Manchester United vs Southampton

Obviously a terrible display today. The possession we have is just so useless and our players look like they think the point of the game is to avoid losing the ball rather than to beat our opponents via scoring a goal. Here's a few things I noticed today, read below for details.

1) Rooney in midfield just doesn't work

He's a great player who does provide a lot of energy in there and his passing range is good but his passing selection is awful. I blame of lot of our useless possession on him and I think if Herrera was in his place today, we would have created better chances (that aren't crosses from our fullbacks).

Example 1 - Rooney 5 minutes into the match

Below, Rooney receives the ball from Di Maria (who is just above him in the picture). You see Mata is unmarked on the right side of the picture and a pass to Mata would have been a simple turn.

Instead, you see in the below picture that Rooney dribbles it back about 10 yards and then turns. Even now, Mata is in a decent position to receive the ball and Rooney should be able to pick him out, although now it's a slightly tougher pass since the Southampton midfielders might intercept it.

End result, Rooney lays it out wide to Shaw for a cross with only RVP and Mata to receive it and you see there's at least five Southamptom players who can defend the cross (by the time Shaw gets the cross off).  

Example 2 - Rooney 17 minutes in

Below, Rooney has the ball in midfield and Carrick is just below him, running into an empty space right in the middle of the Southamptom midfielder triangle. The ball is already in Rooney's right foot and Rooney could have easily let it run a little and then passed it able 5 yards ahead of Carrick who is then facing goal and could have made something happen.

Instead, he passes it to our overlapping defender (which in this case is Blind) - the easiest pass possible, since it's just a 5 yard pass in the direction Rooney is already facing. As you can see, Blind is well defended and he's not going to be able to run the ball down the line and make something happen like Giggs might have done in the pass. 

End result: Blind has no choice but to check back and now he passes it back to Carrick who had to run back (you can tell he's further back by the center circle lines) to give Blind an option. If you look at our players on the right in the picture below, their backs are now to the goal but if you look in the above picture, there's something running forwards towards their goal. That means now Carrick has no through ball option to make. By picking the easiest pass possible and taking one every pass to get it to Carrick, Rooney let Southampton run back to defend and  killed our attacking runs. 

Example 3: Rooney 23 minutes in, bad pass to Valencia

Okay, this one might be a little harsh but it annoyed me. Rooney has the ball and as you can see, there really isn't a ton of options here. Looking at this picture, I think a short pass to Mata (bottom right) is the best bet but Wanyama has Mata decently marked. Carrick is right above Mata in the picture below and you can see there's a perfect triangle of Rooney-Mata-Carrick and there's a lot of potential to play some give and gos between Carrick and Mata if the ball gets to them. Rooney also has the option of dribbling it forward (diagonally to his right since the Southamptom player is closing in on him from his left), which would forced Wanyama or Schneiderlin to step up to mark Rooney which would leave either Carrick or Mata free.

End result: Rooney makes a quick long diagonal pass to Valencia (out of this picture). Even worse, the pass is bad and it goes out of bounds but in my opinion, making a bad pass every once in a while is acceptable but constantly choosing the wrong pass is not. 

2) RVP doesn't get the proper service

In the picture below, at 22 minutes in, Jones in the bottom left of the picture has the ball and RVP is at the corner of the penalty area pointing for the ball. He has plenty of space and we've seen what RVP can do with his left foot cutting in from the right side like that. The picture actually doesn't show it well but RVP is screaming for the ball here - he knows what a good opportunity this is.

It's a simple pass forward from Jones but instead, as you can see in the picture below, he inexplicably dribbles it forward 5 more yards and passes it to Rooney who you can see is very well marked. The only thing Rooney could do was run back to receive it and looking at the picture below, there's really not much we could have done at that point. Also, we have one forward offside now and the Southampton defenders are much closer to RVP than the above picture.

3) Rooney should be playing just off the striker or as a striker

In the picture below, Carrick makes a nice forward pass to RVP (just out of the picture on the right). RVP comes a little short and makes a one time pass to Rooney. 

 End result: Rooney receives the ball in a dangerous position, he actually starts dribbling it and draws three Southamptom players onto him and eventually passes it back to RVP who misses his shot. Not a great result but this was the quick attacking play with one touch passing and Rooney driving forward that we haven't seen for at least two seasons. 

4) Mata, despite looking dangerous, has some flaws and is guilty of the easy pass as well

Example 1:

In the below picture, Mata is in the top right and has the ball. He makes the easy pass to Valencia and Valencia crosses it in and nothing happened - there's four very organized Southampton defenders defending the cross against only two of our players.

He could have attempted to cut in the dribble, which is not asking a lot considering his technical ability and the fact that he's left footed. He wasn't that well marked and the Southamptom player marking him was facing towards the outside. Or he could have attempted a pass to Herrera who is central and running into plenty of space. 

Example 2: 

You see this over and over - Mata gets knocked off the ball so easily and loses possession for us. In this picture below, Mata is about to receive the ball and you see the Southampton player behind him coming. The picture doesn't show it well but Mata has a glance over his right shoulder and he knows that the Southampton player is coming. 

Inexplicably, Mata stops, and waits for the ball to come to him and tries to shield the ball. It was a complete disaster and the Southamptom player got the ball in a dangerous position and started a counterattack. Even worse, this was at 87 minutes and we were down 1 so we had no time to waste. 

It's more or less basic training to just step to the ball and make a quick one time pass back to the defender when you're this tightly marked. Mata is obviously no Drogba and he should not be attempting to shield the ball, especially in this dangerous position. I don't fault him for being physical small, I fault him for not having better presence of mind and quicker thinking and I think for a player of his supposed quality, he should have done better.