Dear Sir Alex:
Posted on May 21st, 2007 by Vijay Krishna Narayanan
Why did you ask United to play like Chelsea do? That kind of football is dull, boring, sleep-inducing, in short, un-United-like. And, in any case, we don’t win playing like that.
No related posts.
Filed under: Football
Pardon me but SAF did not ask United to play that way. They were forced to by the self styled special one. Defensively Chelsea were solid, at any point they had 6 men behind the ball. There was double tracking on the wings with SWP giving Ferreira so much cover and Joe Cole doubling up to assist Bridge. Given that the wings were patrolled so well, Giggs and Ronaldo had no choice but to cut inwards and lo, they had to contend with omnipresent Makelele and that sterling Obi Mikel. It wasn’t pretty watching but it was a well thought out gameplan wonderfully executed.
I dont think SAF got it wrong with the formation - 433 is the best when u have pacy wingers but the problem was Rooney could not plough a lone furrow like Drogba when the wingers were stifled and ended up being all alone. 442 in a diamond would have been a good option if Saha had been there since Rooney could have played off him and with Carrick sitting deep, Scholes ahead of him and the two wingers, United would have played to their strengths but then with Saha unavailable, SAF did not trust Smith enough to do the job. Besides with Fletcher in, it gave them a little defensive cover coz he realised Chelsea would be impossible to defeat if they got an early goal. In all, a tactically satisfying match to watch !!
I quite liked the CL final too but more on that later.