Ted Hughes wrote:AntMcfc wrote:For me it's Nasri who has to start. He's always been tactically perfect for our set-up against United, without Silva we won't have anybody at all creating in the half space, making him even more essential as our creativity on the right hand side will be severely limited if Navas starts, and slightly limited if Milner starts. Our best performances against United have always been particularly highlighted with our overloads in wide areas; Kolarov shining in the 4-1 win of 13/14, Micah Richards shining in the 1-6 win of 11/12, and it's Nasri that's been the master of creation in recent years as Kolarov bursts around him on the overlap. This is where United struggle the most and where we've excelled for many years.
I'm usually extremely confident of a win against United, more confident than I am of beating any other team in the top eight bar Spurs, but tomorrow will be different. I don't think it's our poor form that contributes to my lack of confidence, it's the tactical set up of both sides. This season it's been increasingly obvious that LVG wants the strikers to receive the ball as early as possible, Kompany and his CB partner are going to have to be extremely alert to this because it appears to me that if United are allowed to get the ball to their strikers quickly we're going to be in a whole lot of trouble, we'll be put into a lot of 3v3 and 4v4 situations which is not something to relish when the opposition has Di Maria on their side. Kompany's insistence on meeting the strikers high up the pitch - often leading to him getting turned and left behind - means that, in this instance, there could be multiple opportunities for United to even outnumber us. United now have a tactical threat, and a direct threat because of the increased quality of their personnel.
I don't want to predict the score, but honestly, I do feel like revenge could be on the cards for United.
I think the way Kompany goes out for the ball is the way the manager wants him to, & essential to Pellegrini's defensive plan, defending with fewer players.
The key is to do it right. We saw both possibilities from Demichelis last season; getting it horribly wrong early on, then mostly right later in the season.
At the moment, they are all tending to fuck it up.
Imo, the formation & tactics is less important than the actual players turning up. Vinny etc are capable of keeping the rags down to a few opportunities, Ferns, Milner, Yaya, Nasri etc are capable of stomping on their midfield & Aguero etc are capable of tearing their defenders a new arsehole.
Whatever the formation, if our players turn up, most times they will beat the rags. If they don't then the rags have the players to turn us over.
He has always done it, even under Mancini, but Mancini managed him better than Pellegrini has. QPR's second goal on 13.05.12 is a prime example. I do agree that it's something Pellegrini has instructed him to do but I am also certain that it's something he does naturally too, because he's so good at reading the game and he's so confident in his ability to win the ball. Against Chelsea this season, Kompany and Mangala executed this tactic perfectly, they didn't give Diego Costa one second on the ball, every time Costa controlled the ball he had a CB tight on his arse, but given Chelsea's one-striker system and Oscar's fairly deep starting point he had little in the way of options. However, if United play with two strikers and a #10, it's going to be much tougher for our CBs to meet the strikers and successfully tackle or contain them. United will have more options on the ball than Costa had and they'll have more chance of getting in behind us.
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