Is it a rubbish system against really good teams, do we bin it now, do we need specifically a couple of players to make it work, was it just an off day, were we tactically outmanoevred and all those other things which don't involve the sending off.
My take FWIW is this. I think to a certain extent we were slightly "outtacticked" in our set-up in that one or two things which transpired were definately a pre-thought way of countering some of our stronger points. It started with them deciding to mirror our line up on paper, but crucially they pushed Anderson and Scholes up onto Masherano and Alonso, knowing full well that neither of our holders would come out of the pocket. Alonso ended up in a little congested minefield from which he was never likely to emerge with too much credit, while Masherano's afternoon ended in tragic circumstances.
Rooney, with congestion all about him was able to play in the channels, happy to move out to where the full backs were already under pressure dealing to Giggs and Ronaldo. Neither of our centre halves like to come out and play, so you effectively had Carragher and Skyrtel constantly being asked the question as to whether or not they tracked Ronney out. Once Rooney had come out of course, the Man Utd players were encouraged to track in and fill the hole, attack it, ask a question of our new centre half and the goalkeeper. From such a move of course the first goal came. Once Rooney tracked out, Giggs and Ronaldo were happy to come inside and fill the holes, constantly being outside of the defeners comfort zones and in that grey area of "who should be marking him"?
Such was their stranglehold over our final third, that Arbeloa and Aurelio barely crossed the half way line, Alonso and Masherano played within five yards of each other and the two wide midfielders (particularly Kuyt obviously) were sucked back into fire fighing roles, filling in the gaps. Man Utd were happy to back their back four plus Carrick to deal with the increasingly isolated Torres and Gerrard, while as the game progressed they were even happy to allow Evra and Brown to bomb on and cause further mayhem.
Torres was of course hassled, kicked and harried in areas well away from any danger areas, while on more than one occasion Ferdinand and Vidic showed their exellence in one on ones.
So could we have done it any different? Well the fairly obvious difference between the two teams is that Ronaldo and Giggs are a lot better than Kuyt and Babel. For this reason, it makes it a lot harder to pin their blokes back. What I would very much like to have seen though, is either Carragher or Skyrtel being happy to go into the hole with Masherano, and allowing Alonso to advance himself by twenty yards or so. Given the fact that Rooney was often playing as an inside forward I think it could have been done. Failing that, we could have switched Gerrard and Alonso. Gerrards natural attacking instincts would have ensured he wouldn't just have sat, while Xabi could have floated around and been our number one outball. It's crucial we get Gerrard into games as he's our best player, so we could certainly have asked him to play box to box, he's more than capable.
As for the wide lads, particularly Babel I'd like to see float inside a bit into no mans land. He could even float to the other flank from time to time, anything to give us a bridgehead to build from. Playing teams like man Utd at Old Trafford (and indeed Arsenal at the Emirates) I think it's vital that you give yourself a chance of building aplatform so you ca get somethign going, and crucially pin them back to some extent.
I wouldn't be giving up on the system, but it definately needs a little work. We can be fairly sure Everton will attempt to do the same thing at the weeked. Yakubu will float around the channels, while Cahill and somebody else who likes kicking people will push our two holders back. I actually think that if Alonso sits, Lucas might just show the way that we need to go, with one of the holders being prepared to push on at times. Xabi finding this, and the addition of a wide player and/or an attacking fullback are the keys to us prospering under the system IMHO.
Sorry about the long post BTW
gerrards impact? there were too many alien aspects to our players performances on sunday for me to sit comfy, the formation wasnt the issue.
, maybe we wouldn't have.
