Valencia 0-1 Manchester United | Too much respect from both sides but Finishing quality prevails

15mins on pitch, 6 passes, 2 shots on target, 1 goal …thats Chicharito for Manchester United. A good first touch followed by a well taken shot …surely he made Michael Owen will be proud. United had won the match with 1-0 against Valencia on Spanish soil in Champions league group stage.

As expected Sir Alex deployed 4-5-1 formation with Berbatov as lone striker and Carrick, Anderson, Ferdinand and Rafael got the starts. Valencia too fielded 4-5-1 with Soldado as single striker.

Tactics

The best part of the tactics is the visit of Sir Alex to Valencia game against Atlántico Madrid. He fielded the team according to the observations and with the limitations that Rooney, Scholes and Giggs are not available due to injuries. Though the above UEFA starting lineups picture shows United formation as 4-1-2-3 and Valencia as 4-4-1-1, the actual positions are bit different. Since Valencia uses Albelda to pass the ball around from the deep midfield, SAF though it would be nice to stop that flow and he deployed Anderson higher up the pitch to control Albelda. Which means Anderson was handed more of a defensive role. Fletcher and Carrick patrolled the midfield. Here is the actual formations from UEFA web site

First-half

In the firsthalf both teams gave more respect to each other. both teams are more happy to see the position and wanted to play on counter attack. The result is a slow paced game, which ended with no shots on target from both the teams at end of first half. Valencia maintained high defensive line and Mathieu tried to get forward more means Nani’s forward runs are restricted. Berbatov who played deep also never found any service from midfield when he stayed up front. You can see SAF showing 6 [six in the box] in the first half, while defending a corner, which he shows how United defended in the first half.

Second-half:

Nothing changed, except Nani trying to play higher up the pitch along with the anderson. As SAF says, some players creating something out of nothing or moment of brilliance. Berbatov did the same, He received a long ball on the left side, got away from the defender and had a shot which is on target but saved by goal keeper at near post easily. This is best action of the match so far from United.

Substitutions:

Valencia made the first substitution by replacing a midfielder with a forward and changing the formation to 4-4-2. This change brought something to their game and started passing the ball more to the wingers. This is the period where you can see, Pablo sending more crosses into the box.

united has to respond to the situation and they did by replacing Anderson with Hernandez. This means united are now playing 4-4-2 . United could have scored immediately when Nani’s cross missed everyone waiting and found Hernandez on the left fat post but he couldn’t reach the ball.

Then Berbatov was substituted by Macheda. Many might have expected Owen to come on but since Hernandez a similar player is on the pitch, SAF went for Macheda who can drop deep and defend as well. The result is immediate, Nani’s run midfield and the pass found Macheda who spotted Hernandez’s run early and passed the ball to him. The first touch of Hernandez is superb and then he finished it with more flair.

In conclusion, a satisfying night for united with win. There are few positives to take also, The return of Ferdinand, Carrick and Anderson. United’s defense surely looked much better than the one that leaked goals for the last 3 weeks. Carrick is at his best but a valuable option to have with Scholes injured. Both the teams didn’t played well really and didn’t created many chances due to lack of creativity from the midfield, might be due to missing the key players but in the end the quality of finishing and clever substitutions won the match for United.