Everton 1-0 Manchester United: Fellaini dominates in the air
The starting line-ups
Marouane Fellaini was the game’s star player, and scored the winning goal with a fine header.
David Moyes used a familiar 4-4-1-1 system, with Fellaini deployed behind Nikica Jelavic.
Sir Alex Ferguson had major injury problems at the back, with Chris Smalling, Phil Jones, Jonny Evans and Rio Ferdinand all out. Michael Carrick had to play at the back, and Antonio Valencia started at right-back, with Rafael still recovering from the Olympics. Further forward, Shinji Kagawa started as the number ten, but Robin van Persie remained on the bench.
Manchester United performed as you’d expect by looking at their starting XI – they dominated possession and passed the ball swiftly across midfield, but they lacked a physical presence in midfield, and Carrick’s defensive weakness was exposed at the back.Discussion of Manchester United’s system is here – this article will solely discuss Everton’s strategy involving Fellaini.
This was a perfect game for Moyes, for two reasons. First, United were fielding a supremely technical and quick front four, which played into the way Everton defend – deep, with two banks of four.
Second, Moyes is arguably the most reactive manager in the league (although Paul Lambert’s constant successful formation switches at Norwich probably make him a better candidate for his title), always changing his strategy to suit the demands of the particular opponent. As United had a clear weakness on the right side of their defence (Carrick can read the game well and distribute the ball well from the back, but he’s not very strong in the air, and Valencia still doesn’t appear completely comfortable at right-back) Moyes formatted his side accordingly.
While one could say it was the obvious strategy was to use Fellaini up against Carrick, Moyes deserves more credit than that, as another coach may have been more conservative when exploiting his weakness. They might have told Fellaini to play as a third central midfielder to help out against United’s three, and used Jelavic to the left of the pitch against Carrick. But instead, Fellaini played a dual role. When Everton were without the ball he chased back, but when they had possession he became a second centre-forward.
And the fact that he was the second centre-forward was the key. The role of Jelavic was crucial, as he occupied Nemanja Vidic on the other side of the pitch, which meant Fellaini against Carrick was a true one-versus-one clash, and Fellaini completely dominated.
Everton were deliberately more direct than usual, as Phil Neville confirmed after the game, and their joint most-frequent passing combination was Baines to Fellaini down the left-hand side – the Belgian could either flick the ball on, or bring it down on his chest.
Moyes also did well to bring Pienaar inside from the left-hand side to get in the zone around Fellaini, which caused Valencia positional problems and sometimes overloaded Carrick. Fellaini to Pienaar was the other most frequent combination, so a clear pattern is emerging – Baines to Fellaini, who knocks it down to Pienaar. (Interestingly, when Pienaar drifted up in central positions and moves broke down, sometimes Fellaini was the man to cover the left wing against Valencia.)
With Leon Osman breaking forward towards the edge of the box from the opposite flank, and Jelavic always offering clever movement to collect through-balls and cut-backs, Everton’s attacking was more technical and intricate than simply thumping it to the big man – but it generally came after a long ball.
Everton spent long spells without the ball as Scholes and Cleverley dictated the tempo – United had 69% possession – but Moyes will have been relatively content with this, especially as Rooney wasn’t looking very sharp. Everton’s defensive organisation within their own third is as good as any other side in the league.
For all Carrick’s problems against Fellaini in open play, it was a set-piece that won the game for Everton. This problem could have been remedied – it was obvious before the goal that Carrick was struggling from corners, and Vidic (who was marking Phil Jagielka) could have switched with him. Carrick was beaten by Daniele De Rossi at the near post from a corner situation on international duty for England in midweek, and the same thing happened here. It was more of a great header than it was poor marking, but Vidic was the logical man to have against Fellaini.
However, it’s worth pointing out that the closest Everton got to a goal elsewhere – when Osman met Fellaini’s knock-down and struck the bar – was when Vidic was challenging in the air with Fellaini. Vidic was still the logical man to be picking up Fellaini at corners, but here Fellaini was simply too good for all of United’s defenders.
Conclusion
Manchester United had a weakness in the air, and Everton exploited it through a direct, simple approach. But it wasn’t just Fellaini’s sheer dominance, it was the role of Jelavic in occupying United’s best centre-back, and the movement of Pienaar off the flank to further trouble United down that side.
What could United have done to counter Fellaini (supply to Fellaini, Fellaini in the air and options for Fellaini after receiving the ball)?
Carrick were absolutely bossed by Fellaini, and every time he was challenged 1v1 he looked uncomfortable – naturally. Could it’ve been an option to swap sides between Vidic and Carrick? Should Nani have closed Baines down? Should Cleverley have closed Fellaini down to prevent him from taking the ball down with his chest (and Kagawa dropping down into the midfield?)?
Hopefully our next game will be better. Awful to start a season off this way. Do you personally think some players should be dropped to set their minds straight and perhaps give them some intense training? For instance, van Persie makes Rooney drop-able, and our choices on the wings makes Nani drop-able as well. van Persie, Young, Kagawa, Valencia is no bad attacking four, with the likes of Berbatov, Welbeck and Hernandez on the bench.
There’s not a lot you can directly do against Fellaini if you can’t match him physically, more often than not he can still control a ball and pass it out of danger with three players around him, meaning that the defending team is horribly exposed to runs from the deep (by Pienaar for example).
Buy Crouch and convert him into a defender.
I agree, Fellaini’s size and physical strength is very good. Not only that, his body position when receiving is excellent when shielding the ball too. Switching the marking system (i.e. Vidic-Fellaini and Carrick-Jelavic) would be hard to implement, particularly for Carrick who has never played a man-to-man marking system, and I feel would have made the situation worse considering the late central runs from Pienaar and Osman – whereby Jelavic and Fellaini would just drag the two all over the place.
I think that’s where the game was ultimately won. Overloading United’s defensive midfield zone with Pienaar and Osman whilst occupying (at least) one of the midfielders and one of the central defenders with Fellaini. Personally, I think Fellaini’s positioning when receiving the ball was excellent, almost in the No 10 position -albeit back to goal- just in-front of the defenders to tempt them out, just behind the midfielders where they’re not particularly comfortable.
Yep, he definitely poses a lot of interesting conundrums for a defending team. A player like that is not usually found in the attacking midfield zone, and with Scholes and Cleverly as the two central mids he had a distinct physical advantage — much like Lewandowski used to have when Klopp played him as a no. 10. ‘Withdrawn target man’ I call it, can be effective with the right type of player.
This idea of the ‘withdrawn target man’ is a really intriguing one actually. It makes me think of another Dortmund match (perhaps it’s a Dortmund tradition?) — the classic 2002 UEFA Cup Final against Feyenoord.
Dortmund had an ancient Jürgen Kohler sent off early on, and went down to the subsequent Van Hooijdonk penalty, and then a free-kick from the same player. They then proceeded to terrorise Feyenoord by playing it up to Jan Koller, not as a ‘traditional’ target man who went on the last defender and tried to play the percentages to set up second balls/win corners, but rather by coming outside the box to chest the ball down and then bring in onrushing midfield players. Dortmund scored one and until Feyenoord got a lucky third it really looked like Dortmund could sneak back into it. In the end Koller scored an absolutely stunning goal, chesting it down thirty yards out (albeit from a ball coming out of the Feyenoord box) and rifling it into the top corner. Fair enough, the guy was 6ft8 and around 107kg (!!), but it must have taken some skill and tactical courage to play in that way.
I hope I’m not remembering the game through rose-tinted glasses – was a pretty long time ago, but I do remember it making a big impression.
Why not just play a high line instead? Though, yeah, I’m not sure if Carrick is good/comfortable enough to employ the offside trap.
I wouldn’t think it would be safe with a part time Central defender and a part time right back in the line (and possibly a part time left back considering Evra’s generally poor defensive positioning).
Why not just switch to man marking and have Carrick mark Jelavic and Vidic Fellaini when he makes his runs?
Did Vidic seem slimmer to anyone else this game? Could explain how he lost so many aerial duels (excluding Fellani’s influence)
Vidic definately lost some weight!
Perhaps you were just distracted by the tablecloth he was wearing?
Srsly tho, he did seem slimmer. Probably a good idea as being slimmer will put less stress on his surgically repaired knee. Will be interesting to see whether it affects his dominance in the air.
yes a lot slimmer, maybe it could be to evolve in a more modern way of defending, being more piqueish than puyolish
what you lose on strength and jump you win in speed and endurance, afterall nowadays que main threat is messi not drogba
“what you lose on strength and jump you win in speed and endurance, afterall nowadays que main threat is messi not drogba”
ahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahah
EPL game of the week, by far. Everton played absolutely fantastic to get the 3 points. They way Pienaar, Fellaini and Baines worked the left side w/ Jelavic keeping Vidic side honest was really a joy to watch.
In retrospect maybe Sir Alex should have played a back 3, letting Carrick sweep, although I’m not sure Evra would be anyone’s idea candidate to play in that setup. Anyway, I’m always happy to see a team exploit ManU when Sir Alex decides that he can basically play people wherever he feels like playing them. You can argue that injuries forced him to play a winger and mid in defense, but if built a more balanced squad you wouldn’t get caught out like that (or last year playing defenders in midfield and mids in defense). 9 times out of 10 it won’t matter b/c of the huge gap in talent United have over much of the EPL, but for a neutral observer its nice to see someone exploit it every once in a while.
Rooney was horrible. Welbeck would have been better at making smart runs into the box as the center forward.
‘You can argue that injuries forced him to play a winger and mid in defense, but if built a more balanced squad you wouldn’t get caught out like that (or last year playing defenders in midfield and mids in defense)’
Very odd and illogical remark to make. He has FIVE first team centre backs in the squad (Smalling, Evans, Jones, Ferdinand and Vidic), which is more than enough usually for a balanced squad. It just happen to be that they would be without four of those centre backs for one game. Man United aren’t short of centre backs in general. To imply that he has a lack of centre backs is just ridiculous. Every single squad would get caught out like he did, if they lost four/five of their first team squad centre backs. So does that mean every single team’s squad is imbalanced too? Pffft.
‘Anyway, I’m always happy to see a team exploit ManU when Sir Alex decides that he can basically play people wherever he feels like playing them’
Yes, Ferguson would have played Carrick at centre back, even if Smalling, Jones, Evans and Ferdinand were fit(!)
Odd comment
Apart of that I would like to see United playing 352. They need left wingback to play it, but it could seem nice. With Kagawa playing behind the duo of RVP and Roo, Valencia as right wingback, and so.
That is an intersting idea and could actually work out well. However, SAF has always played with out and out wingers, and a 3-5-2 would mean that Nani and Young wouldn’t fit into the system at all, unless the take up the Kagawa position in the hole. Also as you’ve mentioned, United would nead to sign a LWB or wait for Fabio to come back, as Evra’s crossing in the final third isn’t to a high enough standard.
I agree, Fabio would have been perfect for left wing-back. Bit of a silly loan considering the only left-back they have is the rapidly declining Evra, assuming that Fryers completes that move to Spurs that I thought was meant to have happened back in July.
‘Ben Hughes on August 21, 2012 at 3:29 pm’
‘Bit of a silly loan’
United have now signed Buttner. With that done, it is not a silly loan at all. It gives Fabio better shot of playing more games this season and in some ways, a possible better route for a long term future at United, unless Buttner turns out to be a fantastic.
Yeah, with four CB’s out, there was always a worry that United could get exploited at the back. Carrick was the only option left, and has filled in there before for United. In terms of the goal, I was surprised to see Vidic not mark Fellaini, however it still may not have been enough.
At right back, I would have expected Rafael to start (assuming he was fully fit), even though he is still quite rash and still has a lot to learn in a positional sense. Against the weaker teams, I can understand SAF playing Valencia at RB, with Nani playing ahead of him, but I’d much prefer an out-and-out fullback to hold down this position for the majority of the time.
Touche on CB. More a comment on the team in general being front loaded last few years, with no depth at the fullback position – playing Valencia, playing Jones and Smalling there last year, which I don’t believe is their best position and midfield – last year playing Rafael, Jones and Rooney there, dragging Paulie out of retirement. Rather than trying to build balanced depth or use reserve players in their natural position in times of need, he sometimes just picks the best 11 he has and puts them where needed. As someone who played a little fullback, it sort of burns me a little that he seems to think anyone can play there.
I count Jones as a right back option as versatility is one of his strengths (I quite like Smalling at right back, impressed more than Jones, for me, at right back), just like I would have counted Brown and O’Shea as right back options when they were here, even though they are centre backs. Two right backs is enough. Eight defenders is the standard level of options for a squad (two at right back, four at centre back and two at left back). United should have a left back soon to compete with Evra, in the Dutch player. United have a standard and good level of defensive options at right back and centre back (and soon at left back but the problem is, they keep getting injured. Including the Dutch left back, Ferguson does not have a imbalanced number of defenders.
In relation to central midfield, yes, everyone knows we have problems there. Rightly or wrongly, he sometimes rather go with players that have some experience, instead of going with youth, which isn’t unreasonable, although maybe disagreeable. Secondly, luck (or bad treament, etc, whatever people like to think) has it that the likes of Fletcher, Anderson and Cleverley have/have had injury problems. Maybe Ferguson is too faithful in that regard and is paying the price for ‘waiting’ for these players. I think Ferguson knows more than most to be a trusted judge as to when a player like Pogba is ready for the first team, far too easy for armchair experts to shout so-n-so is ready on the basis of reserves game (If you watched the reserve games like I did, you would know Pogba was off-colour for most of last season (to me it seemed like he knew he was signing for Juve for ages, but thats just me speculating), so I didn’t feel like Pogba was working to show he was good enough for the first team last season. Petrucci was great though). I think Ferguson, un/deservedly, is paying the price for waiting for the development of the likes of Anderson, Pogba, Cleverley, etc, and the so-called bad luck of having injuries to the likes of Cleverley, Fletcher and Anderson. He should have brought someone in for central midfield, even just for the short term future but apart from that, I can’t argue much with the depth in defence, wings and up front.
If he thought anyone could play there, he would play any old Tom, Dick and Harry there, but instead, he plays emergency players that have a reasonable amount of discipline and width to play there. So I disagree with the implied notion that Ferguson plays any player there, accompanied with his sensationalized and pantomime arrogance that people like to portray in everything he does.
United certainly has enough defenders. But they had serious injury troubles last season. And before a game was played this season, four of them were out already.
They could all be injury prone or the physios do the wrong exercises.
If you have only 3 fit defenders every week, something has to be done.
Hello – my first real read of ZM (after hearing so much about it). Really impressed. A great read and brilliant to have some technical, tactical insight and journalism to balance out all the ‘celebrity gossip’ style stuff in most of the ‘papers.
Keep up the good work!
Well said. I’m very glad to see ZM back.
My favourite website on the web. I trust few others apart from him regarding tactics/formations – I’ve seen some hilariously inaccurate transfer diagrams in news papers over the years! This was a particularly good article I must say.
Could anyone tell me if there is a possibility to access those OPTA statistics via internet browser? I know about iphone app, but do not own the phone.
apple.com/store
no, thanks.
i dont know from where that 69% possession statistic came from but the game was taken away by everton in the first half itself and in the second half they just protected it .
besides fellani there were quite a few features to the game everton played a high line in the first half and pressed aggressively . they could do so for the fact that although cleverly and scholes are great passers of the ball but they are not the most mobile of the players . moyes must had known this and must had asked his players to press . this strategy nearly back fired as utd were through on goal 2or 3 times right through the middle . carrick must be the only english player who doesnt loves physical confrontation and always comes second best in it . even if anybody could remember he was responsible for letting ( falling down on a soft challenge) olic score in the q/f clash in the ucl v/s bayern munich .moyes got his tactics for the first period and most importantly he got the goal .
for the second period everton just sat back and soaked what utd threw on them and rode their luck which they needed .
SAF should had substituted rooney instead of welback who was decent rooney was hopeless i dont know how he can command such big pay packet if possible sell him now throw him out .he didnt looked to have his heart in the game loosing possession .
kagawa impressed me very much he has all the right qualities which are needed and if possible can he play in the middle in place of scholes who can now retire since he has a good successor in kagawa . hernandez would be my preferred choice to play with kagawa since he has that spark and can be on the same wavelength as him . his touch to release to rooney which he failed to react .
I was surprised to see Berba on the bench instead of Hernandez, especially as the latter has had a full pre-season, and I’d assumed he was fully-fit. He is a good poacher, is very quick and has good movement off the ball to get into goal scoring positions, but his all round play isn’t up to scratch. He really needs to improve his first touch and link up play. TBH, I can only really see him being a super-sub at United.
Apparently Berba was put on there as emergency centre back. Ferdinand once commented that Berba fancies himself as a competent centre back but one thing doing it in training and another in a competitive game! To be fair, he had a little cameo at the end as centre back against Leeds but again, to be fair, that wasn’t against top tier opposition.
Good point, I hadn’t though about that. The way Fellani got the better of Carrick all game, you can only imgaine how he would dominate Berba aerially, if he was required to come off the bench!
Hopefully we will have a recognisable CB partnership for the Fulham game.
I’d like to see Berbs and Hernandez there myself, or maybe a back 3 with Van Persie thrown in…
I thought Fellaini reminded me a lot of manzukic at the euro’s, playing as a deeper target forward. As zm stated, everton brilliantly worked around this by bringing in the wingers inside and having jelavic occupy vidic. Gibson also got forward well at times as a surprise factor.
I felt evertons weakness was distins lack of pace, but united never challenged this. By having Rooney leading the line, united had both him and Kagawa operating in the same space, while Welbeck lacked experience playing a narrow wide right role. They should have had RVP or Welbeck leading the line, with Kagawa outside on the right and rooney in the hole,
Distin is prone to the occasional lapse in concentration but his pace is as good as you can get from any central defender.
Definitely used to be fast, but I think age is catching up on him, is definitely slowing down. But United never tested that in this match, with Rooney constantly dropping deep into his old position of last season.
Who does that job as well as Fellaini? Absolutely remarkable performance. If not for a great showing by De Gea, his heroics would have led to 2-3 Everton goals.
in my view, the problem with united was that kagawa, rooney and cleverly overlapped too much. they all moved into the same space (right behind the penalty box), and exchanged meaningless passes. although those passes can increase possession, it will never create real chances. if saf was going to play 4-5-1, rvp, instead of rooney, had be the choice for center forward. i do understand that rvp was not yet in form, but yesterday’s formation was just awful..
This is one awesome blog.Really thank you! Great.
Rooney didn’t look very comfortable with so many players in such close proximity to him.
Last year in many games he had abundant space, as Welbeck was in the box, the two midfielders were fairly deep and the two wingers supplied width.
That allowed him to drift around outside the box, pick up the ball in space, and distribute, run, or shoot.
This time, Welbeck and Kagawa were both squeezing him and he seemed a bit lost. He didn’t look too happy having to work through the congestion that those two created and instead of having the freedom to pick which pocket of space to drop into he had to keep track of where Kagawa was so as not to overlap his space too much.
Here are some stats to back it all up. Against Everton Rooney:
1. Had fewer passes than average last year
2. Far fewer long balls than average last year
3. Was dispossessed more times than average last year
4. Had a much lower pass completion ratio than average last year
I wonder if he’ll learn to thrive in such a formation, especially when RVP is also there, centrally.
IMO, the decline the scarcity of long balls from Rooney was particularly telling.
Last year, he had room to drop back, pick up the ball and play it long to the wingers out wide. He did that a lot and to great effect.
Against Everton, with Welbeck coming inside often and Kagawa limiting his space and ability to drop deep, he could hardly get a long ball off, both because there was less width than last year and because Kagawa’s positioning prevented him from finding as much as space as he did last year.
I think that United really badly need a strong, tall defensive midfielder like Fellaini. Its a position they’ve been weak in for a very long time.
Saying that, though, I thing the attacking options that United have now will make them a force to be reckoned with… a big reason why the trio of old, Rooney, Ronaldo, and Tevez, were really as good as they were was because of how versatile and unpredictable they were. I think with the purchases of RVP and Kagawa, along with Welbeck’s rise, gives united lots of good attacking options: Rooney, RVP, Berbatov, Welbeck, Hernandez, Valencia, Nani, Young, and Kagawa.
But if united want to have a good chance at winning the league and the uefa cup, then they really have to get someone to shore up their midfield.
I thinks that Fellaini would be a good signing for any team. I wouldn’t think that having him as a Defensive midfielder, even if United were to sign him, would reap the full benefits of his ability. Much like Yaya Toure at his best, I think that having him in a much more free-er role would be best as he’s technically very good (good feet for a tall guy nonsense, blah blah).
I don’t subscribe to the ‘Man Utd need a defensive midfielder’ brigade. They do indeed need a combative midfielder (with some technical skill) against certain teams, but having a defensive midfielder would probably make Carrick’s job more difficult, particularly with two players in that zone at the same time leaving fewer options in a forward position for him to pass to. I wonder if the lack of movement in the transfer market is due in some case to faith in Anderson and loyalty to Fletcher (in this latter case faith that he will return to action).
No matter what others say, I think it is still interesting and useful maybe necessary to improve some minor things
Will you do a review for yesterday’s Barca Real?
Hey ZM great read again. Since you seem to like managers who achieve more with less, how about an article re: promising new managers this year. I’d settle for a comment with a list of must-watch managers (in terms of being tactically interesting) in any of the big leagues this season. Thanks.