Analysis: Man United Midfilder performance 2014/15

[troy andreas]

Awal musim saat masih pake 3-5-2 ingat gak LvG sempat "ngeluh" United gak punya winger seperti Di Maria atau Ronaldo. Nah keluhannya sudah terjawab, yakin sih Di Maria tetap akan jadi winger. Toh di Argentina juga ia main sebagai Winger dibantu Zabaleta/ Rojo di belakangnya.

[dekepiks]

Mungkin besok lawan Arsenal, dengan cederanya Blind bisa dicoba pake 4-5-1/4-2-3-1

Carrick - Fellaini
DiMaria - Mata - Herrera (semua free role)
Rooney/RvP

mumpung masih nyoba2, skalian aja kali...
biar 3 AM nya aja yg mikir bolanya mau diapain...heueahuehau

[Blacklist7]

Originally Posted by troy andreas

Awal musim saat masih pake 3-5-2 ingat gak LvG sempat "ngeluh" United gak punya winger seperti Di Maria atau Ronaldo. Nah keluhannya sudah terjawab, yakin sih Di Maria tetap akan jadi winger. Toh di Argentina juga ia main sebagai Winger dibantu Zabaleta/ Rojo di belakangnya.

kuncinya simple.. selama Di Maria diberikan kebebasan mau kanan atau kiri, ataupun di tengah, bukan masalah.. sebab sayang bgt klo insting umpan tak terduga nya ga dimaksimalkan dengan baik..

klo bisa dimaksimalkan, RvP Rooney atau Fellaini tinggal sundul gan aja.. Di Maria ga baca aliran bolanya, tapi baca arah gerak orang yg mau di umpan.. lihat sendiri performanya di Madrid yg tanpa jeda main umpan jauh ternyata ada Bale atau CR7 didekat gawang yg tinggal loncat indah..

[dekepiks]

Apa mungkin ternyata missing link nya LVG ada di Carrick, semenjak doi maen entah pake back 4 ato 3 dan siapapun beknya, ngeliat Carrick maen langsung berasa aman aja...

Akhirnya terwujud juga formasi yg diharapkan sebelumnya, walaupun mines DiMaria yang cedera, tapi jadi ngasih jalan Herrera maen bareng Mata & Rooney di tengah, dan cukup bagus pergerakan mereka ber3.

Originally Posted by dekepiks

Carrick - Fellaini
DiMaria - Mata - Herrera (semua free role)
Rooney/RvP

mumpung masih nyoba2, skalian aja kali...
biar 3 AM nya aja yg mikir bolanya mau diapain...heueahuehau

[troy andreas]

Originally Posted by dekepiks

Apa mungkin ternyata missing link nya LVG ada di Carrick, semenjak doi maen entah pake back 4 ato 3 dan siapapun beknya, ngeliat Carrick maen langsung berasa aman aja...

Akhirnya terwujud juga formasi yg diharapkan sebelumnya, walaupun mines DiMaria yang cedera, tapi jadi ngasih jalan Herrera maen bareng Mata & Rooney di tengah, dan cukup bagus pergerakan mereka ber3.

Disisi lain saat kehilangan Di Maria & Januzaj gak main, variasi serangan United benar- benar kreatif & cukup kuat dengan Fellaini & Carrick sebagai penyeimbang disana. Saya masih penasaran ingin melihat Carrick- Fellaini-Blind-Herrera-Di Maria- Rooney main bareng. Atau kalau semua pemain fit, khusus lini tengah apa ramuan LvG yang paling oke.

[dekepiks]

Originally Posted by troy andreas

Disisi lain saat kehilangan Di Maria & Januzaj gak main, variasi serangan United benar- benar kreatif & cukup kuat dengan Fellaini & Carrick sebagai penyeimbang disana. Saya masih penasaran ingin melihat Carrick- Fellaini-Blind-Herrera-Di Maria- Rooney main bareng. Atau kalau semua pemain fit, khusus lini tengah apa ramuan LvG yang paling oke.

Wah itu juga seru yah...sayangnya kemaren RvP pake ngegolin sih, kalo masih paceklik kan bisa aja LvG masang taktik itu dengan Roo jadi striker tunggal...

Mulai glamor juga yah United itu, sekelas Mata, Falcao aja belom tentu starter

Kalo semua pemain fit untuk main, itu berkah buat LvG dia bisa nerapin berbagai macam taktik sesuai dengan lawannya. Karena mungkin jika dilihat dari jenis pemainnya, United itu cukup beraneka ragam juga.

[Kurniawan Ani]

Originally Posted by dekepiks

Apa mungkin ternyata missing link nya LVG ada di Carrick, semenjak doi maen entah pake back 4 ato 3 dan siapapun beknya, ngeliat Carrick maen langsung berasa aman aja...

Akhirnya terwujud juga formasi yg diharapkan sebelumnya, walaupun mines DiMaria yang cedera, tapi jadi ngasih jalan Herrera maen bareng Mata & Rooney di tengah, dan cukup bagus pergerakan mereka ber3.

Menurut saya iya karena selain punya akurasi umpan yg cukup baik, Carrick merupakan pemain senior yang bisa membantu Ander Herrera maupun Daley Blind agar lebih tenang ditengah dan bisa cepat beradaptasi dengan kultur permainan EPL yang terkenal cepat. Selaim itu Carrick juga defensive action yang bagus sehingga para pemain belakang United yang kerap kali di isi oleh pemain akademi ataupun pemain baru (Shaw dan Rojo) lebih percaya diri untuk mengawal lini belakang
Intinya dengan hadirnya Carrick membuat para pemain merasa lebih nyaman di lapangan

[icebreaker]

sudah cukup terkordinir antara menyerang dan bertahan dengan hadirnya carrick kalo menurut gw, jadi herrera rooney mata udh aman ga terlalu pusing mikirin bertahan karena udah ada jangkar ditengah felaini sama carrick. Tinggal offense nya aja lebih di gregetin lg sama positioning nya. Dan yang paling penting sih kreativitas di lini tengah

[Bulma]

Ulasan sangat menarik ttg lini tengah united...dari perspektif yg berbeda...dan ada benernya juga. Sebenernya penjelasannya banyak gambarnya...bisa liat langsung di site-nya.

UNITED’S MISSING INGREDIENT

Louis Van Gaal tactics manchester unitedPrior to the Arsenal game, there was a lot of statistical comparison between David Moyes and Louis Van Gaal, indicating how much worse the current manager’s recent record compared to the particular stage in last season. It was just a futile argument simply because Van Gaal had proven by the trophies being won with his philosophy and the brand of football being played.
For Moyes, his simplistic tactical system might be sufficient for Everton but at the highest level, it was simply not good enough and he will not suddenly become Pep Guardiola by giving him more time or money with United, contrary to popular belief that his tactical choices with Everton were due to financial constraint.

But in the last few games, United were very poor, lacking the imagination and fluency in their play, at times, it reminded us the type of football being played last season. It was no coincidence that this occurred since Fellani was in the starting line-up. In order to explain better, below is the illustration.

Unknown copy

As per above image in this 4-3-3 formation, the 3 central players (blue circle) are the core players who pull the string and glue the structure of the team (red circle) together. If a manager changes the structure, for example replacing Valencia with Di Maria, the team will just get an upgrade of quality in the winger position but if you replace Herrera with Fellani, the whole dynamic of play will change because the core changes which will affect the whole direction of play. Hence, since Fellani was in the starting line-up, United played differently.

The best example will be Chelsea as it was no secret that Mourinho was trying to implement a more dominance brand of football but came bit short in his first season due to lack of brain in centre of the park as he said, “It’s something I don’t want to do, to play more counterattacking, but I’m giving it serious thought. If I want to win 1-0, I think I can, as I think it’s one of the easiest things in football. It’s not so difficult, as you don’t give players the chance to express themselves.” But this season, they are running away with the Premier League from the rest simply and at the same time, playing proactive and dominance style of football simply because of one player, Cesc Fabregas, who changes the dynamic of Chelsea’s play.

“The team played very well but I agree with Cesc being man of the match because he and [Nemanja] Matic controlled the game and dictated the intensity of it…. They decided how to control the pace. They were both good brains in this team and I am happy with that because last season we could not control the game as we controlled [it] today…..Quick thinking in midfield. He (Cesc) brings people in the same direction. I am really happy” said the Chelsea’s manager on Fabregas after the match against Burnley.

As Xabi Alonso said, “That intelligence is vital to give a collective sense to the game.” It is because intelligence players able to control the game and bringing the players around to the right direction. This explains why in the last few games, since Fellani started, United played a lot more long ball forward and rarely penetrated through middle as most of the attacking play was through the wide areas. Rather than lack of technical ability, Fellani’s shortage of intelligence, not just in attacking phase but defensively as well, has been quite evidence.


As per illustrations above, Fellani just mindlessly charged towards the opponent with the ball without anticipation by reading the body language and positioning himself correctly to try to disrupt the opposition’s progression. People said that he kept Fabreagas quiet against Chelsea, but apart from Hazard, none of the Chelsea’ players had a lively game. It was more of a team effort and a pragmatic approach by Van Gaal that stifled them.

When David Beckham secured the move to join Real Madrid’s galactico project in 2003, he was being played mostly in the centre of the pitch but did not set the world alight in this central role as Luis Aragones, the Euro 2008 winner coach with Spain, who coached Mallorca then, commented, “Beckham is finding it difficult to play in the middle. He passes acceptably and works hard, but he doesn’t think quickly. In the centre of midfield it’s very important to know where you are going to place the ball before it comes to you. He doesn’t think in a hurry.” Or in other words, Beckham was just a Forrest Gump as labeled by Marca due to his lack of intelligence but full of running.

If Beckham was a Forrest Gump, Fellani will be a piece of wood, albeit, a very tall one. When Boban said, “Fellaini can’t play football.Seriously he can’t play football”, it was harsh but there was some truth in it. Apart from his physical presence and chesting ability, he just doesn’t bring anything to the players around him. In term of positioning, he just ran forward, high up the pitch, mostly near the wide areas. He just did not offer enough options through the middle and his passing was mechanical as he just passed the ball sideways without even looking or time his pass.

Wayne Rooney was not much better either as he is also a Forrest Gump even though he scored the goal against Arsenal, he just a level short in term of the interpretation of the game especially in term of positioning and the use of the ball . Juan Mata? He needs players around him to get the best out of him, not the other way round. That’s why, Mourinho did not fancy him as a no.10 with Chelsea. As Van Gaal is from Dutch school of football who trying to impose a dominance style of football as he described it, “That you decide how the opponent play their football and not that the opponent decides where we have to play”. The intention or idea is always there but the qualities of players are decisive “If you want to play dominant soccer, then a little depends on the other team’s quality but particularly yours matters”.

As with the case of Holland during the World Cup in South Africa, due to lack of quality in the centre of the pitch especially with Kevin Strootman injured, he implemented a more pragmatic approach by playing 3-5-2 formation. The same can be applied to United especially with the big games coming in quick succession in the last few weeks coupled with long injury list of players, Van Gaal adopted a more reactive approach which could explain why Fellani was started.

Thus, Van Gaal couldn’t able to transmit his philosophy onto the pitch as there was not enough players who are intelligence enough especially in the core, to carry out his ideas. Of course, United still have Herrera, Carrick and Blind who have great understanding of the game but like Chelsea last season, United are at least a player short, the Fabregas, Silva or Iniesta kind of player, to be able to challenge for major silverware. It was no coincidence the players like Di Maria struggled in the last few games there was not enough players who were capable to construct the play especially the above mentioned trio who did not have the chance to start along side each other.

The question here, what exactly is football intelligence?

In order to describe it, here is the excerpt from Thierry Henry in Dennis Bergkamp Autobiography “Stillness and Speed”

” With the Juve one, Dennis is turning everywhere. Everywhere! Yet he still sees Freddie. He’s waiting for Freddie to move, and he’s toying with the defenders, but he still knows where Freddie is. And he still knows the right pass to make. If he puts the ball on the ground, a defender can stop it, so he lifts it waist-height. As a defender, that’s the worst. You can’t lift your leg to reach it, and you can’t bend down to head it . . . It’s perfect. For me that’s his best assist. Freddie seems a bit slow on the uptake. Dennis has to wait for about three seconds for Freddie to make his run. That’s my point. Dennis waits. That’s Dennis Bergkamp. Any other player would have played the ball first touch and then screamed about it: “Hey! You didn’t move!” But Dennis sees the player isn’t moving, so he waits and he’s toying with all the defenders around him and he’s like “Come on, Freddie . . .” Aaaaaah, it’s so beautiful . . .!”
“It’s funny how people see it like that, but for me he could have done it against Yeovil and I would still say it’s his best pass. It’s not because it’s “against Juve, it’s because of the patience he shows in order to give Freddie the perfect ball. A skill is a skill. And it’s not the toying with the defenders that impressed me. It’s that he had to wait three seconds, so he waited three seconds. If he had to wait one, he would have waited one. That’s what makes the pass beautiful.”
Thierry Henry described it so vividly, it was not about his ability to toy with 3 or 4 defenders but he waited for 3 seconds in order for Freddie Ljungberg to move and lifted the pass a little bit above the around to prevent the opponents to intercept the ball. That was intelligence. But a lot of times, intelligence is not always as obvious as in this Bergkamp’s example as it can be very subtle and seems insignificance as with the case of Guardiola’s Barcelona. A lot of people thought they were just about all those 6 yards simple passing but behind all these, there were a lot of thought processes.

‘There are more spaces in football than people think. Even if you play against a deep-lying team, you immediately get half of the pitch. You can provoke the opponent with the ball, provoke him to move forward or sideways and open up a space. But many players can’t understand the game. They can’t think about or read the game…..Barcelona’s players are completely the opposite, their players are permanently thinking about the game, about their movement. Guardiola has talked about it: the centre backs provoke the opponent, invite them forward, then, if the opponent applies quick pressure, the ball goes to the other central defender and this one makes a vertical pass – not to the midfielders, who have their back turned to the ball, but to those moving between lines, Andrés Iniesta or Lionel Messi, or even directly to the striker” said André Villas-Boas in the excerpt from: Guillem Balague. “Pep Guardiola: Another Way of Winning: The Biography”.

This is what both Rooney and Fellani are lacking, they do not use the ball well when in possession, they just pass the ball without any real purpose or sometimes even without looking. They use the ball to draw the opponents and for his teammates to get into the right positions before releasing the pass. As Pep Guardiola said,“One of the best things that FC Barcelona do is run with the ball to provoke or tease, not to dribble.” Players like Silva always able to find the right pass because he move the opponents around to find the gap and releasing the ball at the right time when his team-mates making a run. Below is the example, how the core of Nasri and Silva constructed the play.

If Nasri was operating in the same mind as Rooney or Fellani, he will pass the ball sideways to left back and the opposition will have an easier time defending. The core of Nasri, Silva and Toure enabled the team structure as in this case, Kolarov to assist and Dzeko to score, it made their job easier. As the proverb goes, “You cannot clap with one hand”, without Silva intelligent positioning, this move wasn’t possible. Thus, intelligence is not all about when the player has the ball but also without the ball as David Sally mentioned in “The Numbers Game: Why Everything You Know About Football is Wrong.”

“A good team, when further up the pitch, manages to create and find space for both the passer of the ball and his intended target, making the passing situation easier. A poor team, in the same place, would not create as much space, so the passing situation would be harder. Good teams are not better at passing than bad ones. They simply engineer more easy passes in better locations, and therefore limit their turnovers.”
“Is Xavi an “excellent passer” because he can place a pass on a dime or is it more his ability to find pockets of space where no defensive pressure exists to receive the ball, with his ball control allowing him to continue to avoid pressure and hit higher value passes for an equal level of difficulty? Many players put themselves in difficult passing situations because they dwell on the ball too long and upon receiving the ball are not able to reposition their bodies in a way that opens up the field.”
“Possession football, in other words, is more than just being able to pass the ball – at the very top of the professional football pyramid, it has relatively little to do with that: it is mostly about being in the right place to receive it, helping a teammate position himself in the right place in the right way, and helping him get rid of the ball in order to maintain control for the team.”


That is why, players like Van Persie, Di Maria and Januzaj couldn’t hit the height they are capable of in the last few matches. Too many square passes and no construction of play from the core players. As a result, when they received the ball, the opponents were always in good positions to defend. Besides, the poor movement and positioning from the core players especially Fellani disrupted the ball circulation and resulted a lot of time, passes had to be made sideway or long.

‘It’s a thinking game….That’s how to play football: with your brains, not with your feet. You don’t have to be a chess player, but you must think ahead. Before I had the ball I knew exactly what I would do with it. I always knew two or three moves ahead. Before I get the ball I can already see someone moving in front of me, so when the ball arrives I don’t have to think about it. And I don’t have to watch the ball because I have the right technique.’ If ball control comes naturally to a player, he needs only one touch to get it where it needs to be. This is not the case if a player in possession has to stop to think. A pass which is a fraction of a second too late will have repercussions in the pass after that, and so on. English players don’t think until they have the ball at their feet. You have to give the ball at the right moment. In Holland we don’t think about the first man. We think of the third man, the one who has to run. If I get the ball, the third man can run immediately because he knows that immediately I will pass to the second man, and he will give it to him. If I delay, the third man has to delay his run and the moment is over. It is that special moment, that special pass.” Andy Muhren in the excerpt From: David Winner. “Brilliant Orange.”

Hence, until Van Gaal able to get the players he wanted, the manifestation of his philosophy will still be work in progress. In this January transfer window, the first priority will be to bring in an intelligence central core player to complement Herrera, Carrick and Blind in order to bring the best out of Van Persie, Di Maria and Falcao

http://livelifeunited.com/uniteds-missing-ingredient/#more-2534

[Andi Istiabudi]

Gelandang-gelandang MU: 12 Gol, 10 Assist
Rossi Finza Noor - detikSport



Manchester - Dari 24 gol yang dibuat Manchester United di Premier League musim ini, separuhnya berasal dari para gelandang. Tidak hanya rajin menyumbang gol, gelandang-gelandang 'Setan Merah' juga rajin menyumbang assist.

United sukses meraih kemenangan 2-1 kala menjamu Stoke City di Old Trafford, Rabu (3/12/2014) dinihari WIB. Dua gol United pada laga tersebut dicetak oleh dua gelandang berbeda, yakni Marouane Fellaini dan Juan Mata.

Buat Fellaini, itu adalah gol keduanya musim ini dari tujuh pertandingan terakhir. Sementara buat Mata, itu adalah gol keempatnya atau gol keduanya dalam empat pertandingan terakhir.

Dengan catatan 4 gol tersebut, Mata adalah gelandang tersubur United saat ini. Dia juga sudah menyumbang 1 assist sejauh ini.

Di bawah Mata, ada Angel Di Maria yang sudah menorehkan 3 gol dan 6 assist. Lalu, Ander Herrera yang sudah menorehkan 2 gol dan 3 assist, Fellaini yang sudah mencetak 2 gol, dan Daley Blind yang sudah mencetak satu gol.

Khusus buat Herrera, dia terbilang bagus dalam dua laga terakhir. Setelah membuat 1 assist dan 1 operan kunci pada laga melawan Hull City, gelandang asal Spanyol itu membuat 1 assist pada laga melawan Stoke.

Total, ada 12 gol dan 10 assist yang disumbangkan oleh kelima nama di atas.

"Saya pikir, kami bermain lebih baik di babak kedua. Kami mendominasi penguasaan bola dan menciptakan lebih banyak peluang," ujar Mata di situs resmi klub setelah laga melawan Stoke.

"Pada akhirnya, ini adalah kemenangan penting, kemenangan keempat secara berurutan, dan kami makin dekat (dengan tim-tim di atas)," kata Mata. (roz/krs)