[Analysis] /r/reddevils' Best XI of the Season - Day 8

PLAYER OF THE DAY: ASHLEY YOUNG (LEFT WING)

AVERAGE RATING: 7.27 - TOP PERFORMANCE: 9.38

RIVAL: MANCHESTER CITY, APRIL 12 2015. OLD TRAFFORD.

Anti-redundancy measures: This post will be a bit shorter than the others, because we have already talked about the tactics we used in this match against City and Young's role within it in some of the previous posts of this series. So if you want to read them before or after reading this post, here are the links: Jones, Valencia and Fellaini. I specially recommend reading Fellaini's analysis, as he's one of the main companions for Young in attack.

Stretching City's defense: I thought Ashley's positioning when we had the ball on the right side of defense was quite interesting. As you can see here, our team is extremely spread out, with Young standing almost on the touch line on our left. This leaves City's defense with a bit of a dilemma, because as a defense you always want to be compact, without leaving too big a gap between yourself and the defenders standing alongside you. In the case shown above, Zabaleta is being "pulled" towards the box because the entire defense is leaning to the side the ball is in; however, and as the ball is about to switch sides, Zabaleta has to either stand his ground (to prevent Fellaini from running into the inside-left channel, thus leaving the wing for Young to pounce on) or he has to move and press Young (thus freeing space for Fellaini.) These positions, and City's failure to respond properly, were critical for our success in overloading the left, which resulted in what's probably the best ratio ever of crosses resulting in a goal for Young.

How to make Zabaleta's life miserable (Part 2): Aside from Young and Fellaini's positioning, and aside from the overloads that we talked about in the previous posts, it looks as if Young was actually in charge of taking Zabaleta out of the game. In this sequence, Zabaleta is taking the throw-in. Young is marking a City player, but as the ball goes back to the Argentinian, Ashley's pressure forces him to go back into his own half and pass the ball to Demichelis. Also, notice how as Young begins to press, most of our attacking players also go up and press someone (especially Rooney and Herrera). In this clip, you can see Young at the bottom right keeping an eye on Zabaleta. As the ball go towards him, Young's pressure forces him to play a one-touch pass and then Jones intercepts Navas' touch, while Young is still following Zabaleta. Although in either of these cases Young took the ball away from Pablo Zabaleta, every little thing counts. The fact that he pressured him, chased him, then attacked him, overloaded him, dribbled past him, provided a back-heel pass through his legs, they're all elements that played a role in taking the Argentinian defender out of the game. And we can see evidence of that. Firstly, let's have a look at Zabaleta's passes against another team, West Brom, a few weeks earlier. We can see that he was a significant outlet, feeding safe balls in all areas of the pitch and even providing two goal-scoring chances (lines in light blue). Now, back to our game, let's have a look at his forward passes in 90 minutes. That's a pretty grim picture. And here is what he provided in attack on the first half. His second half wasn't much better, although he did assist Agüero for his second goal. In summation, Young's role in attack and defense were vital to prevent City's build-up on their right side of the pitch, knowing that Zabaleta can (and will) travel up and down defending and attacking. If we add to that the fact that Fellaini was man-marking Yaya (who tends to lean towards the right), Manchester United managed to dominate that side for most of the 90 minutes and forced City to rely on Demichelis and Kompany -not the most technically gifted of footballers- to provide balls in attack.

Ashley Young could well be the most unlikely of heroes for United this season. I really wouldn't blame anyone who in previous seasons said he should be out of our team, as his performances fell far below the standards set for our players. However, I think Young and Fellaini are great case studies of van Gaal's methods and of the school of Total Football in general. In this methodical, and some say 'mechanized' approach, every player (or every role) has specific tasks to undertake during a match. If he accomplishes them, however insignificant they may seem on paper, there cannot be any complaints. And if everyone in the team accomplished all of their tasks, then maybe we'd see the perfect game. In Ashley's case, some of his most common tasks have been to stay close to the touchline, interchange positions/roles with Fellaini or Blind/Shaw, run toward the first post for crosses, and stay within 5-7 meters of your left-back when you're defending (aside from pressing, obviously.) I think this is probably the main reason why Di María has no place in our team at the moment: LvG doesn't want improvisation almost every time a certain player touches the ball. Creativity is most needed in the final stage of the attack, essentially right before you score. The buildup is a conscious process, which Di María hasn't shown to be capable of doing consistently (along with several of his other tasks as winger or center-midfielder). In this context, a player who works hard and does what the manager asks of him can become a key member or the first team, like Young was for us this season, regardless of his price tag or world reputation. No matter where he played (left-back, right wing or left wing), Ashley stuck to his instructions and it paid off enormously for the team as a whole and for himself as an individual. With the arrival of Memphis Depay, it should be interesting to see how Young's career at United develops. If you want a statistical recap of his season, you can have a look at his profile at WhoScored.com.

As usual, thank you for reading these attempts at an analysis. As the season comes to a close, let's hope we finish on a high. I'm looking forward to seeing one or two surprises in the lineup tomorrow.

Have a great weekend, see you next Tuesday!

^Credits:

^/u/welbzy ^for ^the ^properly ^good-looking ^infography.
^/u/Pimp-My-Alpaca, ^/u/welbzy, ^/u/tammodi, ^/u/zaran10, ^/u/DatGuyRich ^and ^/u/okunenju ^for ^their ^respective ^duties ^in ^the ^collection ^and ^presentation ^of ^the ^players' ^ratings.

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Posted May 23, 2015, 1:55 PM UTC · edited

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