From the last two performances against West Ham and Burnley it has become apparent that Manchester United are lacking confidence. However to the observers it is not clear whether this is the cause of the poor performances, or caused by the poor performances. However they are certainly linked, but considering that Man Utd have picked up more points than any other Premier League team over the last 15 games this should be viewed as a concern rather than a crisis.
If one were to go by the articles about Manchester United over the last two days they would not believe that they won 3-1 against Burnley. However the reality is that the performance was so unconvincing that it takes the gloss off what was quite a good result, especially considering that Burnley drew 2-2 at the Etihad. United seem to be struggling at the moment particularly against opponents that try to press them high and prevent them from playing out from the back. Think back to all United’s worst performances and this is the common factor, think back to the wins over Arsenal and Southampton and recently the matches against West Ham and Burnley all these teams to varying degrees attempted to make United uncomfortable in possession. Now think about their best performances 4-0 VS QPR, 3-0 VS Hull, 3-1 VS Newcastle and 3-1 VS Leicester all these teams made the mistake of sitting back and allowing United to dictate the game. In fact this distinction can be made even clearer by the ‘game of two halves’ 5-3 loss to Leicester. Leicester spent the first part of the game sitting off United and as a consequence found themselves 3-1 down, but after Nugent made it 3-2 Leicester started to press United and the game completely turned on its head (we all know how it ended).
The problem seems to be that United’s defenders are terrified of making a mistake and therefore when confronted on the ball the first thought is to get rid of the ball. Therefore when faced against high pressing teams United struggle to build attacks from the back, and their lack of control is exaggerated by the absence of Marouane Fellaini. When Fellaini is present he gives the defenders an out ball as he can easily hold up the ball and bring other players into the game. However without him United’s defenders frequently hit hopeful balls up to Falcao and Van Persie who struggle to hold up the ball. This can lead to constant pressure on Man Utd’s defence and this was particularly evident against Burnley during a 20 minute period where Burnley dominated the game. However that being said we should not fall into the familiar narrative that United are so good in attack and weak in defence. Not only has United’s defensive record markedly improved, it has become clear recently that United are actually not so great in attack. They have been slow and predictable when trying to break teams down and despite scoring a fair number of goals seem to be lacking ideas, for example they scored 3 against Burnley but all the goals came from set-pieces. However it seems that these are linked, Gary Neville has pointed out in his MNF analysis that United are very cautious and risk-averse in their passing. This has led to the increased defensive solidarity and the reduced attacking threat and as Rob Smyth says ‘They are largely a short-ball team whose slow tiki-takanaccio gives them the most sterile domination of games’, never a truer word was spoken.
However this is not a trademark of a Van Gaal team perhaps it is the notoriously arrogant Van Gaal that is lacking confidence.
Source: DSG
