Manchester United 1:0 QPR
A lot of fans around me were complaining why the player’s weren’t getting stuck in, but they probably didn’t understand that it was very difficult for our men to get close enough to the United players.
At times United passed the ball around superbly. It was slick and incisive and designed to pull us about and create space down the sides. They did this really well throughout the match, but we were equal to their final ball when we had to be for the majority of the time.
I was trying to work out United’s pattern of attack and it looked like they operate in quartets in specific zones of the pitch that link into other quartets at certain points. This gives them many passing angels and opportunities as well as allowing them to shift play from one side to the next and pull defenders out of place or suck them into having to make a decision on whether to come out and challenge or hold and give the opposing player time and space. I think the secret to dealing with this is to press their defensive players actually and the defensive midfielder, although that is a risk in itself and would lead to a much more open game or being stung by quick one touch passing moves which United are more than capable of.
Matthew Connolly was a little bit exposed playing out of position at left-back. He’s a top footballer and at Championship level I think he’s good enough to adapt and deal with the majority of players he comes up against. But here, against a side as good as this, his nerves showed. He wasn’t comfortable passing with his left foot and he was reluctant and scared to pass inside with his right incase he gave the ball away in a dangerous area. So his weaknesses and fear neutralised his strengths.
I kind of felt that it would have just been better to put Damien Delaney on and having a bit more of a natural balance there would have been better, despite Delaney not being in the best of form. But, Connolly still did okay and it would have been a terrific learning experience for him.
We did panic at times when we had possession and I really felt sorry for Daniel Parejo because it caused him all sorts of problems. Sometimes the ball was being hurried into his path because the person passing was scared of making a mistake and costing a goal. As soon as it went to Parejo, at times, he had that same problem and tried to set the ball once or twice to other players, expecting them to venture out of their defensive shell but communications and wires got crossed leading to misplaced passes. When he did get the time, there was very little support going forward giving him so few options that he really had to be accurate to make sure the ball got to the person he was aiming for.
Gavin Mahon’s experience however really shone for us. There were times he got on the ball where others would have panicked and rushed, and his extra touch or patience often paid off and gave us a glimmer of hope with retaining possession.
We didn’t really do enough to win the game in the sense that we didn’t make the most of the dead ball situations we created. In a match like this, when both teams are having to be patient for different reasons, it’s important you have the quality to try and take advantage where possible.
It was only in the last 10 minutes when we were finally behind, that we started to gamble and it was courageous of us to do so. But we wasted most of our deep free-kicks and our corners didn’t really bring us any joy either despite some decent enough deliveries.
And to be honest, it may have been a blessing in disguise that we didn’t go into extra-time. I never felt like United really ran out of ideas, because they didn’t look frustrated, rather patient and content to continuously launch attacks and keep the ball moving. Radek Cerny also made several top saves and it was very pleasing to see the fans acknowledge this at the end of the match by chanting his name.
Had we nicked an equaliser at the end, we may have gone on to be beaten by a few goals due to tiring in extra-time against superior opposition and we wouldn’t have deserved that.
On a closing note, I’m still worried about the way we’re going about attacking teams. We can forgive not being too creative against United because we had to keep ourselves in the game for as long as possible, and we did a good job of that here.
However, if you’re playing one up front and need to relieve pressure, then the men up there need to work hard and know what to do. Dexter Blackstock was so slow and ponderous moving wide that he could never really get hold of the ball and sometimes didn’t even look interested, but that’s his job in a one-up formation.
If I was playing up front alone I would be expecting to move into the channels as quickly as possible to offer an outlet. I’d be looking to get on the ball on the half turn and inviting my midfielders to run beyond me so I could lay off or come inside with the ball. It’s one easy way to retain possession and help get your team up the pitch. If you stay up top and very central it’s like having to pick out a needle in a haystack, and even if you do that, that needle is still on his own in the haystack, so something’s got to change here.
