Manchester United’s defence has looked a little leaky this season, yet it has only shipped 27 goals in the league – and only Chelsea (who have played a game fewer) and Southampton can better that.
The question, then, should really be, why does it look so leaky? It seems that, when you watch the games and then look at the stats, the two don’t really match up.
The answer lies in United’s new style of play this year, and how Louis Van Gaal has been getting his team to play in a way that they were not used to at the start, and it has also looked like some of his players did not have the feel for the positions they were playing in during some of the games where they’ve looked rocky at the back.
The biggest revelation from Van Gaal this season was his use of wingbacks. When he played 3-5-2 or with a diamond, both times he employed wingbacks to provide the team with width.
These wingbacks are really just deep-seated attackers who give an option out wide whenever the team has the ball, and so it makes sense that Van Gaal would use Ashley Young, Antonio Valencia or even Adnan Januzaj in there from time to time. But when playing with a back four, as United have been doing more often of late, having wingbacks bombing forward can leave your centre backs exposed.
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The wingbacks will only bomb forward when United have the ball, of course, so the defence will only be exposed when they lose it. But they do lose it from time to time. To combat this, Van Gaal’s centre backs split, and leave a gap between them, which in turn leaves a lot of space in the middle, and this is when United look leaky.
The idea is that the defensive midfielder slots into this space, allowing him not only to offer defensive solidity, but also to control the game from deep. But this hasn’t been the problem with United’s defence. The tactic works fine. But just like most tactics, it lives or dies by the players implementing it.
And this is why United have been wobbly at the back this season – or at least, it has seemed like it. Because Daley Blind, who has been playing in that position a lot, isn’t cut out to play there. At least, he hasn’t got his head around it just yet.
When United are hit on the break, Blind finds himself attracted to the ball, and sometimes pushes too far forward to press, or drawn out to the wings to try to make the tackle. With both centre backs already pushed wide, Blind moving out of position is a big problem, leaving United with a gaping hole in defence.
But the answer for United seems to be Michael Carrick. He’s not played a huge amount of games all season, but when he’s been on the pitch, United have a player perfectly suited to playing that role.
Carrick gets a hard time because he doesn’t have the rampant physicality that we seem to expect off English central midfielders, and fans are usually suspicious of English players with half a brain. Carrick is, I think, unfairly criticised for this, but ability to sit deep and distribute passes and read the game makes him perfect for this role. In fact, United have lost only one game all season when Carrick has started.
He’s getting on a bit now, but has just signed a new one year extension to his contract, and so at least in the short term, he looks to be Van Gaal’s answer to United’s defensive frailty. Blind just looks unsure in that role, but perhaps he will be able to learn from Carrick himself.
Defensive worries or not, United are exactly where they want to be at this stage of the season, and if they can keep Carrick fit, he will be the piece that keeps the defence solid and links in to the wealth of attacking talent they have ahead of him.
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