While success has been forthcoming in recent games against other sides in the ‘Big Six’, there is an underlying flaw to the Norwegian’s tactics <\/p>\n<\/p>\n
One of the more curious aspects of Sir Alex Ferguson\u2019s reign at Manchester United, when looking back from the vantage point of 2019, is the lack of an obvious tactical identity throughout most of his 26-year tenure.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Some notable themes began to emerge in the mid-to-late 2000s when Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, and Carlos Tevez formed a fluid counter-attacking front three. But even that\u2019s a mostly imagined ideology applied retrospectively thanks to a couple of particularly memorable goals colouring the era.<\/p>\n
There are no essential tactical characteristics running through his teams. You could say it was Ferguson\u2019s biggest strength. Whereas Arsene Wenger\u2019s dogmatic belief in his aesthetic possession game led to stagnation, Fergie\u2019s tactics were flexible; open and listening as football\u2019s patterns melted and reformed.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
His durability is often credited to regular changes made to his backroom staff. Ferguson\u2019s sides \u2013 though always contemporary \u2013 never swayed deep into a particular tactical identity.<\/p>\n
This is most notable during the late 1990s, arguably the peak years and the period in which Ole Gunnar Solskjaer played at Old Trafford. Back then, the Premier League was a simpler place, a time before Champions League money caused a financial chasm and an \u2018us-and-them\u2019 landscape of possession versus counter.<\/p>\n
English football was not so territorial. Matches drifted. The ball was lumped from end to end. Teams pressed, sort of, but it lacked the order of today\u2019s game, where teams swarm, compressing and decompressing.<\/p>\n
Football was individualistic in tone and one-on-one battles defined its flow. Games were won and lost in moments that sprung out of nowhere; a long ball into the box, a sudden sprint down the left wing. And that\u2019s why it\u2019s hard to define exactly what Ferguson\u2019s United were about.<\/p>\n
They certainly weren\u2019t an aggressively attacking side, famous instead for nicking matches with a late goal \u2013 or in other words for overcoming even contests by sheer force of personality.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Looking back on the period between 1996 and 2003, Solskjaer\u2019s peak years at the club, United won the league title five times \u2013 with 75, 79, 91, 80, and 83 points. It wasn\u2019t domination in the modern sense of the word.<\/p>\n
What Ferguson teams did best \u2013 thanks to charismatic leaders and talented individualist attackers \u2013 was suddenly change the tempo and win a tight game. The ball would bounce around, the players would do their jobs, and then: Ryan Giggs would sprint down the wing, or Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole would exchange a brilliant one-two, or David Beckham would deliver a perfect cross.<\/p>\n
Every game was stretched, and every game was a low-tempo search for a killer moment. United \u2013 with the better players \u2013 generally won those moments. Pace and Power\u00a0\u2013 it really meant something back then.<\/p>\n
Solskjaer has made no secret of Ferguson\u2019s influence on his management style since taking the job in December 2018. He\u2019s also been open about his long-term plan to recapture those days by focusing on raw speed.<\/p>\n
\u201cPace and power, Man United, that\u2019s what we are,\u201d he said in January. \u201cWhen we have players like we have with pace… that\u2019s how we played with Andy (Cole), Dwight Yorke, Ryan Giggs, and Becks down the sides. We attack quickly when you can. That\u2019s my philosophy as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
But football has changed quite a bit. Only in his final few years did Ferguson have to adapt to what growing financial disparity and the popularisation of Spain\u2019s \u2018tiki-taka\u2019 possession had created.<\/p>\n
In 2019, elite clubs are forced to hold the majority of possession in the majority of their matches, while winning a league title means learning how to flat-track bully; how to pull apart a compact defensive blockade.<\/p>\n
If there is one thing Solskjaer\u2019s first year at the helm has taught us it\u2019s that raw pace is a blunt weapon against a deep-lying defence. But the speed of Marcus Rashford, Anthony Martial, and James cannot be relied upon forever.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Beating Tottenham Hotspur and Man City is impressive, but we should not be suckered in by the romanticism of painting Manchester red or masterminding victories against ex-managers.<\/p>\n
These \u2018Big Six\u2019 wins do not represent the building of a platform, but rather highlight an essential flaw built into the foundations. They do not signify progress, rather the impossibility of progress so long as the 1990s remains Solskjaer\u2019s core influence.<\/p>\n
Leaving aside the games in which United are able to sit deep, absorb pressure, and spring forward on the break, Solskjaer\u2019s team look bereft of ideas. Matches are rarely won in those sudden moments, those bursts of pace, as they once were.<\/p>\n
To excel one needs to coach specific attacking patterns in training, to formulate attacking passages while thinking several moves ahead\u00a0\u2013 stretching the opposition shape and relentlessly testing their resolve.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
By contrast, Solskjaer\u2019s United roam listlessly, their passivity in possession betraying a lack of detailed coaching and the hope that, eventually, a gap will open up to beat a man on the outside or cross for an unmarked striker in the box. Paul Pogba\u2019s importance to the team further emphasises their individuality; big clubs ought not to be relying on creativity conjured out of thin air.<\/p>\n
Elsewhere, Solskjaer\u2019s conservative use of full-backs and expansive formation \u2013 both wingers hug the touchline \u2013 suggest he wants to win like Beckham, Giggs, Yorke, and Cole: in short bursts, in improvisational battle-winning moments in the penalty area.<\/p>\n
Ironically, they look quite a lot like a Man Utd team from the 1990s. If Solskjaer\u2019s goal is to exorcise the Fergie years, well, he\u2019s already done it. It\u2019s just the rest of the world has moved on.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
While success has been forthcoming in recent games against other sides in the ‘Big Six’, there is an underlying flaw to the Norwegian’s tactics One of the more curious aspects of Sir Alex Ferguson\u2019s reign at Manchester United, when looking back from the vantage point of 2019, is the lack of an obvious tactical identity…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2946"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2946\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/googmn.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}