Leverkusen 0- 5 Man United: Kagawa exploits space behind Leverkusen’s narrow attack and handicapped fullbacks

Shinji Kagawa in action against Bayer Leverkusen

Manchester United finally came up with a performance full of steel and the supposedly lost arrogance on a night where a different result could have seen them even slip out of the top 2 from the group. Two first half assists from Rooney saw United build in a firm but culpable lead in the break, but Hypia’s surprising lack of organization in the second half allowed United to bang in 3 more goals.

Injury woes were the order of the day in the buildup to the match. United were without the entire spine of their team as Vidic, Carrick and RVP were all missing. A superb late show against Cardiff saw Ryan Giggs continue in Central midfield with Phil Jones alongside and Kagawa coming in at No.10. Wayne Rooney was played as the main striker with Nani and Valencia in the flanks. Leverkusen were without their in-from attacker Sidney Sam, and this saw Castro shifting into the right flank. Reinartz came into the holding role, which saw Rolfes shift into a midfield trio alongside Bender. Ex- Bayern youngster Emre Can was at Left Back.

The earlier group stage encounter between these 2 had seen United win 4-2, but the German side had caused plenty of problems initially. Here again the first 20 minutes of the game was being dominated by Leverkusen. With Castro, Kiesling and Son forming the three pronged attack, the Leverkusen frontline became very narrow in front of United’s defence. Castro’s starting position was almost next to Kiesling in a central role, and so he quickly came into Phil Jones’ radar. Instead of stretching the game towards the flanks after receiving the ball from Kiesling’s flicks in the centre, Castro instead preferred to attack directly at United’s defence. Unfortunately for him Evans and Ferdinand had a stellar night at the back.

The left flank was initially occupied by Son Heung-Min, who unlike Castro is a much more creative player than a direct attacker. The South Korean has infact already created 8 chances in this tournament from this position, which is more than the entire United attack line combined (obviously other than Rooney). So Son constantly drifted into the central No.10-ish role and also dragged Chris Smalling with him from the back. In previous games, Son’s most successful role has been when he pulls in to the centre and finds either an overlapping fullback or Sidney Sam in space behind the defence. Here exactly was where Bayern’s problems lay.

Both the fullbacks on the day, Emre Can on the left and Donati on the right, though being products of teams like Munich and Inter Milan respectively, were nowhere near the bar in terms of workrate and presence expected from a modern fullback. In Donati’s case, it could be put down to Nani’s extremely high and narrow positioning, which saw the Right back having to be be alert of counters down this flank. Lars Bender did come to Donati’s rescue here, as the German midfielder time and again popped up on this flank to provide the overlap down the flanks.

But Emre Can on the left flank was extremely disappointing in terms of his runs as well as his passing. With Son playing higher up on this flank and so successfully pulling away Chris Smalling to the centre, Can’s stats of 0 crosses and only 60% pass accuracy are nowhere close to that expected from this talented German. This is where Phil Jones and Manchester United’s right flank came into play.

Phil Jones has always been used as a central midfielder in big games, home or away. Be it against Ronaldo in the Champions League last season or Ozil in the recent game against Arsenal, the Englishman has always stood upto such a role; as one could see his absence felt in the Arsenal game when Vidic got injured and Jones moved into defence instead. But here against Levekursen, Jones was playing against a midfield of Rolfes and Reinartz who were pressed back by United, and they rarely posed a threat on United. So Jones’ only problem was to track a few rare central runs by Castro and Son. With both of these 2 being extremely rare and devoid of quality, Jones had a simple job in the centre with just 4 interceptions and 0 tackles. But his presence in the centre was a major asset for Smalling who now had to only worry about Can on the flank, and not Son drifting centrally.

The midfield battle was where United where expected to lose out, but with a combination of factors like Leverkusen playing 2 deep midfielders to cover United’s wingers and Shinji Kagawa finally getting an opportunity between the lines, left United shining out on top in the centre. With Nani playing very narrow on the left and making regular diagonal darts across the midfield, Simon Rolfes was restricted to deeper midfield roles. Along with Nani, Valencia on the right has also been seen starting from much more advanced positions this season, and this alongwith Emre Can’s disaster of a game, meant that Rolfes had to stay much deeper.

Reinartz came into the game as the deepest midfielder in the mid trio, and on paper he was placed just next to Kagawa. And again on paper, United’s No.10 didn’t seem fixed as either Kagawa or Nani was supposed to play in the hole. If Nani was used there, Reinartz would have had a perfectly good evening due to the usual lack of movement by the Portuguese. But Kagawa had one of “those” nights where he was involved in every one of United’s attacking moves, and ironically against the German team, the Japanese international put in a show that he regularly used to in his Bundesliga days.Firstly, looking at Kagawa’s positioning would see him at most times just behind Reinartz, which is right in between the lines. The moment Reinartz received the ball, Kagawa started to press him from behind, with Rooney covering the German midfieder’s out-pass to the defence. In one such instance of pressing, Kagawa won the ball of Reinartz and played in Giggs, and the move eventually led to the goal.

While United were on the ball, either through Phil Jones or Valencia from the right, Kagawa again got in between the lines, and was mostly left uncovered by Reinartz. Finding him on such occasions was relatively simple for the likes of Giggs or Jones, and this again led to a simple linkup between the midfield and Rooney; again reminiscent of his role at Dortmund. On such occasions where Kagawa was able to find space behind Reinartz, unnoticed by the Bayern midfield, it was left to Spahic from the defence to step up and cut out the route to the Japanese international. This resulted in plenty of fouls and also space for Nani to run into. One such foul resulted in the freekick by Rooney which led to the 2nd goal.

The second half saw Hypia change the shape slightly by allowing Rolfes to move ahead more freely in search of the equalizer, and this left Reinartz alone at the back. Kagawa again was the one able to profit most from this situation, and he continually found Rooney in front through clever balls from the hole. A late substitution for Leverkusen saw Reinartz be removed for Hegeler, and this meant that Rolfes alone was left with Nani and Kagwa to handle.

Hypia also brought on Derdiyok in the second half, and now Levekursen moved into almost a 4-4-2 with Rolfes and Hegeler in the centre. Moyes reaction of bringing off Rooney for Anderson almost worked as Anderson was able to run off Hegeler and missed a sitter.

Though Leverkusen at this point had a excessive height in the box and pace in midfield, their problem remained the lace of width being provided by the fullbacks. In the entire game there were just 5 successful crosses registered out of 23 attempts, and 4 out of those were by Castro in the 2nd half. The other problem for the German team was their dealing with set pieces. This issue was woefully exploited in the second goal, where the defence line for Rooney’s freekick from the flanks was shockingly inside the 6 yard box.

This victory, along with Shakhtar’s 4-0 win against Soceidad sees United on top in Group A and already through to the next round. A simple draw at home against Shakhtar should be enough for the Red Devils to win the group, but a win for the Ukrainian side would mean that Moyes would be in contention to face a European giant as early as in the next stage.