LIVERPOOL signed Mark Lawrenson from Brighton in the summer of 1981. We already had Alan Hansen, a Scotland centre-back, and Phil Thompson, an England one, and now we had a Republic of Ireland one, too.
All top players, so something had to give. Initially, it was our successful, proven system that changed. We tried to go to three central defenders and lost a couple of pre-season friendlies. Matters came to a head when we were 3-0 down to the reserves in training one day. We struggled big time with fielding a trio of centre-backs and the senior players had their say, including myself as captain. “Are we playing it to accommodate people?” we asked. “We don’t play three at the back, never have done, we’re a back-four team.” We reverted to that line-up and ended up winning the league. Again.
The point I am making is that Louis van Gaal walked into Manchester United and decided to use three at the back, a formation that worked for Holland at the World Cup in Brazil. A coach has to be brave to say that he is going to pursue a system before he gets to know his players. They have to buy into it.
If those three serious players at Liverpool, all internationals, all good on the ball, more than 100 caps between them, couldn’t get their heads round it, what chance do young defenders such as Tyler Blackett or Michael Keane, schooled in a back four, have of making it work?
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If Van Gaal is determined to persist with a back three this is going to be a long and painful transition for United. The team may take until November to settle down. You ain’t going to win the league if you take that long and you might not make the Champions League places either. United have already dropped seven points from a possible nine. If you continue with three at the back and the results are not improving, players will not be slow in turning round and pointing their fingers at the coach, saying: “It’s not that I am not playing well, it’s the system.”
If you have three central defenders who can make this formation work properly, your wing-backs are essentially wingers who can also do a job coming back the other way.
If you have three central defenders that cannot make it work, your wing-backs have to be full-backs who perhaps make a foray forward occasionally. Your priority changes from being a team on the front foot with forward-thinking players to being a team with more defensive players in the wider areas for protection. The latter applies to United so far this season. Between them, Jonny Evans, Phil Jones and Chris Smalling have not shown they can form a partnership to replace Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic. Then you have Blackett and Keane, who has now joined Burnley on loan until January, who don’t look ready yet.
That means you cannot have outright wingers either. Yet, if you look at United historically, they have always had wingers: George Best, Willie Morgan, Gordon Hill, Steve Coppell, Andrei Kanchelskis, Ryan Giggs, Cristiano Ronaldo. Fergie’s legacy included buying Wilfried Zaha and developing Adnan Januzaj. Over the past 20 years they have won European Cups, dominated the league and won FA Cups, generally with a back four as a platform and wingers getting fans on the edge of their seats.
Angel di Maria is too much of a winger to play as a wing-back, so he would play one position inside the widest man in a 3-5-2. If you play with a back four you can play him wide, as Argentina did when he made three goals and scored the other in their 4-2 win over Germany in midweek. I don’t read much into international friendlies but that performance showed his talent.
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Robin van Persie insists he doesn’t need knee surgery, but to me he doesn’t look right. That may be a legacy of the World Cup but he’s not firing on all cylinders.
There is a question mark against Radamel Falcao as well. He tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in January and missed the World Cup. The words “cruciate ligament injury” still strike fear into players and would-be buyers because once you have had one, it can lead to the loss of a yard of pace and restrict the twisting of the knee because it doesn’t feel as secure. Up front is the hardest place to play and that’s where you must have all your agility and pace. There’s never a great age to get that injury but the later it happens to you, the harder it is to come back from. Falcao is 28.
In taking him on loan from Monaco and selling Danny Welbeck, a product of their youth system, United again seem to be moving away from what they have always been about.
I wouldn’t have sold Welbeck — I am a fan. He will do well at Arsenal. He sees the picture in the build-up play and has the technique to deliver. The one thing missing is finishing but, if he can address that, he could come back to haunt United. I remember saying the same about Aaron Ramsey’s finishing, then he started scoring last season.
What happens behind the strikers is dictated by whether a team field three or four at the back. Juan Mata, like Welbeck, also seems to be surplus to requirements. He has to play where Wayne Rooney plays, just off the front — where he won two consecutive player-of-the-year awards at Chelsea.
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The danger with signing Daley Blind is that he might prove, like Jones, a jack of all trades and master of none. If you buy English players there is a premium to be paid, hence Luke Shaw for a fee which could rise to £31m. United are in a difficult situation in a cut-throat business. People know they are struggling on the pitch and that they have money to spend, so whenever United pick up the phone to buy someone the selling club will stick 20%-25% on the price. More important than who they buy, though, is that the players buy into the system.