Daniel Taylor - The Guardian
July 6, 2007 12:25 AM
Sir Alex Ferguson may have won one European Cup playing 4-4-2 but the Manchester United manager seems to have come to the conclusion that the same system is not going to return the trophy to Old Trafford. Ferguson has been experimenting with three different formations over the past couple of seasons and the pending arrival of Carlos Tevez indicates a clear shift in the manager's thinking.
Rather than target an orthodox centre-forward in the mould of Ruud van Nistelrooy, Ferguson has identified a player to suit a 4-2-3-1 formation that, when United are attacking, could metamorphose into 4-2-4. Tevez would join a pool of attackers capable of troubling the classiest defences, the emphasis being on speed, fluency and movement, with players interchanging roles. "That is the key," Ferguson said at the end of last season. "Speed of play is so important these days."
This was the system when Roma were destroyed 7-1 in the Champions League quarter-finals in April, a rout that Ferguson described as the club's finest performance in his 20 years at Old Trafford. And there is rich potential for repeats, after a summer in which Tevez's acquisition would confirm United as the most prolific spenders in Europe, with a line-up that could have, for example, Cristiano Ronaldo, Tevez and Nani flitting around Wayne Rooney.
The hard part for Ferguson is accommodating everyone as he works out how to select an attacking quartet from a list that also incorporates the £19m Brazilian Anderson, the enduringly brilliant Ryan Giggs and a striker in Louis Saha who, when fit, the manager regards as the equal of any other No9 in English football.
Never before has Ferguson had the luxury of so many permutations. Astonishingly, Tevez could be the 46th player squashed into United's 2007-08 team photograph. Liverpool's first-team squad stands at 40 while Chelsea, for all Roman Abramovich's bags of gold, have 37, the same as Arsenal.
Uppermost in Ferguson's mind is that he now has so many options it will be almost impossible for opposition managers to guess his tactics. When Saha is fit, for example, Ferguson can revert to a more orthodox system, with a straightforward midfield quartet and Rooney or Tevez playing behind the Frenchman. In Europe, Ferguson has developed a fondness for a more cagey 4-1-4-1 system, and it is here that Owen Hargreaves, the £18m signing from Bayern Munich, will be expected to excel. And then there is the increasingly favoured 4-2-3-1 line-up, taking its inspiration from the slick systems that have been in place in Spain for many years.
Paul Scholes has increasingly been used in a more deep-lying role over the past six months. He is likely to continue in that "hole", with the arrival of Hargreaves meaning Michael Carrick can no longer be regarded as a mandatory first-team pick. Nani and Anderson are expected to begin their first season as "impact players", unlikely to start many of the big matches and, in an era of Tevez, Rooney and Ronaldo, others may find that even a place on the bench is beyond them.
The goodwill for Alan Smith after his comeback from a broken leg has made way for the realisation that, with 12 goals in 92 appearances, he should seek new employers. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, in his final year before retirement, must foresee only limited chances and Giggs, 34 in November, might have to take a more peripheral role, with competition from Nani and Park Ji-Sung, and Rooney and Tevez expected to start regularly on the left. John O'Shea should benefit from reverting to the role of versatile defender.
As for Ferguson's team when United face Chelsea in the FA Community Shield on August 5, that is anyone's guess. Jose Mourinho might have to guess too.
*Disclaimer - Views expressed within this story are not necessarily the views of this Blog
No comments:
Post a Comment