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.