Match date: 16 August 2014

The first game of the English Premier League and the first match for Louis van Gaal at the helm of Manchester United. For Garry Monk, it was his first match as the permanent manager of Swansea. Two managers at different ends of their coaching careers; van Gaal is one of the world’s best managers and Monk with just 18 games managed.

Van Gaal continued to use a 3-4-1-2 with Manchester United, as he did throughout the preseason and with the Netherlands during the 2014 World Cup (v. Argentina, v. Mexico, v. Spain).

Garry Monk opted for a 4-2-3-1, which provided a good match up between the two sides and Monk showed good ability to adjust his tactics in relation to van Gaal’s.

United’s 3-4-1-2

Throughout the World Cup, van Gaal’s 3-4-1-2 was heralded by pundits as genius at times, which really came as no surprise after their win over Spain in their opening game. There has been much discussion over how the system would transform at Manchester United. The start of the match looked relatively good for United. They were able to keep the ball and create a few chances while Tyler Blackett and Jesse Lingard were both given debuts. Blackett played as the left centre back of the three, while Lingard, an attacking midfielder throughout his time in the Manchester United youth teams, played as the right wing back.

There were certainly good and bad aspects of the formation during the first half. Starting with the good is that it allowed Manchester United to dictate the game and keep the ball. In last year’s version of this fixture, in which Manchester United won 2-0, they were outpassed by Swansea, conceding majority of possession to their opposition. Things were quite different in this match, however, as van Gaal’s Manchester United kept the ball 60% of the time.

Last year’s fixture:

This year’s fixture:

One of the problems in their possession was the inability to the centre backs, in particular Chris Smalling, the middle centre back, to play the ball forward. There were too many opportunities to play the ball into Juan Mata, who can thrive in this formation, which were instead passed slowly around the back, which you can see in the above passing diagram. Below is a good example of this. Jones is on the ball and with a quick ball to Smalling, Mata would be able to show, receive, and turn, but the passing was far too slow. When Jones did play it to Smalling, Shelvey closed on Mata, the ball was played across to Blackett who then tried to play the ball into Mata, only for Shelvey to get a tackle in.

Mata’s role in the team in certainly to move the ball quickly, drive the team forward, and focus almost solely on creating opportunities for the forward players. Herrera is meant to dictate play from deep, while Fletcher was the defensive holding player. While Herrera and Fletcher performed their roles relatively well, Mata struggled to have a significant impact, despite the space he was able to find at times while eluding Shelvey and Ki. When the Spaniard did get on the ball, he was unable to create the opportunities that he is expected to and didn’t do much in terms of breaking the lines either with a pass or on the dribble.

One of the best aspects of United’s play was their pressing throughout the match, regardless of their formation. In the first half, the front three of Hernandez, Mata, and Rooney were able to press the Swansea centre backs and cut off the passing lanes into Shelvey, Ki, and Sigurdsson.

With Mata pressing, Swansea had numbers up in the centre of midfield. Despite this, Shelvey was forced deeper than his centre backs in order to pick up the ball and look to dictate play, as you can see in the above picture as well, because the passing lanes were cutoff.

Swansea’s Start, Defense

In the first half, both Ashley Young and Jesse Lingard looked to get forward, with the latter pushing on much more than Young, who wasn’t able to provide much width on the left side of United’s attack due to being a natural right footed player. Lingard was lively up until his injury and forced Routledge back at times to help Neil Taylor. When Lingard did go forward, Phil Jones would spread very wide to support him and prevent Routledge’s burst forward. It was interesting that Swansea’s goal came from the right side of their attack as Dyer was usually up against both Blackett and Young, but the Swansea player was also able to stay higher up the pitch. Dyer was always the first one looking to break through, with Swansea looking very asymmetrical in their 4-2-3-1.

The best thing about Swansea on the day was their discipline when defending. Monk made sure that they defended with two banks of four making them a 4-4-1-1 without the ball. They were able to force United into difficult situations. Even when Lingard and then Januzaj were able to get on the ball, which became frequent, they were up against two players, Routledge and Taylor. Januzaj had a good spell on either side of half-time against Taylor, but Swansea were largely able to contain United’s attacks, conceding on a set piece. Below, you can see a good example of Swansea’s shape out of possession.

The screen capture above is them defending in a mid-low block. When United had the ball in their own half and Swansea defended higher up the pitch, in a mid-block, they made it difficult for United to play into midfield, with Fletcher and Herrera struggling to receive the ball because of tight marking and the passing lanes being cut off by pressure further up the field. It is telling that the starting back three of Blackett, Smalling, and Jones made the most passes for United on the day, with Fletcher making the fourth most.

Van Gaal’s Changes, Monk’s Alterations

At the start of the second half van Gaal brought on Nani for Hernandez and changed United’s shape to a 4-2-3-¼-2-1-3, which was interesting considering they had played a 3-4-1-2 for most of their preseason. The change allowed Januzaj to get up the field with much more freedom, not having to worry as much about his defensive responsibilities with Phil Jones behind him. It looked to be working as well; Januzaj was able to get the better of Neil Taylor numerous times, prompting Monk to bring on Tiendalli. During this time, Monk seemed to change Swansea’s shape slightly, pushing Sigurdsson further up the field alongside Bony, while dropping both Routledge and Dyer to help their full backs with the United full backs getting forward. Essentially Swansea looked more like a 4-4-2, similar to how they looked out of possession in the first half.

At the 67th minute, both managers made a change. Van Gaal brought on Fellaini for Herrera and Monk brought on Montero for Dyer, which switched Routledge to the right. Immediately, Montero looked to be much more problematic for Jones than Dyer Routledge had and he was able to get by the United defender easily, later putting in the cross that led to the game winning goal. Fellaini on the other hand failed to dictate play from deep like Herrera had and when United were chasing the game, he was more of a target forward, looking to head the ball down for others like he did under Moyes and Everton and United.

Conclusion

It will be interesting to see how long van Gaal opts to continue with the 3-4-1-2. It didn’t look great against Swansea, as the Welsh side were able to close a lot of lanes into the middle and United’s slow passing at the back made Mata’s darts into space wasted. Perhaps more importantly, however, was that Rooney looked much better as a lone centre forward rather than up top with Hernandez. He was able to use the space well and consistently dropped off, picked up the ball in front the Swansea back four and was able to run at them.

Monk was able to go toe-to-toe with van Gaal throughout the match, earning his first win as permanent manager. Sigurdsson’s introduction back into the side gave them a direct runner from midfield and helped form a solid midfield three with Shelvey and Ki.