Manchester
United 2-0 Crystal Palace
14th
September 2013, Old Trafford
Starting 11
Manchester United made 4 changes from the side that lost
1-0 to Liverpool before the International break. Phil Jones was injured and was
replaced by Fabio at right-back, Anderson replaced Tom Cleverley in central
midfield, Antonio Valencia came in for Ryan Giggs on the right flank and Wayne
Rooney returned from a head injury to replace Danny Welbeck who had fluid on
the his knee. There were places on the bench for new signing Maroune Fellani
and Wilfred Zaha and Adnan Januzaj, two exciting young players. There was
nothing unusual in United’s formation; they played in the usual 4-4-1-1 format.
Despite bringing in a raft of new signings on transfer
deadline day Ian Holloway made only one change from the side that defeated
Sunderland in the previous game. Adrian Mariappa replaced Joel Ward at
right-back and Palace’s shape was a defensive 4-4-2.
The Flanks
Palace were content to sit-in behind the ball and allow
United to control the game. They did something similar against Tottenham on the
opening game of the season and perhaps this is a new approach from Ian Holloway
who’s Blackpool team of 2010-2011 really went opened up and had a go at the
‘big-sides’ with mixed results.
United dominated possession and made most advances into
the Palace final third down the flanks. Palace were very narrow down the left
with Jose Campana, a central midfielder, tucking in very narrow which gave
Fabio plenty of space to advance into when United switched play. On the right
flank Palace may have a problem defensively with Jason Puncheon. He was at Southampton
last season and their biggest weakness was the lack of defensive awareness from
the wide midfielders. Patrice Evra was a prominent attacking feature of
United’s play throughout the game mainly because he lost Puncheon when he made
his runs forward off the ball. The lack of defensive awareness from Palace’s
wide midfielders made them vulnerable to crosses, but the delivery from
United's wide men, particularly Ashley Young was not great. Balls were often
looped high into the box which suited Palace’s centre-backs Gabbidon and
Delaney. When United put in low hard crosses and produced cut-backs from the
bye-line they caused a lot more problems and it must be said that Gabbidon and
Delaney defended their penalty box extremely well.
United lacking through the middle
Despite their
possession, United’s play in the final third was disappointing, as mentioned above,
the quality of balls into the box from wide area’s was mixed, but the
combination play in the final third was poor again. Carrick and Anderson
struggled to play incisive passes into the front-men mainly because of the
fantastic work Jedinak and Dikgacoi do in front of the Palace back four. Despite
his goal and decent work-rate Rooney’s passing was sloppy again. His passing
success was only 74%, the lowest of the team. Rooney needs a lot of
football before he finds his best form and Moyes is very much trying to play
him into form, but United are really lacking some effective link play between
the opposition lines and may well struggle to turn their possession into
penetration until they find a second-striker behind Van Persie who is playing
well when the team are in possession. It makes the absence of Shinji Kagawa,
ill for this match, even stranger. Rooney did produce one fantastic through
ball over the top for Van Persie, but it was from a deeper position, it’s the
play in the final third closer to the opposition box that really needs to
improve.
Palace shoot themselves in the foot
Palace struggled to
cause United any significant problems, Chamakh struggled to hold the ball up in
transitions, Jason Puncheon often dribbled infield, into traffic, with the ball
and Campana tucked in to help retain the ball in central area’s which meant he
was not really a direct threat to the back four. The only real threat was
Dwight Gayle, who has some clever movement and tried to make runs in-behind the
United centre-backs. Often the through balls to him were not quite good enough
and got intercepted by United’s defence, but Palace’s best chance of the game
came when Rio Ferdinand misjudged a longer ball over the top and Gayle nipped
in, but shot wide from a narrow angle.
Palace are a team
that try to pass the ball out from the back, this is a philosophy that Holloway
has adopted during his evolution as a manager, but sometimes with less technically
gifted players this can lead to mistakes and turnovers in possession in very
dangerous areas. This is what happened for United’s opening goal, Jedinak under
pressure near his own penalty box gave the ball to Ashley Young who broke past
the Palace back-line and was brought down by Dikgacoi. It can be debated
whether it was a penalty and a sending off, but it was a perfect example of a
team trying to play ‘the right way’, but making a key mistake with the ball,
which near your own box often leads to a goal scoring opportunity. From that
point on after Dikgacoi was sent off and Van Persie scored from the spot it was
pretty clear United would go on to win the game.
2nd
Half
The second half was
11 vs. 10 and the game was over as a contest. Palace struggled to get out of
their half and United’s combination play was a bit better because they could
‘overload’ certain areas of the pitch easier with a man advantage. United
didn’t kill the game until the 81st minute when Rooney bagged an
impressive free-kick and there was a couple of impressive cameo appearances
from Fellani and Adnan Januzaj who came on as subs. Januzaj was particularly
impressive playing from the left and drifting infield to pick up pockets of
space between the lines. He has a nice ability on the ball and can beat
players. Moyes may consider playing a creative player like Januzaj or Kagawa
from the left to try and help United’s combination play in the final
third.
Conclusion
An important 3 points for United and David Moyes.
United’s domination of the game even before Palace were reduced to 10 men would
have warranted a narrow victory, but the attacking play still needs to improve,
particularly in central areas. The full-backs played very well, exploiting
Palace’s wide players defensively and the wide players Young, Valencia and
Januzaj had mixed games. Young generally was poor again despite influencing the
game, Valencia had a decent game and Januzaj impressed in the 2nd
half. Defensively there was little to trouble United.
There is a lot to like about Palace, Gayle looks like he
could develop into a very good striker, they defended their box really well and
they tried to pass the ball out from the back which is admirable but also risky.
They may need to play a more technically gifted player like Campana in a
central area alongside Jedinak to help retain and pass the ball a bit better in
deeper positions. They have a weakness in wide areas defensively and need more
from Chamakh up front. They still have a lot of players to integrate and how
quickly their new players gel into Holloway’s game plans will be vital to their
survival hopes.