But seeing there isn't an expert here, I'll have a go.
McNamara's 4-2-3-1 formation was spot on. Everyone playing in their correct position (Flood as defensive midfielder & Armstrong as attacking midfielder). The way that when GMS had the ball, Russell was in the box, and that when Russell had the ball, GMS was in the box was textbook stuff.
The passing triangles (the Holy Grail of football management) worked really well, until that spell after half time when we stopped doing it! Luckily McNamara made a timely substitution when it looked like we were away to concede, and that put us back on track.
One criticism is that we were a bit too flat at times, both Flood & Rankin would attack at the same time rather than have one sit back, or both would stand off a player rather than have one pressing and one holding back, Dillon & Gunning were also somewhat guilty of this. Although I suppose not every pairing will have the telepathic connection that Gomis & Buaben had.
I haven't been to a United match in a while though, and one thing that did strike me is how unfit the players seem. Daly especially, but a few players looked knackered early on. I suppose the prospect of being booted in the shins every time they had the ball didn't help.
I am genuinely worried though, this is the same sense of optimism I felt in the first few months of Houston's reign. I don't want to be left heartbroken again...
Expert Tactical Analysis
posted on 2/2/13
Decent display today, Hobo, without doing anything spectacular.
Looked like a team again and showed some signs that we might be getting our old United back soon.
Can't have any complaints today and it all turned out easier than I thought it might be despite the rough-house tactics from the opposition.
Happy for J McN getting a win in his first match in charge.
posted on 2/2/13
Don't think anyone can argue that the new gaffer got his tactics correct after winning 3-0 however for me I still think there's a lot of hard work ahead if JMc.
Firstly if we're gonna continue to play with one up front and shell high balls to Daly then its vital we get players at least expecting him to win them and look to run off him. Too many times today he was isolated and lost possession.
Secondly can anyone explain to me why a full time premier player in his 20's can't sprint? Daly appears to be towing a caravan and has done since he joined us !!
Lastly but probably most importantly I agree with the first post in that Rankin and Armstrong both attacked and when we lost the ball there was far too much space in the middle of the park which would have been better exploited had it not been for the fact we were playing a pub team.
We lacked a real sense of urgency today to get the ball wide and utilise our biggest asset in GMS.
Hopefully all these points have been noticed by our new gaffer and will get to work on Monday during training.
All in all though a great start to his new post. Just hope he keeps it going.
posted on 2/2/13
It's funny though, Jon Daly was typically slow & cumbersome and not much use on ball, but he got 2 assists and a goal.
posted on 2/2/13
Most importantly our defence was rock solid. I thought Keith Watson at right back was immense and dealt with their only threat fantastically well. I thought Gunning and Dillon looked back to their old selves (Dillon was even spraying the passes about like Baresi!) and Douglas was solid enough.
As I said the other day, the job for McNamara is to sort the defence out. If he does that then we'll win games because we do have the firepower to score goals.
I do agree with what you said about the subs though. I thought they came at the right time and helped consolidate what we had. Good management.