How Louis van Gaal’s tactics were exposed by Leicester’s Nigel Pearson

http://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2014/sep/22/louis-van-gaal-tactics-leicester-nigel-pearson

Version 0 of 1.

In this weekend’s Premier League plot-twist, Louis van Gaal took Manchester United to Leicester City where the man whose CV boasts a European Cup, seven titles in three different countries and a reputation for being a tactical genius was outfoxed by Nigel Pearson as the 20-times champions were humbled 5-3.

How did Pearson do it? Meet Jamie Vardy, a former Stocksbridge Park Steels, Halifax Town and Fleetwood Town attacker. “We had done our research this week and their attacking options are frightening but the diamond formation they play leaves a lot of space behind the full backs and we looked to exploit that,” he said. This followed an unanswered second-half, 21-minute four-goal burst that took Leicester from 3-1 down to 5-3 up. It makes Van Gaal currently appear a manager out of place and time and a coach playing unwanted catch-up after being out of the club game for three years after being sacked by Bayern Munich in 2011.

In football’s breathless 24/7 cycle, three seasons can be an age as centre-forwards become redundant, are reinstated, and 4-2-3-1, 4-1-3-2, 4-2-2-2, 4-3-3 and 3-5-2 vie for coaches’ affections.

The three centre-back system is actually a throwback shape discarded in the early 00s when sides went to a lone striker formation, so maybe there is no surprise that adopting this proved Van Gaal’s undoing. It leaves him looking ill at ease following United’s opening five league matches.

After a summer spend north of £150m that included acquiring Ángel di María and Radamel Falcao, five points, two defeats, two draws and a single victory is the yield. United are 12th, eight points behind the leaders, Chelsea, and four from the vaunted Champions League places.

These are early days, yet nine goals scored and eight conceded illustrates a defensive deficiency that became a horror show on Sunday.

The Dutchman turned to 3-5-2 in the summer, spent the close season training the squad to operate in that formation, and began the campaign this way. It lasted four matches. After losing 2-1 to Swansea City at Old Trafford on the opening day, drawing 1-1 at Sunderland, being humiliated 4-0 by MK Dons in the League Cup, and eking out an insipid 0-0 with Burnley, Van Gaal went to the 4-4-2 diamond that finally won a first outing: the 4-0 dismantling of a poor Queens Park Rangers team last Sunday-week.

Van Gaal switched to the shape after Falcao, Di María and Daley Blind were all added in the closing days of the transfer window. The theory ran that it would harness the best from an abundance of attacking riches that also include Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, and Juan Mata.

At Leicester Van Gaal continued with the diamond, saying: “We have started again because we have played with new system and philosophy is the same and the players have to adapt and that’s always difficult.”

Yet, as Vardy stated, the United backline is the issue with City targeting the full-backs who had an afternoon to forget. Both Rafael Da Silva, who was unlucky to concede a questionable penalty from which David Nugent scored, and Marcos Rojo were ragged and unconvincing.

With Tyler Blackett receiving a red card in his fifth senior United appearance and Jonny Evans ending the day on crutches, Van Gaal’s defence is stretched as he tries to regroup ahead of West Ham United’s visit on Saturday. “I think that [Luke] Shaw shall be fit enough to play. Rojo can play and [Chris] Smalling can play, so we can manage. But it’s a thin choice,” said the manager.

To this paucity, a more troubling adjective regarding the defence can be added: “crisis”.

As Gary Neville, the former United captain, said: “There’s no doubt Manchester United are soft-centred. They’re not tough enough. Going forward they’re a lot better than they have been in the last 12-18 months and that’s a positive. But in the first half, every ball that got played forward from distance, a Leicester player won it, whether it was the first ball or the second ball.

“Credit to Leicester and Vardy and [Leonardo] Ulloa – they really ran them ragged. It wasn’t intricate play or world-class football, it was just hard work. Grit, hard work, with a bit of quality mixed in with it and United couldn’t deal with the physicality of that team.

“Defensive organisation is one thing, but they’ve got to be more competitive than that and win battles and one-on-one duels, because they were soft-centred in that game.

“You saw [in the Manchester City v Chelsea match] that every time a ball went up to Diego Costa he was getting battered by [Eliaquim] Mangala and it was the same at the other end with John Terry and Gary Cahill. I thought the midfield three for United and the back four got bullied.”

And as Van Gaal was out-thought by Pearson, Sam Allardyce will now study the DVD closely as the West Ham manager plots a way to inflict a third defeat in six Premier League games on United.