NEW YEARS DAY GAME: STOKE CITY Only Herrera and Januzaj could return to face Stoke City away on New Years day. Di Maria, Blind, Rojo, Fellaini are all yet to resume training with the first team. With that said, this is the line up that I think Van Gaal will opt for with a 3-5-2 formation. De Gea Smalling - Jones - McNair/Evans Rafael Young Herrera Carrick Rooney Falcao Van Persie To be quite honest, Im starting to like this 3-5-2 formation. We have averaged more ball possession (58%) when playing with this formation than even the 4-1-2-1-2 (56%) or 4-1-4-1 (54%) . In fact, this formation allows us to stretch the play into wide areas, creating plenty of room for passing in the middle of the park. And this is where Michael Carrick is best suited, in making those killer passes. In fact, Carricks passing accuracy has been the highest (92%) in games that we have used this 3-5-2 formation. In addition, having three centerbacks releases the wing-backs (Rafael and Young) from most of their defensive duties, allowing them to maraud the touchline and contribute heavily to offensive duties. Stoke City almost exclusively play with a 4-2-3-1 formation with 2 defensive/holding midfielders. The biggest disadvantage of this formation ironically lies in the 2 defensive midfielders. When playing against a team that is attacking out wide (like in a 3-5-2 formation), the 2 defensive midfielders can be outnumbered and outrun in the midfield allowing our 2 strikers (Falcao and Van Persie) to make those darting runs into the box that splits the defence in half. If you have noticed in all our previous games, when we are in an attacking mode and one of our midfield players has the ball, Falcao and Van Persie would often switch sides with either running to the right or left
Posted on: Tue, 30 Dec 2014 19:33:01 +0000
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