LvG hailed this game as “one of our best matches”, calling it fantastic and clinical in his post-match press conference. When a journo asked “Were you just as happy when the team weren’t in possession?” LvG replied “Yes because that was our strategy today”. He mentioned “Everton was dangerous only when the referee gave freekicks around the 16m”, which goes to show how effective the team was employing this strategy. I agree completely with his assessment of the game, and will attempt to show you the various aspects of this strategy.
The Press
Pressing effectively can bring teams great success: Barcelona under Guardiola (7-second rule), Dortmund under Klopp (gegenpressing), and Atleti under Simeone (flank pressing) are famous examples. This is why I was very excited to see the consistent and coordinated pressing from United against Everton.
Before we get into that, it might be helpful to quickly review pressing. Teams employ this technique to cut out all passing lanes, forcing the opponent player to pass backwards or attempt a, hopefully inaccurate, long ball. There are many facets of pressing:
Duration – refers to how long the team chases the opponents after losing possession. This is the aspect emphasized by Barcelona’s 7-second rule. The idea was that if Barcelona lost the ball during an attacking build-up, they had 7 seconds to press hard to recover the ball, after which time they had to retreat to a more compact and conventional defensive shape. Longer the duration, more pressure piles on the opponents, but it also means your team tires quicker.
Coverage – refers to who hunts who. In addition to hunting the opposing player in possession, teams will also press other opponents, usually along the same line (if a midfield player is pressed, his fellow midfielders are covered). Usually it is one-to-one based on position (RW to LB and so on), but this isn’t always the case. This is the aspect emphasized by Klopp’s gegenpressing, which literally translates to counterpressing. In a counterattack, the attacking team converges on goal as soon as possible. In just the same way, in a counterpress the pressing team rapidly converges on the opposing player on the ball. Good coverage requires a tactically well-drilled defensive unit, requires intelligent and alert players, but a proper execution can save a lot of energy.
Line-of-press – refers to the area within which the team’s press is activated. This is the aspect emphasized by Simeone’s brand of pressing. Leveraging their defensive strength, his teams mark out a central territory within which the team sits compact and deep. They allow space on the wings, where play is more predictable, but as soon as the opponent tries to move into their marked territory, they press hard. Line-of-press is actually a misnomer, as it is more accurately a designated area, and is more akin to a country’s boarders. The higher and more expansive the line-of-press, more territory is “safe”, but it also tires your team quicker defending it.
I find it completely fascinating that employing two of these facets requires teams to “expend” energy and employing the other allows them to “save” energy. This is a very subtle point and is an interesting topic in footballing philosophy, and is the kind of thing van Gaal means when he says that his systems (formations) may vary, but the underlying philosophy remains the same. This kind of abstract training is what van Gaal lays down so well, which becomes solid foundation for following managers to build upon.
Sometimes managers weigh some aspects more than others, crafting a distinctive style in the process. It is important to realize that the final result is always a blend of the various factors. It is also often opposition-dependent. In preparing for games, a good manager can boost his team significantly by tailoring a suitable tactic as per the strengths of his team and weaknesses of the opponent. Rinus Michels, upon inventing the press, noted that once the press begins, it is usually the third pass that has the highest probability of being won (A is pressed, passes to B who is also pressed, passes to C who is also pressed, but he loses the ball). This gives rise to another facet of pressing, which involves starting/stopping the press after the opponent has completed X number of passes (there are also other facets that I haven’t mentioned, but these are the major ones).
Now that we have recapped that, we can move on to look at our own press against Everton. We seem to favor a line-of-press approach, with the line just in front of the center circle ( I was amazed to see of Rooney and Herrera, who are both players we know chase the ball to the ends of the earth, disciplined with their hunt. Here we can see Herrera reined back by Rooney ( LvG must have really drilled the team well in this regard. Notice how Rooney (and Herrera) commands the press, signaling players around him to stay disciplined and focused. In his post match press conference, LvG said “he [Rooney] has to do his job when we are in a defensive organization”, referring to precisely this.
In each of the following GIFs, completely ignore the ball and just look at our players. Look at their hand signals, try to hear them shout, observe where their heads turn, all the while mentally picturing the line-of-press itself (I’ve cheekily omitted them in these GIFs because it’s effort to draw and you guys should practice drawing mental lines anyway).
An extended period of discipline.
Herrera restrains himself.
Pulling the line back.
I love seeing Rooney in this new and mature role as the captain, a far cry from the stomp on CR7 not too many years ago. Younger players are often too eager; driven by lofty dreams, they disregard instructions and press recklessly if they have the stamina to do so. But it takes leadership to execute the game plan and vision to put the current game in context of the week. Or if you’re SAF, in context of the decade!
The line-of-press was pretty much fixed there for most of the game, but dropped after Carrick was introduced (73’). Remember that a lower line-of-press means that the team is “claiming” a smaller territory, which results in less energy expended in defending that smaller area.
Try to listen for Rooney shouting “back, back” to Herrera soon after Carrick was brought on.
Herrera pulls Lingard back.
Rooney commands:
1.
2.
3.
We have a tiring midweek game away to Moscow and an important City game soon after, thus conserving energy and preventing injuries is critical. Fellaini was introduced later (80’) to make up for this drop in the line-of-press and to further conserve energy by avoiding having to work the ball through midfield (and we know it is important to move the ball up field as it gives us territorial advantage and attack is also the best defense). Additionally, Carrick has just returned from a groin injury and also he isn’t as fast as Basti bro. I thought Schneiderlin and Carrick would exchange roles, but it was interesting to see Carrick play Basti bro’s combative midfield role, with Schneiderlin favored to stay defensive.
Long Balls And Mata’s crosses
Not only did he get the important first goal, Schneiderlin was imperious with his accurate distribution. In addition to easing pressure on the ball, circulating attacking possession, Schneiderlin also completed quite a few long balls. His long balls usually involved switching flanks from deep (after receiving a pass from Jones), contrasted with to Carrick’s long balls, which are usually more direct, with him electing for the long ball only when a key pass or assist is on (honorary mention to Scholes, who could do both and more).
Schneiderlin receives from Jones, and wants to go long, but most likely the receiver isn’t ready.
Schneiderlin finds the roaming Herrera.
Schneiderlin receives from Jones, looks to go again, but opts for another target.
Schneiderlin finds Martial beautifully.
Schneiderlin is ready, but Rojo isn’t.
Because of his overall play, Schneiderlin was MotM for me, not least because he bagged his first goal in a clinical finish (now all that remains is for Basti bro to score his first). But what might have gone unnoticed is that the cross from Mata, which preceded Morgan’s goal, was a recurring mode of attack in the first half. Notice also Schneiderlin’s role in set-pieces as the player who runs to the far post. The first instance was seen early in this freekick (which resulted because of Naismith’s positional mistake, but more on that later). For the goal itself, Schneiderlin is in a similar position. Who receives the cross, of course, depends on if the play resulted from a set-piece or open play build-up. Because the first two were from set-pieces, Mata had targets in the box. In this attempt, Mata immediately gears up for a cross, but sees no suitable target and passes short instead.
Everton’s Blunt Attack and Disorganized Defense
Martinez did not get his tactics right with regard to Steven Naismith this game. Tempted by Naismith’s recent goal scoring form, Martinez involved Naismith too heavily in attack. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but Martinez also expected Naismith to help in defense, and there was no way Naismith could manage that (or that Barkley would cover for Naismith, since he’s too much of a free roamer).
Let us look at Naismith’s defensive duties. Here ( we can see the immense gap that opens up because Jagielka is forced to take Galloway’s role, who in turn is forced to take Naismith’s. Keep in mind this is the central channel: the one between the center back pairing! This is also the freekick highlighted above.
Here Naismith should be tracking Rooney, but fails to do so. Rooney gets a shot off, but it’s off target. Galloway immediately looks at Naismith as if to say “dude, where’s the help?” Naismith replies with “pls” .
The attacking play itself involved a long ball to Lukaku who would bring the ball down for Naismith. Out of the many instances in the first half, I've highlighted this play ( that resulted in a freekick, and this one ( which could have been dangerous. But by this time Naismith had lost all sharpness and speed, having been torn between two diametrically opposed roles.
This particular play was also accompanied by a tactical variation, which aimed at freeing up some space centrally for Naismith and Lukaku. The variation involved getting the ball on the left flank, where the player, usually Galloway, would pass back to Barry, who would try to sweep it in towards Lukaku or Naismith.
In the first instance where this variation appears, we can see how much space Naismith has to turn.
Here ( the variation is executed perfectly (notice Barry’s first time pass), but Naismith goes for a ball that is not his to receive. Again, loosing focus.
Here ( Barry is ready for the play, but he doesn’t have the space for it, and so Barkley chooses a safer pass. By this time United (LvG) have figured out the variation, and we can see Herrera pressing harder to constrict Barry’s space.
Everton try to mix it up and attempt the variation from higher up, but it doesn’t work.
As soon as Stones gets the ball, Barry realizes the play is on, and moves into position, but Galloway doesn’t receive the ball to begin with.
No wonder Martinez subbed Naismith out at halftime. In addition to Naismith, Jagielka also had a poor game, but there’s no substituting your center back captain. Not only did his unforced error lead to a goal, he also failed at numerous long passes and attempted some rash shots at goal. But most of all, the Everton skipper failed to organize his defense properly and instead of reassuring others, himself got visibly frustrated at times.
Here ( we can see Everton’s defensive block getting skewed to the right.
Around the same time, we can see United’s defensive shape is central and much more organized ( It is slightly worrying that our defense isn’t as compact, and if there were a quicker player in Naismith’s place (think KdB), a first time through ball to Barkley (Sterling?) would have completely unlocked our defense (notice how Jones comes for the ball, but backs off).
Going back to Everton’s defensive shape, here ( we can see just how skewed it gets. Notice the penalty spot in the first freeze frame. That means there was no blue player in the whole left half of their field. Incredible. But the second freeze frame shows the drawbacks of playing our little Spanish wizard. Despite having the whole right half free, not only is Mata is too central, he also lacks the pace to exploit that space after the fact. Imagine a dinked pass by Herrera to an out-and-out RW perched right at the right tip of the box. But no worries, this corner led to Schneiderlin’s goal.
Closing Thoughts
Will we persevere with this style of press in all future games? Or is it just a tactic reserved for tough away fixtures? What kind of personnel changes might we expect for the CSKA Moscow game? City? This is an exciting time to be a United fan, and with much of LvG’s groundwork laid down, we can start to see a distinctly efficient European team developing. Despite the occasional set back, I can really feel a sense of direction and purpose emerging within the team. I can’t wait for the next game. There is footballing hope.
The Press
Pressing effectively can bring teams great success: Barcelona under Guardiola (7-second rule), Dortmund under Klopp (gegenpressing), and Atleti under Simeone (flank pressing) are famous examples. This is why I was very excited to see the consistent and coordinated pressing from United against Everton.
Before we get into that, it might be helpful to quickly review pressing. Teams employ this technique to cut out all passing lanes, forcing the opponent player to pass backwards or attempt a, hopefully inaccurate, long ball. There are many facets of pressing:
Duration – refers to how long the team chases the opponents after losing possession. This is the aspect emphasized by Barcelona’s 7-second rule. The idea was that if Barcelona lost the ball during an attacking build-up, they had 7 seconds to press hard to recover the ball, after which time they had to retreat to a more compact and conventional defensive shape. Longer the duration, more pressure piles on the opponents, but it also means your team tires quicker.
Coverage – refers to who hunts who. In addition to hunting the opposing player in possession, teams will also press other opponents, usually along the same line (if a midfield player is pressed, his fellow midfielders are covered). Usually it is one-to-one based on position (RW to LB and so on), but this isn’t always the case. This is the aspect emphasized by Klopp’s gegenpressing, which literally translates to counterpressing. In a counterattack, the attacking team converges on goal as soon as possible. In just the same way, in a counterpress the pressing team rapidly converges on the opposing player on the ball. Good coverage requires a tactically well-drilled defensive unit, requires intelligent and alert players, but a proper execution can save a lot of energy.
Line-of-press – refers to the area within which the team’s press is activated. This is the aspect emphasized by Simeone’s brand of pressing. Leveraging their defensive strength, his teams mark out a central territory within which the team sits compact and deep. They allow space on the wings, where play is more predictable, but as soon as the opponent tries to move into their marked territory, they press hard. Line-of-press is actually a misnomer, as it is more accurately a designated area, and is more akin to a country’s boarders. The higher and more expansive the line-of-press, more territory is “safe”, but it also tires your team quicker defending it.
I find it completely fascinating that employing two of these facets requires teams to “expend” energy and employing the other allows them to “save” energy. This is a very subtle point and is an interesting topic in footballing philosophy, and is the kind of thing van Gaal means when he says that his systems (formations) may vary, but the underlying philosophy remains the same. This kind of abstract training is what van Gaal lays down so well, which becomes solid foundation for following managers to build upon.
Sometimes managers weigh some aspects more than others, crafting a distinctive style in the process. It is important to realize that the final result is always a blend of the various factors. It is also often opposition-dependent. In preparing for games, a good manager can boost his team significantly by tailoring a suitable tactic as per the strengths of his team and weaknesses of the opponent. Rinus Michels, upon inventing the press, noted that once the press begins, it is usually the third pass that has the highest probability of being won (A is pressed, passes to B who is also pressed, passes to C who is also pressed, but he loses the ball). This gives rise to another facet of pressing, which involves starting/stopping the press after the opponent has completed X number of passes (there are also other facets that I haven’t mentioned, but these are the major ones).
Now that we have recapped that, we can move on to look at our own press against Everton. We seem to favor a line-of-press approach, with the line just in front of the center circle ( I was amazed to see of Rooney and Herrera, who are both players we know chase the ball to the ends of the earth, disciplined with their hunt. Here we can see Herrera reined back by Rooney ( LvG must have really drilled the team well in this regard. Notice how Rooney (and Herrera) commands the press, signaling players around him to stay disciplined and focused. In his post match press conference, LvG said “he [Rooney] has to do his job when we are in a defensive organization”, referring to precisely this.
In each of the following GIFs, completely ignore the ball and just look at our players. Look at their hand signals, try to hear them shout, observe where their heads turn, all the while mentally picturing the line-of-press itself (I’ve cheekily omitted them in these GIFs because it’s effort to draw and you guys should practice drawing mental lines anyway).
An extended period of discipline.
Herrera restrains himself.
Pulling the line back.
I love seeing Rooney in this new and mature role as the captain, a far cry from the stomp on CR7 not too many years ago. Younger players are often too eager; driven by lofty dreams, they disregard instructions and press recklessly if they have the stamina to do so. But it takes leadership to execute the game plan and vision to put the current game in context of the week. Or if you’re SAF, in context of the decade!
The line-of-press was pretty much fixed there for most of the game, but dropped after Carrick was introduced (73’). Remember that a lower line-of-press means that the team is “claiming” a smaller territory, which results in less energy expended in defending that smaller area.
Try to listen for Rooney shouting “back, back” to Herrera soon after Carrick was brought on.
Herrera pulls Lingard back.
Rooney commands:
1.
2.
3.
We have a tiring midweek game away to Moscow and an important City game soon after, thus conserving energy and preventing injuries is critical. Fellaini was introduced later (80’) to make up for this drop in the line-of-press and to further conserve energy by avoiding having to work the ball through midfield (and we know it is important to move the ball up field as it gives us territorial advantage and attack is also the best defense). Additionally, Carrick has just returned from a groin injury and also he isn’t as fast as Basti bro. I thought Schneiderlin and Carrick would exchange roles, but it was interesting to see Carrick play Basti bro’s combative midfield role, with Schneiderlin favored to stay defensive.
Long Balls And Mata’s crosses
Not only did he get the important first goal, Schneiderlin was imperious with his accurate distribution. In addition to easing pressure on the ball, circulating attacking possession, Schneiderlin also completed quite a few long balls. His long balls usually involved switching flanks from deep (after receiving a pass from Jones), contrasted with to Carrick’s long balls, which are usually more direct, with him electing for the long ball only when a key pass or assist is on (honorary mention to Scholes, who could do both and more).
Schneiderlin receives from Jones, and wants to go long, but most likely the receiver isn’t ready.
Schneiderlin finds the roaming Herrera.
Schneiderlin receives from Jones, looks to go again, but opts for another target.
Schneiderlin finds Martial beautifully.
Schneiderlin is ready, but Rojo isn’t.
Because of his overall play, Schneiderlin was MotM for me, not least because he bagged his first goal in a clinical finish (now all that remains is for Basti bro to score his first). But what might have gone unnoticed is that the cross from Mata, which preceded Morgan’s goal, was a recurring mode of attack in the first half. Notice also Schneiderlin’s role in set-pieces as the player who runs to the far post. The first instance was seen early in this freekick (which resulted because of Naismith’s positional mistake, but more on that later). For the goal itself, Schneiderlin is in a similar position. Who receives the cross, of course, depends on if the play resulted from a set-piece or open play build-up. Because the first two were from set-pieces, Mata had targets in the box. In this attempt, Mata immediately gears up for a cross, but sees no suitable target and passes short instead.
Everton’s Blunt Attack and Disorganized Defense
Martinez did not get his tactics right with regard to Steven Naismith this game. Tempted by Naismith’s recent goal scoring form, Martinez involved Naismith too heavily in attack. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but Martinez also expected Naismith to help in defense, and there was no way Naismith could manage that (or that Barkley would cover for Naismith, since he’s too much of a free roamer).
Let us look at Naismith’s defensive duties. Here ( we can see the immense gap that opens up because Jagielka is forced to take Galloway’s role, who in turn is forced to take Naismith’s. Keep in mind this is the central channel: the one between the center back pairing! This is also the freekick highlighted above.
Here Naismith should be tracking Rooney, but fails to do so. Rooney gets a shot off, but it’s off target. Galloway immediately looks at Naismith as if to say “dude, where’s the help?” Naismith replies with “pls” .
The attacking play itself involved a long ball to Lukaku who would bring the ball down for Naismith. Out of the many instances in the first half, I've highlighted this play ( that resulted in a freekick, and this one ( which could have been dangerous. But by this time Naismith had lost all sharpness and speed, having been torn between two diametrically opposed roles.
This particular play was also accompanied by a tactical variation, which aimed at freeing up some space centrally for Naismith and Lukaku. The variation involved getting the ball on the left flank, where the player, usually Galloway, would pass back to Barry, who would try to sweep it in towards Lukaku or Naismith.
In the first instance where this variation appears, we can see how much space Naismith has to turn.
Here ( the variation is executed perfectly (notice Barry’s first time pass), but Naismith goes for a ball that is not his to receive. Again, loosing focus.
Here ( Barry is ready for the play, but he doesn’t have the space for it, and so Barkley chooses a safer pass. By this time United (LvG) have figured out the variation, and we can see Herrera pressing harder to constrict Barry’s space.
Everton try to mix it up and attempt the variation from higher up, but it doesn’t work.
As soon as Stones gets the ball, Barry realizes the play is on, and moves into position, but Galloway doesn’t receive the ball to begin with.
No wonder Martinez subbed Naismith out at halftime. In addition to Naismith, Jagielka also had a poor game, but there’s no substituting your center back captain. Not only did his unforced error lead to a goal, he also failed at numerous long passes and attempted some rash shots at goal. But most of all, the Everton skipper failed to organize his defense properly and instead of reassuring others, himself got visibly frustrated at times.
Here ( we can see Everton’s defensive block getting skewed to the right.
Around the same time, we can see United’s defensive shape is central and much more organized ( It is slightly worrying that our defense isn’t as compact, and if there were a quicker player in Naismith’s place (think KdB), a first time through ball to Barkley (Sterling?) would have completely unlocked our defense (notice how Jones comes for the ball, but backs off).
Going back to Everton’s defensive shape, here ( we can see just how skewed it gets. Notice the penalty spot in the first freeze frame. That means there was no blue player in the whole left half of their field. Incredible. But the second freeze frame shows the drawbacks of playing our little Spanish wizard. Despite having the whole right half free, not only is Mata is too central, he also lacks the pace to exploit that space after the fact. Imagine a dinked pass by Herrera to an out-and-out RW perched right at the right tip of the box. But no worries, this corner led to Schneiderlin’s goal.
Closing Thoughts
Will we persevere with this style of press in all future games? Or is it just a tactic reserved for tough away fixtures? What kind of personnel changes might we expect for the CSKA Moscow game? City? This is an exciting time to be a United fan, and with much of LvG’s groundwork laid down, we can start to see a distinctly efficient European team developing. Despite the occasional set back, I can really feel a sense of direction and purpose emerging within the team. I can’t wait for the next game. There is footballing hope.
.
taj klaun ne bi igrao u Evertonu a u Bayernu haman standardan pod Guardiolom, i najjace od svega Javi Martinez lik koji je bio temelj Bayernove dominacije pod Juppom usudio bi se reci mozda cak i najvazniji igrac sredine terena mu sjedi na klupi da bi igrao kloc Rafinha dok LAhm ide u sredinu, nema sta veliki strucnjak