Alex Ferguson's tactical decisions

[HangTime]

To be fair I think Fergie has had his hand forced into experimenting in midfield, trying to shove square pegs into round holes etc due to the injury/supension/sale/lack of form in that area of the pitch. The main reason Fletcher is playing because there isn't anyone else, if you look at the past, his main two there were Keane and Scholes, with the likes of Butt, P.Neville, Miller, DJ-DJ, Kleberson etc as backup. However all those players have now been sold, except for Scholes who is out for the season.

So basically he's been experimenting with O'Shea, Giggs, Smith etc in the centre of the park because he doesn't have any other options available to him. Some might call this poor foresight on his part, but not many could have predicted what happened to Scholes and Keane.

In my view only the following players pick themselves at MU (ignoring players with long term injuries etc):

VdS
Neville
Ferdinand
Ronaldo
Rooney
RvN

The rest is down to Fergie and what he decides to do. I'd be tempted to experiment with Rio in midfield, something like:

..................Van der Sar
Neville......Brown........Vidic....Evra/O'Shea
Ronaldo...Park/Fletcher...Rio...Giggs/Richardson
................Rvn.....Rooney

Obviously against good strong teams, Rio might need someone with a bit more bite than Park alongside him. But vs the Premiership alsorans, Rio would just be sitting in front of the back 4 and giving Park license to roam forward. He could probably interchange with Ronaldo on the wing at times too.

Normally I'd be turning my nose up at the concept of shoving a CB into midfield, but desperate times call for desperate measures and I think he's got the attributes to be able to handle it - reasonable pace to make up for his suspect concentration, a decent passer and comfortable on the ball. Following the recent purchases, Fergie now has enough defenders at his disposal to cope without Rio back there.

 

[TrueBlue]

didnt Rio get owned by Savage and Tugay the other week in midfield?

 

[G|mp]

Aye Savage taught him a lesson in midfield

The source of the article "Robbie Savage"

The only one that thought Savage was any good "Robbie Savage"

The whole MU team was **** again that night

 

[red11]

The thing that really gets me is that Keane was gone before the January transfer window, Scholes was out for the season and Ferguson knew all this, but he still did not think to buy a midfielder. His two most successful central midfielders in the past 10 yrs gone in the space of a few months and he didn't do anything about it. So he stuck Smith in midfield as a stop gap (we all thought anyway) until we could bring someone in, but he didn't. He bought 2 defenders with the intention of playing Rio in midfield. I have absolutely no doubt this is how he thought when I look back at it all. Ferguson has forced his own hand into playing players out of position, no one else has the authority to buy in another player, only Ferguson does. He's created this whole mess himself and he cannot fix it. I'm sick of hearing people saying, he is the only person who can change our ways, it's too late for that, he shows no sign of his former self and his decisions and tactics continue to change for the worst.

 

[The Running Man]

as above.

yes uTD have been hit by injury etc


but when your manager cannot be adequate replacement players for the 10 midfielders sold, and the injured and instead spends 12+millions oon defenders.. u have to question whats going on tb

 

[SpeedFreak]

This is our best team in my opinion:


VDS
Neville Rio Vidic Evra

Park Smith Rooney Ronaldo

Ruud Rossi

Silvestre is dodgy as hell. Brown has his heart stopping moments( twice at Liverpool).
Vidic is looking solid and Evra is our best choice at left back with no Heinze. Park on the right because Ronaldo is wasted there considering he doesn't cross, hence leave him on the left where he can cut inside and at least miss shots with his good foot lol.
Rooney in my eyes is similar to, but better than Scholes so play him as am attacking midfielder. Leave Ruud up frot as usual, but give him the outsanding Rossi as a partner. Has proved himself each time i've seen him. As for another defensive midfielder, i don't have a clue? (Keane) With Smithy out we are buggered.

Ferguson is making the wrong decisions too much of the time and i'm sick of it. Substitutions are usually too late and just plain weird. Time for a new face to save us from what liverpool have gone through for the last fifteen years. Greatness to a misplaced belief of greatness.

 

[Loki]

You do have to question his decisions of late. Well the biggest decision that needs to be questioned is letting Quierozzzzzzzzzzzz have so much free reign on picking the side and tactics. In some respects his hands are tied though through injuries. It picks itself week in week out. All the best youngsters are loaned to places like Preston and Watford because they are about a year from challenging the first team.

The Midfield of Becks, Keane, Scholes Giggs needed breaking up because of their ages. I think it would be hard to do it all in one season. You cant expect players to come in and take their place, gel and be a formidable midfield without any glitches. It comes as no suprise that over the past three years we have become progressively worse. That start was when Becks went. Arsenal are going through exactley the same. Loosing Viera last year, possibly Pires and/or Ljunberg this summer also.

That said with Utd on Sat he knew that Alonso would be out for Liverpool. The replacement being Hamman. So why not play Smith and Park from the start to offer some protection and to retain the ball.

 

[sandy10]

.... bring Smith on if Ruud has been shot by a sniper,

/rant.

Every week then.


Ferguson should have gone years ago, hopefully Man U are going to return to an age when players of the calibre Neil Webb, Danny Wallace, Peter Davenport, William Prunier et al ruled supreme...

..to those Man U "fans" wondering who the above are....they played when you probably supported Liverpool at the time.....

 

[Martynt74]

Speedfreak the problem with your formation though is the whole midfield (bar smith) is damn attacking minded the defence would be left very open.

Plus since you've left heinze out due to injury surely its logical to also do the same with smith

 

[red11]

Ferguson should have gone years ago, hopefully Man U are going to return to an age when players of the calibre Neil Webb, Danny Wallace, Peter Davenport, William Prunier et al ruled supreme...

Oh I think you'll find most of us will remember those players, unless we were kids at the time. William Prunier was crap and didn't last long, Danny Wallace was crap, Neil Webb had some potential but was injury plagued. Peter Davenport is a bit too far back to remember, I would have been 4yrs old when he joined us and 9 yrs old when he left. But my dad said he was crap as well.

..to those Man U "fans" wondering who the above are....they played when you probably supported Liverpool at the time.....

lol...sad tbh

 

[Loki]

Neil Webb had a crackin debut. Scored in the 4-1 demolition of Arsenal the day Michael Knighton was supposed to buy us for £10 million. He got progressively worse(and fatter) with each game.

Hes now a postman in Droylsden

 

[mcdermos]

..to those Man U "fans" wondering who the above are....they played when you probably supported Liverpool at the time.....

Don't they support Chelsea now?

 

[sandy10]

My comment relating to the fans was admittedly cheeky, but nonetheless accurate.


So so glad to see them suffer.

 

[red11]

Your comment says more about Liverpool fans in the eighties though. Have you got green eyes by any chance?

 

[sandy10]

No at all, I support neither of the above, and hence don't care.

I do remember United in the mid-late 90's.....finishing below mid-table, crowds of 25,000.......says it all.

Liverpool for example, despite a period of decline, have still maintained high crowd levels.

Cheaper Prawn sandwiches perchance.

 

[red11]

LOL...what!!

I think you have your decades mixed up.

 

[G|mp]

Maybe jelousy due to the fact you live in a county without any decent football teams
and a population that dont care that much about football

 

[red11]

Well you could call the last few yrs Man Utds decline and we still pack the stadium more than any other team in the UK.

 

[Loki]

I do remember United in the mid-late 90's.....finishing below mid-table, crowds of 25,000.......says it all.

Are we on about the same sport here. Or even the same UTD ??

Class

 

[sandy10]

**80's!!

Apologies.

Yes..........late 80's....the memory of Dennis Bailey's hat-trick at Old Trafford distracted me.