The Root of Manchester United's Problems

Manchester United's game versus Fulham Saturday saw them succumb to yet another loss, their fifth of the season.

By comparison, United only lost four games all of last year, in what was one of the tightest title runs in recent history.

This season, as Sir Alex Ferguson has also stated, it is turning out to be even tighter.

With this in mind, United cannot afford to lose any more games, especially in the embarrassing manner with which they lost to Fulham. The Cottagers managed to actually run the majority of the game, winning 3-0 against last year's Premiership champions.

Of course, United do have their makeshift backline and injury problems to use as an excuse, but going forward they ought to have had a much easier time than they did with the player's at Ferguson's disposal.

However, Ferguson made some interesting and in a way controversial choices as to which players should play today, and that definitely influenced the outcome of the game.

One of the players that Ferguson decided not to use is Dimitar Berbatov, United's best creative attacker.

As soon as he was introduced in the 58th minute, the Red Devils' offense looked much more lively and likely to score. But instead of Berbatov, Ferguson opted to start the match with Michael Owen and Wayne Rooney up top, a partnership that past experiences have proven not to work.

Rooney is a very industrious forward, but not a creative one. Owen is nothing but great finisher. Rooney doesn't exactly have the canny ability to play in a teammate. Owen is next to useless outside of the box. Can you begin to see where the problems are going to come from?

Ferguson's choices in the midfield were questionable as well.

Why did he play Darren Fletcher as a right-back again when he easily could've started Fabio da Silva and moved Fletcher back into the midfield, thereby benching either Darron Gibson or Paul Scholes?

When he saw how poor of a game the midfielders were having, why didn't he introduce Gabriel Obertan to give United a bit of width on the left?

All this was disappointing, but perhaps the most disappointing thing of all is that Ferguson decided to stick with the same old formation that has the United players playing poorly.

As a manager, no one is better than Fergie to inspire, to instill a sense of iron discipline, to get the best out of players, and to motivate them to give all that they've got out on the pitch. Because of this he has become one of the most successful and longest-serving managers today and holds the record of winning "Manager of the Year" the most times in British football history.

However, all of this has come to overshadow some of his deficiencies, such as his tactical one, which has become more pronounced recently with the 2009 Champions League final and this season.

The two formations of choice for Ferguson this season have been the 4-4-2 and the 4-5-1, the latter being mainly due to Berbatov's injury.

Neither of these formations has been able to harness the potential of this United squad, which can definitely play much better than they did against Fulham.

In short, the root of all of Manchester United's problems inherently lie in the formations that Ferguson has chosen and is unwilling to budge from.

Recently I argued that United should switch to a 4-4-2 diamond in a bid to solve both United's defensive and offensive problems. This article can be found here.

Perhaps it's time Ferguson experimented with something different in training, perhaps it's time United attempted to play with the 4-3-3 again, pushing Rooney out wide on the left, Antonio Valencia further up the wing, and playing Berbatov in the middle.

Or perhaps the 4-2-3-1, which could see Hargreaves return as a defensive midfielder alongside any one of Fletcher, Michael Carrick, Gibson, or Scholes and have Valencia as right wing, Obertan/Nani/Ryan Giggs out on the left, and Rooney playing in the pocket behind Berbatov (or vice-versa)?

Or maybe these two aren't the answer, and the Fulham loss is just a blip, as are the other four United losses, and maybe United will pick up in the new year and come alive as so often they do.

Manchester United fans had better hope so, because if United's problems don't get squared away soon, come February AC Milan will have an easier passage into the the quarterfinals than most thought...