Manchester United - The New Formation

Few days ago I blogged about what formation Barcelona should use this season to maximise their potential given the players they have. I ended up a with a 3-4-1-2, deduced from the brilliant system Louis van Gaal used with The Netherlands for virtually the whole world cup, regardless of the opponent. And it worked! As a result, the Dutch squad overachieved and van Gaal was already drawing dreamy glances from Old Trafford.

Manchester United find themselves in a precarious situation now. After the legendary reign of Lord Moyes, they are out of the Champions League and face an uphill task to reorganise their squad in order to challenge domestically and crawl back into the coveted top-4. Ironically their performance off the pitch during the same period in the sponsors’ market has been blockbuster. And that only adds a further weight of expectations on the coach and the players after the fine mugging job pulled off by Woodward.

Chief among the on-field problems for the club is the major issue of reorganisation of personnel and how to setup the team. Should he continue with the same formation of yesteryears or is it better to change to the brilliant 3-4-1-2 he engineered to perfection with his country?

Pivotal to answering that are three key points:

1.     Two of United’s three best players, Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney, are world class strikers and must be played simultaneously and as such.

2.     The third amigo, Juan Mata, should be played in the hole.

3.     The team needs restructuring at the back and in midfield.

Wayne Rooney is a phenomenal player. Although he hasn’t done any justice to the ‘White Pele’ title that was brandished on him, he has contributed significantly at least at club level, scoring 17 and assisting 10 goals in the league last season - from midfield. That’s right. The farce of playing Rooney in the ‘number 10’ role despite the number on his back must end. It’s a travesty that it has gone on so long. While wise old coaches who have infinite times more knowledge than this amateur blogger have played him there, in my opinion Rooney is a natural striker and that’s what Mourinho was going on about when he attempted to lure him to Chelsea last season. Football is a game of opinions and everyone has a different interpretations of things. Mine is that United would benefit if Rooney is paired with van Persie upfront.

Juan Mata is a curious little fellow. If ever there was a player that demonstrated what being played in the right position can do to a player’s confidence and performance, it is him. In my humble opinion, Manchester United should build their team around Mata. He’s younger and will possibly hit greater heights than the two strikers in front of him. Juan Mata has statistics to stake his claim. At Chelsea he scored 12 and 20 goals respectively in his two full season and assisted at least three dozen per campaign. He won the best player award at Chelsea both times. All, from that ‘number 10’ position. His position on the field must not be up for debate. In his natural habitat he is worth 50 million Pounds. Elsewhere, probably 15.

Elsewhere, in midfield and defence, it is a different story. At the time of writing this article, it has been long confirmed that Man Utd have signed Andre Herrera and the arrival of Nigel de Jong looks very much on the cards. If they sign de Jong, with those two the team would have added two very good players who would be starting week after week. That leaves only the defence with much sorting out to do as they already have one of the best young goalkeepers guarding the net.

Having added the 19 year old Luke Shaw to the ranks, Man Utd have taken a small step in the right direction but their centre-back conquest needs to take shape soon if they want to avoid further embarrassment. Strengthening in that area is a must for Manchester United. While I understand that it is not a case of fantasy football, the three best options for the CB position currently are Mats Hummels, Mehdi Benatia and Raphael Varane. Depending on availability and other factors, the club should go all-in to get at least one of the three elite players.

Turning my attention back to the principle subject of this write-up, if van Gaal indeed decides to play 3 at the back, as he himself suggested he would, this is what the current team without the possible ins and outs might look like.

‘The beauty of playing with three centre-backs complimented by wing-backs on either side is that the team can easily switch from a 3 unit defence to a 5 unit defence without major alteration.’

This squad ticks ‘almost’ all the boxes in my opinion. There is quality, industry, and most importantly, balance. It is filled with tireless players who are known to put in a defensive shift whenever required. To some extent, however, it lacks one of Man Utd’s trademark characteristic: pace. As I said, this is a preview with only those players that United have on their books at the moment. They have announced their intent and capacity to add to the squad. With the funds available, trust van Gaal to add to his cast before he prepares to dazzle at the Theatre of Dreams.

Three At The Back for the Catalans (Barcelona: 3-4-1-2)

In reference to the article published on goal.com, a quasi-satire-football-website, apparently there is a bit of fantasy in store for all football fans. It seems Barcelona are going to play a bizarre 3-2-3-2 formation this season. Well you could argue that the rate at which the Catalan club is spiraling out of control these days, nothing can be put beyond them.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2014/08/04/5002476/messi-suarez-neymar-cuadrado-in-one-team-barcelonas-plans?ICID=HP_HN_1

The rumour however, like all rumours during the summer break, must and should be taken with a pinch of salt. The Cules are notoriously loyal to the 4-3-3 formation; a system they preach at every level of their famed La Masia academy. According to Johan Cruyff, the best Euporean footballer of all time and the brains behind the modern version of the academy, this consistency gives a standardised solution to the team and the players in the long run. There is no use arguing with that. Partly because Cruyff will never stand down and largely because there is every semblance of truth behind the claim. 4-3-3 is a mainstay and the most basic modern formation. It is the first sketch to a plethora of other contemporary formations like 4-2-3-1, 4-3-2-1 etc.

At Barcelona, although the 4-3-3- is a holy sermon, there have been occasions when a 3-4-3 has been used, most famously by Pep Guardiola. But the formation didn’t lead to much success and the team reverted to the ever-reliable 4-3-3. But soon enough, the tika-taka code was cracked by ultra-defensive teams that attack on the break. And ever since this ‘invincible’ tika-taka tactic was compromised, technical teams that set up defensively (see Chelsea) have challenged it and often emerged victorious. Atletico did it last year and the year before, Bayern (counter-attacking) truly demolished Barcelona in the Champions League semi-final with an aggregate score of 7-0 over two legs.

There is always a natural cycle and all things, good or bad, come to an end. Such prophetic wisdom would discourage you from blaming any specific reason for the demise of things but academically looking at it, one of the main reason for the downfall of tika-taka at Barcelona is perhaps the reluctance of full-backs doing their primary job – defend. It is no coincidence that Barcelona were a force to reckon with when the more defensive minded Eric Abidal was hugging the left touch line and the younger Dani Alves on the right actually read team hand-outs. Now, Jordi Alba thinks his main competitor is Cristiano Ronaldo and the older Dani seems convinced it would be cool to go out with a few hattricks under his belt.

In essence, what that means is that both Jordi Alba and Dani Alves have evolved into wing-backs. And if given a chance to produce in that capacity, there is little doubt if they would. However, in its purest form, the suggested 3-2-3-2 is a truly ridiculous formation and one that can never work. It looks and sounds like fantasy football which has no regard for balance across the pitch, narrowing down the game to a suffocating level.

Take a look at the deployment of personnel suggested in the goal article.

(Courtesy, source goal.com) 

The ground rule for any team that wants to play with 3 defenders at the back is they need to be complimented by wing-backs who are willing to run themselves to the ground. Without that physical presence on the wings, it’ll be very easy to get in behind the defence because the 3 defenders would naturally be playing close to one another. Let’s not forget most of the top teams at the World Cup played with three men at the back and it proved very effective. Chile even managed to stick in a 5’7” Gary Medel into the back 3!

Barca certainly have the players required to play a 3-man defence system. In fact, one could even argue that the way things stand, they are more suitable to it than they are to a 4-man defence. Gerard Pique has been hugely criticised of late and with the performances he has been putting in, little surprise there. His positioning has been suspect and his concentration has been dwindling. Without a leader like Puyol besides him, he is a fish out of water and totally out of depth. However, no one can doubt his ability on the ball. So, if Pique plays in the middle of the three-man defence as a 'sweeper' carrying the ball forward, starting attacks, his ability will count double.

(Three man defence)

On either side of Pique will be Jeremy Mathieu and Javier Mascherano who will add experience and bite to the unit respectively. Mathieu who is also surprisingly fast at the age of 30 can dictate terms from the back and Mascherano who is one of the best reader of the game in football would be phenomenal in this setup.

(Four-man midfield with wing-backs)

The four-man midfield is a no brainer with Alba on the left, Dani Alves on the right operating as wing-backs and new boy Ivan Rakitic joined by Sergio Busquets in the midfield pivot.

(Three man attack in a 1-2 formation)

Up-front is where the four best players at Barcelona will fight for the three spots. Well, technically the three best will fight for two spots in the 1-2 formation. Lionel Messi is a given on the right-hand side of the front two. On the left could be Luis Suarez or Neymar. The 1 could be either Iniesta or Neymar. Any of the three can operate there if Iniesta is unavailable. It’s a beautiful problem for Barcelona to have.

This is what the final team in a 3-4-1-2 formation would look like.

It is difficult to argue against the overall quality of this squad. This is the same system Louis van Gaal used at the world cup with The Netherlands and it produced tremendous results for the Dutch. The 3-2-3-2 was obviously a troll by goal.com. But a three-man defence would usher a new revolution at Barcelona and 3-4-1-2 seems just the right way to play it.