Analysis : Dimitar Berbatov | Whats wrong and what changed ?

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I’m one of the fans of Manchester United, who argued that Berbatov is not flop at Old Trafford. I defended him every time some made a comment on this either it is about his laziness or lack of goals etc.. Many United fans nick named him Berbaflop but the same people are now eating their own words after seeing him this season.

View attachment 124038

Was something changed or is he changed ? No… he wasn’t changed but the difference is the arrogance is back in Berbatov. . this statement looks funny but its true. In the last 2 seasons we didn’t saw the arrogance of berbatov much. He is the best when he drops deep, collects the ball and then plays it to the front player or target man. when i wrote arrogance, its the way he passes the ball. He doesn’t care about his pass but it will be accurate enough to find the right person with good timing. You saw the in the last match when he took his shirt off after scoring that brilliant airborne volly.

With Tottenham

Remember his days at Spurs. He and Keane formed a wonderful partnership and he is the focal point of the spurs attack. Here is his passes from one the matches he played well for Spurs. You can see here that he likes to drop deep and involve in buildup play.
View attachment 124039

First season at United

Now at United, in his first season he has Ronaldo and Rooney. Ronaldo used to be the target for United attack and rooney played on the left. This left Berbatov with limited chances to score. Here is Berbatov’s average positions from his 1st season at Old Trafford.

He may have just nine league goals to his name, but he has 10assists also. He even finished fourth in the overall Actim index with 586 points, with his 652 passes the eighth most in the league.
View attachment 124040

Second season at United

Now into the second season he played along side Rooney when we lineup 4-4-2 but later we switched to 4-3-3 with Rooney alone upfront. Here is the Berbatov’s position diagram.

Generally, the second striker will not play a huge amount of passes, but will look to provide key passes that will lead directly to goals. But Berbatov has more passes and involved more in the build up play. The role that SAF gave him is unique. His game is to keep position in tight situations up on the pitch and to keep the attacking play and importantly to provide the pressure on the opposition team.
View attachment 124041

Analysis : Dimitar Berbatov | Whats wrong and what changed ?
August 30, 2010 by Jo Leave a Comment

I’m one of the fans of Manchester United, who argued that Berbatov is not flop at Old Trafford. I defended him every time some made a comment on this either it is about his laziness or lack of goals etc.. Many United fans nick named him Berbaflop but the same people are now eating their own words after seeing him this season.



Was something changed or is he changed ? No… he wasn’t changed but the difference is the arrogance is back in Berbatov. . this statement looks funny but its true. In the last 2 seasons we didn’t saw the arrogance of berbatov much. He is the best when he drops deep, collects the ball and then plays it to the front player or target man. when i wrote arrogance, its the way he passes the ball. He doesn’t care about his pass but it will be accurate enough to find the right person with good timing. You saw the in the last match when he took his shirt off after scoring that brilliant airborne volly.

With Tottenham

Remember his days at Spurs. He and Keane formed a wonderful partnership and he is the focal point of the spurs attack. Here is his passes from one the matches he played well for Spurs. You can see here that he likes to drop deep and involve in buildup play.



First season at United

Now at United, in his first season he has Ronaldo and Rooney. Ronaldo used to be the target for United attack and rooney played on the left. This left Berbatov with limited chances to score. Here is Berbatov’s average positions from his 1st season at Old Trafford.

He may have just nine league goals to his name, but he has 10assists also. He even finished fourth in the overall Actim index with 586 points, with his 652 passes the eighth most in the league.



Second season at United

Now into the second season he played along side Rooney when we lineup 4-4-2 but later we switched to 4-3-3 with Rooney alone upfront. Here is the Berbatov’s position diagram.

Generally, the second striker will not play a huge amount of passes, but will look to provide key passes that will lead directly to goals. But Berbatov has more passes and involved more in the build up play. The role that SAF gave him is unique. His game is to keep position in tight situations up on the pitch and to keep the attacking play and importantly to provide the pressure on the opposition team.



Now, in this season he played well and did what exactly he has been assigned. He played in support of Rooney as a second striker. it is common that the second striker generally gets less number of passes. but he has huge contribution to the team. Look at these stats below.
View attachment 124042

He was a creative, deep-lying, playmaker sort of striker. we need to see him as a striker who could do things besides scoring goals better. So he was always going to be unsuited to being a lone striker.

Sadly when he was alone upfront, the team didn’t delivered him what they does for Rooney and he was also suddenly into new shoes which he never tried before.

United played [attacked] more on the wings last season.

If you see the berbatov’s passing, he mostly plays through the middle and short passes and also will pass very few to the wingers. This means when berbatov plays as lone striker, we have less no of chances coming from the wings unlike when we have rooney, who prefers sending the pass to wingers and wait for cross.

Otherwise, the midfield has to feed the ball to wingers, at which i think we failed towards end of last season.

Third season at United

A lot has been talked before the season starts. There is a talk of his transfer, Sir Alex finally loosing faith in him etc.. But before the pre-season SAF made it clear the he is staying and no question of offloading him. In the pre-season games he showed good form and scored some goals. now United is playing 4-4-2 with Berbatov behind Rooney. Things started working…. here is his passing map from guardian chalkboards
View attachment 124043

Look at that passing… he was everywhere on the pitch except defense. He played more infront of Scholes and Fletcher. Did you observed it? He is passing the ball more to wingers especially Nani who is on the right side. He is excellent so far in the last 4matches. He is making a good partnership with Rooney this season and we observed that he is well suited for Hernandez. To Berbatov’s game, an out and out striker in 4-4-2 is well suited.

The one word that almost most of hte united fans are behind in this summer is ‘play maker’. You have Paul Scholes in your team and with this new improvements of Berbatov, you have second play maker. If you don’t think so look at what happens when we substituted berbatov in the games so far this season. Also look at the passing and attack when both Scholes and Berbatov are taken off in the game against Westham. Do you agree that we took long time to understand him?

So what changed for Berbatov ?

1. Nothing 2. He is involving in build up play and linking well with Nani. 3. His teammates started to pass him the ball more. 4. Behind the rooney he is playing like connector between midfield and attack. 5. He started passing ball to wingers more 6. He is clear on his role and responsibility 7. I think we’ve found where he is more effective.

Didn’t we, finally learned what he brings to team and how to watch him?

Analysis : Dimitar Berbatov | Whats wrong and what changed ?
August 30, 2010 by Jo Leave a Comment

I’m one of the fans of Manchester United, who argued that Berbatov is not flop at Old Trafford. I defended him every time some made a comment on this either it is about his laziness or lack of goals etc.. Many United fans nick named him Berbaflop but the same people are now eating their own words after seeing him this season.



Was something changed or is he changed ? No… he wasn’t changed but the difference is the arrogance is back in Berbatov. . this statement looks funny but its true. In the last 2 seasons we didn’t saw the arrogance of berbatov much. He is the best when he drops deep, collects the ball and then plays it to the front player or target man. when i wrote arrogance, its the way he passes the ball. He doesn’t care about his pass but it will be accurate enough to find the right person with good timing. You saw the in the last match when he took his shirt off after scoring that brilliant airborne volly.

With Tottenham

Remember his days at Spurs. He and Keane formed a wonderful partnership and he is the focal point of the spurs attack. Here is his passes from one the matches he played well for Spurs. You can see here that he likes to drop deep and involve in buildup play.



First season at United

Now at United, in his first season he has Ronaldo and Rooney. Ronaldo used to be the target for United attack and rooney played on the left. This left Berbatov with limited chances to score. Here is Berbatov’s average positions from his 1st season at Old Trafford.

He may have just nine league goals to his name, but he has 10assists also. He even finished fourth in the overall Actim index with 586 points, with his 652 passes the eighth most in the league.



Second season at United

Now into the second season he played along side Rooney when we lineup 4-4-2 but later we switched to 4-3-3 with Rooney alone upfront. Here is the Berbatov’s position diagram.

Generally, the second striker will not play a huge amount of passes, but will look to provide key passes that will lead directly to goals. But Berbatov has more passes and involved more in the build up play. The role that SAF gave him is unique. His game is to keep position in tight situations up on the pitch and to keep the attacking play and importantly to provide the pressure on the opposition team.



Now, in this season he played well and did what exactly he has been assigned. He played in support of Rooney as a second striker. it is common that the second striker generally gets less number of passes. but he has huge contribution to the team. Look at these stats below.



He was a creative, deep-lying, playmaker sort of striker. we need to see him as a striker who could do things besides scoring goals better. So he was always going to be unsuited to being a lone striker.

Sadly when he was alone upfront, the team didn’t delivered him what they does for Rooney and he was also suddenly into new shoes which he never tried before.

United played [attacked] more on the wings last season.

If you see the berbatov’s passing, he mostly plays through the middle and short passes and also will pass very few to the wingers. This means when berbatov plays as lone striker, we have less no of chances coming from the wings unlike when we have rooney, who prefers sending the pass to wingers and wait for cross.

Otherwise, the midfield has to feed the ball to wingers, at which i think we failed towards end of last season.

Third season at United

A lot has been talked before the season starts. There is a talk of his transfer, Sir Alex finally loosing faith in him etc.. But before the pre-season SAF made it clear the he is staying and no question of offloading him. In the pre-season games he showed good form and scored some goals. now United is playing 4-4-2 with Berbatov behind Rooney. Things started working…. here is his passing map from guardian chalkboards



Look at that passing… he was everywhere on the pitch except defense. He played more infront of Scholes and Fletcher. Did you observed it? He is passing the ball more to wingers especially Nani who is on the right side. He is excellent so far in the last 4matches. He is making a good partnership with Rooney this season and we observed that he is well suited for Hernandez. To Berbatov’s game, an out and out striker in 4-4-2 is well suited.

The one word that almost most of hte united fans are behind in this summer is ‘play maker’. You have Paul Scholes in your team and with this new improvements of Berbatov, you have second play maker. If you don’t think so look at what happens when we substituted berbatov in the games so far this season. Also look at the passing and attack when both Scholes and Berbatov are taken off in the game against Westham. Do you agree that we took long time to understand him?

So what changed for Berbatov ?

1. Nothing 2. He is involving in build up play and linking well with Nani. 3. His teammates started to pass him the ball more. 4. Behind the rooney he is playing like connector between midfield and attack. 5. He started passing ball to wingers more 6. He is clear on his role and responsibility 7. I think we’ve found where he is more effective.

Didn’t we, finally learned what he brings to team and how to watch him?

Filed under Manchester United, players Tagged with Berbatov, manchester united, Manchester United F.C., manutd, MUFC, soccer, Wayne Rooney

Manchester United 3 – 0 West Ham United : Review | only 74mins of football
August 30, 2010 by Jo Leave a Comment

The below formation diagram shows United Lineing up 4-4-2 and Westham playing 4-2-3-1 but Westham played 4-1-4-1 with parker moving to front of the defense and Noble and Boa joining the forwards.
View attachment 124044
The first 30mins of the game is dull and it looked like United is playing after a long time, as they created less no of changes and game is off the pace. But in this period webstham defended very well . The 5 westham midfielders stuck the roles assigned to them. They tracked both fletcher and Scholes well and it looked like man marking at many times. With Parker moving deep, Boa marked Fletcher and Noble tracked Scholes. Parker took the role of sweeper in front of the defense.

Jonathan Spector had fouled Ryan Giggs with an unnecessary tackle in the penalty box. He opted to tackle even when some of the defenders are available to track Giggs. This resulted a penalty which Rooney took and scored. With that he ended his five-month wait for a goal.

United’s left and right backs pushed higher up the pitch as both Nani and Giggs are cutting inside. Just before half time. Vidic lofted a long diagonal ball over the West Ham defence for Berbatov, who knocked it back for Nani, whose shot was tipped onto the woodwork by Rob Green. Just after few minutes, Nani licked the ball over the crossbar when Giggs chipped the ball through for Nani for a one-on-one with Green.

The observations from the first half are: United opted to attack from the middle. Nani played inside and looked more comfortable on the right side. Berbatov dropped deep to, in front of the midfield. WestHam tried to stop the united attack higer up the pitch.

The second half started brightly for United. 5mins into the second half, Nani scored a brilliant goal to United 2-0 lead. The second half Scholes looked more lively and played long passes to berbatov and Giggs more. In the second half it looked like Westham lost the plot. Their midfield didn’t tracked the united midfield properly, like they did in the first 30mins. This leaves Scholes and Fletcher to move freely and as a result united created more opportunities . Third goal came when a cross from Nani found Berbatov unmarked near the goal and his perfect airborne volly found the net.

Then United made 3 substitutions at 74th minute: Carrck for Scholes, Owen for Berbatov and Smallings for Evans. The main playmakers of the first 70mins Scholes and Berbatov were off suddenly and suddenly it looked like these substations killed the game. And nothing exciting happens for the next 15mins and the score line stayed 3-0.

UEFA Champions League draw | Groups and Results
Group A: Inter Milan, Werder Bremen, Tottenham, FC Twente
Group B: Lyon, Benfica, Schalke, Hapoel Tel Aviv
Group C: MANCHESTER UNITED, Valencia, Rangers, Bursaspor.
Group D: FC Barcelona, Panathinaikos, FC Copenhagen, Rubin Kazan
Group E: Bayern Munich, AS Roma, FC Basel, CFR Cluj
Group H: Arsenal, Shakhtar Donetsk, SC Braga, FK Partisan
Group F: Chelsea, Marseille, Spartak Moscow, MSK Zilina
Group G: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Ajax, Auxerre

Fulham 2 –2 Manchester United | pay penalty for that penalty miss
Manchester United made 2 changes to their lineup from the match against newcastle. Rooney who is suffering from some stomach bug replaced by Hernandez who got his first premier league start. Park replaces nani on the left wing. United opted the 4-4-2 formation. While Fulham played 4-2-3-1.
View attachment 124045

United started the game very with Fletcher and Berbatov combining and Scholes doing the same as what he did in the newcastle match. Park played inside to compensate the fulham’s 5 men midfield. Berbatov dropped deep off the Hernandez and has been key in the build up play. Fletcher made more forward runs in the first half. United got the break through when the free kick from the left found berbatov who laid the ball to Scholes who scroed his trademark goal and his 150th goal. It looked like United didn’t pressed enough after this goal. Vidic didn’t tracked Zamora properly. Fulham leveled the score before half time.

In the second hald, united looked a different team. Scholes and Berbatov disappeared means, they are not creating any changes to score. Also it was observed that Fulham’s Etunu has made many forward runs at the goals causing problems in the united midfield. Then SAF made changes by replacing Hernandez with Owen, Park for Nani and Giggs for valencia. It looked like united are getting back on track but still didn’t created any real opportunities. Then united got a lucey own goal gift from Fulham in 84th Min. And soon they were awarded a penalty which Nani couldn’t able to net. This is costly miss as Fulham for the moral boost from that penalty miss and they started moving forward more. Again in the last minutes of the second half, Fulham scored from a corner through Hergland who compensated his earlier own goal with this header and the score is now 2-2.

United got draw at Fulham on the away game with 2-2 scoreline when they have change to make it 3-1 before that penalty miss by Nani . But may be better than the last years 3-0 defeat.

Notes from the match review:

1. Park played inside …not as a winger since Fulham played 4-2-3-1.
2. We know the issue of the left wing and both Valencia and Nani are not good.
3. When you attack on the right through Evra’s runs… you should be able to switch the ball to other flank. Which requires O’shea to be in an advanced position…..this didn’t happend
4. for valencia on the right, there is no one to attempt a diagnol cross when there is space to work on the left wing as park is playing inside
5. Check SAF’s post match comments….. he said – united are not yet used to Chicharito’s pace. Yes, we need to play more through ball to him from the midfield. But in this game, its mostly short passes.
6. When SAF said, this could be Berba’s season, what i sensed is that he is going to use Berba in a different way. And he is doing it. In the first half he was really good and provided the link from midfield. And SAF kept him in the second half, just for that purpose….when his game disappeared in the second half. Of course his finishing has to improve. and the expectations from him is to provide the link between midfield and the target striker

Manchester United 3 – 0 Newcastle United | how old is scholes and Giggs ?

Manchester United began their Premier League campaign in style with a comfortable 3-0 win over Newcastle.

United went to this game with 4-4-2 by putting rooney along with Berbatov upfront and Scholes started along with fletcher in the midfield. Nani and Valencia are the wingers. O’shea started in the right back position with Vidic and Evans patrolling the center of the defense.
View attachment 124047
First 20-25mins of the game was dull as united took time to settled in but the credit should be given to Newcastle for the way they defended. United had kept the position and showed the patience which in general is they style of play in the beginning of the season. Newcastle also had few good chances in this period but they couldn’t convert them.

The breakthrouh came in the 33’ when Scholes played a through pass to Berbatov who is just onside. Then Newcastle defense didn’t tracked the pass properly and Berbatov showed his class and scored his first goal of the new season and first for United.

The second goal came when Evra attacked on the left side and sent a cross which found Fletcher near to the goal and he scored a simple goal. The second half was bright for United as they created many chances but couldn’t convert many. Then Rooney was substituted by Hernandez and he looked like adding another to his impressive list but he was judged offside. Then Giggs who came on as substitute for Nani collected the precise pass from Scholes and scored a beautiful volley for the third goal on 85th minute.

It looked like Rooney was off color but still his work rate is good. He missed ball many times in the box and now he is 13games away from his last goal for United. Nani also again showed that he not so comfortable on the left side but did good defensive duties which allowed Evra to move forward. Valencia did his job on the right wing by providing straight runs and crosses into the box.

Did anyone observed? Vidic got forward more in the game. that is because, Newcastle played 4-4-1-1 and the second striker had join the midfield which leaves the united central defense with not much worries and vidic took the opportunity and got the ball forward when ever he can.

Now, how did paul scholes managed to control the game ? Scholes actually played deeper than Fletcher, means Fletcher moved forward more often. When he moved forward, the newcastle midfield has to follow him leaving some space for scholes which he used effectively. At the same time credit should be given to Fletcher as well since he dragged newcastle mofield towards him and made many diagonal runs and passed the ball to wingers and overlapped with them.

Now for Berbatov, isn’t this kind of display all United fans have been waiting for from him? He looked constant threat in the game. Also he played very deep at times and his link up play was wonderful. He scored one goal but failed in a one on one with the keeper in the second half. When he dropped deep and started hitting the ball forward and then making the runs….isn’t this berbatov we all saw at Tottenham? So, we can hope that this time he will have a good season. Even SAF told that this could be his season which shows that there is some change in Berbatov that SAF might have observed in the training sessions.

Definitely good signs for united as they are able to keep the position and create opportunities. United’s golden boys, Giggs and Scholes looked in good touch.

http://josephamrithraj7.wordpress.com/2010/08/

Sorry for the long read but i found it pretty good not my work.
 
:O
This is some analysis mate. Whoever wrote it has some serious time on his hands.
Personally I just think that people have ridiculous expectations because of his price tag. He's great but definitely not worth 30 Million.

I've also been defending Berba from the start and I hope he can score 20+ Goals this season.
 
I guess what he lacks is consistency despite being a great player, good analysis btw
 
just to tell you you wrote the OP three times
 
I like him I sometimes think his body language isnt all convincing but dont think he was signed to score 20 goals a season I think he was signed to allow Rooney more freedom which worked last season
 
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Berba is decent but you can get many better in 30 million is why i have never liked berbatov
 
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