Holding Midfield
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Both teams had reasons to be unhappy heading into the game, but for very different reasons. Manchester United were coming back of a comprehensive defeat away to Arsenal, picked apart with alarming ease within the opening twenty minutes, while the death of Everton legend Howard Kendall, who had featured first as a player and then later as a manager as part of Everton’s two greatest ever sides, had been announced that morning. One would inevitably be leaving worse off. The teams matched up in midfield – Roberto Martinez going with a 4-3-3 and Louis van Gaal a 4-2-3-1 – and started the game frantically, snapping around trying to close down their opponent. However, after a few minutes United sat back and took a more measured approach, immediately gaining the upper hand in the match. The main difference between the two teams was compactness. Early on in Van Gaal’s tenure United looked to man-mark their opponents in midfield, denying those players space but making it easy to drag them around and create gaps. Now they are better organised, defending zonally from front to back and keeping the lines close together to ensure there isn’t space to pass through them. Everton, on […]
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