What Went Wrong For United Against Arsenal?

Arsenal vs Manchester Utd

3-0

Sun 4th October - 4pm
Barclays Premier League

Whenever I watch Arsenal I am not sure what I'm going to get. Its either brilliant or awful. Which is why Arsenal fans keep changing their mind when it comes to getting rid of Wenger. One minute he is the best manager around and the next its #wengerout. Unfortunately for us, today was one of those brilliant days. Their passing was fast, accurate and with that came that little bit of luck you need to compliment the flair from the players on the team. I was very impressed by them and was wondering why we were so bad, so lets try and break it down and figure out what went wrong for United today...

The Pace of United's Passing was Slower than a Tortoise Running the Marathon

I can't think why we are not playing at a faster tempo. I remember in Louis Van Gaal's first pre season, we were up against teams like Roma, Inter, Real Madrid and Liverpool. We beat all 4 of those teams and one of the main reasons for this was the speed of the passing we played. Then we kicked off the season against Swansea, lost all of that speed and of course lost the game. Ever since that preseason, I haven't seen the pace that won us those games and I am so confused as to why this hasn't been addressed. What is it about a fast tempo that makes us win I hear you ask. Well today we got a brilliant lesson in how it can kill teams off. We couldn't handle them. If your passing is slow, it gives the opposition chance to pressurise you and then you are forced into making mistakes. If your passing is at a high speed, the opposition don't have time to think and therefore you become in control. See here in our preseason match against Real Madrid. In this video you will see how the fast tempo of the passing play creates a beautiful goal....

The Pressure Game has to be Done as a Team & Not Just Bastian

Gary Neville seemed to be confused as to why Bastian Schweinsteiger was so high up the pitch and leaving such big holes in between our midfield and defence. I am not so sure he is to blame. I think the pressure game is a good tactic but everyone has to do it and not just one player otherwise he is given the run around and this creates spaces that the opposition can take advantage of. If everyone puts in a huge amount of desire to pressurise the opponent and force them to make passes they don't want to make instead of making it incredibly easy to play around us, then I really think we wouldn't have conceded those goals.

Ashley Young is NOT a Left Back

Lets be honest, Ashley Young is not a left back. He can fill in if we are winning a game 2-0 and we want to give someone else a rest but not to start against one of the 'Big 4'. Why LVG didn't play Smalling & Jones in the centre of defence and move Blind out to left back is beyond me? Instead he chose to keep the midfielder/left back Daley Blind in the centre back role and play the very attacking Ashley Young in the left back role. He cannot defend to save his life but hey ho why not give him a chance. Not as if we are playing a good team or anything. To add insult to injury, Young is known for his pace and yet got beaten by Bellerin for the first goal even though he was ahead of him to start with. Just shocking! 

How Badly Does Rooney Need to Play Before He Is Dropped?

I really feel that Louis Van Gaal is treating Wayne Rooney like the Arsenal board are treating Arsene Wenger (or at least in Jose Mourinho's opinion). He hasn't scored an away goal since last November. LAST NOVEMBER?! That is unbelievable. Now I am a huge fan of Rooneys but he has been so bad recently I think he needs to put in another transfer request to get him to play well again. He seems to have lost every bit of fire in his belly and that worries me. There is something going on there and I'm not sure what it is, but its really playing on his brain and its causing him to play like a giraffe on drugs! Then comes the question of why he isn't dropped, then Mata can come into the number 10 role and we can play with two proper wingers like United are built to do. I would possibly even try 4-4-2 and play 2 wingers (Choice between Depay, Young, Valencia, Lingard or Perreira), and then have Wilson & Martial up front. Rooney is playing really badly at this moment in time and just because he is the captain doesn't mean he has a right to be in the starting 11. He needs to play well and earn his spot like everyone else. 

Schweinsteiger & Carrick Are Too Similar

When we are talking about rotating between the midfield, I feel that it must be either Schweinsteiger or Carrick in there with someone else rather than both of them together. They are too similar and don't complement each other as well as people might think. They tend to try and do the same thing and doesn't really give us that protection that Schneiderlein would give us against the better teams. I thought it was a mistake to leave Schneiderlin out of the team and left us very open in the first 20 minutes.

Why Have We Played The Same Team For Every Competition? 

I cannot not understand why a manager such as LVG cannot see that we are currently in 4 competitions and will be playing a considerable amount of games over the course of the season. So with this thought, it is confusing as to why he decided to get rid of a lot of players in the transfer window and not replace them. Then comes the conundrum as to why he keeps playing the same team whether we are playing Arsenal, Wolfsburg or Ipswich. Fergie always said that rotation was needed if you wanted to be successful in the 4 competitions. I felt that at the end of the game against Wolfsburg, we look extremely tired and in need of a rest. Now I am not saying that we needed to rotate the whole team for the Arsenal match because lets be honest, we needed our best team out there, but why did he play more or less the same team for games like Club Brugge's second leg when we were ahead on aggregate and could have afforded to bring in players like Ashley Young, Januzaj etc and could have given Mata & Depay a well deserved rest. I just think it's going to come back and bite him later on in the season when these players become exhausted. It happens to the smaller teams when they realise they don't have big enough squads and I am scared that we are going to start to become more and more tired as the season goes on.

Overall, I was very disappointed with todays game but it didn't help that players like Alexis Sanchez (who looks like a steal at £38m) are playing so well.

Now comes the international break, which I always hate because it feels like an age before I get to see United again and its even worse that we have finished on a performance and result like that but hopefully time will go quickly and we can come back and respond. After all, Sir Alex always said defeat will always happen but it's how you respond to it that puts you apart from everyone else. Lets show everyone what we are made of against Everton and put this result to bed. After all, it's not as if we lost 8-2! :-P

Over & Out!

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