Despite the score, it was Everton that dominated the Saturday’s game. The Merseyside club edged Manchester United in possession and attempted 19 shots to United’s seven. The Reds, a few patches of good play notwithstanding, were under constant siege, and while United’s defenders had a better game, ultimately, it was luck that got the Manchester [...]
Monday, October 24, 2011
Sunday’s 6-1 defeat to Manchester City at Old Trafford was the second biggest loss in Manchester United’s history. Sir Alex Ferguson described the match as “the worst result in [his] history.” Still, the arrow of time points firmly towards the future and United must move on, starting with a visit to Aldershot Town on Tuesday [...]
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Ashley Young is a curious character. Not as innately talented as Ryan Giggs or Cristiano Ronaldo, yet the Englishman has managed to establish himself on the left-flank at Manchester United following a £16 million move from Aston Villa in the summer. Plenty of fans were surprised by the move, questioning Young’s value to the club. [...]
Sunday, October 2, 2011
Sir Alex Ferguson likes width. Throughout the 69-year-old’s tactical tinkering over the years the one constant has been his reliance on wingers, or at least wide-men. United’s recent game against Norwich City at Old Trafford epitomises the Scot’s philosophy. On Saturday United found it difficult to break down a well organised Norwich defence and Sir [...]
Tuesday, August 30, 2011
Sir Alex Ferguson has done it again; the 69-year-old Manchester United manager has created a new tactical template, with players to go with it. United’s formation this season might nominally be a traditional 4-4-2, yet the deployment is anything but ordinary. Two, not one, strikers drop deep as wingers push forward. With no dedicated holding [...]
Monday, May 23, 2011
With the Champions League final approaching, Sir Alex Ferguson must find answers to several key tactical questions ahead of the game at Wembley next weekend – from Manchester United’s formation, to dealing with Barcelona’s plethora of attacking options. In the first of a week-long series of build up articles, Rant’s Jay Shon looks at the [...]
Friday, May 6, 2011
Barcelona vs Manchester United, Stadio Olimpico, Rome. 27 May 2009. The 2009 Champions League final, which will be repeated at Wembley in 22 days time, resulted in a hugely disappointing loss to Barcelona in the final. Rant looks back on that final and wonders whether Manchester United will make the same tactical mistakes again? Both [...]
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Sir Alex Ferguson is on record stating that he has never used a traditional 4-4-2. It is true, however, that systems he has used over the years, including 4-2-3-1, are cousins of the orthodox 4-4-2. It is not true though that Ferguson is tactically inflexible; he has used variants of 4-3-3 and even three-at-the-back systems [...]
Sunday, April 3, 2011
Surely Javier ‘Chicharito’ Hernández, who has scored 17 goals in all competitions in his début Manchester United season, is not the Ji- Sung Park of strikers? After all, notwithstanding the Mexican’s above average workrate, he doesn’t ‘put himself about’ as much. One doesn’t often see Javier Hernández popping up at the back, for example. In [...]
Thursday, March 10, 2011
There are certain supporters and pundits who paint Sir Alex Ferguson as an angry, old man who shouts a lot to get results. Such lazy depictions are, frankly, dead wrong. Consider this very simple ontological argument; if the Scot were such a simple-minded manager, would he have lasted this long at Manchester United? United’s gradual [...]
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Wednesday, November 2, 2011
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