From the title you can probably guess what this is going to be about; a sort of venting of frustrations as I fail to understand why Louis van Gaal is so insistent on this mysterious thing he knows as ‘philosophy’.
This is not to say that I’ve lost faith in him, or that I don’t believe philosophy exists in football. Anyone who knows me will know that I put great store in the mentality and psychology of football, as opposed to pure, hard tactics (mainly because I haven’t wrapped my head around it yet). I do think that there has to be a basis upon which football is built, and that’s not tactics. If the players believe that they can win, and if they try their darnest to do so, they can. It’s as simple as that, and it’s something that Matt Busby and Alex Ferguson grasped. Busby never gave his team a formation to play with; it was always simply ‘go out there and win’. I remember Roy Keane recounting a similar episode with Sir Alex, where all he said was ‘lads, it’s Tottenham’, and let them off to do their thing. Without belief, without the players’ contributions and dedication, even the foremost tactician would not be able to get anything out of his team.
But, occasionally, this belief stems from the tactics that the manager plays, and what we’ve been seeing from van Gaal is mildly worrying. It’s very difficult to believe in a system that doesn’t give you very much to believe in. The first half of the QPR game yesterday was tired, unimaginative, sluggish. Players were sloppier than a primary school cafeteria. I think it was within the first minute that Mata, usually so composed on the ball, gave it away to someone who was thankfully unable to breach the Great Wall of de Gea. I can’t remember getting at all excited about any chance we had in the first half. I think there was one point when Rooney was clear, but instead of shooting (as I would imagine he’d used to have a go) he waited for someone else to pass it to. And I don’t understand this United side at all.
Manchester United has always been famous for its mental fortitude. I’m sorry that I must revert back to my beloved Class of ’92, but there were no greater practitioners of the art than Fergie’s fledglings themselves. In the ‘official’ story of the treble Ole Gunnar Solskjaer notes that no one ever believed they would lose. Everyone always believed that the treble was possible. Everyone believed that the 1-0, 90 minutes in, would be overturned. Gary Neville mentioned something smiliar. Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes understood the need to pick themselves up after defeats and just soldier on, giving their 110%. Sir Alex was a master of that; getting players to have that supreme level of confidence – not arrogant, just better. This United side, though, has looked mentally battered. I’m not blaming Louis van Gaal, because this is something that stems from the days of David Moyes. Once that veneer of invincibility shattered, Moyes was unable to keep it together. Ferguson had his low points as well – the barrenness of 2004-2006, bar the FA Cup – but he bounced back. Moyes was unable to do that. Whether it’s because of a lack of time or just lack of managerial ability I don’t know, but the fact remains that every defeat hits United hard. Every set-back, every goal scored against them, and they immediately looked deflated. They don’t bother trying to fight back. This is one problem that van Gaal’s philosophy urgently needs to solve, but so far it hasn’t been capable of that.
The second problem is the title of this piece: the 3-5-2 formation. Granted, it worked absolute wonders during pre-season, but it’s not at all working well now. United have only won 38% of the games in which they’ve played 3-5-2. They’ve won 86% of the 4-4-2 ones. The QPR-away game was absolutely painful to watch; the QPR-home game was one of the highlights of this season. Against almost the same side, they scraped to a narrow 2-1 with the 3-5-2 and a trouncing 4-0 with the 4-4-2 diamond. That home game was an absolute joy to watch. Free flowing, counter-attacking, real rough football. United football. Surely it’s no coincidence that United looked much better, started scoring goals, after van Gaal changed the formation yesterday.
I used to play this game with my friends called Dream League Soccer. I was playing one of them and realised that he’d put Ozil in centre forward; when I asked, he said it was because Ozil had pace. Perhaps this works in a game, where as long as you’re fast you can outrun the defenders and score. But not in real life. Di Maria is fast, but his pace doesn’t warrant his starting up front instead of Rooney, who is paid to be a striker. Pace doesn’t convert. If di Maria is in the FIFPRO team as a midfielder, then let him play in midfield. If you want pace to stretch the pitch, then bring on Wilson, which is exactly what gave us the second goal. Wayne Rooney is tireless in both attack and defence – one of the few, to be honest, who still espouses the 110% philosophy of the old United, no matter his well-documented attempts to be free of that – but that doesn’t make him a midfielder.
There’s technically nothing wrong with the 3-5-2 formation in and of itself. I’ve read some very good articles recently hailing its virtues and there are good things about it, like the way it stifles opponents and doesn’t let them get an edge in. It’s one of the most commonly used formations in Italy, I think. But the English Premier League is a league like no other and I think van Gaal still hasn’t gotten used to (or has refused to accept) this. United kept 63% possession in the first half against QPR, but created barely any chances. (One, I think? Which isn’t good enough.) To quote the man himself,
with the other system (3-5-2) we played against Tottenham, maybe you remember the first-half – we created six or seven chances more than today and we don’t score.
I think United simply doesn’t have the squad that matches what a 3-5-2 needs to be successful. We don’t have wing-backs, which are essential in a system like this. We have a conventional left-back and a winger. Shaw impresses with his runs upfield, but we’re always vulnerable to counter-attack, especially with a back-three this weak. Evans was unreliable yet again yesterday, nearly gifting a goal away. Supporters will quote the fact that United has let in only what, five goals less than Chelsea, who have one of the best defences. But that’s less of the system and more of the god that is David de Gea. The players aren’t suited for this system. Perhaps van Gaal’s strategy is to play it until they are, but why do that when there is the perfectly functional diamond that they are already familiar with? Where no one has to play a role that they aren’t meant to be playing?
It’s one thing to play 3-5-2 when it’s a game in which your best hope is closing down, parking the bus and just making sure that you’re so solid the opposing team can’t get through. But if you’re looking for goals – and in football, the goal is a goal – then 3-5-2 simply doesn’t offer that, especially with the side that United have now. van Gaal might think that 4 in midfield leaves the team weak, but I fail to see how that’s the case. On the contrary, it makes the team much better looking; more attacking; more likely to actually score. And with scoring comes confidence. You always feel better trying to break down the other side than putting up your defences and hope that you don’t get broken yourself. Perhaps the reason United have lost their edge is because they see the games they play as pointless. That they’re keeping possession but there’s no way through, so there’s no real reason to keep on going. And, at this point, I wouldn’t blame them. It’s difficult to be confident in something when you’re repeatedly frustrated, even more difficult to build confidence when it doesn’t yet exist.
A Bayern fan pointed out that van Gaal played Schweinsteiger in midfield, a move everyone thought was stupid, and look how that turned out. Certainly the stubborn insistence on 3-5-2 is something most people think stupid, but as for coming good, I’m not so sure whether that will work, considering the players we have, and considering the drawbacks of this system. To quote Scholes’s column on this subject:
My issue with it has always been that it gives a team the security of having possession without offering them the opportunities from which they might score the goals that win the game.
Playing another formation won’t solve the confidence issue, which I think is the most important problem right now, but it could certainly help by digging us out more victories. I don’t distrust Louis van Gaal. I think that he’s an excellent manager, and that we should have faith in what he does. And I know that he and Sir Alex are more alike than it would seem at first glance; both are extremely stubborn and like to stick to what they know, so I won’t expect the system to change anytime soon. The difference is that Sir Alex arrived in the position of being able to enforce his philosophy over the club. Louis van Gaal arrives at a club already rich in tradition. It might help if he was able to swallow his pride, even if just for a little while, and find out what United’s way of doing things has to offer him.
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