The Battle of Manchester: A Posthumous Report

 Blogger #18

When you’re the manager of Manchester United, it’s always your fault.

David Moyes faced an uphill task to win over us Manchester United fans even before the season started. It’s what happens when you succeed someone who has swept all before him and for a long time during his rule, had City pinned down as an after-thought, ‘the other team’, whenever you thought of football in Manchester.

He might go on to prove his critics wrong, but Sunday was every United fan’s worst nightmare. While it wasn’t as bad as losing the FA cup final to Wigan (yeah that was embarrassing, City) it was still one of those afternoons that leaves you depressed for the rest of the week, confounding parents and non-football friends alike as to how a team in Manchester, Britain could dictate your mood, 9000km away.

But you know United were bad. It’s everywhere. So bad City didn’t break a sweat dismantling them. What I'm going to do is try and explain why it turned out so. I’m going to try and explain how Pellegrini out-thought Moyes and yeah, why Kagawa should start over Young.

Line-Ups and Shape:

Both teams started in rough variations of the 4-4-2, or as it’s more popularly called now, the 4-2-3-1.

The starting line-ups

City dominate the opening stages:

While the formations were similar, the interpretations and movement by the players couldn’t have been more different. While Navas mostly mirrored Valencia’s movements in sticking to the touchlines, it was Nasri who wreaked havoc by repeatedly moving in-field hence creating space for Kolarov to overlap.

In a way, it was quite strange because these two might have never started had Clichy and Silva been fit. But it worked out quite brilliantly and a more popular player than Nasri would’ve had songs written on that performance. He drifted in and played almost like a no.10. He kept the ball moving and combined with Toure and Aguero to outnumber and overload United’s midfield duo. Nasri was the most active player on the pitch for City and touched the ball 46 times, which was the most of any man on either side in the first half. He exchanged passes with Toure more frequently than any other pair of players in the match (16), and by the time the first 16 minutes had passed City were ahead and United had barely seen the ball. Possession read 70.6% to 29.4% in City’s favour and City produced 13 shots in the opening half of the game. United managed one.

Nasri moving in-field. Almost a CAM.

Moyes seems to prefer the safer players for the big games. Players like Valencia and Young who will work hard, track back and put in a defensive shift, although they don’t possess a single creative cell in their body. The likes of Nani and Kagawa, players who take risks and try to make something happen, have been benched. Hopefully, it’s just a temporary precaution.

But Valencia and Young did nothing to repay this faith shown in them by their manager. Young was abject and completed just 8 passes in the first half. But this could also be attributed to the fact he was facing Zabaleta, who made 10 tackles overall, which was more than double any other player on the pitch justifying his reputation as the best right-back in the division.

Valencia was surprisingly poor and showed none of the defensive awareness that often led to him being played as a right back. While it has been analysed in several places about how Valencia’s lack of concentration led to Nasri and Kolarov creating 2v1 situations on the left wing, I think it’s quite crucial to consider how clumsy Ferdinand and Vidic looked at centre back throughout the game. Both were slow in their lateral movements and Ferdinand in particular, after playing three times in a week, looked lost.

Aguero and Negredo didn’t make it any easier with their excellent movement upfront. While Aguero often dropped between the lines to keep the ball moving, Negredo moved into that position whenever City countered. This allowed Aguero to use his pace in behind and Moyes might have to re-consider whether it’s worth playing two slow albeit excellent center backs whose lack of pace can be so easily exploited.

Toure's dynamic passing compared to Fellaini playing simple passes to the wings.

City looked excellent in possession and their movement had fluidity to it. They dominated the midfield numerically with Nasri moving in, Aguero dropping deep and Fernandinho and Toure in the middle. Carrick and Fellaini covered more ground than any other City midfielder during the match, and that shows how ragged they were run. Fellaini made a paltry 1 tackle and failed to make a single interception. City could play in tight spaces or create space by moving wide. They had the pace and mobility to play on the counter with Navas, Aguero and Nasri and the option to lump it forward to Negredo.

United’s attack (or the lack of it):

United seemed to be too intent on focussing and creating chances through the wings, when they could have so easily exploited the center.  Pellegrini had given Toure and Fernandinho license to push forward and there were numerous occasions where Rooney had time and space to run at City’s defence. But United were so focussed on building through the wings with crosses that they failed to take advantage of this. Pellegrini seemed to have realised this even before the match and there was a clear preference from the City wide players to crowd the wings rather than cover the gaps in the middle.

Space for Rooney to run into.

Again, this leads us to the question of why Kagawa didn’t start. Admitted, there was some logic behind the decision. He wasn’t fully fit and in the absence of RVP, it made sense to use Welbeck upfront because of his pace. But Kagawa could have made better use of the space between City’s lines, both behind and beside Toure and Fernandinho, in tandem with Rooney

With neither Young nor Valencia cutting infield to help United’s build-up, Rooney was often left isolated as he ran into space in front of City’s defence with just Welbeck to play off. It’s no wonder that Rooney was considered United’s best player on the pitch, with such space to operate in.

Kompany v. Rooney

But Pellegrini soon fixed that and Kompany could be seen straight after challenging Rooney really high up the pitch. This prevented Rooney from turning. But United could have exploited Kompany’s high position by exploiting the space behind with runners from midfield. These are uncomfortable areas for center backs, 20 yards out of their defence where they might be forced to turn and sprint. But United failed to exploit this situation and City easily outnumbered their opponents and were first to every second ball. This was a prevalent feature of the first half and led to City’s dominance.

By the time Moyes made his first change, City were already 4-0 up. While United dominated possession from then on (227 passes to City’s 63), the game had ended as a contest. Nevertheless United showed a glimpse of what might have been and Cleverley was key to this resurgence. He replaced Young with Welbeck moving to the left with Fellaini behind Rooney. Cleverley kept the ball moving and when the 90 minutes were up, he had completed more passes in 40 minutes than any City player had managed in ninety. He also out passed every other player on the pitch in the attacking third. United passed the ball around better and created a couple of decent chances which Rooney spurned.  

Passes - 2nd Half

Final Conclusions:

Another day, another team will surely exploit City’s weakness through the middle. But they gambled to protect the wings, and it paid off well.

United were poor throughout and this performance is a serious cause for worry. While the 1-6 debacle had a number of fair reasons to excuse it, this was an outright drubbing. They need to show some more nerve and creativity when attacking and that surely means the likes of Kagawa and Nani starting.

Moyes has already taken most of the blame for United’s worst start to a season in 9 years, despite some piss poor performances from the likes of Young. But it’s something he’ll have to learn to live with. They’ll claim he’s not good enough if results don’t shine through. But if he does manage to take them on an unbeaten run, they’ll claim “it’s still Fergie’s team”.

What I’m trying to say is, support Moyes. Cause a wise man once said –

‘I’d also like to remind you, that when we had bad times here, the club stood by me, all my staff stood by me, the players stood by me. Your job now, is to stand by your new manager!’