Manchester United’s six match winning run came to an end at Villa park on Saturday. United were unable to take advantage of Aston Villa being reduced to 10 men, as they failed to get a winner. Villa’s resilient defending should be praised for helping them get a valuable point. In truth, United never got going in the match as they hardly put the villains under pressure. Let us look at the three reasons which caused United the victory:
Switching Ashley Young from Left to Right
Ashley Young was seemed to be relishing in his make shift left back or left wing back position. For the last few weeks he has been the teams best attacking outlet on the side. Especially against Villa he gave a torrid time for Lowton by beating him time and again to deliver the ball into the box. It was from Ashley Young’s left footed cross Falcao scored his first away goal of the season to equalise for United.
However, after removing Valencia, Young was switched to the right hand side to be a right-back. Blackett was asked to fill the left back position. Since he was not a natural fullback, the young centre back hardly surged forward to support the attackers. As a result United lost their advantage of that side. Further on the right side, Ciaran Clark stood solid on Ashley Young’s feet, due to which he was unable to impact the match from the right flank. Hence United lost their threat from both their fullbacks.
Van Gaal got his substitutions wrong
In Brazil 2014, Van Gaal was praised for his tactical changes, especially his substitutions was key for the team securing the third place. He brought on Depay in the second half to score the winners against Austarlia and Chile in the group stage matches. Also his masterclass move of bringing in a goalkeeper (Tim Krul) as a 120 minute substitute against Costa Rica helped them win the quarter finals in penalties.
However, he is struggling to translate similar ideology into Manchester United. On Saturday night, he took off in-form Van Persie for Angel Di Maria. The Argentine was expected to replace the ineffective Mata, however Van Gaal sacrificed the Dutchman for the flying winger. Hence, United lost their fire power up front. Likewise, removing Valencia and replacing him with Wilson did not work. As a result United lost their attacking strengths on the right side.
Meaningless possession did no good for the Reds
United as expected enjoyed majority of the possession. They had 65 percent possession throughout the game. Despite having all the ball, Reds were hardly able to create any clear cut chances. Except for Falcao’s goal, Brad Guzan was rarely troubled by United attackers. They were too slow with their ball and most of their passing was in areas which did not trouble the opposition much.
Despite going down to 10 men after Agbonlahor got sent off, Villa were never under real pressure, as they comfortably saw off United’s threat. Van Gaal did not hide his feelings in the post match interview as he went on to cricticise his players for their lack of creativity. According to ESPN, Van Gaal said: “I think also that we were not so aggressive in first half as we are usual, we kept the ball much better, but we didn’t create so much because we were not looking to the forwards.”
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