Defence Still Exposed
Despite United boasting the third best defensive record in the Premier League, United's back four is still coming under severe scrutiny and they are constantly being linked with defenders such as Mats Hummels as a result. This is due to David De Gea being credited for supposedly saving his lacklustre defence. As excellent as he has been though, it is arguable that United's midfield throughout the season haven't provided enough protection to the back four which may have unfairly received a lot of criticism. Prior to this game the problem was shape.
The diagram above shows how United lined up in attack in their 2-1 defeat to Swansea a couple of weeks ago. It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out what went wrong for them. The team was simply imbalanced - with three forward players in the diamond midfield as well as two strikers on the pitch, Daley Blind was the only player mopping up in front of the back four. Analysing the diagram at the top of the page now, it is clear that Van Gaal has attempted to address this problem in the last two games by switching to two holding midfielders and only selecting one central striker. Although he'd picked the correct system to address his defensive issues, the same can't be said for personnel. Herrera was the player selected to partner Blind at the base of the midfield and form a double-pivot with. However, due to his natural inclination to support attacks and to rush out and close the ball down by leaving his position, once again Blind had the job of marking multiple midfield players and, as the diagram demonstrates, he was constantly overloaded by Sissoko and Abeid in that area. With these things considered though, they may still be having problems but have managed to keep two clean sheets in the last two games playing this way.