The "tactic"

“When it comes to moving the ball at speed, Everton were one of the worst clubs in the Premier League this year. They made the fifth fewest passes per minute when they had the ball. That’s a reflection of the two main tenants of their attack, long balls held up by Fellaini, and running with the ball in space by Baines and Coleman. But, it’s also an indictment of their creativity, especially when you consider that their passing numbers actually got slower than they had been the year before. Everton’s numbers put them in the company of Stoke, and West Ham, on a per minute basis. Everton’s attack was fine as far as stage one was concerned, but they seemed to lack the ability to up the passing tempo and either play around teams in a defensive shell or draw those teams out. That resulted in a lot more touches in the opponents’ final third and penalty area, but not a lot more goals. Both the total touches and the rate of touches in those two areas increased this year, while passing speed decreased. That’s a symptom of a team trying and failing to find space. It’s also probably a good indicator of what happened to poor Nikica Jelavic. A team taking more touches in a more crowded area is not a good recipe for a player who broke into the team with the motto “with his second touch he celebrates.”

Robin Van Persie & Javier Hernandez has dropped 14% in touches per minute compared to last season due them being isolated as a result of the stretched team shape. This explained why United struggled to create chances this season.

I'd prefer Pochettino though

It's like the manager of Mcdonalds becoming the manager of Apple or Micrsoft

To put the record straight, Carlos Queiroz was an Assistant Manager to Sir Alex Ferguson from 2002-2008 but he was no ordinary right-hand man. His role and responsibilities were so prominent which prompted The Guardian to write in 2005 – “It is no exaggeration to say he and Ferguson could be called joint managers these days“.

Sir Alex Ferguson himself had said that, “He was the closest you could be to being the Manchester United manager without actually holding the title” in his autobiography. Ryan Giggs painted a more clearer picture in his own autobiography, pointing out that he was being handed ” a large amount of responsibilities” by being entrusted to ”train us, prepare us for games, organise the team and decide the things we need to work on“.

To understand why Queiroz had been given such a prominent role by Fergie whose management philosophies were about “power” and “control”, then the tactical evolution that took place in the turn of century was the main catalyst for this. Even though United had won 2 more successive Premier League titles in the aftermath of the treble winning year in 1999, United were found out short in the European competition and with the emergence of the Arsenal “Invincible” team, Fergie recognised the needs to make the necessary adjustment to his side tactically in response to the changing landscape of football.

Fergie brought in Juan Sebastian Veron and Ruud Van Nisteelrooy to shift away from the familiar 4-4-2  to 4-5-1 formation with the former partnering Keane in centre midfield and the latter took up the lone striker role with Scholes in advanced midfield position. Rather than hugging the touchline, both Beckham & Giggs played higher up the pitch in a narrower system. The principles of play were simple – a more calculated & measured approach by emphasising on ball possession.

The changes did not pan out well as the players were too ingrained in the old style of playing. As a result, a revolution rather than evolution was required at that time and Queiroz was being assigned to rebuild the squad as Daniel Taylor wrote, “He has not only shown himself to be a fine coach and a tactician but an equally accomplished scout and discoverer of talent. He is a skilled linguist, the speaker of five languages, and a networker who has worked with some of the biggest names in world football and has the contact book to prove it“.

Thus, for the first time, United were bringing in players from around the continents who were more tactically and technically adept. Ronaldinho was the first player being identified for the process of rebuilding but unfortunately, as with the likes of Arjen Robben & Jon Obi Mikel, they were being tapped up by other clubs when it looked certain that they would be joining United. In the end, Ronaldo and Rooney formed the basis of the structure of the team.

It was not a smooth sailing affair in the rebuilding phase as United had failed to challenge for the Premier League title in 3 successive years due to Rooney & Ronaldo were still maturing and Queiroz required some time to assemble the type of players who can slot into the progressive tactics he was envisioning. It had not been gone down well with the fans at that time as Queiroz had been blamed for the abandoning of 4-4-2 system which brought so much success to United and for bringing in the methodological 4-2-3-1 system which they claimed was the cause of United’s demise.

Many fans have compared the current woes under David Moyes to the predicament during Queiroz’s time.The irony here is Moyes being criticised for favouring a traditional 4-4-2 formation instead of setting up a more progressive approach of 4-2-3-1 formation. Moyes said of his tactics in the 2-2 draw against Fulham that, ”You need to have a football intelligence, a football brain, to understand first of all”.

The problem here is, it is difficult to make sense of the direction United are going at the moment. There are too many contradictions in his tactical set-up, team selection and the players he targeted. Most of the time, he preferred a traditional 4-4-2 system with the old-schooled players such as Valencia and Young but in transfer market, he is targeting the modern type of players such as Cesc Fabregas and Toni Kross and at the same time, he is continuously overlooking the more progressive type of players in his squad such as Kagawa and Welbeck. He brought in Juan Mata  but it seems that his tactical system doesn’t suit Mata’s qualities which resulted Mata unable to fully express himself. The lack of consistency and identity from Moyes is the biggest concern for United.

People with football intelligence and football brain understood where Queiroz was going in term of his tactical direction in order to bring United to the next level by adopting a more progressive tactical system to give them better chances to succeed in both domestic and European competitions. The players that were being identified or brought in from the transfer market were consistent with the direction that United were going and Queiroz was very clear in the way he shaped the team to instil his philosophies.

No doubt, manager should be given time to build a club as the case with Fergie in his earlier years but people inside the club like Sir Bobby Charlton knew that United were going into the right direction behind the scene with Fergie changing the drinking culture and revamping the youth & scouting system. The same can be applied to Queiroz as he modernised and upgraded the medical & sport science departments besides moving towards a more continental approach to the game. Can this be applied to Moyes as it seems that his only strategy is to spend big in the transfer market by bringing in more Matas or Rooneys?

I believe that the main reason Fergie chose Moyes as his successor because he thought Moyes will bring in continuity that has been laid down by him for so many years. Unfortunately, it was anything but continuity with Moyes changing the whole backroom staffs and implying a wholesale changes were required for the current squad.

If Fergie and the board have decided that time is up for Moyes, Queiroz should be in consideration as the next candidate as he is the opposite of everything that is wrong with Moyes. He successfully transformed United to become a “world leader in tactical innovation in this decade” according to Jonathan Wilson. It no exaggeration to say that Queiroz was the “father of modernisation” of United and arguably, the 2008 team was the best squad of players that ever assembled in Fergie’s era.

“We also have an assistant manager who will be very much in the frame in Carlos Queiroz. He’s clearly a key part of our success. If you look at what Liverpool achieved in their very successful years during the ’70s and ’80s [that] was through internal appointments. Carlos is a key factor in all the success we’ve achieved over the last couple of seasons” said David Gill on replacing Fergie as United’s manager.

Even though United was still successful domestically since he left United in 2008, but United has regressed tactically with United reverted to the less fluid 4-4-1-1 formation. In 2 the Champion League final against Barcelona, Carlos might able to make a different to the outcome as he had done in the semifinal against them in 2008.

“Carlos was obsessive,we’d never seen such attention to detail. We rehearsed time and again, sometimes walking through the tactics slowly with the ball in our hands” said Gary Neville

His transfer market knowledge was also sorely missed with United rather unimaginatively brought in Young & Valencia to replace the likes of Ronaldo & Tevez. Besides, who knows Anderson & Nani might able to fulfil their potential if Queiroz was still here to groom them.

He ticks all the boxes to become a United’s manager with his right personality, tactical acumen, developing young players, knowledge of the transfer market, ability to spot talent and his fresh ideas to utilise science & technology to enhance players’ performance. The only thing counting against him is the fact he still not proven himself as a manager and also the question mark remains that will he able to transform United if without the backing of a powerful figure like Fergie during his time at United.

His contract is coming to an end with Iran after the World Cup and he was highly rated by Fergie and had proven himself with United, who knows, he might be a serious contender for the job if the board decided Moyes is not the right man to bring United forward.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Steve Round used to be Allardyce number 2 at Bolton and Newcastle

Do i need to say any more ?

Busby Babe wrote:Sam Allardyce's Bolton played better football than us.

Busby Babe wrote:Sam Allardyce's Bolton played better football than us.

Below is a quotes from Fergie to end this piece :

“Sometimes you look in a field and you see a cow and you think it’s a better cow than the one you’ve got in your own field. It’s a fact. Right? And it never really works out that way.”

Lumiere_Blanche wrote:Lol, never thought we would have to return this thread once learning lvg was about to take charge, well.. it doesnt exactly went as planned, doest it.
Uncertainty, gloom and chaos. Whats next ?
Such will be the things going on in the minds of many united fans right now.

Hmm, okay then ... Let me put this to perspective.
1. We cant play 3-5-2. Albeit we got results, we were incredibly lucky and if we return to it now I am sure the luck wouldnt be the same.
2. We cant play 4-4-2 diamond as well. As our 2 first choice strikers are apparent senior citizens who could barely move and our defense is a joke.

So how should we address this issue. Inputs ?  Its better to get indulged in some discussion rather than suppressing the pain I believe. Pour in so.    

Is it 4-3-3 the answer we are looking for ?

We have the players. Young is in good form. So we do have players for that.

ddg
rafael(aka valencia)-smalling-rojo-shaw
blind-carrick
young-herrera-di maria
rooney

or

ddg
rafael(sorry, I'm valencia )-smalling-rojo-shaw
blind-herrera-di maria
januzaj-rooney-young

Or is it a sin to suggest Liverpool's 3-4-3? Its again an interesting formation and it can work for us especially since we apart from shaw dont have a specialist full back (assuming rafael has vanished into thin air that is) Shaw as the left midfielder is a slight problem. But he is a quick learner and like moreno he hopefully will thrive after a while.

ddg
smalling-rojo-blind
di maria-herrera-carrick-shaw
mata-januzaj
rooney

I will have 2 players for each position