Manchester United 2-0 Crystal Palace

14^th 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.  

2^nd 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 81^st 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 2^nd 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.   

Manchester United 0-0 Chelsea

26^th August 2013, Old Trafford

Starting 11

Formations

David Moyes decided to pick Wayne Rooney in his starting 11 after the want-away striker started United’s previous game away to Swansea on the bench. He replaced Ryan Giggs who dropped to the bench with Danny Welbeck playing form the left and Rooney playing behind Van Persie in a 4-4-1-1 formation.

Mourinho sprang a surprise with his team selection, he started the game with no reconisded striker, Fernado Torres and Romelu Lukaku were on the bench and Demba Ba was not in the squad. Andre Schurrle a traditional number 10, was the furthest player forward in what appeared to be a ‘false 9’ system. There was no place in the starting 11 for Juan Mata, De Bruyne, Oscar and Hazard all retained their place.

Chelsea System

Mourinho told Sky Sports before kick-off of his striker-less selection: "I go for mobility. I want to try to win the game. I do not come with a defensive team despite not playing with one of my strikers. But instead of playing with one target man, I play with four attacking players and they are willing to try to create problems."  In theory, the system looked like a clever way to exploit United defensively.  The combination of Ferdiand and Vidic are reluctant to come out of the defence to meet a deep-lying forward, for fear of leaving their centre-back colleague exposed one-against-one versus a quick player, but playing against a ‘false 9’ they may have been forced out of position by the player dropping off and the likes of Hazard, Oscar and De Bruyne could then sprint in behind. The system did’nt really play out like that however, Schurrle never really dropped off the defensive line that much and instead looked to make runs in-behind the United defence from an advanced position. The problem Chelsea had was that they could not find the correct passess to Schurrle when he made these runs. Chelsea lack a midfield orchestrator deep in midfield, John Obi Mikel is about strength and positioning, Ramires and Lampard are about energy when breaking forward.  They don’t really have a deep-lying playmaker who could play the incisive passess needed to penetrate. Mourinhio pointed this out after the game, "Our counter-attacks and passes, to go from defensive situations to attacking situations, was not the best. We had very creative players in attack, very fast players in attack, but the ball possession was not the best, we lost simple passes. There were a lot of mistakes.”

Defences on Top

United also struggled to create chances, despire enjoying more possession than Chelsea (55%-45%). Chelsea pressed very effectivey against Hull in the 1^st half last weekend, but here they allowed United possession in deep area’s, dropping deep into their own half they blocked off United’s passess into their forwards really well using compact and narrow lines in defence.

Tom Cleverley (l) and Michael Carrick (r) failed to get enough passes into the box (see below).

When United did managed to play incisive passess forward through the Chelsea defensive lines, the combination play of their forwards was sloppy. All eyes had been on Rooney ahead of kick. He was full of energy and charged around the field, having 33 touches in the first half. But, before half-time, he also lost all four of his duels, gave away two fouls and only Van Persie and De Gea had a worse pass conversion rate. Rooney did finish with all three of United's shots on target but the poor link-up play with Van Persie was a story of the game.

Chelsea’s system is all about the three attacking players buzzing between the lines. Like Chelsea, United’s compactness and defensive organistaion was impressive. A notable feature of their play was the narrowness of the wide players Welbeck and Valencia. They played very close to the central midfield players Carrick and Cleverley, which meant there was less space between the lines for Chelsea to play into. Valencia actually made more tackles (6) than any other player and he was only on the pitch for 66 minutes, his qualities as a defensive winger are well-known and he is renowned for being a winger who stays wide and hugs the touch-line, but he played very narrow in this game and it will be interesting to see if this continue to be a feature of United’s play, espically when they play the bigger teams. Narrow wide-men was a feature of Everton’s play under Moyes.

2^nd Half

There was no real development in the game tactically in the 2^nd half. Both managers made changes, Mourinhio introduced Torres for Schurrle which was a like for like change and Moyes did the same replacing Valencia for Ashley Young and Danny Welbeck for Ryan Giggs. Late-on Mourinho seemed to settle for a draw by removibg Eden Hazard and Kevin De Bruyne with John Obi-Mikel and Cesar Azpilicueta. “I told the players before the game, 'We want to win, we play to win, but if we do not win, we do not lose'. I think the players understood this completely." Mourinho said.

Conclusion

This was a disappointing game given the hype and build up before hand. Each teams defensive strategy was more effective than their attaking stratefgy, with both teams defending deep, narrow and compact. The quality of the passing going forward was poor from both sides. It was no surprise the game ended a draw and I think both managers will be satisfied with a point apiece. United were too slow too work the ball forward and when Carrick and Cleverley did slip balls into the forwards feet the combination play was sloppy. Moyes will hope the cohesion of the attacking play finds its rythm once the season settles down and the important ‘link’ players like Rooney and Kagawa get more sharpness with game time. United’s defensive organistaion was impressive. Welbeck and Valencia tucked in narrow and United looked very compact throughout the pitch, it will be interesting to see if they continue with this approach in the other big games through-out the season.