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8. Southampton
Transfers
In: Lovren, Wanyama, Osvaldo
Out: None
Player of the Season: Adam Lallana
On the face of the English World Cup team selections on Monday, a look at the style of football that Southampton and Mauricio Pochettino have been displaying shows a stark contrast in the basic elements of the game. The Argentine manager had received ample acclaims for his style at the end of last season as his “Saints” were quite impressive in their new found style of quick pressing and building play from the back. But the inclusion of a few young players from their legendary youth system this season, along with a couple of critical signings has totally revolutionized this style of football this season.
Quick pressing and intelligent movement in the attacking third: Ricky Lambert’s selection in the WC squad obliges us to pin-point his performances first. The towering striker would be expected to be a target man based on his size alone, but Lambert is quite the opposite. He is often found to take up much deeper roles, often on the lines of the “false-9”.
So this allows him to be a passing option for the midfielders. And due to his precise touches and well trained movements in sync with Lallana and Rodriguez, each one of his passes after receiving the ball in deeper positions are able to trace out the overlapping runs made by Lallana and Rodriguez.
A stat to justify this style practiced by lamert would be that: a wide-man James Rodriguez has more goals than Lambert(15-13), while Lambert has more assists than the teams most creative player Adam Lallana(10-6).
Adam Lallana surely deserves a mention in this article, as the Saints’ captain has had an extraordinary campaign after being converted into a No.10 player from his previous role on the flanks for Atkins. His instincts of a winger still allow him to often dribble towards one particular flank from the centre, hence opening up spaces for Rodriguez and lambert to receive the ball. Lallana, just like Barkley, also provides Hodgson a much direct option behind the main striker, especially considering that Rooney will settle into a deeper role in the big games.
New additions in Defence and revitalized players in midfield: Dejan Lovren’s capture in the summer proved to be a vital transfer for Pochettino, as the Croatian has added significantly in all the departments: aerial duels, tackling and speed in the backline. His combination with Fonte proved very effective in the first part of the season, and both the CBs turned out to be more than comfortable in passing the ball out of the defence.
The other major coup for the Saints was the transfer of Victor Wanyama from Celtic. The Kenyan is an out –n-out holding midfielder and his close passing was highly impressive for Celtic. But he has not yet settled in England and was seen erring couple of times while keeping the ball too long in possession.
The players who made the difference in midfield were Schneiderlin and Jack Cork. The combo of Wanyama and Schneiderlin was used earlier in the season, but with Southampton’s prowess in attack, this double pivot often resulted in the shape shifting to a 4-2-4. And Pochettino’s insistence on leaving out Gaston Ramirez meant that there was little connect between the deep duo of Wanyama-Schneiderlin and the attack.
Jack Cork’s selection after Wanyama’s injury was able to provide this connect to the team, as the Englishman has a style which is more similar to a floater than a holder. So Southampton played 2 deep floaters behid the attacking 4 rather than an orthodox midfield holder.
7. Manchester United
Transfers
In: Juan Mata, Varela, Fellaini
Out: Scholes, David Moyes[Manager]
Player of the Season: Wayne Rooney
Alex Ferguson passes on a damaged squad: Man Utd were supposed to be in transition during the last year of Ferguson’s reign. The Scotsman didn’t find the job of developing the next generation of players to replace the first teamers an appealing one, and hence left it to the incoming David Moyes. Clearly, for someone who believes in long-run football theory, it was too much work in a very short period. Ferguson did sign players like Jones, Smalling and Buttner, but they were not well groomed to take the title challenge head on with a new manager. The midfield still remains a mystery, as not a credible player was bought in numerous windows over the seasons.
Injuries, Player Unrest and Mediocre tactics by Moyes: Adding to the job of making things work, Moyes had to deal with frequent injuries to key players. Van Persie missed almost half of the season, drying up the goals and negating that killer instinct in the box. Micheal Carrick was the only midfielder to get more than 20 starts, while the other midfield options in Fellaini and Cleverley couldn’t get out of first gear, in their already sporadic appearances. Also, the unrest among the players on team performances deteriorated the atmosphere further.
The tactics Moyes used were very basic and did not involve any sort of imagination, on grounds of taming the opposition and working on their weak spots. The general method of attack was based on crosses into the box, and Man Utd had loads of them. They hold the record of most crosses by a team this season, followed closely by West Ham. This tactic is only useful, when there is a strong striker/target-man in the box.
West Ham has Andy Carroll to aim at, so it makes sense for them to play in that way, but for Utd and Moyes, they didn’t have anyone at the end of those crosses. Even the runs into the box were not well timed, either by the strikers or the wide players.
Emergence of Januzaj, the only positive: Perhaps, this is the only good thing Moyes did during his stint. One could also say, he didn’t have a choice, as both Nani and Young were sidelined for months. The Belgian kid did bring some spark to the team and carried the hopes of the club until January.
The arrival of Juan Mata in January changed a few things. But again, with 3 players in Rooney, Mata and Kagawa with very similar profiles, the vertical passes from midfield lost their relevance, as both Rooney and Mata ran into the same space all the time. The partnership of Rafael and Mata could have worked well on the right wing, but injuries worked against that strategy.
The incoming new manager will have a lot of work in his hand. With the departures of Vidic, Evra and Rio, the task will become a bit easier. Midfield needs a complete revamp with a few additions on the wings.
