Criticism Moyes Strategy

[troy andreas]

Ada artikel menarik dari salah satu petinggi four- four two yang ane rasa menarik untuk jadi pembuka thread ini (ditulis bulan januari kemarin namun sangat menggambarkan kondisi United saat ini):

How David Moyes made Manchester United one-dimensional

David Moyes arrived at Old Trafford as the man who was supposed to provide continuity following the reign of Sir Alex Ferguson. A Caledonian compatriot cut from the same cloth, so the narrative went: a safe pair of hands to maintain what Ferguson had built, rather than a radical looking to change a successful club.

Yet just six months since Moyes officially arrived, Manchester United look a shadow of their former selves. Pedestrian in attack, porous in defence and often vacant in spirit, they have been described as the worst reigning champions in Premier League history.

At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be too much different in the team’s set-up. Although Ferguson may protest that he rarely played a true 4-4-2, a variant on this oft-maligned system was, and still is, the default formation. Similarly, United still tend to attack down the wings, as they did under Fergie from Ralph Milne onwards – and as at Everton, Moyes has continued to encourage his full-backs to join in on the overlap, sometimes at risk to their defensive duties.

Never mind the quality, feed the width

There’s been plenty of criticism rained down upon United’s wingers this season but Antonio Valencia, Nani and Ashley Young rarely looked like world-beaters on the way to securing the club’s 20th league title. The problem is that Moyes’ style of football has made wing play not just an option, but United’s dominant method of attack.

According to WhoScored.com, last season United averaged 28% of their time in the central zone of the pitch (as opposed to the wings), coming out eighth in the league for the proportion of their play that went through the middle. So far this season they’ve spent only 25% of their time in central areas – the lowest percentage in the Premier League. Although such margins may seem insignificant to some, the teams who were bottom of the pile for the same stat in 2012/13 were the struggling duo of Reading and Sunderland with 25% and 24% of their play taking place through the middle, respectively.

Nobody would expect United to attack constantly down the middle. Besides their historic love of wing play, they have a notable lack of world-class players in central midfield, either a regular goal threat through the middle or a dynamic, box-to-box presence able to punch through the melee and make things happen. Tom Cleverley is no Bryan Robson, Roy Keane or even a Darren Fletcher. He also isn’t Paul Scholes.

Of course, goals have been scored and chances created from the middle this season, usually by the occasional excellence of individuals, but as a team Moyes’s men seem single-mindedly one-dimensional in their plans: a pass to the flanks, a panicked cross into the box.



This lack of a genuine world-class central midfielder is a longstanding problem, but managers are supposed to maximise the resources available and Ferguson managed to find a way round it – almost literally. His United at least flirted with the pretence that something dangerous could come by attacking within the width of the penalty area.

Attempted short-passing interplay in and around an opponent’s box and through the channels, or some patient time on the ball – especially at Michael Carrick’s feet – may not always have penetrated, but it certainly drew markers in. Just as a team sitting deep can coax the other side forward, creating space behind them to attack, United’s willingness to be patient in possession or attempt to spring through the middle with a clever bit of play, however incompetent, offered just enough wiggle room out wide.

Predictable is defendable

As well as facing a fear factor that now seems to have gone, opponents of Ferguson’s teams had to defend much more diligently across the full width of the pitch. After all, though his individual midfielders may not have been the continent’s finest, they still had enough quality to score and create when given room, and so had to be closed down.

Consider the last two visits of West Brom. In last season’s 2-0 win, the hosts’ highest passing combinations came from Nemanja Vidic to Chris Smalling at the back, Valencia to Danny Welbeck up front and some back-and-forth between midfielders Carrick and Cleverley and full-backs Patrice Evra and Rafael.

By the same fixture this season, there had been a clear shift in intent. The dominant combinations became Jonny Evans to Carrick followed by Carrick to Nani, with two of the other top five also including Carrick as a recipient. While the England midfielder has long been the club’s main passing hub, as United lost 2-1 to the Baggies at home this season, his role had been boiled down to being a conveyor belt for wide balls.

Without much of an alternative, however flawed, opponents are able to dig in, hold their shape and brace from the next predictable wave of speculative crosses, rushed in due to the lack of space and time and lost element of surprise.

It may be a stylistic tweak, but the main problem is that it’s not working. True, United’s average number of crosses has gone up from 25 per match to 27 – but that’s an unimpressive uptake considering the amount of time they’re spending in wide areas. Predictable teams are easier to defend against.



It’s not enough to simply write off Ferguson’s successes with a similar group of players as the effect of a true great squeezing every last drop of performance from his personnel. There are lessons to be learned in just how he went about mining even the most deficient part of his squad for that extra edge of percentage.

While Moyes undoubtedly needs time, not to mention major investment to remove the weaknesses in United’s squad, he must also look closer at how ideas similar to his own were made to work with raw materials available to him. At present it appears that he has overlooked one of the subtlest yet surprisingly important facets of Ferguson’s glorious reign.

http://www.thefalsenine.co.uk/2014/01/16/david-moyes-made-manchester-united-one-dimensional/

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[SPOILER]

Originally Posted by Shi no Gekai

Fulham manager Rene Meulensteen has described David Moyes' tactics as "straightforward" and "easy" to defend against.

Read more at http://www.espn.co.uk/football/sport...d72BwRXPIPE.99

http://www.espn.co.uk/football/sport/story/282095.html

tu rene aja ampe ngomong gitu..udah ketebak dari awal

Sudah berkali- kali kita menonton pertandingan Manchester United musim ini yang menyajikan tontonan hampir sama di setiap match yakni serangan selalu dimulai dari sayap, kebobolan dari serangan balik atau set piece.

Bulan November lalu, iya November tahun lalu Zudo posting artikel:

Tweak His Tactics to Allow Wingers to Thrive


Much has been made of the new manager's focus on playing through the full-backs on the overlap, with his preference for players on the left wing especially to tuck in and cut inside rather than stretch the play.

Such an approach looks as though it should be compatible with United's traditional preference for wing play, attacking football and flair so long as Moyes finds the right balance to elevate his system above mere functionality.

Though he is still far from convincing in the role, Shinji Kagawa looks to be the ideal player to play on the left in the Steven Pienaar role if we are to revert to Everton's former tactics as a reference point.

Patrice Evra, too, is the perfect wing-back to streak forward down the left flank, although he must soon be replaced with a fitting successor—see slide one—while Rafael, when fit, has shown a similar aptitude down the right.

The right wing looks set to be the last bastion of the traditional wide-man at United, with Antonio Valencia, Nani and Zaha all excellent options to add pace and width to help create space elsewhere in the forward line.

Januzaj is also an option on the left, but he has so far shown himself to be happy to roam into the channels as well as to the byline, allowing Moyes' full-back plan to take effect even with him on the flanks.

Ferguson himself rarely played with two out-and-out wingers, and the recent shift in how the team is set up has merely formalised ideas that already existed at the club into a more rigid structure.

While no one would want the manager of United to be precious, he must ensure that the club's stylistic ideals sit at the heart of his tactical plans as they evolve from serviceable to spectacular.

http://bleacherreport.com/articles/1855066-manchester-united-how-david-moyes-can-the-update-and-defend-the-united-way

Artinya dari tahun lalu diawal rezim Moyes, taktik United hampir tidak pernah berubah banyak. Hingga hari ini rezim Moyes tidak pernah sekalipun mencetak gol skema counter attack dan sangat rentam kebobolan di 15 menit terakhir pertandingan, 19.5%. Beberapa user forum ini bahkan ane juga sepakat Moyes miskin taktik, namun apakah hal itu benar?

Oleh karena itu mari kita sama- sama bicarakan David Moyes namun BUKAN soal kapan ia OUT namun kebijakan taktiknya termasuk pergantian pemain, defence, offence, formasi dsb.