I think you are being a little harsh on LvG here. It is very difficult to quantify how much freedom a manager allows his players but I am reminded of Thierry Henry's recollection of a game under Pep. He spoke about how he was told to stay out wide only for him then to get frustrated because he did not see enough of the ball so he started drifting in and ended up scoring. Pep's response? subbed him at half time. Lahm also spoke very clearly about how Pep is super strict with keeping position. I am afraid a lot of continental managers are very meticulous like that with their tactics compared to what we are used to in Britain. Obviously when it works because either the system is perfected to a tee (Bayern under Pep) or because you have a ridiculous talent like Messi, the manager is a genius. When it doesn't, people criticize how stifling and suffocating he is. LvG for whatever reason could not make it work. Maybe he needed more time, maybe English football simply makes that impossible (we will see with City this year), maybe he misjudged his players or maybe he is simply not good enough. We will never know really.
I saw that interview with Henry on Sky and I do recall him saying about having to make runs purely for the purpose of distraction to allow the real run to have space, which he was not used too and found frustrating. He also talked about Pep allowing more freedom of expression in the final 3rd than he was seeing in LvG's United, now that could be down to the difference in quality between our attack and that Barca side but our players last season generally looked nervous of trying anything a lot of the time.
I think you are focusing too much here on the midfield. Whereas we sometimes put in two sitting midfielders, that did not happen all the time. I would not classify Fellaini or Herrera as sitting midfielders for example. In fact, I think to LvG and Pep, the actually formation is not very important which is why they change it all the time. They simply want to develop a team that plays in synch in the way it presses and win the ball back. This needs a great understanding of when to come out and when to cover. The other part of it was to transition quickly enough to offer greater passing options in the other half. Our team could simply not do that which is why a lot of time we ended up either stuck in that first phase having to commit too many men, or when we could make strides up front, we did not move fast enough. Speaking of cover, Mourinho's teams demand so much work from the wingers defensively. His full backs are also not nearly as high up the pitch as LvG's. It is I feel a more traditional cover to the CBs . Not to mention that his teams are more prepared to play deeper. I think if anything, those characteristics provide more help for the CBs.
I don't think it mattered who played in midfield for us, the princip0le remained the same, this was evidenced in how Herrera looked like he'd lost all the things that made him an exciting buy as had to play cautious and restrained all o0f the time, with Fellaini it's harder to tell as he doesn't run with the ball or try anything risky no matter who he's playing for, basically the priority of whichever CM combo we used was both to protect the CB's. I also think that Jose isn't quite as pigeonholed as you're saying, his Real side had Marcelo and Ronaldo on the left, a fullback that is basically a winger and a wide forward who doesn't track back, and in the same team was Ozil who is not known for his hard work and Modric who is always on the front foot and Di Maria who is a flair player who is risk taking all the time, a total contrast to his Inter side that was much closer to the description of a Jose team you've put above IMO, I think he's a more adaptable manager than LvG or Pep and I'd look at his Real Madrid team as closer to what he'll go for here as he knows that results are not enough for Manchester United, and we are seeing already 2 attacking fullbacks with narrow inside forwards and the intent to play Pogba who is an attacking mid in a 2 with Carrick, much like Alonso/Modric which worked as they had two very athletic CB's behind them with bags of experience, I don't personally think we have the CB's or frankly the holding CM to make this work, but maybe I'll be proven wrong. .
That's a tough one I suppose. The problem Fergie's teams are so hard to judge their quality. The man simply mastered our league. It's a bit like Germany in World Cups and European Cups. He could field pretty much anyone and make it work somehow. I just feel that generally people exaggerate the differences of level. Just as much as players help a team do well, a team can help individuals perform better. A lot of times people talk about players as though they are a separate entity to the team. I feel that's the case for attacking talent. You either can beat a man with skill and pace or not. You either can finish a chance or you can't for example. But defenders are more reliant on what's around them. They are at the mercy of the system and the team much more than forwards which is why I find it very difficult to evaluate them properly.
I agree on your point regarding Fergie, his ability to get blood out of a stone and his complete mastery of the PL makes it hard to gauge, and I'd also agree that defenses are often greater than the sum of their parts, but dumb is also dumb and the mistakes I see over and over from Jones and Rojo are born out of brainlessness, and IMO it's harder to teach stupid than it is to teach average.
Oh yeah! I agree perfectly. People treat the exceptional as some sort of a norm. As you rightly point out, Ronaldo and Rooney were one offs. You can blame the agents for that though. They are telling those kids that they need to move elsewhere to get more playing time and earn more. I feel generally now that we have a good mix of youth. Bailly, Shaw, Pogba, Martial, Rashford, Lingard are all players that wouldn't be considered backup if they started and that's a good ratio as far as I'm concerned.
The agents are definitely a big problem, we are seeing it now with Januzaj I feel, all this talk of attitude has to be partly coming from the people in his ear IMO, but on the fan side of things I'm often surprised how quickly to judge many are, especially United fans when we have some great examples of players finding their true level in their early 20's rather than at 19 over the last two decades. I'm with you on the current young crop, it's the most excited I've been about the long term prospects of a young collective since 92, I genuinely believe 2 or 3 of them will be true world class, the problem is the experience in the team is a bit too long in the tooth IMO with Rooney finished and Carrick and Ibra both 35, hopefully players like Smalling, Herrera, Blind and Micki can pick up some of the slack this season.
