Arsenal vs. Manchester United – Tactical Review (Part 3)
The basic reason why Alex Song was made to cover Wayne Rooney was because of his ability to play long balls to the wingers. Once Arsene Wenger was able to nullify the effect of Wayne Rooney, everything else was quite simple for him.
Arsenal retained possession in the centre of the pitch, thanks to Aaron Ramsey. The Welshman was very keen to keep his position in the midfield as he moved the ball around and passed the ball on to the flanks.
Arsenal’s strategy changed in a few ways as Cesc Fabregas was dropped. With Aaron Ramsey supporting the Arsenal midfield, the Welshman delivered perfect balls on to the flanks.
With Cesc Fabregas in the squad, the ball is often played forward so that http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Robin-van-Persie-c31380 can catch it.
However, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Aaron-Ramsey-c3065 delivered perfect long balls towards the full backs and wingers on the left and right.
Even though the Arsenal full backs were not able to deliver good crosses inside the penalty area, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Patrice-Evra-c29231 most of the times.
Once he got past the French full back, he was able to deliver crosses in. Some of the crosses were very well taken and they really helped Arsenal come close to scoring goals.
Manchester United on the other hand, changed a few things around compared to their previous visits to the Emirates Stadium.
Sir Alex Ferguson’s counter-attacking tactics have always worked out against Arsenal. However, with Wayne Rooney being out of the equation, it was quite difficult for the Red Devils to keep up with the same work rate.
Sir Alex Ferguson usually places his men in a 4-3-3 or a 4-5-1 system while playing against bigger teams. For the past two seasons the Scotsman has been fielding a 4-5-1 formation against Arsenal.
However, this season Manchester United have been a little more comfortable with a 4-4-1-1 formation in which Wayne Rooney lies deep in the midfield and a sole striker supports him.
With this formation, Manchester United does not have one player to hold the ball in the midfield but two. In this case, they were Anderson and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Michael-Carrick-c25282.
However, in the older formation, Ferguson played a single holding midfielder who was supported by a box-to-box player like http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Paul-Scholes-c29394.
However, all that changed this season as Ferguson decided to change his strategy.
With a 4-4-1-1 formation, the role of the wingers, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Nani-c27299 and Park Ji Sung, totally changed.
While the two would stay right ahead of the half way line to help Manchester United on the break, this time they sat deeper to help their side defend. It was hard for both players to aid their side up front as they were sitting too deep into their own half.
Manchester United found it hard to score against Arsenal this time around because http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alex-Song-c4804 at him all the time.
The Arsenal holding midfielder tackled Wayne Rooney nine times during the game and won the ball all nine times.
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