Manchester United Need One Final Comeback in Their Complacency Ridden Season

By Kumar Shivam
13 years Ago

So what do Manchester United need to do to when theyAi??face Manchester City at the Etihad Stadium this Monday? ai???Theyai??i??ve got to be Man Unitedai??? says Martin Lipton of the DailyAi??Mirror.

The irony is that this team has shown the most un-Manchester United qualitiesAi??throughout the season. Problems Ai??systematically eradicated by Sir Alex afterAi??his arrival, seem to have re-emerged this season; complacency during games,Ai??lack of leadership and over-confidence during the run-in. United have thrownAi??away points from winning positions, like the 3-3 against Basel in the ChampionsAi??League and the 1-1 draw against Newcastle. Now it looks like they might throwAi??away the title.

Complacency

Sir Alex echoed the same sentiment after the gameAi??against Everton, ai???It was a travesty of aAi??result in some ways to play that type of football and concede four goalsai???. ButAi??Manchester United have been lax all season. Against Everton they threw away a 2Ai??goal lead conceding twice in the final 10 minutes. Against QPR they managed toAi??score only 1 goal in 75 minutes, against 10 men.

Has made some questionable team selections this season

The performances in Europe have been dire. They concededAi??thrice after taking a 2-0 lead against Basel only to draw 3-3 through a lateAi??Ashley Young equaliser. Basel star XherdanAi??Shaqiri went to the extent of saying that United ai???underestimatedai??? them and that they were not ai???fully focusedai???. Ajax defeated United 2-1 at homeAi??and Athletic Bilbao completely outplayed them home and away. The lack of effortAi??though certainly has to be questioned especially as one sees Muniain goal atAi??Old Trafford when Rafael seemed to carelessly stroll about instead of trying toAi??clear a rebound off De Gea. Sir Alex has used the word ai???ai??i??complacencyai??i??ai??i?? in at leastAi??a quarter of his post-match interviews.

Comebacks Have Disappeared

Season after season there are matches in whichAi??United emerge from seemingly insurmountable positions scoring late goals, shatteringAi??the oppositionai??i??s hopes and disheartening their title challengers. But thisAi??season that aura of ai???not being beaten till be final whistleai??? has been missing. InAi??the entire season Manchester United have not won a single game in which theyAi??conceded the first goal, the fans are yet to witnessed a Bruce in ’93 or MachedaAi??in ’09 moment this season.

There were rare sparks like the comeback againstAi??Chelsea, assisted by 2 penalties, but far too often they have been on the receivingAi??end of late goals; 3-2 loss against Blackburn, 1-1 against Newcastle, 3 lateAi??goals in the 6-1 drubbing against Manchester City and last week Ai??the inexplicable meltdown against Everton.

Throughout the season there has been a sense thatAi??the team has lacked the level of intensity and motivation that one associatesAi??with previous Manchester United teams. Perhaps the lack of leaders on the pitchAi??can be attributed as the reason for this. With Vidic out and Flethcer injured,Ai??it leaves Ferdinand, struggling for form and fitness until recently, as theAi??only leader on the field. Evra has been given the armband solely because he isAi??the only one with as assured place in the team. Rooneyai??i??s name may be added butAi??some suggest he has been lacking the desire and dedication one has come toAi??associate with him.

Strange Decisions from Sir Alex

Sir Alex for his part too can be criticised to aAi??certain extent. “I’ve got to accept I’m responsible forAi??picking the team and tonight I picked too many young players in the back fourAi??positions. It was a big risk I took.” Sir Alex uncharacteristicallyAi??blamed no one but himself for the loss against Ajax.

It was not anAi??occasional lapse either. In the home game against Blackburn, he fielded aAi??central midfield pairing of Park Ji Sung and Rafael, keeping Anderson and evenAi??Pogba on the bench.Ai?? He has shown aAi??tendency to persist with Giggs despite his rapidly declining performances, mostAi??recently against Wigan when he took off Rooney but kept him on. Berbatovai??i??s lackAi??of first team action is almost inexplicable and the enigmatic Bulgarian hasAi??rarely even found a place on the bench. Youngsters like Pogba, Petrucci andAi??Fryers have hardly seen any first team action and are yet to extend theirAi??contracts which expire at the end of this season as they search for moreAi??regular football. However, few things would be more unwise than questioning SirAi??Alexai??i??s handling of young players.

Struggling for Balance

Another tacticalAi??problem which United have faced ever since the emergence of Hernandez lastAi??season is whether to choose the best formation i.e. 4-3-3 or best players, forAi??the big games. In the second half of last season United were forced to use theAi??4-4-1-1 even in big matches which worked well until they were found out againstAi??Barcelona. But this season Sir Alex has almost completely gone back to the 2Ai??striker system. One might argue that Wayne Rooneyai??i??s hard work and tenacity toAi??some extend prevent United from being outnumbered in central midfield. But hisAi??lack of tactical awareness and poor positional sense often affect their abilityAi??to break up the oppositionai??i??s transitional play.

Perhaps the formAi??and Welbeck and the lack of top quality central midfielders prevent Sir AlexAi??from going in with three centrally, especially since finding two sometimes hasAi??been difficult this season. But Unitedai??i??s inability to control the tempo of theAi??game was the primary reason for their failures in Europe this season. PaulAi??Scholes has been very successful since his return, but throughout the season anyAi??team that has pressed their midfielders and hassled them high up the pitch hasAi??caused United massive problems, like Everton did last week. And which NewcastleAi??and Athletic Bilbao did as they humiliated United on their home turf.

Going into the CityAi??game, Sir Alex faces the same dilemma again. Welbeck after a run of poor formAi??has now scored in the last two games and had a fantastic game against Everton.Ai??Considering that a draw would favour United, it may be advisable to go in withAi??a 4-5-1 to try and control the game. They were unable to deal with the physicalityAi??and energy of Tiote or Fellaini and will face an even bigger task against theAi??marauding Yaya Toure on Monday.

Johny Evans, whoAi??was a doubt, has been declared fit but Nani picked up a knock in training onAi??Friday. Mancini has stated that he will consider Mario Balotelli for selection.Ai??AfterAi??dropping just two points in the last 3 months they have now dropped 5 in the previousAi??2 games and have well and truly reignited Manchester Cityai??i??s title hopes. ButAi??the pressure in now back on City and it will be interesting to see if they copeAi??with it better now than they in the last month.

United have done unbelievably well to recover fromAi??desperate situations this season. The 6-1 thrashing and then having up to 15Ai??players injured mid-season. The hopelessness of late December when they hadAi??been beaten twice in two games, by Blackburn and comprehensively by Newcastle; andAi??were without their captain Vidic, midfield general Fletcher and the revelationAi??of early season Tom Cleverley for the foreseeable future. Already out of theAi??Champions League they were 5 points behind City in the league and the EuropaAi??League provided more hassles than opportunities.

Not many people then would have envisaged Man UnitedAi??taking a 3 point lead into the derby but the seemingly desperate move to bringAi??Scholes back turned their season around. Some might say that the season in its entiretyAi??can be considered a comeback of epic proportions and thereai??i??s time yet. TheAi??biggest Manchester derby of all time may just witness another classic comebackAi??from team that never gives up.

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For Detailed tactical and statistical analysis of the upcoming Champions league final between Chelsea and Bayern clickAi??here

Categories: COVER STORY, English Premier League, Manchester United
Tags: Machester United Manchester Derby

Complacency

Comebacks Have Disappeared

Strange Decisions from Sir Alex

Struggling for Balance

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