Should Manchester United Try a 4-3-3 Formation Against Tottenham?

Manchester United have won six on the trot, Wayne Rooney is looking lean and mean, and the Premier League's team in transition, Tottenham Hotspur, are coming to town Saturday afternoon.

But for all the positives, lingering fears still permeate the air at Old Trafford, threatening to overshadow what has undoubtedly been an efficient start to the new season for United.

Questions have been raised over the Red Devils' form; Telegraph writer Chris Bascombe described them as "pitifully poor" in their most recent league victory at Anfield.

Against Galatasaray in the Champions League almost two weeks ago, United were called "far from convincing" by Guardian writer Stuart James, who claimed that the Turkish side "were entitled to feel aggrieved they had nothing to show for their efforts."

Defensive injuries cannot disguise the fact that Sir Alex Ferguson's side have looked exploitable at the back.

With the exception of an opening-game loss at Everton, United have been able to rotate the more-than-capable Rio Ferdinand, Nemanja Vidic and Jonny Evans at the heart of the team.

But Vidic has now had to retake his place on the sidelines with a recurrence of the knee injury that kept him out for much of United's last season.

He'll be joined by Antonio Valencia, who reportedly picked up a problem in his right foot in last weekend's clash with Liverpool (via Daily Mail).

The necessity of including the passionate Ecuadorian winger in the first XI has long seemed to prevent Sir Alex from deploying a team firmly rooted in the ideals of midfield possession, one that has paid great dividends in the past.

In Manchester United's Champions League-winning campaign of 2007/08, the Scottish boss deployed a 4-3-3 formation, utilising the strengths of Wayne Rooney, Carlos Tevez and Cristiano Ronaldo to great effect.

The three forwards would rotate attacking duty to give the Blues defence as much trouble as they could handle, at least until Ryan Giggs made way for Paul Scholes late on in the game to signal a change in tactics.

If United's biggest weakness so far has been their inability to control the middle of the park, here's the remedy: With the versatile playmaker Shinji Kagawa now on the books, his part in a circa-2012 edition of the formation would be to drift into the trequartista role when United attack, sitting just in front of the deeper-lying Paul Scholes and Michael Carrick.

The benefits would be in attack, where more triangles would be created for the perfect quick passing and team movement, whilst the wide players go missing on the wings far less often.

Full-backs Rafael (and whomever Sir Alex chooses to play at left-back out of Patrice Evra and Alexander Buttner) would be required to bust a lung running up and down the flanks for 90 minutes—reason why I've gone with the more athletic Buttner in my mock lineup.

Defensively, the formation would give central defenders Rio Ferdinand and Jonny Evans the protection they need in the face of the strong, attacking midfielders Moussa Dembele and Gylfi Sigurdsson.

One of Spurs' greatest objectives this season has been the constant lookout for the perfect through-ball to the lively Jermain Defoe, who has finally proven doubters wrong with Andre Villas-Boas having given the English forward a decent first-team run.

Of course, trying to read the mind of Sir Alex has never been an easy task. But the opportunity in disguise that has been thrown up by Antonio Valencia's injury allows him more of a freedom to experiment with Rooney, Kagawa and Robin van Persie in the same team.

Such a feared attack is sure to produce the goods once familiarity is bred by regular football.

What do you think should be United's tactical approach against Tottenham?

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