. Check SAF’s post match comments….. he said – united are not yet used to Chicharito’s pace. Yes, we need to play more through ball to him from the midfield. But in this game, its mostly short passes.
6. When SAF said, this could be Berba’s season, what i sensed is that he is going to use Berba in a different way. And he is doing it. In the first half he was really good and provided the link from midfield. And SAF kept him in the second half, just for that purpose….when his game disappeared in the second half. Of course his finishing has to improve. and the expectations from him is to provide the link between midfield and the target striker.