Defensive problems of Manchester United

” A strong defense in a team is the greatest way for it to make way for its offence“

The most problematic, degenerative and demoralizing factor for Manchester United this season has been their defense. Apart from the signing of the top class players like Robin van Persie and Kagawa along with some small names like Alex Buttner, United have not been able to solve this problem. The reason is the lack of correct defending and positioning of the defenders at crucial times. Although Manchester United have been flooded with quality players, still they lack the players that are needed in the most specific defensive position to boost the performance. United have the best attacking players in the world in the form of Wayne Rooney, Danny Welbeck, Shinji Kagawa, Javier Hernandez and Robin van Persie. But the defenders are the ones that are letting them down.

Defensive mishaps have been witnessed in many matches this season – against Everton, Spurs and Southampton.

Given below is given the list of tactical points that Manchester United are lacking in respect to their defensive play:

1. Lack of quality in man to man marking defenders:

The very reason for United not having a lot of clean sheets and the very reason for the concession of goals has been this. The defense has quality defenders like Rafael Da Silva, Ferdinand, Jonny Evans and Patrice Evra but all of them either lack the natural man marking defender’s instinct or have taken on other roles, leading to United’s defending woes. This fact was evident in most of the matches last season and also in this season. This season it has started affecting United more than last season. From the first game against Everton, where they failed to mark Fellaini, causing United to concede a goal to the recent matches, the problem has been visible.

The likes of Rafael and Evra have been tremendous as attacking defenders but their role as man marking defenders has been restricted within their half of the field. But both have been largely criticized because their defending qualities have been weak compared to their attacking qualities. Owing to their misjudgment of their positions and their desperate attempt to play in the forward midfield area, they fail to come back to their respective positions, mark players and prevent the crosses from entering the penalty area. This was largely seen in the loss to Spurs where both of them failed to stop the most important passes from the center of the midfield. If they had judged their positions and had maintained their roles as defenders, then the scenario would had been quite different. Rafael has a habit of leaving the players unmarked, and this has led to some goals being conceded in the penalty area.

The left back and right back should keep in mind that although they may be excellent in their attacking qualities, they should also perform their main role as defenders and should reconsider their position once the opposition team starts moving forward. Then the right and left wings of defense can be strengthened, not allowing more room at the wings and eventually preventing crosses from coming into the box and averting the goal.

2. The lack of pace in the central defenders:

Rio Ferdinand has served United for quite a long time and has quite consistently defended the penalty area, but now his time is up, owing to his reduced pace. The matches against Spurs and Wigan were witnesses to this fact when Bale outran Rio who could not match his speed, eventually giving free space for Bale to move forward into and score the goal. The time has come for Ferdinand to hang up his boots and give his position to the more spirited and younger players who can cope up with the pace of the opposition and mark them effectively.

Another reason has been the defenders not being able to understand the game play of the opposition. Evans has not been quite at his best, leading to United’s worries. He has been quite poor at understanding the movement of the opposition and hence has been poor at his marking and tackling abilities. He has not been able to keep up with the pace of the opposition players and loses his ground to more physically superior players.

3. The lack of quality tackling and ball interception:

The most obvious aspect of the defense is to make important tackles and to win the ball in midfield, but this season the team has shown no signs of this. The only tackling that has been made this season has been done by the midfielders and quite a few by Jonny Evans, thus exposing another flaw of the United defense. The defenders have been too sloppy to tackle and win the ball from the opposition, and even when they do so, they do it in a such a rash way that they either get caught with a booking or concede a free kick in vital positions. Even the opportunity of a possible important tackle on the opposition to prevent goal has been quite ruled out, as was seen in the game against Spurs where Ferdinand was so reluctant that he even did not bother to win the ball back, leading to a goal being scored against United. If the tackles are made in the right position and at the right time then the goals can be averted to a very large extent. The best example of this is well displayed by the German teams, as a result of which their defense is considered the most difficult to play against.

4. Lack of proper coordination :

The most vital part is the co-ordination among the defense, which is the main aspect that can stop goals from entering your own goal line. The co-ordination among Evans and Ferdinand has been quite poor – they themselves don’t know whom they will mark and whom them will intercept. It was displayed in the game against Spurs and Southampton where both of them had barely any coordination between them, leading to the goals being conceded.

For a strong defense the most important point is to have an understanding among the defenders to maintain a tight line of impenetrable defense for the opposition to break in. The whole of the defense should work as a single unit and everyone should know the other’s move.

5. The curse of injury:

Last season saw some great defensive failures, due to the team missing some key players in the defensive line up – the most prominent being Vidic. This season has also not been very different with Smalling, Phil Jones and Vidic all out from the squad. The injury problems for United seem to be growing and are mostly affecting the defense.

The injuries that occur to a player cannot be averted but a back up of defensive players should be kept to replace the injured.

6. The lack of defensive midfielders:

Apart from defenders, there is a portion of the midfield that is also responsible for defense but in this department too United have been left vacant. United lacks defensive midfielders. The only one they have is Fletcher but he has come back after being out for nearly 8 months and United cannot fully rely on him. Apart from him, Tom Cleverly can play the role of a defensive midfielder, but he is quite young and he also plays the role of a brilliant midfielder. Scholes some times plays the role of a defensive midfielder but he does not have the best of tackles, eventually getting booked for his tackles and sometimes conceding free kicks in quite crucial areas.

So United should try to position Tom Cleverly and Fletcher in defensive midfield positions so that they can help in the defense as well as provide important passes for crucial offence.The transfer window should be utilized to buy some midfielders who can contribute in this area.

7. Proper timing of the midfield and defense to shift back to their defending position:

When a team is playing more attacking football, a sudden loss of possession of the ball results in the opposition moving forward and taking advantage of the very few defenders and midfielders to break in the penalty box and score a goal. To avoid this, the players should know the proper time to shift back to their defending pattern to prevent the attack as well as to keep a back up of players to avoid this problem. United have conceded many goals against small teams because of misjudgment of this fact. The goal against Cluj was the best example of this mishap. The emphasis should be on moving back to their own half at the correct time to prevent an empty midfield and a helpless defense.

United have conceded goals because of this fault against less superior teams. The goals against Spurs were also due to this mishap – the whole midfield was left empty, even the defenders (Rafael and Evra) were not at their usual position needed at the time and Ferdinand and Evans were left helpless.

If Manchester United continue to progress in this fields mentioned above, then their defense will be improve and will stop conceding easy goals.