Analysing Ander Herrera's New Role Under Jose Mourinho at Manchester United

Ander Herrera has become a crucial part of Jose Mourinho's Manchester United.

It took a little while, but he has become a regular starter. He was sporadically involved for the first month of the season. However, since September 21 when United beat Northampton Town 3-1 in the League Cup, the club have played 11 games. Herrera has started eight.

He missed one of those games through suspension, and the other two were Europa League fixtures, wherein he was rested rather than dropped. It is clear that—for now, at least—Herrera is a go-to guy for Mourinho in a way he never quite became for former manager Louis van Gaal.

Richard Heathcote/Getty Images

That was an odd choice on Van Gaal's part, given that almost all the best football his team played featured a prominent role for the Basque midfielder. The infamous purple patch at the latter end of his first season saw Van Gaal deploy Herrera as an attacking midfielder on the right-hand side of a midfield three, linking up with Juan Mata to superb effect.

But as with almost everything about that period, Herrera's central role to Van Gaal's team proved a false dawn. The following season saw him struggle to hold down a regular place in the starting lineup. He made 17 starts and 10 substitute appearances in the 2015/16 season, which means he made fewer starts than the 19 he had made in 2014/15. 

When he did play, he took on a few different roles for the side. There was that star turn as an attacking midfielder in a 4-3-3—a No. 8 on both the right and the left depending on the rest of the selection. He also played as the more attack-minded box-to-box option in a 4-2-3-1, something that looked less natural to him, but nonetheless a role to which he seemed prepared to adapt.

Indeed his powers of adaptation have become crucial to Mourinho and they hint at one of Herrera's greatest strengths.

He is capable of understanding new instructions and executing on them.

This might seem a pretty simple statement, but in truth, it is a gift not all footballers possess. His understanding of Van Gaal's principles was clear on the pitch, and he was equally able to articulate them off it. In a 2015 interview with El Pais (h/t ESPN FC), Herrera talked about the differences between Van Gaal and Marcelo Bielsa's respective approaches:

"

[Van Gaal] loves possession and doesn't like to risk the ball. He likes long spells of possession and to keep the ball because he believes space will be created by keeping to positional play because the team has the quality to find you. He got angry with me at the start because I went to look for the ball, because I always wanted to have it. I should have waited.

In attack, [he is the opposite of Bielsa] because Van Gaal believes in greater numbers out wide, in triangles, and to not run with the ball. Bielsa liked to have the ball to attack. But he believes in the movement of the player, in getting behind the lines and breaking space. We know Bielsa's perfect goal was one full-back crossing for the other full-back to arrive. He likes to arrive with six or seven. But come on, both are football maestros.

"

This interview was timed almost exactly with Van Gaal's purple patch, where "triangles," were the order of the day. Herrera understood Van Gaal, just as he had understood Bielsa before him.

More recently, he discussed his new manager's intentions for him with Sid Lowe of the Guardian. "I’m here [with the Spain squad]," he said, "because Mourinho’s given me the chance to take a new role. It’s more defensive: hold my position, don’t lose the ball, win it, bring it out fluidly, that 'rest defence.' I’m enjoying it. I’m there for others."

He also talked directly about the "myth" of Mourinho as a defence-first coach:

"

Mourinho’s an attacking coach; what he’s not is a kamikaze: he doesn’t have us playing like mad men. He likes the ‘rest defence’ but he’s an attacking coach who gives players freedom. He’s also honest, sincere, says what he thinks to your face. If a coach isn’t honest, players rumble him. There’s a very good relationship. Mourinho’s very straight.

"

Herrera's cerebral football understanding blends neatly with his obvious, fan-friendly passion for the game and the club. "I'm there for others," is a telling, unselfish attitude, entirely in keeping with his public image and, crucially, with the reality of his performances in defensive midfield.

He has been able to maintain the kind of structural positional discipline more typical of players who have played a defensive midfield role for much longer than he.

He was excellent in United's 4-1 demolition of Leicester City. United's dominance in that game could have meant he took some liberties with his decision-making, but his heat map clearly shows that most of his touches were in United's half. That gifted Paul Pogba the freedom of Manchester and made a huge contribution to the Red Devils' success.

Against Liverpool at Anfield, the task was different—he was an active component of the en-masse defensive block that the Red Devils mustered. He won seven tackles and made 10 interceptions but also contributed to United's attack—he attempted six dribbles, completing them all. That Bielsa training has clearly paid off.

There has been a lot of clamour for Mourinho to give Michael Carrick a more prominent role in United's midfield. This is given some credence by the fact that the Red Devils have won all six games in which he has featured this season. However, a more detailed analysis would suggest that Herrera is doing a pretty good job of the "Carrick role," in midfield.

Carrick's six-game stat is less impressive when its details are considered. First off, it includes the Community Shield, a strange hybrid of competitive game and friendly. Secondly, it includes the win over Leicester, in which he played just 12 minutes.

The other four opponents were Northampton Town of League One; Fenerbahce, who were woeful at Old Trafford; Manchester City in the League Cup, who did not play a full-strength side; and Swansea City in the league, a team who could have given Fenerbahce a run for their money in the awful-performance stakes.

Herrera featured recently against Chelsea and during the away trip to Fenerbahce but was hardly to blame for United's poor performances in either.

And in the games against Stoke City and Burnley—both draws in which a win would have been deserved and significantly changed the tone of discussion about the current state of United—he was an effective component of a midfield unit that helped create a plethora of chances.

The main plus point to having Carrick around is to free up Pogba, something that Herrera is doing anyway. There is a solid argument for playing all three of them together, of course, which would give Herrera additional license to contribute to attack, but for now, he is doing an excellent job at the task to which he has been assigned.

After the gung-ho attacking role of his time under Bielsa and the all-too measured, possession-first approach of his time under Van Gaal, Herrera has entered a new phase, where he can combine his strengths and serve as a good foot-soldier in Mourinho's Red Army.

Advanced data per WhoScored.com.