MANCHESTER UNITED vs. SWANSEA

07-MAY-2012 BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE

OLD TRAFFORD

This was essentially 4-4-1-1 vs 4-2-3-1 which means there were a lot of individual battles taking place.

After his disastrous team selection against Manchester City Ferguson made 3 changes to the side that underperformed badly at the Ethiad Stadium. Valencia replaced Nani, Ashley Young came in for Ryan Giggs and Chicarito came in for Ji-Sung Park with Danny Welbeck missing out injured.

Swansea played their usual system, 4-2-3-1 after Rodgers experimented with a 3-4-3 diamond last weekend against Wolves. It was pretty much his usual starting 11 with the only surprise being Mark Gower started ahead of Leon Britton in midfield.

United press Swansea early

United are a team that usually like to retreat and keep their shape in a deep position. This does allow the opposition time on the ball, but given Swansea ability at keeping possession and perhaps United's need for goals they played a more positive approach particularly when Michel Vorm the Swansea goalkeeper had the ball. Swansea like to build play from the back and Ashley Williams and Steven Caulker split very wide to create space in midfield for the likes of Joe Allen.

 

When Vorm had the ball, Chicarito would often close him down with Rooney and Valencia picking up the centre-backs Williams and Caulker. This often forced Vorm to go long because Carrick or Scholes would also follow Joe Allen deep to stop him picking up possession. United were very effective at stopping Swansea building possession deep and actually scored their second goal as a result of winning the ball back early.

United patient with possession

Swansea’s approach was to allow United possession and in the 1^st half United had total control because they won the ball back early to stop Swansea building play and Scholes and Carrick had time on the ball to transfer the ball from side to side. Swansea were very compact and Rooney rarely found space between the lines unless it was on a counter attack. With Swansea deep and compact, United's biggest threat was as ever down the flanks, Ashley Young had a good game against Rangel and delivered some excellent in-swinging crosses but Swansea defended them well with Ashley Williams in particular impressive with his clearances. On the other flank, Taylor matched up well to Valencia but the United winger got the better of him once to penetrate and his pull back found Carrick whose shot was deflected in by Paul Scholes. The goals gave United a lift and the speed of their play was good before half-time but the result of the City game had an effect on the confidence of the players and after half time the atmosphere and performance went flat and United did not look like a team that believed they would be champions.

Sigurdsson and Britton stabilise Swansea

Sigurdsson is a key player for Swansea attacking play because he is an extremely clever player who likes to play between the lines. United when they play 4-4-2 are vulnerable in the space between defence and midfield and because Swansea were unable to get Sigurdsson on the ball often enough in the 1^st half he was very ineffective because when he did receive it Smalling was very good at leaving the back line to close him down. Swansea were much better in the 2^nd half with the introduction of Leon Britton for Mark Gower. Swansea were able to keep the ball better and get Sigurdsson between the lines and he started to create chances for Swansea when he turned and could move towards the United defence. This is reflected in the passing stats of Gower and Britton. Gower made 33 passes but only had a 79% success rate, Britton made 27 passes but had a 100% success rate, he did not give the ball away once in the 2^nd half.  

Conclusion

A good 1^st half performance by United but half time came at a bad time because just when United started get some confidence and lift from the crowd and some joy with their positive pressing approach Swansea were able to re-group and the introduction of Leon Britton helped Swansea keep the ball better under pressure in the 2^nd half. The game went flat in the 2^nd half with the realization that the title is now very much City’s.

“In the second half Swansea slowed the game down and made it difficult for us to get the ball back. They’re good at that. That’s their main defence: they keep the ball and they keep it for long periods and it’s hard to get it back off of them.

“They deepened and passed the ball back to their goalkeeper, who’s a fantastic user of the ball. They killed the game that way.

“If we’d scored an early goal in the second half we would have fired the crowd up, fired ourselves up and made them doubt themselves a bit. But we didn’t get that early goal and the game petered out.”

MANCHESTER UNITED VS LIVERPOOL

11-FEB-2012 BARCLAYS PREMIER LEAGUE

OLD TRAFFORD

Sir Alex sent United out in their usual 4-4-1-1 system with the combination of Svholes and Carrick in midfield and Ryan Giggs playing from the left wing.

Kenny Dalglish sprang the biggest surprise leaving out Craig Bellamy and Charlie Adam in favour of Stewart Downing and Jordan Henderson. Luis Suarez returned as the lobe striker in the place of Amdy Carroll in a 4-1-4-1 system.

Giggs vs Johnson

Ryan Giggs has been used as a central midfield player this season, so to see him lining up on the left wing was a surprise. Giggs is no longer a pacey wide player who holds the width, he drifts inside and plays in central postions. Giggs moving infield had two impacts 1) United could play around Jay Spearing better 2) Glen Johnson had room to move into attacking postions, he arguable had Liverpool’s best chance in the first half when he had room down the right-flank to dribble at the defence and shoot just wide.

Midfield

It was technically 3v3, but United controleed the game for two reasons. 1) Giggs coming infield allwed United to play around Jay Spearing who was playing as the defensive midfiled player trying to stop Wayne Rooney get space between the lines. This made 4v3 and gave Scholes and Carrick plenty of options to play incisive forward passes and short retaining passes when United wanted to keep possession and build the play up. 2) Liverpool’s shape did not allow them to play forward and get support around Luis Suarez. Kuyt stayed wide right and Downing stayed wide left, Gerrard and Henderson did not really get in behind Scholes or Carrick an area where Manchester United are weak defensively. Both team did not really press the ball either, but because United got players into better attacking postions they were able to be more incisive with their passing whilst Liverpool’s build up was slow and sideways alot of the time.

2^nd Half

Despite United loking the most threatening Liverpool did restrict their actual chances to score. Paul Scholes had the best chance of the 1^st half but in thight games the 1^st goal is always important and United got the opener straight after half-time from a corner. Before the game settle into a pattern United scored again, Jay Spearing showing his limitations in the deep role got caught in possession by Valencia on the edge of his own box and United had an easy counter-attack to make it 2-0 with Valencia feeding Rooney who finished through Reina’s legs in a 1v1.

This forced Dalglish to make changes, Downing for Bellamy, Carroll for Spearing and Kuyt for Adam. Liverpool went 4-4-2 and whilst this did lead to an improvement, United should have perhaps killed the game as Liverpool were now and open team between the lines with no holding player, but as Sir Alex pointed out his team were too concerned with retaining the ball instead of trying to kill the game with a third goal which is a dangerous approach. Liverpool nicked a goal from a poorly defended free-kick and could have gone on to get a draw. 2-0 can be a dangerous score line.

Conclusion

United played well for most of the game, they passed the ball well and carried a good goal threat, Liverpool’s set-up kind of handed them the platform to control the game. 4-1-4-1 left Luis Suarez isolated and easily dealt with by Ferdinand and Evans, in midfield their passing lacked incisiveness and was too safe and Jay Spearing was easily exposed.