Manchester United's 2-1 Defeat to Swansea City Highlights Familiar Problems

Manchester United’s 2-1 defeat to Swansea City highlighted familiar problems that continue to cost Louis van Gaal’s side points in the race for a top-four finish.

With 64 percent of the possession, a sense of control on the match but just three shots on target, it was a game that appeared symbolic of what has so far been an uninspiring season. Once again, it was the lack of creativity and attacking flair that stood out as the most worrying aspect of United’s play.

Despite enjoying the majority of possession and territory, a quintet of Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie, Marouane Fellaini, Angel Di Maria and Ander Herrera mustered half the number of shots on target as the home side did.

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United’s only goal stood in stark contrast to the general flow of the game, however. A neat lay-off from Fellaini encouraged Luke Shaw to burst forward on the left-hand side and cross for Rooney and then Di Maria to work the ball to Herrera in space. The Spaniard’s finish was unerring, guiding the ball inside the post with fantastic precision.

It was a wonderful move, one built on quick, accurate passing and neat interchanging. Yet it was those very same qualities that went missing from United’s play thereafter. Once Swansea equalised almost immediately, United seemed unable to create openings to regain the lead.

But that was unsurprising. In the seven Premier League games that United have now played in 2015, they have only registered 30 shots on target. That works out at just over four per match. A total of 11 goals from those seven games is a fairly average return.

So it’s clear that the defeat to Swansea, at least the manner of it, cannot be viewed as a one-off. This is a team struggling to play with any freedom in attack and struggling to score goals.

In many ways, Herrera’s fifth strike of the season from 18 appearances—the same number he managed for Athletic Club in 39 games last season—was a perfectly worked goal. It was the one time in the match that United played with speed and intensity. From that moment on, though, the route to goal seemed to be through aimless crossing and long balls played up to Fellaini.

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Van Gaal’s decision to play in a 4-4-2 diamond, a formation he has opted for in the last seven games, was hardly surprising but perhaps slightly ill-advised. In victories over Burnley and Preston North End in the last fortnight, it was only after switching to a more orthodox 4-4-2 with wingers that United began to play better football and fashion more shots on goal.

Against Swansea, however, the Dutchman kept things very narrow and asked that Shaw and Paddy McNair provide much of the attacking width. It spoke volumes that the two 19-year-olds were substituted and replaced by two conventional wingers in the second half.

The changed worked for the most part, but why United didn’t begin the game with two full-backs and two wide men seemed odd, particularly as it had proven successful in the last two outings.

As it was, Van Gaal was hamstrung after choosing to use two of his three substitutions on swapping his full-backs. In a game where United longed for a creative spark and Van Persie was largely a spectator, it meant that only one of Juan Mata, Adnan Januzaj and Radamel Falcao could be introduced in a bid to find an equaliser.

Strange substitutions and in-game tactical switches have become a feature of Van Gaal’s management in recent weeks. Many of them have been good decisions, but United rarely seem to start a match with the right players and the right tactical approach. The Dutchman recognises what needs to be changed but only midway through a game and not at the beginning.

If a 3-5-2 has now been consigned to the past, it might not be long before a 4-4-2 diamond goes the same way. With United’s strikers struggling and an apparent lack of width central to the team’s problems, any system that calls for more wide play might be beneficial in the weeks to come.

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If the performance in losing to Swansea proved to be a microcosm of United’s season thus far, the worry is that trickier times lay ahead. Starting in early March, fixtures against Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur, Liverpool, Manchester City and Chelsea cover a six-week period that will ultimately determine whether Van Gaal’s debut season at United is a success or not.

Based on performances in recent weeks, including the defeat to Swansea, the outlook for United is hardly favourable.

The most pressing concern is how blunt United’s attack looks. That Van Persie is the club’s top scorer this season with just 10 goals is a reflection of the team’s malaise in front of goal. The Dutchman was scarcely recognisable as one of the world’s most potent strikers in the last five years in the defeat to Swansea; he was unable to have any impact on the game whatsoever.

Falcao, who was left out of the squad to face Southampton last month and was substituted when United needed to score against Preston last Monday, didn’t feature against Swansea. The likelihood is that draws won’t be good enough to ensure a top-four finish in the coming months, and so it’s alarming that two of United’s three senior strikers are misfiring and out of form.

As the defeat to Swansea showed, United simply aren’t scoring enough goals to convince that they can beat some of the Premier League’s most in-form teams.


All statistics via WhoScored.com and Squawka.com.

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