It seemed the most enviable of problems: how do you fit Robin van
Persie and Wayne Rooney into the same side? By leaving the Englishman on
the bench and then losing him to injury for a month, Sir Alex Ferguson
need not provide an immediate answer. Yet the actual issue is more
complicated: how do Van Persie, Rooney and Shinji Kagawa all slot in?
While
Rooney's ill-fated cameo came as the spearhead, with Van Persie taking
over from the substituted Kagawa in the deeper role, the first three
quarters of the game highlighted the merits of the Japanese. Though up
against defensive midfielders in both matches to date - first Phil
Neville, then Mahamadou Diarra - he finds pockets of space, is always
available for a pass and served as a conduit from left to right, or vice
versa, as attacks changed direction.
Van Persie's goal provided a
headline, but the Dutchman himself served as a decoy; directly up
against the defence, he scored with his solitary shot and did not enjoy
the room the three support acts enjoyed.
Because of the
characteristics of the two wide men, United's attacking quartet was not a
symmetrical diamond: Valencia holds his position and stays wide on the
right, Young drifts in from the left. While it followed a corner,
United's third goal actually involved both in positions they take up in
open play, with the Ecuadorian near the corner flag, and the Englishman
halfway between the touchline and the goal, before Rafael da Silva
scored.
The statistics give an indication of their different
positioning and preferences: Valencia delivered 14 crosses, by far the
most in the match, while Young, like Kagawa, had four shots. They were
in positions to go for goal, Valencia in areas to aim for team-mates.
The
stations the wingers occupied also influenced the full-backs. Van
Persie's goal was a case in point: the cross was delivered by Patrice
Evra from the left wing, which Young had vacated. In contrast,
right-back Rafael had a goal disallowed in open play, in addition to the
one he scored from a corner, after making a diagonal run infield, with
Valencia policing the flank.
It was a different diamond in the
final quarter, with Rooney at the top and Danny Welbeck on the left, and
it suggested that, slight as the distinction between attacking
midfielder and deep-lying forward can be, Van Persie was less involved
than Kagawa had been in the hole. The Japanese actually finished with
the lowest pass completion rate of United's outfield starters, but as
that was still 89%, it was a sign of how Fulham stood off United. Apart,
of course, from when Hugo Rodallega accidentally stood on Rooney and
delayed Ferguson's decision.
source: http://soccernet.espn.go.com/columns/story/_/id/1142894/richard-jolly:-tactics-board?cc=4716
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