Valencia 0-1 Manchester United | Too much respect from both sides but Finishing quality prevails

15mins on pitch, 6 passes, 2 shots on target, 1 goal …thats Chicharito for Manchester United. A good first touch followed by a well taken shot …surely he made Michael Owen will be proud. United had won the match with 1-0 against Valencia on Spanish soil in Champions league group stage.

As expected Sir Alex deployed 4-5-1 formation with Berbatov as lone striker and Carrick, Anderson, Ferdinand and Rafael got the starts. Valencia too fielded 4-5-1 with Soldado as single striker.

Valencia vs Manchester United statring Lineups

Tactics

The best part of the tactics is the visit of Sir Alex to Valencia game against Atlántico Madrid. He fielded the team according to the observations and with the limitations that Rooney, Scholes and Giggs are not available due to injuries. Though the above UEFA starting lineups picture shows United formation as 4-1-2-3 and Valencia as 4-4-1-1, the actual positions are bit different. Since Valencia uses Albelda to pass the ball around from the deep midfield, SAF though it would be nice to stop that flow and he deployed Anderson higher up the pitch to control Albelda. Which means Anderson was handed more of a defensive role. Fletcher and Carrick patrolled the midfield. Here is the actual formations from UEFA web site

Valencia vs Manchester United tactical formations

First-half

In the firsthalf both teams gave more respect to each other. both teams are more happy to see the position and wanted to play on counter attack. The result is a slow paced game, which ended with no shots on target from both the teams at end of first half. Valencia maintained high defensive line and Mathieu tried to get forward more means Nani’s forward runs are restricted. Berbatov who played deep also never found any service from midfield when he stayed up front. You can see SAF showing 6 [six in the box] in the first half, while defending a corner, which he shows how United defended in the first half.

Second-half:

Nothing changed, except Nani trying to play higher up the pitch along with the anderson. As SAF says, some players creating something out of nothing or moment of brilliance. Berbatov did the same, He received a long ball on the left side, got away from the defender and had a shot which is on target but saved by goal keeper at near post easily. This is best action of the match so far from United.

Substitutions:

Valencia made the first substitution by replacing a midfielder with a forward and changing the formation to 4-4-2. This change brought something to their game and started passing the ball more to the wingers. This is the period where you can see, Pablo sending more crosses into the box.

united has to respond to the situation and they did by replacing Anderson with Hernandez. This means united are now playing 4-4-2 . United could have scored immediately when Nani’s cross missed everyone waiting and found Hernandez on the left fat post but he couldn’t reach the ball.

Switching to 4-4-2 brough life into game

Then Berbatov was substituted by Macheda. Many might have expected Owen to come on but since Hernandez a similar player is on the pitch, SAF went for Macheda who can drop deep and defend as well.  The result is immediate, Nani’s run midfield and the pass found Macheda who spotted Hernandez’s run early and passed the ball to him. The first touch of Hernandez is superb and then he finished it with more flair.

In conclusion, a satisfying night for united with win. There are few positives to take also, The return of Ferdinand, Carrick and Anderson. United’s defense surely looked much better than the one that leaked goals for the last 3 weeks. Carrick is at his best but a valuable option to have with Scholes injured. Both the teams didn’t played well really and didn’t created many chances due to lack of creativity from the midfield, might be due to missing the key players but in the end the quality of finishing and clever substitutions won the match for United.

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 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.

Antonio Valencia – Get well soon.. | Wingers crisis for Manchester United

Valencia who was injured in match against Rangers will be out of action for at least 6months. SAF has told y’day that he will out for season and now after examination, it looks like a minimum of 6months. Valencia has been a star in the last years united squad and had made good partnership with Rooney. Most of the Rooney’s headers in the last season are from Valencia’s crosses. We gonna miss them this season.

The injury to Valencia will leave united with some confusion and its a huge blow. As we all know United plays mostly with wingers and on counter attack, with keeping position. Valencia has been very effective on the right wing and at the start of the season SAF has told, now he got a problem because both Nani and Valencia are good on the right wing.

As Valencia is injured, Nani will get his favorite right wing position more. but in the United’s squad we had just 3 natural wingers now. Nani, Giggs and Oberton. Giggs cannot play all the matches and Oberton was not yet tested. This is a huge opportunity for Oberton to show his credentials, when he gets a chance.

The other options is Park. We saw towards end of the match against Rangers, SAF deployed Owen to left and Hernandez to right side with 4-3-3. I think, SAF tested how Hernandez can play on the right wing. We need to wait and see if SAF will deploy 4-3-3 with Rooney in the middle or will stick to 4-4-2 with Rooney and Berbatov upfront. If 4-4-2 is preferred then either park/Giggs/Oberton should take the left wing and Nani should be available for the right wing job. Cleary in 4-3-3, if we push berbatov to left or right side, we can not get any best out of him. All this opens the door for one more new player… Bebe. He is more of a winger than a forward. Even Bebe and SAF also confirmed the same. If he gets fit early and puts up a good show in the carling cup games and reserves games, we may get to see him in some matches.

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?