Looking at the tactical alternatives for Manchester United

No one is ever going to contest the fact that Bayer Leverkusen is a good team; second in German Bundesliga above Borussia Dortmund currently.

Manchester United still rampaged at the German club’s home and produced a truly dominating display. In a match where United were missing quite a chunk of their core members, nobody could have predicted this.

David Moyes left Germany with quite a lot on his mind. Of course, a 5-0 win would have delighted him, but the tactics used and the results of player positioning brings something alternative to his plate.

A creative midfielder can change everything

Giggs trying to play a pass into Kagawa where United’s midfielders usually turn sideways

In a match where the 3-man midfield of Leverkusen led by Lars Bender was supposed to dominate over a 2-man mid of Giggs and Jones, improvised midfielders at best, United flourished in the centre of the park. Ryan Giggs produced a scintillating display of creative midfield play, so much so, that Moyes let him play for the whole 90 minutes.

He was also helped by Kagawa dropping deep to link up play. It has often been stated that Kagawa, for all his intelligent movement, never receives the passes where he needs. Giggs showed exactly what a creative attack-minded midfielder can do in combo with Kagawa and Rooney at his disposal. Obviously he can’t play every match but his cameo in this match has brought home the central point that has been dogging United from the beginning of this season – a lack of a creative midfielder.

Carrick, Jones and Fellaini, all of them are more of defence oriented options who would play the sideways pass more than a pass upfront. Cleverly was envisioned to be the midfielder who bring linkup play into the midfield but he has not been up to the mark, to say the least.

Alternate player positioning

The match may have brought a lot of appreciation to Giggs and Rooney, but there were two men on the pitch, who played much better than before in different positions. Kagawa, who has been consistently shunted on the left, was played in a trequartista role while Nani, who is prominently used as a right winger, was played from the left. Both of them flourished against Bayer Leverkusen.

Nani is used more from the right wing due to the quality of his crosses but, that in itself hinders him from expressing himself fully. At left wing, he was not under any pressure to pump in crosses and he finally did what he does best. He played a blistering game of one-touch football coupled with a few marvellous moves. His night was capped off with a nicely taken goal after rounding the keeper and chipping the ball into the goal.

Kagawa’s heading is his weakest attribute but he still goes for it to draw in the defenders allowing Valencia the space to score

Kagawa has been the biggest talking point among the fans as well as experts. The opinions have varied from positive appreciation to outright rejection. The most common conclusion that has been made is that, he does not fit into the system for Moyes.

Recently, he has been a positive force down the left side and Moyes has seen fit to do that regularly by now. But the truth is that, Kagawa’s qualities are wasted on the left side since all he really does is enhance Evra’s attacking possibilities. A player who cannot take his man 1-on-1 is not suitable to play as a winger for Man United, simple as that.

Playing from a central role, he once again reminded everyone of what he is really capable of. His vision, his first touch, his awareness, everything was first rate. He may not be capable of holding the ball as well as Wayne Rooney, but he can keep things ticking in the opponent half.

United’s Achilles heel – Pressing

Man City, Liverpool, Southampton, Cardiff – all these teams have one thing in common. They are the teams that have employed a pressing based defence that does not allow even the opposition backline to pass the ball. Incidentally, these are the teams against whom United have suffered and toiled.

Bayer Leverkusen, following their strong point of counter-attacking football did not press allowing Giggs and Jones to have all the time in the world to choose from their passing options. And they finally lost the midfield battle against a supposedly weaker midfield.

Manchester United have developed a very peculiar weakness against the pressing style of defence, the sort that caused havoc when they played against Barcelona before.

Worryingly for them they face Tottenham Hotspurs on Sunday who can play with this system very effectively. The one respite would the morale of the Spurs players after the humiliation that they faced at Etihad Stadium. With all this in mind, it will be very interesting to see if Moyes does go for tactical alternatives, or sticks with his tried and tested methods.