Fergie’s Tactical Blowout …
Did United lose to Arsenal because Sir Alex Ferguson got his match tactics wrong?
United’s collapse against Arsene Wenger’s side, which had previously struggled for form, was as alarming as it was unexpected.
In matches against Fulham, Charlton, Watford, Spurs and Celtic, United had shown glimpses of the swagger of old. There was a sense that United had ‘the bit between the teeth,’ were motivated, purposeful and committed to the cause of winning the title.
These traits disappeared in a contest which was United’s for the taking. Arsenal lacked five first team players. The Gunners had suffered draws and a demoralising defeat going into the game and came to Old Trafford conscious of a poor recent league record against Sir Alex’s men.
Victory over Arsenal would have put 13 points between the clubs. As Wenger repeated yesterday, such a margin, even at so early a stage in the season, would have sapped the will of his young team.
United had everything in their favour as the game began but could take precious few positives from its conclusion. Sir Alex Ferguson tried to match Arsenal’s five-man midfield with a quartet that on the day looked ill-equipped for the task. United were cut to ribbons over and over again by a free flowing Arsenal team which dictated the play throughout. Ferguson has reason to thank Emanuel Adebayor for his wastefulness in front of goal or the gulf between the sides would have been more clearly advertised.
It is rare that United’s entire midfield has an off-day but Sunday’s match was a 90 minute episode of collective amnesia. Ronaldo forgot that he was part of a team. Fletcher lost touch with the defensive demands of his right midfield berth. O’Shea played like a man who had not set his alarm clock correctly while Scholes remembered some of his lines but only infrequently.
A misfiring midfield left Saha and Rooney stranded upfield. Much more of this and Rooney may well think long and hard about the extension to his contract that awaits his signature.
It was all so different when United played the ‘Invincibles’ at Old Trafford in October 2004. Then, United adopted an ‘ugly football’ approach. Sir Alex sent out a team of scufflers who assaulted the key opposition players. It worked too. José Reyes was never the same player again and sulked all the way to Spain during this summer’s transfer window.
In beating Arsenal by such ‘Un-United’ methods, Sir Alex established the template for other clubs to follow. The Gunners include in their ranks some of football’s finer aesthetes and have the power to mesmerise if allowed time and space. Few teams can match the elegance of their football but United uncovered the Londoners suspect appetite for the harsh realities of the British game by harrying and chasing Arsenal’s players, demanding that they earn the right to play.
Last Sunday however, United invited Arsenal to a game of football and came off second best. It was a better match for the neutral perhaps, with none of the red-meat encounters which have become a hallmark of this fixture. Nevertheless, there is an inescapable feeling that United missed a great opportunity to turn the Premiership into a three horse race due to a tactical miscalculation.
Sir Alex has tried to explain away the defeat by pointing to the stamina-sapping, midweek ‘Battle of Britain confrontation with Celtic. A more accurate view would be the simple fact that United were out-thought and out-fought by the Gunners.
At least the forthright Gary Neville has not sheltered behind weak excuses. ‘Some people will say that was our toughest test of the season so far and they are right and we failed that test,’ the captain admitted.
‘We let ourselves down with our passing and movement. We pride ourselves on that. That’s what we do all week. We make the pitch as big as possible when we get the ball. But today our passing wasn’t crisp, quick or accurate enough.’
Equally baffling was the decision to relegate Michael Carrick to the substitutes bench. What is an £18 million player for if it is not the bigger matches of the season? The openness of the Arsenal match showed just how much United need a diligent tackler with pace, capable of breaking-up opposition attacks. What must Ferguson be thinking now that Bayern Munich’s Owen Hargreaves lies in a hospital bed, victim of a broken leg? AU
© Copyright: Absolutely United 2006
