Tag Archives for " Man Utd "

How Arsenal Expose Defensive Problems of Manchester United

By Vasco Mota Pereira, PortuGOAL correspondent

Robin van Persie's return to the Emirates hogged most of the headlines of last April's meeting between Arsenal and Manchester United, where Arsène Wenger's men offered a guard of honor to the new champions.

Even though Manchester United's newfound linchpin ended up scoring a goal, it was Arsenal's goal that showed some of the frailties in Sir Alex Ferguson's team - which leads up to a sub-question: is the midfield pairing of Michael Carrick/Phil Jones enough to bring United the victories they crave, especially in the European stage? Let us then break Arsenal's goal down and see what Manchester United did and didn't do.

1. Van Persie misplaces the pass
In this picture, the ball gets to Van Persie after Manchester United had just won it back. Van Persie almost immediately tries to get the ball to the other side, but the pass goes astray (kids everywhere, this is why your coach is always insisting that you do not try this sort of pass) and eventually arrives at the feet of Arsenal left-back Gaël Clichy.

Arsenal1
2. Clichy quickly passes the ball to Cazorla
Clichy delivers the ball to his team's chief orchestrator, Santi Cazorla, so that the Spaniard can

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Shocking Defending Costs Manchester United

By Ricky Clarke

Patrice Evra holds the blame for Liverpool’s late winner this weekend in the FA Cup 4th round. Evra has made some poor defensive mistakes recently, this weekend cost Manchester United a place in the 5th round of the FA Cup.

Below, I’ve outlined his key movements during Liverpool’s second goal.

Evra – Out of position (Part 1)

Evra’s starting position is really poor. With minutes remaining in the game he needs to be more compact.


Evra – Out of position (Part 2)

Carroll wins the header and sets up Kuyt. Smalling fails to recover and Evra’s recovery is too

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