MOTD: Sunderland 1-1 Manchester United – Four Thoughts

By on August 24, 2014

Everything is coming embarrassingly familiar for Manchester United. With what have should been two, even if they weren’t easy, wins over Swansea City and Sunderland in their first two matches of the season. Instead they drew Sunderland and last weekend lost to Swansea. At least today was better result wise, however, the performance again lacked. United once more struggled under Louis Van Gaal’s tactical system, and namely three at the back. All to often they were caught out in the defense and struggled breaking Sunderland down on the ball. At times in the second half match you wouldn’t be hard pressed to find United fans who would take a draw.

Defensive Woes… Again
If last weekend’s loss to Swansea wasn’t a signal to Van Gaal that his current 3-5-2 system wasn’t working defensively, and this performance today didn’t effect his style either, than nothing will. United were lacking at the back, once again having to start the inexperienced Tyler Blackett alongside Chris Smalling and Phil Jones in the back three. Smalling was all too often pulled towards the ball leaving exploitable space behind him, and the wing-backs Ashley Young and Antonio Valencia, very important in a 3-5-2 systems attacking flow (United’s one goal came from a low Valencia cross which Juan Mata converted at the far post), were thus pulled way back to cover. United seemed like they were playing five at the back more often than not, especially early on.

Marcos Rojo will likely feature for United next weekend going a length to solving their problems, and once Luke Shaw returns from injury the problems will almost be solved. Just one more thing, however, is that United desperately need a quality center-back. Even just one would be fine. But currently, Smalling is a starter and his backup, who was featured today as Smalling came off just before halftime due to injury, comes in the form of namely just Michael Keane.

Where will Di Maria fit in?
It has been the ongoing debate since United’s third terribly kept secret of the summer has all but been confirmed – Angel Di Maria has signed for the club – but where will he fit into the 3-5-2? While he may provide a better option than Ashley Young as a left wing-back that wouldn’t quite utilize his strengths or creativity, and while the Argentine may be fast he isn’t quite out and out speed. He would work better on the wing in a 4-2-2, where he played for Real Madrid, but his speed might push Van Gaal to put him on the wing, rather than alongside Juan Mata or Ander Herrera as a creative attacking midfielder, where he would relieve the pressure off of Herrera’s shoulders and compliment well with Mata, who while brilliant lacks in speed or a style of running at defenders. It is clear that Van Gaal’s system doesn’t exactly suit Di Maria, yet he will be a breath of fresh air nonetheless and undoubtedly handy. He could even provide backup if either Wayne Rooney or Robin Van Persie, both injury prone, are sidelined, as a supportive forward.

Reputation is killing Ashley Young
It isn’t as if Ashley Young ALWAYS dives, in fact, only twice since August 2010 has he been booked for the offense, compared to Gareth Bale, who has six booking due to simulation in his name, but his reputation is undoubtedly worse. Namely because he is often so terrible at it, or that it works a lot more often. This, though, is not a good reputation to get especially among referees. Tonight’s referee, Martin Atkinson, was clearly looking out for it and when the moment came, seemed eager to dish Young a yellow for diving. But the thing is, it wasn’t quite a dive. It was a key moment – Young had come birding down the left side of the box and undoubtedly would have made something of it in the middle of the second half with the scoreline still 1-1, however, Wes Brown got in the way and he seemed to send Young tumbling with a trip. Well, the thing is he did. Van Gaal perhaps phrased it the best, saying it was a penalty but Young made “too much” of it.

Young is needed to be able to challenge defenders exactly like he did there, assisting goals, and win penalties even more than perhaps scoring himself. Yet with his reputation at hand, referees will always keep in mind his tendency to dive.

Jozy Altidore not impressing – but it isn’t all his fault
For all of the talent and promise Jozy Altidore possesses he hasn’t been impressing for Sunderland so far this season. And this is coming off the back of a season in which he scored just one league goal. Yet it isn’t all his fault. His two league appearances do far this season have came as late substitutes, with him being one of the only men far up the pitch. The idea is for him to hold the ball up there late on for enough time for Sunderland to get up the pitch. However, Sunderland have proven slow to do so with United especially applying lots of late pressure. Thus, Altidore is almost stranded with three or four defenders around him, helping his astonishingly low passing accuracy of just 62.5% completion rate. Granted he hasn’t helped it himself, often lacking just that little bit of technical skill to form a nice one-two or decisive move, but it certainly isn’t all his fault.

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.