Manchester United picked up an away point in a 1-1 draw with
Shakhtar Donetsk. It was a game in which both sides largely cancelled each
other out.
Wayne Rooney missed out with an injury he’d picked up the
day before in training. Without his favored withdrawn forward to play in the
hole behind Robin Van Persie, David Moyes opted for more of a 4-3-3 shape than
United’s usual 4-2-3-1 (or 4-4-1-1 if you prefer). Michael Carrick played the
holding role while Tom Cleverley and Marouane Fellaini played the box-to-box
shuttling roles to his left and right respectively. Antonio Valencia was wide on the right, Danny
Welbeck on the left of midfield.
Shakhtar lined up in a 4-2-3-1 so the midfield battle was 3
v. 3 and everyone had an obvious direct opponent. Cleverley and Fellaini picked
up Shakhtar’s holding midfielders Fernando and Tomas Hubschman and Carrick
picked up Shakhtar’s #10 Alex Teixeira. Both midfields were rather rigid and
predictable in their movement and neither side was really able to dominate the
midfield zone. Just 22% of Shakhtar’s attacks came through the middle third of
the pitch (that is, if the pitch were cut lengthwise into thirds) and only 27%
of United’s attacks came from the middle. Instead, both sides tended to build
their attacks out wide with fullbacks overlapping the outside midfielders.
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| Graphic via whoscored.com |
United didn’t go in search of a second after taking the
lead. Instead they sat in a little deeper in their 4-1-4-1 defensive shape and
looked to soak up pressure. Despite a few spells of sustained pressure from the
home side, United kept their shape well and never looked terribly stretched at
the back. However, they also didn’t look like creating their own opportunities
on the break. The 4-1-4-1 shape meant United didn’t have anyone playing off of
Van Persie to provide an outlet to spring a counter. Typically United would
defend with a 4-4-1-1. Rooney would provide defensive pressure on the deepest
midfielder then break into space to provide an outlet pass to quickly link play
forward with Van Persie. Without him, Van Persie was isolated up front.
Shakhtar left midfielder Taison snatched an equalizer in the
76th when Nemanja Vidic couldn’t react quickly enough to a low ball
driven across the six yard box. It bounced off the defender’s legs and into the
path of Taison to put away.
In the end you could maybe argue United were made to pay for
their lack of attacking endeavor after they’d gone ahead but the away draw
against a solid Shakhtar side at an imposing venue is hardly a terrible
result.
