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...
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I watched three of the matches this week – Milan v Manchester United, Porto v Arsenal and Bayern v Fiorentina. The Porto v Arsenal game I found relatively uninteresting from a tactical point of view – it was fairly even and the goals came from mistakes and set-pieces, rather than tactical wisdom from either...
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Gael Clichy’s form over the past 18 months has been a real cause for concern for Arsenal fans. When Ashley Cole left for Chelsea in 2006, the consensus amongst Gooners was that Arsenal hadn’t done too badly, because Clichy stepped into the first team and was playing consistently well. And indeed, better than Cole...
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After Arsenal’s 1-2 defeat at Old Trafford earlier in the season, Arsene Wenger made a point of singling out Darren Fletcher for criticism:
“There are other points that, for me, are more urgent – players who play only to make fouls, who make repeated fouls and are never punished. They get out of the game without...
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It’s one thing to go out, play to your manager’s orders and get results. It’s an entirely separate thing to go out and score great goals.
And when those two come together, you have perfect football. This doesn’t happen too often – playing to your manager’s orders is often associated with defensive, negative football –...
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