United Nil: How Louis Van Gaal's System is Stifling Man Utd
“Boring, boring Man United” goes the jesting refrain, but Manchester United haven’t been boring in their last couple of games – they just haven’t been very good.
So much has been written and said about the stifling defence that they’ve built. Stifling at one end and stifling at the other. We’re not even halfway through the season and they’ve already had as many 0-0 draws as they did in all of last season and the previous one combined. Sir Alex Ferguson, meanwhile, didn’t have a single 0-0 draw in his final 116 games in charge. Louis Van Gaal just got through a spell of five in nine.
That stretch is over now and not for the better. This last week saw the Red Devils fall 3-2 away to Wolfsburg in a must-win game that got them eliminated from the Champions League followed by a 2-1 defeat in Bournemouth to a team that had won only once in fourteen Premier League games before beating Chelsea last week. It’s five games without a win in all competitions for United, something that they haven’t suffered since… well, LVG’s first four games in charge (Giggs drew 1-1 with Southampton as caretaker, then LVG lose 2-1 to Swansea, drew 1-1 with Sunderland, lost 4-0 to MK Dons (League Cup) and drew 0-0 with Burnley before pumping QPR 4-0).
It’s bad, it’s pretty bad.
The feeling after the West Ham game capped that 0-0 run was that the game in Wolfsburg might be the best thing for them. Gotta win it, no choice but to loosen up and attack. But in loosening up they exposed a mental fragility that has grown inherent in this team. Twice they conceded within minutes of scoring. Twice, on the road, in a crucial game, in the toughest club competition in the world. That is no recipe for success at all.
That game is not the best example of what’s going on in this because of what was at stake but you’d have thought they’d’ve been able to bounce back in Bournemouth. Instead this happened after less than two minutes and the remaining 88 had all the passion and energy of a Sunday morning hangover. Which is appropriate:
It’s been tough to take for fans who have had two and a half decades of Sir Alex leading them to victory, watching this team turn from an indomitable attacking force that was never out of a game not even entering the final minutes… to an insipid pack of ball-hogs who only need to concede once for the thought of victory to start drifting away with the glories of old.
But then this isn’t Fergie’s team anymore. Of the 18 players that took part in his final game in charge, that famous 5-5 draw with West Brom on 19 May 2013, these are the names that remain:
Phil Jones, Antonio Valencia, Michael Carrick, David De Gea (as unused sub that day) and Adnan Januzaj (currently exiled at Dortmund having been loaned out in exile from United).
Of the 18 that lost to Bournemouth, 10 were given their club debut by LVG, two by David Moyes, five by Fergie and one, Axel Tuanzebe, has yet to play a senior game for Man Utd. Whatever culture is supposed to be lingering from the SAF days is fast disappearing – although it’s telling that Michael Carrick and Wayne Rooney were the pair that allegedly confronted LVG about the direction of the club’s philosophy (to no avail) earlier in the season. Plus the next manager is odds on to be a Class of ‘92er, so perhaps there’s a future resurgence hidden in the tea leaves.
There probably will be. But for this season, last season and next season it is Louis Van Gaal’s team, brought in to take them through the transition and set them down easy on the other side. Louis will get his time unless things turn drastic, though watching his team play with an increasing level of reticence and restraint each week is making a lot of people wonder. Especially since the club’s fans are mostly pretty patient and self-aware. They’d probably get straight off his back if he’d only at least acknowledge that they need to be more daring on attack.
Right now, it’s a matter of confidence. If you watched Harry Kane at the start of the season then you saw an inexperienced striker (at this level) struggling with expectations. He didn’t score for his first few games and then seemed naïve of the usual peaks and valleys of a season of football, trying too hard to hit the back of the net rather than riding through the dry spell. Snap-shots, efforts from distance and then trying to pull off the perfect finish when what’s really needed is that instinctive rhythm.
Kane started scoring again with a borderline open goal against City that snuck into the top corner and he was away running. Next thing you know he’s scoring a hatty against Bournemouth, of all teams. But Kane’s crisis of confidence was a lot easier to overcome when it was only him. With Manchester United their entire team seems to be affected.
This is not where they’re supposed to be now. Forget about the figures thrown out about what Van Gaal has spent to improve this team. He’s sold more players than he’s bought, the difference is just the price of doing business in MUFC’s position of power. They have to overpay because teams are gonna squeeze every cent outta them and they happily do overpay because it’s a flexing of their financial strength.
What he’s done is he’s rebuilt this team. Restructured might be a better word, actually. And that’s the problem: Van Gaal has brought in all of these new faces, supposedly to fit the system he wants to play, and he still hasn’t found a way to bring any fluency to their attack (makes ya wonder if he’s even trying?). There have been moments. There have been stretches of games. The 3-1 win over Liverpool. The Brugge games. 3-0 away to Everton (the kind of routine win that they haven’t had since because they can’t seem to score enough goals to kill anyone off – no matter how many passes you make and how much possession you have, if you’re 1-0 up then the other team is in with a chance. And without their defensive anchor of Chris Smalling against Bournemouth, they finally got the full downswing of that).
Only once have they completely been outplayed and that was the loss to Arsenal. Even then there were chances to get back into it but once more they couldn’t score. It’s like so much effort goes into making one single opportunity to score that when it doesn’t work – like usual – they’re already exhausted. Which is coincidentally the very same thing you feel watching it.
Louis Van Gaal is one of those managers that loves to be in control. He joked about it the other week:
“I’m from a time where you [as manager] did everything. Now I’m the manager and I have a sports science department, I have a scouting department, I have a medical department, I have assistant managers, I have assistant coaches. I don’t do anything … nothing! I delegate. I delegate and I earn a lot of money.”
Delegating is still controlling. It’s controlling without all the effort that goes usually into it. He says and they do. But he’s still in control.
And ‘control’ is all over this team. LVG’s idea of control is to remove the variables. Keep the ball. Build up down the sidelines. Play the way you’re facing. Stick to your position. He’s crafted this team into one that can go out there and play a scripted football match for him but while that’s cut out almost all of the defensive mistakes that once haunted this team (*cough* Moyes *cough*), it’s cut out almost all of their creativity on attack too. They’re so predictable. Up the sideline, no cross, back and across the defence, let’s try the other sideline, nope, back to the keeper and out to a fullback, here’s a midfielder behind the defence and he brings it out to another midfielder playing deep and let’s try it all again.
Oh God do they play deep. Michael Carrick is always back and collecting the ball from defence, that’s fine. But he’s also always joined by Bastian Schweinsteiger doing the same thing or Morgan Schneiderlin doing a similar thing with more of a CDM thing going on. Three very deep players. Having that kind of set up is of course going to protect your defence but they need to be able to get forward too and they don’t. There’s no push from the midfield – there barely even is a midfield. Juan Mata is coming deep to collect it from these deep guys, the wide forwards are too scared to drift infield (like Mata does when he plays there, to his credit) and Anthony Martial (or Wayne Rooney) is left completely isolated. You need to commit players to attack if you wanna score in the same way that you need to commit players to defence in order for the opposition not to.
With Schneiderlin coming back from injury and Schweiny suspended, Marouane Fellaini started at CM with Carrick on the weekend. Juan Mata may as well have played there instead because he was doing Fellaini’s job for him. Fellaini, in theory, could fix this midfield. He could make the forward runs that they need. Instead he just stood up top like a tree and gave away fouls. Also, he always drifts so far to the left that he unbalances the whole team. Look, he’s a real asset in the air when you can utilise it. It’s just that he’s also a complete liability when all he’s doing is fouling. As it happened he had most of United’s best chances too, five shots with three on target, which means that some people will tell you that he was playing well even though he definitely wasn’t. Especially in the second half when he continually left Carrick alone. He gets so sucked into the physical challenge against his markers that he’s never open.
Take a look at the average possie map from Four Four Two for MUFC vs Bournemouth:
Where is the midfield? The team’s split down the middle. United had more possession and yet their main ball-player was based in their own half. Look how deep their number ten (Mata) was. Or how split their centre backs were. There’s a reason for that, at least, they part so that Carrick can sit in between them. One of the many great additions to Chris Smalling’s game this season has his ability to read the space in front of him and carry the ball into it. That at least still gets them on the front foot. But Smalling wasn’t playing. You can almost draw two distinct lines across this team, by the way. Defence and Attack. (Ignore Pereira, he got switched around a bit hence his position – playing across all of the advanced mid trio spots).
Now compare that one to Arsenal’s against Villa the next day:
Believe it or not, they were playing the same 4-2-3-1 formation. The centre-backs are a bit deeper and the fullbacks higher. Bellerin’s attacking runs are one of the Gunners’ best assets. Plus the midfield is there and clearly defined. Mesut Ozil plays so far forward that he’s in front of Oli Giroud and the wingers are set considerably further infield. You know, where they can be options to give and receive passes with Ozil and Giroud. Linking up between positions like United are being coached not to do.
This is why most of United’s chances are coming from individual moves. Martial beating a defender or something. He’s also about the only player on this team even capable of beating a defender and he gets tackled just as often as he gets past. They’re big on crossing but they aren’t good at crossing and many of their best attacks come from set pieces. Good, every team should be able to threaten from free kicks and corners because those are things you can practise. Except that to get those opportunities you need to beat defenders and/or take shots on target.
Most of United’s shots, if you look at the charts, are coming from in front of the goal. Van Gaal will probably tell you that the bigger the angle to shoot at the better the chance of scoring and he’s right. Removing the variables once again. However if you only attack down the middle then defences will stack themselves in the way. Put all their efforts in making that one are of the field as hard to score from as possible.
Thus why United have had 59 shots on target this Premier League season and 56 blocked shots. Only Chelsea (62 on/65 blk) and Watford (63 on/63 blk) have worse ratios than that and neither of them have been lighting it up on attack either. Watford get away with it thanks to a) lesser expectations and b) their strike duo of Odion Ighalo and Troy Deeney, a rare double-striker combo that means they can split the bulk of their attacking duties between these two dudes, who combined for almost half of their total shots (100/203). That helps when your two best finishers are taking most of the shots.
(Another example that links the deep midfield and predictable shooting areas: Carrick, Schweinsteiger and Schneiderlin have combined for 19 total shots in Premier League games.)
So blame Wayne Rooney if you want but nothing’s been different without him. And while Anthony Martial brings something different, he’s not scored in nine PL games now and that’s telling too. The wingers are also underperforming but most of that is because they’re terrified to take risks, you can almost see them second guessing themselves as they set up their man only to pass backwards. Memphis is the best example, his confidence is shattered as he’s been found out and punished for simplifying his game on the left wing (and he’s not often played there before, usually slicing through the middle for PSV and Holland) to where his one move is to cut inside onto his right boot and try shoot. Just recently, in his last couple games, he’s shown a willingness to fade to the line on his left… only he’s not really got a cross on his left. It’s an improvement though, because as this team is constantly proving to us, variety is crucial.
Blame the way LVG has set up his midfield. They’re not supposed to be the front line of defence, they’re supposed to be the links between the positions, between the halves, between possession and no possession. They’re supposed to be in the MIDDLE of the FIELD.
Two of the three main guys (Fellaini is stricken until he can show some small crumb of improvement) are new to the club. Combinations are being learned on the spot and the trio are constantly being rotated which is essential (especially when two of them are 31+) but unhelpful. This can get better. Except that it won’t for as long as LVG is keeping things so rigid.
Which is where the secret weapon comes into things. As proven above, you can write 2000 words of critique as to what’s wrong, but that’s offering any solutions. So here’s a solution: Ander Herrera. As soon as he’s fit again, and it should be soon, he needs to be starting at CM. Maybe CAM on the days where Schneiders, Schweiny and Carrick are all available. Herrera is a positive, creative player with a great ability to pass, who can win a tackle and will run tirelessly. And unceasingly, which is crucial as you watch this team getting outworked every week. He’s not the most talented player in this team but he could become the most crucial.
Down 2-1 with ten minutes to go against Bournemouth, Manchester United did not register another shot. In ten minutes of football. Against a team in the relegation zone. Bournemouth were fantastic and deserve every credit but that shouldn’t matter to Manchester United. And it wasn’t only that: they were tied at 1-1 at half time and Bournemouth came out and dominated. They were the better team for the entire second half, barring a couple of sporadic United chances, and if Glenn Murray could only hit a barn door then the game would already have been over.
This shot ended up two metres over the bar...
These players are better than this. Memphis and Mata and Martial and Rooney and all genuinely talented and creative players. They’re being suppressed into a system that limits anything out of the ordinary which simply doesn’t roll with creative football. You cannot design a goal. You cannot draw the blueprints and say ‘this is what we’re gonna do’ and then go out there and have it work to perfection. There’s a variable that you cannot control and that’s the other team.
When you reach the point of watching where you’re literally wishing you could sub yourself on just to bring a little energy and enthusiasm to these elite, highly-paid professionals… then there may be an issue there and it may be time to take action and change something.
The Good
Harry Arter (Bournemouth) – This dude gets a specific shout out for his performance on the weekend. He was fantastic against Man United, passing the ball around with comfort and continually finding himself in the right places. A massive game and he did it just days after he and his wife lost their daughter in birth. Emotions were clearly on edge, he was booked late for raging at a ref and looked close to tears before being subbed off after 84 inspirational minutes.
Rob Elliot (Newcastle Utd) – Not that there's been any decline in Jack Butland's performances, or Petr Cech either who just tied the PL record with clean sheet number 169, but it's the Newcastle keeper who's been the form one of the lot of them the last couple weeks. They were supposed to be screwed without Tim Krul - for a while they couldn't even find a GK - but now here's Elliot with 20 saves in five games. There were some top drawer ones against Spurs too, keeping them in it right up until the Toon could go on and snatch the win. There aren't many things more valuable than a good goalie.
Olivier Giroud (Arsenal) – Look, say what you will but the lad keeps on scoring.
The Bad
Everton’s Killer Instinct – You don’t wanna blame Romelu Lukaku, in the form of his career, for this but he’s not immune either, despite seven goals in seven consecutive games (inc. 6 PL games in a row). Lukaku had five shots in the first half against Norwich. He could well have scored three of them, he should have scored two of them but he only scored one of them. 1-0 at the break despite absolutely playing the Canaries off the park. Then they came out in the second, conceded straight away and stumbled to a 1-1 draw in a game that should have been killed off within 25 mins. Just as they should have beaten Palace but could only draw. Just as they blew a 2-0 lead and a 95th minute lead against Bournemouth. They’re unbeaten in six Prem games and into the League Cup semis but it’s games like these past three why they aren’t up with the frontrunners. They’re creating the chances. They just need to be more ruthless.
Aston Villa, Again – In a week in which Bournemouth and Newcastle each won their second game in a row, showing positive signs in their fight for survival, the Villans fell to another tame loss. Newcastle have at least had a few up games among the downtimes, and you can see that they’re trying to build to something. While Bournemouth may have been crippled by a couple of key injuries in a squad already stretched for premium talent but they’ve always shown 100% commitment. It paid off in a few hard fought draws, it didn’t pay off in some unlucky losses. But you keep at it and you find a way. Aston Villa are irrelevant right now.
The Ugly
Pardew on the Piss – Alan Pardew promised he’d hit the pubs with the Palace fans after guiding his and their team to a 1-0 win over Southampton. True to his word, he did just that. But the thought of Pards on the prowl in town is a terrifying one. Here’s hoping nobody brought up Manuel Pellegrini’s name.
Adult Colouring-In Books – Looks like fun, Schteve.
Unhappy Jurgen – Seeing him angry is like watching your parents fight. He even semi-stormed out of a TV interview before returning, smiling and apologetic.