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| Can Louis van Gaal allay English suspicions of the three-man defence? | Can Louis van Gaal allay English suspicions of the three-man defence? |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| The average English football fan’s morbid fear of a three-man defence does not exist without good reason. Among the dates that live in infamy is that of 11 October, 2006: the last time the national team played with three at the back, losing a European Championship qualifier 2-0 away to Croatia in ignominious and fateful circumstances. | |
| The unhappy result of Steve McClaren half-listening to the advice of his assistant, Terry Venables, the Zagreb experiment was unlikely to be repeated by Fabio Capello, a convinced proponent of the four-man defence, or his successor, the similarly inclined Roy Hodgson. In the 21 years of the Premier League, the seven winning managers – Alex Ferguson, Kenny Dalglish, Arsène Wenger, José Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini – have not seen fit to stray from the path of orthodoxy. Which makes the arrival of Louis van Gaal all the more intriguing. | The unhappy result of Steve McClaren half-listening to the advice of his assistant, Terry Venables, the Zagreb experiment was unlikely to be repeated by Fabio Capello, a convinced proponent of the four-man defence, or his successor, the similarly inclined Roy Hodgson. In the 21 years of the Premier League, the seven winning managers – Alex Ferguson, Kenny Dalglish, Arsène Wenger, José Mourinho, Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto Mancini and Manuel Pellegrini – have not seen fit to stray from the path of orthodoxy. Which makes the arrival of Louis van Gaal all the more intriguing. |
| For his first match in the Premier League, at home to Swansea City tomorrow lunchtime, the Dutchman will send out Manchester United with the kind of line-up that he used to guide Holland to the semi-finals of the World Cup this summer: three defenders, two wing-backs, two central midfielders, a playmaker and two strikers. Van Gaal has warned that the transition will take time but many eyes will be watching for hints that the formula is transferable and that a general tactical shift might be under way. | |
| Even in England, there are precedents. Like Venables, Glenn Hoddle employed a similar formation at club and national levels. Steve Bruce used it at Hull City last season, when it was also an occasional weapon in Brendan Rodgers’ Anfield armoury. But that traumatic night in Zagreb had a lot to do with the conviction that English defenders do not like being moved out of the comfort zone of the flat back four. | Even in England, there are precedents. Like Venables, Glenn Hoddle employed a similar formation at club and national levels. Steve Bruce used it at Hull City last season, when it was also an occasional weapon in Brendan Rodgers’ Anfield armoury. But that traumatic night in Zagreb had a lot to do with the conviction that English defenders do not like being moved out of the comfort zone of the flat back four. |
| “The coaches sprang 3-5-2 on us a couple of days before the game,” Gary Neville wrote in his autobiography, recalling the Croatia match. “I know Terry Venables had always wanted to be tactically flexible but I wasn’t comfortable. I just couldn’t get a handle on what was expected from me and it was clear that a few of the other players were just as unsure.” | |
| Venables’s flexibility had been on show in Euro 96, where he had used 4-3-3 in a famous trouncing of Holland before switching to 3-5-2 for the semi-final against Germany and losing on penalties. Ten years later he counselled McClaren to select Neville and Ashley Cole on the flanks, with Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Ledley King as the central defenders. | Venables’s flexibility had been on show in Euro 96, where he had used 4-3-3 in a famous trouncing of Holland before switching to 3-5-2 for the semi-final against Germany and losing on penalties. Ten years later he counselled McClaren to select Neville and Ashley Cole on the flanks, with Rio Ferdinand, John Terry and Ledley King as the central defenders. |
| In his latest autobiography, Venables recalls that the late withdrawal of King – replaced by Jamie Carragher – ruined the scheme. “It was too late to revert to a back four,” he wrote, which seems odd given that players who had spent their lives in a flat back four had been given only a couple of days before the match in which to familiarise themselves with the new system. Slaven Bilic, Croatia’s recently appointed head coach, had switched his team’s formation from their accustomed three-man defence to a back four and watched his players wreak havoc against McClaren’s disorientated rearguard. | In his latest autobiography, Venables recalls that the late withdrawal of King – replaced by Jamie Carragher – ruined the scheme. “It was too late to revert to a back four,” he wrote, which seems odd given that players who had spent their lives in a flat back four had been given only a couple of days before the match in which to familiarise themselves with the new system. Slaven Bilic, Croatia’s recently appointed head coach, had switched his team’s formation from their accustomed three-man defence to a back four and watched his players wreak havoc against McClaren’s disorientated rearguard. |
| In fact the England coaches had briefly tried a back three the previous month, in the second half of a 5-0 defeat of Andorra in a qualifying match at Wembley, but with different personnel. Only Terry took part on that occasion, as one of a trio completed by Wes Brown and Owen Hargreaves. The wing-backs were Keiran Richardson and Aaron Lennon. It was hardly a proper test. | |
| Perhaps the English suspicion of a three-man defence has deeper roots in a distaste for the perceived negativity of Italian catenaccio in the 1960s. But Van Gaal used it with the brilliant young Ajax team who beat Capello’s Milan three times on the way to the European Cup in 1994-95, and it was the formula devised by Luiz Felipe Scolari to provide a perfect platform for Ronaldo, Rivaldo and Ronaldinho in the 2002 World Cup. | |
| Around Europe, the norm is still represented by the 4-2-3-1 of Ancelotti’s Real Madrid and the 4-3-3 of Luis Enrique’s Barcelona. But the inventive Antonio Conte, who has been confirmed as Italy’s head coach, used 3-5-2 to win the last three domestic titles with Juventus, and of the 20 teams in Serie A this season, eight – including Internazionale and Fiorentina – will have three at the back, as will Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich in the Bundesliga. | |
| Van Gaal was not alone in his tactical preference this summer. Chile, Mexico and Costa Rica also used a three-man defence in Brazil and played some of the tournament’s most stimulating football. Nor will he be entirely isolated in the Premier League this weekend. Harry Redknapp, with Hoddle at his side, plans to use the system at Queens Park Rangers, where the recently arrived Ferdinand – like his fellow veteran Patrice Evra at Juventus and the young Luke Shaw at Old Trafford – will find himself adjusting to a new defensive alignment. | |
| Over the coming months it will be worth keeping an eye not just on United’s first team but also on their academy sides, their youth team and their reserves. When every one of those teams are conforming to Van Gaal’s new system, and doing so with success, we can say that something has changed. |