Manchester United 0-1 Newcastle United: Pardew beefs up his midfield and Newcastle dominate possession

The starting line-ups. Both sets of wingers switched during the first half.
Manchester United lost their second consecutive home league match for the first time over a decade.
David Moyes made seven changes from the side that lost to Everton in midweek. Wayne Rooney was suspended and Michael Carrick was still injured, but Robin van Persie returned.
Alan Pardew moved away from the 4-4-2 system that had beaten Chelsea and Tottenham in recent weeks, bringing Vurnon Anita into the midfield and leaving Loic Remy alone upfront.
Moyes’ side had been a touch unfortunate against Everton in midweek, but here they were simply outplayed by a superior unit.
Pardew’s formation
The main tactical story was simple: the formation choice of the away manager. Pardew’s 4-4-2 had proved successful in recent matches against big opposition, and it was expected that he would continue with a system featuring both Remy and Shola Ameobi upfront together. The forward duo have been extremely hard-working in recent weeks, dropping back and keeping Newcastle compact, and positioning themselves to prevent passes into the opposition holding midfielders.
Besides, there was no obvious need for Newcastle to be cautious against a Manchester United side that is clearly lacking in the centre of the pitch, and without their best deep-lying playmaker in Carrick. It often seems Pardew is a natural 4-4-2 man, but only goes with three central midfielders when he’s scared about being overrun in the middle of the pitch.
But here, he ditched Ameobi and went with Anita instead. Newcastle had a clear numerical advantage in the centre of the pitch, and although this doesn’t entirely explain their possession dominance – somewhat amazing for an away side at Old Trafford, especially considering Newcastle aren’t natural ball-hoarders, and spent the final half hour 1-0 up – it was a big factor.
Cabaye advanced
There were two interesting knock-on effects from Pardew’s decision to play three central midfielders. First, rather than putting Anita behind Cheick Tiote and Yohan Cabaye in a 4-3-3, he kept a deep-lying midfield partnership with Anita and Tiote, and instructed Cabaye to move higher up in support of Remy.
The Frenchman played this role excellently – he helped press Manchester United’s centre-backs when they tried to play out, and then dropped into a deeper position to make life uncomfortable for Phil Jones. Cabaye is a tough tackler, and was cautioned within the opening 15 minutes because of two fouls, but his pressure high up the pitch was crucial in helping the away side dominate centrally – Jones never seemed to settle on the ball.
Cabaye also supported Remy keenly, summed up by his winner after an hour.
Van Persie deeper
The other effect of Newcastle’s 4-4-1-1 system was it forced one of the Manchester United forwards into a deeper role to pick up one of the midfielders, in an attempt to prevent the away side’s dominance. Usually, this was Van Persie dropping onto Anita, although Javier Hernandez also had spells in deeper positions.
Here, the home side struggled because Van Persie no longer appears comfortable playing in the number ten position – previously his natural role. Certainly, the Dutchman wasn’t 100% and it’s tough to judge his suitability for that role based upon a single performance, but he found it difficult to receive the ball in positions between the lines, and his lack of influence meant United lacked creativity as a whole.
Creativity?
Van Persie’s best moment was when he dropped extremely deep to collect a pass before hitting an excellent 40-yard diagonal for Hernandez – which was United’s best chance of the game – but this was the Golden Boot winner of the last two seasons dropping into his own half to hit long balls, rather than staying upfront and providing the finish. Pardew would have been delighted to see him playing in those zones.
Moyes’ side simply lacked guile and invention on the ball – the system seemed very flat. Tom Cleverley played a more cultured role than usual, sweeping some nice passes out to the right, and Adnan Janujaz drifted inside from the right dangerously but lacks consistent end product – as you’d expect from an 18-year-old. Nani stayed wide on the left, from where he never seems capable of sending good crosses into the box.
Midfield runs?
The only real advantage of Moyes using two strikers in tandem was that it theoretically created space for midfield runners. Hernandez and Van Persie’s movement is excellent, and there was a moment midway through the first half when the Newcastle centre-backs tracked them into wider positions, opening up space for Jones to storm into.
The home side’s midfield quartet rarely used this space inventively, however, and the double pivot of Anita and Tiote positioned themselves well in the centre.
Debuchy
One of the star performers here was Newcastle right-back Mathieu Debuchy, a strange player – when he’s good he’s excellent, but he can be prone to some truly horrendous performances, such as in the 4-0 defeat to Manchester City on the opening weekend.
Here, however, he was crucial. The role of a full-back in when playing against two strikers is slightly different from that when playing against one striker – the centre-backs don’t have a spare man, and therefore the full-backs need to pay more attention to the movement of the opposition strikers, and be in a position to sweep up. Debuchy did this consistently throughout the game, getting back into central positions to cover and make crucial clearances, including one in the second half that probably prevented a goal.
He won tackles in his natural zone, and made clearances behind his centre-backs.
But he also attacked well, and had two of Newcastle’s best chances in the final moments of the first half, when he raced in behind the defence to meet an excellent Remy through-ball, and then a deep Santon cross. Newcastle weren’t supporting Remy well enough for long periods of the first half, especially on the break. But when the build-up was slower, Debuchy provided a real outlet on the right when overlapping. Davide Santon, too, was impressive with his dribbling on the opposite flank.
Substitutions
Pardew made the game’s first change, withdrawing Yoann Gouffran – quiet compared to his recent outings – and introducing Hatem Ben Arfa, which Pardew cited as an important change after the match. Ben Arfa was capable of holding onto the ball high up the pitch – he’s a tricky dribbler, but also a powerful player physically – which helped Newcastle push up the pitch and force Manchester United back. The change came five minutes before the only goal, although he played no part in the move.
Moyes’ changes showed an inability to alter the course of the game. All three were essentially straight swaps – Wilfried Zaha replaced Nani down the left but contributed little, Anderson offered more drive than Cleverley but wasn’t a true game-changer, while Antonio Valencia came on for Rafael as an attack-minded right-back – but that move makes less sense when it’s Rafael being replaced, rather than a centre-back out of position there, like Chris Smalling.
In fairness, Moyes made the changes early, but none of the replacements offered anything different. Although it would have been considered a negative move, Moyes might have considered removing one of the two strikers for Danny Welbeck, perhaps allowing Januzaj to move permanently to the central zone he kept drifting into. Welbeck could have played high up on the left, and Nani could have returned to his favoured role on the right. This would have given Newcastle more outright attacking threats to cope with, even if it featured one less out-and-out goalscorer.
Pardew’s second substitution was interesting – striker Ameobi replaced mdifielder Cabaye, but this was actually a change with defensive caution in mind. Cabaye was tired (and on a booking) and could no longer help start the pressure from high up, so Ameobi played that role and helped Newcastle see out the game.
Just as the removal of a striker could have been an attack-minded move from Moyes, the introduction of an extra striker was essentially a defensive move by Pardew.
Conclusion
It’s hardly revolutionary to ditch one striker and play three central midfielders away from home against a big side, but Pardew’s change worked excellently. Cabaye played as half-striker, half-midfielder: when Newcastle were without the ball he pressed the opposition centre-backs and then tackled the opposition central midfielders. When Newcastle had the ball, he offered a simple forward passing option before sprinting forward to join Remy, eventually scoring the winner.
Aside from that, Newcastle’s task was reasonably simple against a Manchester United side lacking creativity, integrated movement between attacking players or intelligent forward passes from midfield. The whole system seemed flat, boxy and with too much space between the lines, despite Van Persie trying to bridge the gap. The absence of Rooney, Carrick and Shinji Kagawa certainly contributed, and Van Persie clearly wasn’t 100% fit, but that doesn’t completely explain the complete lack of cohesion – this was a much more damning defeat than the loss to Everton.
When did ManU last buy a good central midfielder? Hargreaves, I assume, who proved to be crocked. Before that Carrick? I won’t count The Hair, since he’s not yet settled in.
Oh hang on; what about Kagawa? Was he a mistake or has he been underused by two managers?
Anderso….maybe not.
I still rate Kagawa. In fact I think he’s generally done OK – he’s not the saviour but nor has he been a disaster.
Interesting that Anderson was used at Gremio in number 10 role or as support striker. It was shocking at the time so see him used as a deep lying central midfielder at ManU.
Ferguson seemed to have a real thing for converting players into central midfielders. You mention Anderson there was also Alan Smith initially a striker, Phil Jones has played a lot in midfield there was talk of him wanting to convert Rooney into a midfielder, also Giggs, possibly also Kagawa. Apart from Giggs none of them have really worked. Why not just buy a decent midfielder?
United’s central midfield options have been criticised for the best part of the last 5 years (remember the continued obsession with Wesley Sneijder, which after googling, to check spelling, appears to have resurfaced). But in that time they have dominated the domestic league and gone toe to toe with the finest in Europe. The talk about a United squad decline seems bizarre just a couple of months after they strolled to the title in one of the most comprehensive domestic processions in recent memory. An interesting parallel would most probably be when Jose Mourinho left Inter Milan after the treble winning season and a seemingly invincible squad looked old and fragile. The question would now have to be posed is if they were over performing under Fergie or now dramatically under performing under Moyes. But citing personnel in the midfield as the problem would probably overlook the fact that this very year those same options in midfield shut down Real Madrid at the Bernabeu.
Even the Sneijder thing never really made sense…
Their pursuit of Cesc Fabregas the day after Barcelona had sold Thiago to Bayern Munich is another one to add to the list of United’s bizarre midfield pursuits.
Shut down Real Madrid at the Bernabeu? Madrid was the better team, United just parked the bus like Chelsea against Barcelona. United had nothing from game only counterattacks. Yeah, but United shut down. United parked the bus again at home, Madrid again completly dominated the game. So what was shut down? Or are you going me to say, that Chelsea shut down Barcelona or Bayern under Guardiola? Lolol, no wonder, why PL teams have to always park the bus against any decent team when they have fans like you.
With all due respect sir I am every bit a Barcelona fan and admirer of La Liga and agree that PL teams often just ‘park the bus’ (which commentators seem intent as praising as ‘good physical play) against Europe’s best. However when watching the games I felt United had offered quite a lot overall in terms of competing with Madrid – anyway regardless of that interpretation either way the point was simply to highlight that bemoaning United’s midfield options now doesn’t really make sense when you consider that they have been one of the dominant forces in Europe in the last 4/5 years.
Jesus. Some people get angry about the weirdest things.
Just offering some impression from Germany about Kagawa. For the record, I’m a Bayern supporter.
That being said, for Dortmund, he was a joy to watch. Simply amazing. He played in the center, right off the striker. While defending, he managed to block the ways for passes through the center nearly alone with his clever positioning and movement – you won’t believe this if you haven’t seen it, but he literally cut off the centre-backs from the midfield by himself, absolutely no chance for any team below Bayern to get the ball forward besides a long ball. He has been called a “black hole” in that position.
He was a gegenpressing machine, and deadly on the counter. On form, he was near unplayable.
At United, he has either played not at all or on the left wing, hasn’t he? That is far from his best position. Even though he moves into the center, creating space for Evra on the overlap and linking up nicely on the left side, the position doesn’t really suit him. He is way too often out of play, even if he’s not on the bench.
I’m sure he’s good enough for a team like United (actually, he should be good enough for any football team out there!), but I can’t say if he’s just a bad fit for United’s style of play. United typically play on the flanks and put crosses in for Rooney and Van Persie. Hard to bench one of them for Kagawa when playing that style, not exacly a towering giant, so maybe he’s just the wrong player at the wrong place? Still, hasn’t he quite excelled when he was allowed to play off Rooney? I remember a 5:0 destruction of Leverkusen (a very solid team in the league, only 4 points behind record-breaking Bayern and 6 ahead of Dortmund!) a few weeks ago where he played there. How did it work out in the Premier League when he played there?
The players ManU were interested in, in the summer: apart from Baines weren’t they all midfielders? So the management seems to view it as a weak area.
Hi Mike,
Manchester United supporter here and for obvious reasons very disappointed. I am really at a loss to explain if this is a managerial problem or a problem with our players. Both play huge roles in games and maybe they both are the problem. As Marcoag noted earlier, Fergie had pretty much the same squad and got them playing their tails off and we all know how much of a badass Fergie is. Maybe Moyes, needs some of that fire because frankly, the players do not seem worried if they lose.
Another issue being the January transfer coming up. We definitely need a midfield and maybe some defensive upgrades as well.
Could you comment on what you think is going wrong with United and who would be excellent tragets for Moyes?
Why are you surprised? United played poorly last season too but RVP saved their asses. Now imagine last season withou RVPs goals from nothing and…?
I assume that there are great advantages to fielding the same combination of central defenders and goalie repeatedly, and without too much variation in the fullbacks either. In which case having elderly centrebacks who are injury prone is a real weakness. It can’t help that Jones gets injured easily too. Should they try to develop Evans and Smalling as their first choice combo?
As for the strikers, I suppose they have to exploit one of Rooney’s good spells as much as possible, before he returns to that form where he can’t even control the ball. If RVP returns to his usual Arsenal status as a sick-note waiting to happen, then Rooney will play as the “nine” a lot. But in between, who? Carrick, OK; Jones, when fit. And? The Albanian laddie? But he’s 18, he can’t play every game.
It seems to me that they are a weak squad, and that Sir Odious pulled off a considerable feat making them champions last season. Still, they’re not the only side with problems: Chelsea don’t have a centre-forward, Arsenal have only one, and Man City can’t win away from home.
United have been unlucky with there centre mids. Hargreaves being made of glass. Fletcher’s illness. Anderson’s injuries and love of cake.
One of Fergie’s major midfield mess up’s though has to be young Paul Pogba. He’d instantly improve that United midfield. Would have been good in a box to box type roll alongside Carrick.
Michael,
I thought the decision to start Hernandez here was strange. Moyes seems keen to rotate players out of a sense of obligation to get them playing time, not for any particular tactical reason. This also somewhat explains our first Zaha sighting of the campaign as a like-for-like substitution for no tactical reason (Nani wasn’t playing well, to be fair). What particular advantage does playing Hernandez against a side like Newcastle even get you?
Hernandez needs to link up with a true 10 to be effective. If, as we learned after the match, Kagawa is unavailable, why force van Persie into that role? You hurt his ability to score goals and you rely on his diminished creative skills. In my view, van Persie should have started up top with Januzaj in the 10 role. The whole team selection seems to follow from a need to force Hernandez into the side. Hernandez is forced in, then RvP has to play as a 10. Januzaj then has to be forced right. Nani then has to be forced to the left. As you mention, the side probably would have been better with Welbeck left, Nani right and Januzaj as the 10.
On the subject of midfield runs, this seems to be the role that Moyes envisioned for Fellaini: standing strong in the center of midfield without the ball, but exploiting space behind the forwards when United have the ball. We’ll see if he can eventually deliver on this promise.
The first two sentences of this article sum up everything that has gone wrong with United this year, can you imagine reading those words in August?
It is truly unbeleiveable to see United fail to score in two consecutive home games.
Carrick was a huge miss in both games. Giggs provided more going forward than Cleverley did, but his positioning was poor in defence, he drifted too much to the left, while Welbeck didn’t come inside to cover for him.
Van Persie was not utilised in his best position. Coming deep and trying to connect the midfield and the attackers is clearly not his strong point, we talked about this on my podcast.
http://www.footballstatsandtactics.com/2013/12/football-stats-and-tactics-podcast_10.html
Ideally, you would want him around the box. Kagawa has not turned the world upside down so far, but he has not been disastrous either.
There is a lot of rotation going on at the moment. However, Moyes has the work ethic to turn this around. He knows that there are issues both with the team’s shape and mental approach.
Did you guys hear what Gary Neville said about MU’s bad run of results? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JNjGZ1p5370
Cabaye is excellent in that advanced midfield role, both defensively and offensively. When newcastle were flyin in the season we finished 5th he played there regularly towards the end of the season with ba left, Ben arfa right & cisse central… it worked brilliantly because of cabayes defensive work (which compensated for having two lazy players on the flanks) and his eye for a pass. Last season he was either injured or Pardew played him deeper; he makes play well but his tendency to make late tackles makes him a bit of a liability in front of the defence & he couldn’t hurt teams from deep. If we keep him fit we’ll finish top 8 comfortably, and I will shed a tear when we inevitably lose him in the summer because he is a fantastic player!
Cabaye is the key. Newcastle struggled at the beginning of the season. Ben Arfa was playing in the middle. He was very inconsistent, and quite frustrating with his shooting.
Then Cabaye came on as a sub against Fulham, changed the game, and turned Newcastle’s season around. They are much more fluid now.