Where Manchester United lost the plot against Arsenal

Wayne Rooney has not been scoring freely for his side this season

Firstly, I must set out to congratulate Arsenal on one of the finest displays of football this season. That first 30 minutes reminded me of the Arsenal of the early 2000s – fluid and quick. Was a pleasure to watch for a neutral.

Analyzing the game – here’s how United looked at the back – DDG, Darmian, Smalling, Blind, Young. Now, it is unfortunate what happened to Shaw – his pace was really missing on that left-hand side – what made matters worse was the injury to Rojo leaving LVG with Young as the only viable option. Young we must remember is not a natural left-back and his preferred position is more of a left-winger who is more comfortable going forward and feeding the strikers instead of tracking back to neutralize attacks.

Daley Blind – as versatile a footballer he is, we know he is not the perfect defender, he has been great building the attack from the back and making those pinpoint passes picking either the eventual goalscorer or assisting the assist. What he lacks is proper defensive nous.

Earlier in the season- United were able to get away with it beause Shaw was just that good as a defender and his pace and ability to go forward easily, kept the opposition at bay. Ashley Young is no Luke Shaw.

Combining the two together what we have is a weak left side (defensively) for United – and guess where the first goal came from?

Lacking control in midfield

Schweinsteiger was feisty against Arsenal but had little impact on the outcome

Now moving to midfield – Carrick and Schweinsteiger. What does this tell us? Experience 9/10, Skill 8/10, Speed 2/10. Look who they were against – Ramzey, Ozil, Sanchez, Walcott – a speedy bunch to say the least. I wonder what LVG was thinking. I don’t mention Smalling and Darmian in that list because they haven’t been exposed so far this season as the others have been.

What resulted is Arsenal getting a lot of space and the ability to show their fluidity and pace and take the game away before United could even realize. United weren’t even allowed to settle into their rhythm till the 2nd goal was scored. Arsenal didn’t allow United to control the tempo of the game early on and by the time the dust settled United were already 3 goals down. An uphill task from there.

What it should have been?

Marouane Fellaini was introduced late into the game but could not change the tide in United’s favour

Starting from the back – I’d have Darmian (LB), Blind, Smalling, Valencia (RB) – in such a scenario we’d use the skill of Smalling and the pace of Valencia so there’s more balance on the right, and the skills of Blind and Darmian to counter any attack on the left. Way better than Young and Blind on the left. I understand Smalling and Darmian on the right is better but giving that up for the overall balance of the side is what the Manchester United could have opted for.

Schneiderlin and Fellaini in midfield because United were coming up against a pacey Arsenal side who aren’t very physical either. Schneiderlin for his obvious pace (an improvement in that department over either Carrick or Schweini). But Fellaini? For two reasons – one that Arsenal aren’t a very physical team and just having Fellaini in that lineup would have been a huge psychological advantage for Unitedv(remember Roy Keane?).

Secondly – he’d be a good cover for Blind, who is definitely not the tallest. What we’d have is United winning a lot of them in the air forcing Arsenal to go less aerial and allowing to play to the strength of Blind and Co.

In attack: Rooney/Depay, Herrera, Mata, Martial – Why either of Depay or Rooney? Both of them aren’t performing to their expectations and might be a good idea to rest them to allow for them to regroup their thoughts and get back in form. Given the stature of this game maybe Rooney over Depay to play.

Herrera, Mata and Martial have enough skill to wreck havoc in that Arsenal defence. Bring in Depay after about 60 mins on for anyone in that forward line injecting pace in the last half hour of the game. This would have also forced some of the Arsenal forwards to help at the back thereby reducing their threat going forward.

Overall a great game of football and a good wake-up call for United. The international break comes at a good time allowing for some assessing to do with the squad.

Do United need another defender? Try Jones out till the December – if he doesn’t work out then the January transfer window must bring in someone. Hoping for a solid Nemanja Vidic kind of defender in the summer.