Manchester United continue to show tendency to attack down the right
Manchester United have tended in recent weeks to play a slightly lopsided shape, attacking primarily down the right-hand-side. The two wingers most frequently used in Premiership games in recent weeks, Antonio Valencia and Nani, both prefer to play on the right. When fielded together, Valencia tends to remain on the right flank and play a traditional wide role, whilst Nani looks to cut in from the left and drift across the pitch more.
This Chalkboard from the weekend game at Wolves shows how much more often United worked the ball into the final third on the right-hand side, rather than the left. (As with all five in this article, it is clearer if ‘hide numbers’ is selected at the bottom).
The effect can partially be explained because Valencia remained on the right-hand side…
…but Nani drifted in from his left-hand role, and often ended up close to Valencia on the right. (Both these Chalkboards are from 0-75 minutes, to give a fair comparison, as Nani was substituted at this point.)
Therefore, United always looked to build attacks down the right. This even had an effect on the passing patterns of their centre-backs. Playing on the right side of the centre-back pairing, Rio Ferdinand’s passes were generally directed to the right full-back, which is natural:
But whereas you would expect a mirror image from the left-hand centre-back Nemanja Vidic (for him to play the ball to the left-back, Patrice Evra), instead his passes were generally also directed right.
Is this cause or effect? Either way, it means that there is a clear bias towards that flank when United were building attacks.
Part of the reason for the lopsided shape, with the left-winger cutting in, is so Evra can motor forward from left-back, as he is a genuine attacking threat. The passing style of the centre-backs, meanwhile, can partially be attributed to the fact that Ferdinand is a better passer than Vidic, so the Serb naturally looks to give him the ball.
But United’s lopsided tendency poses an interesting question for opposition defences. Should they look to play a defensive-minded player on the left side of midfield to assist the full-back? Should they instruct their left-back to remain in position and not attempt forward runs?
Manchester United continue to show tendency to attack down the right
I remarked on this yesterday during the game, while watching with a group of United fans. Almost everything was going down the right hand side. Interesting to see it graphically. We haven’t satisfactorily replaced Ryan Giggs, a fact more glaringly obvious since he’s been injured. Tosic wasn’t the answer, though we all had hopes when he was signed. Obertan needs more time but looks promising. Park’s hustle and harrassing makes him a useful player but not a huge threat defensively or offensively. Rooney’s days of being shunted out to the left look to be over (thank God). Only an ABU would put Anderson on the left. So Ribery or Silva? How exciting would a truly world class left winger work in combination with the already excellent Patrice Evra! Would give much more balance to our play with Valencia carving out a place for himself on the right, and the exciting Rafael developing well. It will be interesting to see what happens with the rumours about Joe Cole too.
The alternative question is how should teams look to exploit Evra’s tendency to get forward? I thought Spurs did this really well in one game where Lennon hung up field instead of tracking back, and was then the out ball for the Spurs defence and midfield. His pace meant that usually Evra couldn’t recover in time (usually he can do to his stamina, pace and the help of the player nominally in front of him- Park for one is excellent at covering that space) but Lennon kept getting away and running at Vidic, setting up a couple of goals. Of course in the second half, Fergie adjusted his tactics, the ManU midfield got on top and they destroyed Spurs but I thought the first half was a textbook lesson in exploiting ManU’s tendency to use Evra as an attacking weapon.
I think what you’re describing could be a good example of how a 4-3-3/4-5-1 can be used defensively with the two wingers putting pressure on the full-backs to stay back, and then possibly having a spare man in central midfield (3 compared to 2 in a 4-4-2). Obviously depends a lot on the 2 sides, but I’m just speculating as an example.
If I really wanted to speculate further, perhaps consider a lop-sided 4-3-3 in that the right (pacey) wingers like Lennon could occupy Evra, and then the left handed winger, maybe someone slower with a bit of guile (Modric, or Keane when he was at Spurs) could cut in onto their right and act more centrally as Brown isn’t such a threat for United.
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