Aston Villa - Manchester United

Sorry it took me so long to post this, weekday matches are always difficult for me due to work. 

Anyways, glad to see another relatively solid win. In general, I'm quite happy with our current team right now - we look solid defensively, we have a solid midfield with plenty of depth, and we have some good attacking players who can change a game and everybody seems to have a great attitude. 

1) Some Rooney stuff

You're probably going to see quite a few posts about Rooney. Like Valencia and Falcao last season, I think he's currently the weakest part of our side. He just doesn't fit in with the rest of our attackers - poor touch, poor movement and slow. 

Here's one way a forward playing too deep can affect our defense. 

Example 1:

Below, the person circled in red is Schneiderlin pressing the Aston Villa center back (Richards). Rooney is playing so deep and not pressing their back line that Schneiderlin has to go forward to press them. That leaves a gap in our midfield while Rooney is kind of in the middle of no man's land - he's not helping to press them but he's far enough forward where he's not contributing to our midfield.

Example 2:

Here's another one. Rooney is once again neither pressing their center backs nor deep enough to help in midfield. This gives Richards a really easy pass into the Aston Villa midfielder. 

And now, Schneiderlin has to go forward while Rooney is still in a useless position - if Rooney was further forward closer to Richards, at least he would be cutting out the easy back pass. Now, he's just in an awkward position.

Unrelated:

Apart from him losing the ball with terrible touches so often, here's one that frustrated me. 

Rooney gets the ball in a great position. The Aston Villa player to the right of Rooney is their last defender. He has some great options - pass out wide to Memphis along red arrow, or take the ball and dribble it along the black arrows. He has plenty of space and if he beats the Aston Villa defender, he's through on goal.

Instead, he passes the ball straight back to Herrera, who, as you can see, has two Aston Villa players ready to defend him. 

This is why LVG didn't include him when he listed players like Hazard and Aguero who can change the game. 

2) Carrick still learning to play with Schneiderlin

It's been a while since we had another midfielder who can cover the defense like Schneiderlin can. I've noticed that this has allowed Carrick a little more freedom to go forward and join with the link up play more, rather than being only a deep lying playmaker. However, Carrick sometimes just automatically goes deeper when he should be going forward because Schneiderlin is already covering for him.

Here, Carrick, instead of running back, should be making a forward run along the blue arrow to give Darmian more options for passing. We don't have any players in that right central midfield area (the area the blue arrow is pointing at) and it's because Carrick should be in that area. Schneiderlin has central mid area well covered in case we lose the ball.

Since Darmian only has one pass, he passes it down the line to Mata. The problem is Mata is well marked and his only option is a back pass to Darmian. If Carrick had made the forward run, he would be in the blue circled area, which is perfect to receive a pass from Mata.

 3) Mata again with poor defensive instinct

Here, the Aston Villa player is about to pass the ball wide for their fullback to run onto. Mata knows that and he starts making the run back along the blue arrow. So far so good.

Except after a few yards of tracking back, Mata inexplicably checks his run and looks backwards for the ball. He needs to continue running along the blue arrow because there's no way he's going to intercept the ball if it goes over the top. 

And this is the result. 

Darmian was too far forward and the moment the fullback is caught out, the wide midfielder has to be covering for the fullback position. Mata will make it difficult for Darmian to contribute to the attack - if Darmian can't trust Mata to cover for him, he's not going to be making those overlapping runs that fullbacks need to make. 

4) This is why you need to practice your off foot

Here's Januzaj on the ball during a counterattack. He has Memphis up top, Rooney in the middle, Mata on the bottom to pass to. All three of those passes are easily made with the right foot. 

Except Januzaj is left footed and outside boot passes when the ball is rolling forward are very difficult to make and he couldn't get in a comfortable position to make it with his right. He ends up getting tackled because it took him too long to release the ball. 

Also, look at the first picture. Rooney is the furthest back of our three attackers and he's supposed to be our forward leading the line...

Some final thoughts

I'm not sure Memphis or Januzaj are going to be very successful playing "in the hole" if Rooney is playing striker. He just drops back too deep and they have no forward to pass to and not enough space to work with. I really hope to see Hernandez or Wilson play up front with this exact team and see how our number 10 player, whether it's Memphis, Mata or Januzaj will perform then. 

Also, loving Darmian. He really does remind me of Neville - he's an defender first and foremost, but has enough skill and technique to contribute to the attack. 

Thanks for reading!