SB Nation has an article on the impact of the 2008-2009 title race on United and Liverpool.
The Telegraph looks at the rivalry with Liverpool.
A Kick In The Grass wonders if it’s time to ditch 442.
By Far The Greatest Team has all the stats on United vs Liverpool in the Premier League years.
Caught Offside has a copy of FIFA 13 to give away for people who watch United vs Liverpool.
Get the RoM Android app (and give us nice reviews!) for free with the latest version that notifies you when there’s a new post (iPhone app in the pipeline).
Man Utd News 24/7
SB Nation makes some good points. United haven’t looked the same team since the 08-09 season. It’s not just Ronaldo’s departure. It was also our defence’s last solid season. Of course for Liverpool, things have gotten a lot worse since then. That’s the difference when one team has Sir Alex and the other has the FSW.
4-4-2 is outdated and not ideal for possession football. Though we usually just keep on passing the ball to the wings so I doubt we’ll see anything else.
Sometimes i laugh at all these “tactical experts”. If you have the right midfielders then 4-4-2 can work PERFECTLY. For a formation to work to perfection you’ve got to have the right players in there. A 4-4-2 formation is a balanced formation. the formation requires two box to box energetic midfielders, two good wingers and two strikers. Another advantage with a 4-4-2 formation is that it can easily be switched without too much problem into a 4-5-1 formation when the team loses the ball and it can also be switched to a 4-3-3 if you want more attacking impetus. It’s not an outdated formation. It’s just not the formation that suits us at the present time because we don’t have the midfielders for that kind of job right now. No formation in football is outdated. Not even 4-5-1 which can still be incredibly effective at times in this current climate.
The EPL is starting to go back to 2 strikers, but in Europe, there are a still a variety of formations, not least the likes of Barca & Real playing with only 1 striker. I suppose its not about if we stick with 442, its about how flexible our players are with different positionings. There will be games where we need to play 451, where I can see Rooney dropping deep, or playing on the left to compliment the numbers in midfield
… 4-4-2 is completely outdated dannysoya can be as condescending as he likes.
The team that dominates the middle dominates the game.
A team that has two people will lose against three people.
” b b b bu but you can have a striker dropping deep wah wah wah ”
How often does this work ? … not often.
Even if this does work all you’re doing is playing three players in the middle but two naturals midfielders and a striker out of position.
How many times do UNITED have to be exposed by this for people to learn ?.
I’m not just talking about being outnumbered by the Barca trio but people far worse.
( Note : This is not a direct response to dannysosa but to the common argument )
Daniel. In EVERY FORMATION, once the ball is lost, coaches usually leave one man upfront and drop the rest to try and get the ball back. Even Barcelona do it. Watch them tonight when the opposition have the ball in their half. That’s not playing someone out of position. When you win the ball back, you just revert back to your normal formation. SMH. i love the way you quoted me with the “wah wah” and the “b b b bu but”. Good to know that you can go thru an argument without childish jibes.
I am with dannysoya on the formation. People said that we failed in Europe last year because we played 4-4-2 (which is a lie when you look at the formation for both games against Basel and Benfica). And we saw how well 4-5-1 worked against Galatasaray this week…
You need the right central midfielders and at the moment, that’s not the case at United. Whether we want to play 4-4-2 or 4-5-1.
8th!
Games are still won or lost in midfield. With two wingers and two strikers we are going to get found out many times especially when playing less mobile CMs like Carrick and Scholes. I do agree that we don’t have the midfielders and that’s why games in Europe will likely be quite repetitive.
I see Pogba starts for Juve tonight…
Was just checking the results & table with my brother in law. We found this hilarious!!! [TheirYear] http://pic.twitter.com/FpZzfahq
Good evening everyone!!!!
@Diego
Think United are gettign a bit found out in Europe. Teams come to OT now having a go because they know they can get at us playing 3 in midfield quite narrow whist also stopping United distributing the ball ou to the wingers. United will always have 2 v 3 opposition midfielders when playing European teams.
” i love the way you quoted me with the “wah wah” and the “b b b bu but”. Good to know that you can go thru an argument without childish jibes ”
- ??????????.
I clearly remember saying my comment wasn’t a direct response to yours couldn’t have been more clear.
In a battle of wits you’re unarmed engaging you would only serve to waste my time.
I know this isn’t nice but there is no easy way to say it.
I began to draft a response but you were so confused, you changed the argument, put things out of context, said things that were flat wrong and … uhhh … scary bad.
I agree with Dannysoya formations and time of possession are the two most talked about and overrated stats in Football.As long as a team has quality adaptable players,tactics can be changed according to the tactics of the opposition get really bored of formation talk and this player can’t play here or there.Football isn’t a rigid game its fluid so any formation has to be adaptable
@Giles Oakley I was under the impression you are a revered well established Rom member and published writer,so to jump on the utd till I die dissection of my comments although that’s not what I said is below you.So I suggest reading the comments before taking sides
With the new ROM apps.. it will be even harder to be the FIRST to post comment!
Just wana say. I realy realy realy hope we shape up 2mro. Fuck all the media bullshit about us.. the true message is in what s.af says. Its to better our biggest rivals l.f.c…! C,mon united.19 times and counting. Im so so proud of how our fans can even debate bout showing l.f.c respect. Because even tho i havnt Lookd im sure they wouldn’t be showing us that much time on their blogs. We r the best by far and thats y i love this club. My first and last love..
izzy
just what the fuck do you get out of posting the “first” comment you fuckin whackjob.
@utd fc. I dont get this first or wotever thng they do. But 2 every1 anxious or on the same boat as me.. lets hope we batter these cunts 2day. And as the legend Roy Keane would say… See u out there! Do our talking on the pitch!
Hurr durr 4-4-2 is dead hurr.
I’m pretty sure I’m not the only one that noticed united plays best when we play 4-4-2.
4-2-3-1 with Shinji Kagawa just isn’t working at the moment. The formation is too biased towards attacking and when you’re not out passing and out scoring the opponents you’re up against. It’s not a very effective tactic.
There’s no “best formation” that is across the board. A formation is as good as its players in relation to the opposition formation and their players. It’s a complex formula, no ceterus paribus, and never a “one formation to rule them all”. I do like the way United played before when in 4-4-2, but that’s when we had some great players who could do their best in that formation. The current “total football” kinda play we’ve been seeing in recent seasons, sometimes smacks me as taking the competitive matches as training games.
Also, tactics are not overrated, far from it. “Heart”, “grit” and natural talent / skill can only take you so far. At the end of the day, what differentiates a team from another is tactics and how they’re carried out.
Anyone who questions the importance of tactics should read “Inverting the Tactical Pyramid” from Jonathan Wilson. Brilliant read, and just why tactics is so damn important.
442 fomation is the best , we’ve won everything with it . But as previous comments have said have we got the players to do so ?.
What ever formation saf chooses I hope we play with 2 strikers.
Belfast red take a look at the murderrin twats blogs all about utd fans ,
utd will never die
where did that jibe at Sir Giles arise from?
It’s not the formations that are the problem it’s the players in the middle of the park. All of them are fairly good passers of the ball and most offer something going forward but it’s the lack of strength and defensive nous that worries me. Time and again teams walk through our midfield. I’m not having a go at the players but whether we play 2 or 3 in the middle r doesn’t seem to make a difference as they are still 2 or 3 ineffective defending midfielders. Yes this has been another post about how we need some steel in the middle of the park but it is the missing piece!
Send the last paragraph to Sir Alex today before he delivers the team talk and by golly you will see that total domination and destruction on the pitch inflicted on Liverpool today. All fired up!