[Analysis] Sunderland vs. Manchester United (EPL)

And here we are again, with a low morale after a lackluster display which deservedly only earned us one point. I'll have a look at a few things that I believe are interesting topics of discussion.

• Cleverley's performance: let me start by showing you this 25 sec clip from the start of the game and keep an eye on Cleverley. When possession is lost, he runs to press and prevents Larsson from turning around. He then receives the ball from Rooney and we arrive to this position. The best attacking choice here is Valencia, with a pass to feet or into space. He plays it to Fletcher instead, and soon possession is lost. To me, this sums up Cleverley's current game. He has a good attitude, is always free to receive a pass and he showed a great amount of energy pressing to regain possession until the final minute of the game, but he keeps lacking the bravery or confidence to play quicker passes into space that would drive our attacks forward. Even so, don't be distracted by the whole "Craberley" nonsense: please compare the passes in the final third by Cleverley and Mata. Who is actually the crabbiest? Cleverley's passing was notoriously more efficient and incisive than Mata's, and when our 3rd- or 4th-choice midfielder performs better in the final third than Juan Mata, I think fingers should be pointing in another direction: either towards Mata or towards van Gaal. I thought Cleverley played exactly like I'd expect our 3rd or 4th midfielder to perform. He doesn't deserve half of the stick he gets and this is the ugliest case of a scapegoat I've seen in our club since I started following football.

• David de Gea refuses to rush out: this was extremely clear in yesterday's match. As we can see here, de Gea could (should?) have rushed out from the goal line to grab this ball. However, he didn't even consider the possibility and Blackett was forced to give a throw-in in a dangerous position. We had a mirror of that play on the 2nd half, now forcing Jones to give a throw-in. We know de Gea isn't a sweeper keeper, but his instinct of being almost rooted to the goal line has been troublesome in the past and was an issue again yesterday.

• Juan Mata as an inside forward: I've noticed this since the Valencia game. Mata is playing the role of a 10, but leaning towards the right side and then moving into a forward position as we get comfortable in the final 3rd. You can see the mockup here. In this play, you can see the general idea of what an inside forward does: Mata moves between midfield and the box. He receives a pass, touches it back immediately, starts moving up after losing his man and gets into a goalscoring position. The rival team is forced to either use a defensive midfielder or a center back to mark him. Using a CB means that there's one less CB to mark Rooney and van Persie. If the DM loses him, he could end up free inside the box. In this image we can see not only how tight Sunderland's defense was, but also how we couldn't take advantage of the space that's supposed to be Mata's territory. We have Mata and Welbeck using the same space near the penalty spot, but neither of them made a run to that space behind both left defenders. We were also missing a pivot that would've made it easier to place a one-touch pass into that space. So Mata didn't make the run he should've as an inside forward, and he also wasn't outside the box to provide that killer pass into space. I thought he was just blocking Welbeck.

All in all, a pretty depressing analysis this was. However, I'd like to highlight that our defense looked alright yesterday. Blackett and Keane moved forward with the ball and Jones seems like a good leader back there. I also don't buy that Smalling went out with an injury. I believe van Gaal subbed him off because he wasn't organizing the defensive line properly.

I raise my glass to our first point, may this be the first of 85+. May we also land the angel and the king we so sorely need.

I hope you found this analysis interesting or at least not completely boring. Have a good week, people!

EDIT: many thanks for the gold and for all your comments and discussions!