Also, in that video it showed us clipping the ball out-wide when we could have played it through the middle. Too many silly passes. It wasn't the same vs Palace but some of the things still applied. MORE MOVEMENT AND UP THE TEMPO. We need to try and play short snappy passes. I don't really see Cleverley doing that no which is a shame. PASS AND MOVE. It's a basic thing in football which we can't do.
One of the problems with David Moyes so far is his apparent insistence on playing a very rigid form of 4-4-2. Personally i find that bizarre in the first place, because in this day and age a midfield 2 is going to have major problems facing either a 4-2-3-1 or a 4-3-3- in terms of possession (never mind facing a team like Bayern or Barca). However if you're flexible it can work, because your wide players can come narrow to outnumber (or match) the opposition, or your striker can come deep to do the same.
However the problem that Moyes seems unable or unwilling to accept is that our midfielders all sit deep. It certainly suits Carrick, Cleverley and Jones. Fellaini may be different, but I doubt he has the engine to play a true box to box role in a 4-4-2. Certainly when he played in a 4-4-2 v Palace at home and Southampton, he sat deep alongside Carrick. Whether that was under instruction I'm not sure.
Playing 4-4-2 with two deep sitting midfielders is total suicide. You end up with exactly the problems we saw on Tuesday, a formation that looks like this.
Note the
massive gap in the middle of the field. Our attacking 4 are miles away from each other. If we manage to get the ball to the winger or to Rooney, he has almost no options.
This was played out on Tuesday. The ball would go across the back four and eventually get picked up by Carrick or Cleverley. However those two sat so deep that to get the ball to the wingers, the wingers had to drop deep and collect. However then the winger is sat on the half way line, with RvP, Rooney and the opposite winger a full 60 yards away. What can he do?
If Rooney dropped deep to collect the ball it made things worse. Again, Carrick and Clev were so deep that to get the ball he had to drop practically into the centre circle. Quite apart from being marked by two central midfielders, he then has just three options - two wingers and a lone striker, all of which are at least 40 yards from him. if by some miracle he gets the ball to a winger, he then has one person to aim at, RvP, who is being marked by at least two centre backs.
This, I'm afraid to say, has happened again and again this season. It happened as far back as the home game against Southampton. Indeed if anything it seems to be getting worse. Moyes hasn't learned. Of for some reason is hoping it will go away.
Consider instead this clip from the very best 4-4-2 to grace a field, the 1998-99 team. It shows exactly how to make a 4-4-2 work (and give us the chance to cheer ourselves up too.)
The ball comes wide to Giggs (yes it helps having him able to beat three men alone). When he crosses it into the middle, look in the box. As well as Cole and Yorke, Scholes is in there playing as a third striker. The defenders then cover the three of them and it leaves space for Roy Keane to burst late onto the scene and hammer it home totally unmarked.
By having two attacking midfielders in the middle it overloads the opposition. The defenders are trying to cover three players in the box, and the extra man gets space to play. If you rely on just 2 wingers and 2 strikers and spread them over the whole pitch, you have no hope.
Just to be clear by the way, I'm not saying that its Cleverley or Carrick's fault. They are who they are, neither are attacking midfielders. They're far more comfy in a 4-2-3-1 or 4-3-3 where they can play deep and they have lots of players in front of them to offload the ball too. Carrick was awesome against Palace in a 4-2-3-1. (Well, good anyway)
What's irritating is that so many of our
other players are also better playing quick short passes close to their team mates. RvP, Rooney, Wellbeck, Nani, Kagawa & Januzaj are all better suited to a 4-2-3-1 than the way we've played this season. Indeed for the last 5 or 10 minutes we went to a kind of 4-2-3-1 with Kagawa, Wellbeck, Young behind RvP (Rooney alongside Carrick) and we looked, well, a little better at least. We at least had some possession vaguely near their penalty area.
This, ultimately, is why I worry about so much about Moyes. He just got his tactics totally wrong on Tuesday, again. He picked a formation that didn't suit the players, or the occasion, and one that has failed repeatedly all season - then seemed surprised when it didn't work.
