After the 3-2 victory over AC Milan three weeks ago in the San Siro, Rafael came under some fierce criticism for his naive performance against Ronaldinho. The 2004 & 2005 World player of the year gave our young right back a big lesson, which will no doubt be of valuable experience to the lad as he develops even further. Firstly, my personal opinion was that Rafael did ok, although I believe he was at fault for not thumping the ball down the pitch just before Seedorf scored Milan’s second. However, as we approach kick off time, I wanted to look at the positions of both fullbacks in the previous game and their potential roles tonight.
Many Reds were rightfully confused with the formation that United adopted against the Rossoneri. Ji Sung Park operated just off of Wayne Rooney through the centre whilst the responsibility of the left hand side was left to Darren Fletcher to patrol. The setup obviously worked with Milan’s creative influence, Pirlo ge,tting little time on the ball. Fletcher also demonstrated from an attacking sense how versatile he is operating where he did. Two crosses provided two goals, whilst his trademark stamina and hustling were present for all to see. But what about on the right hand side? Rafael was obviously under strict orders to ‘mark’ Ronaldinho, which thus prevented our Brazilian fullback bombing on as he does usually – do you agree with this approach or even believe he was adopting a more conservative approach to handling one of the best players in the past twenty years?
We’ve all played in a game, usually when we are younger, where you are ‘happy’ to mark a player. You might generally follow around your opponent nullifying his game, but also not contributing much yourself. With experience and time, even at our amateur level, you develop to realise that there is a time and a place to ‘man mark’ and a time and a place to ‘zonal mark’. This isn’t to get confused with ‘Zonal marking from set pieces‘ – this is a general philosophy in how you approach the game and your opponent. Rafael was happy to neglect his attacking qualities and contributions to the team. By sacrificing this side of the game, his job is now to nullify the impact of Ronaldinho. The stats and performance of the former Barcelona man might state that Rafael didn’t really do his job, however I would argue that he couldn’t have done anything about the goal whilst he is actually up against one of the best players in European football of all time (opinions are of course subjective – so please comment and state why you disagree with this statement), so he is going to be chasing heels at one point of another. But could he, in all his experience of 41 games, have done anything differently? I don’t know about you but I would prefer our attacking opinions to be limited to Valencia or Nani on the right, so that Ronaldinho is covered rather than taking a risk and be hit by the counter attack? Pirlo, Beckham and to a lesser extent Ambrosini all have the ability to hit long diagonal balls to the Brazilian forward, which of course could then be devastating.
Some football fans incorrectly see Brazil as a nation of footballers who samba their way around European cities, not running around much and generally allowing their technique and skill to help them win football matches. This couldn’t be further from the truth as Brazilians have always worked their balls off all over the pitch but some work gets unnoticed due to the flamboyance and beauty of their overall play. Romario once said to Ronaldo in his first International ‘Kid, if you want to score more goals, you need to do less running’ – after Ronaldo, who was keen to impress, was sprinting around like a Carlos Tevez Darren Fletcher love child on heat. Ronaldo took that advice on board from a man who only came alive in the penalty box, but when he did – there was no one better in the 1990s at it. This leads me onto the work rate point, players do not need to run all around the pitch (i.e. Carlos Tevez) to work hard in their position to aid the team overall. For Ronaldinho, why would you want him to get behind the ball on the left hand side when Milan lose the ball? You don’t. You want him high up the pitch and obviously up against out most inexperienced player.
Alexandre Pato is a lot younger than Ronaldinho and was most probably asked to track Patrice Evra more than Ronaldinho was asked to track Rafael. Pato is one of the most exciting youngsters in World football and looks likely he will be fit to face United tonight. I always felt his best position would be just off a front man, however Leonardo has opted for a 4-3-3 formation, rather than Milan’s 4-3-1-2 or 4-3-2-1 of last season. Both wide forwards can’t be caught high up the pitch at the same time, otherwise top European teams will dominate possession in the middle of the park (and at times when Pato was caught United did exactly that). Pato demonstrates the qualities and attributes of the modern day forward, who continually operates from a wider position and cuts inside to attack. Ferguson has addressed this quality in the past when discussing former United winger Cristiano Ronaldo and his style of play. So on one side of the pitch we have an inexperienced full back up against a very experienced and ridiculously talent forward, whilst on the other side we have an experienced full back up against a relatively inexperienced forward – so its not surprising a sense of caution creeps in either side.
Milan’s midfield trio is key to the ‘legs’ the wide players need to play effective counter attacking football. I thought United’s defensive setup three weeks back was quite poor and below standard, with Milan fluffing a number of opportunities to take a two goal lead. Going forward, I thought we were good, although the amount of space that was available might have come as surprise to United. I think that although a 3-2 victory in Milan was an absolutely phenomenal result, we could have been even more convincing. Tonight, Pirlo Ambrosini and one of Seedorf, Gattuso and Beckham will play in the centre of the park and we all know the running Beckham puts in whenever he is called upon.
So to conclude – how do you mark someone like Ronaldinho in a 4-3-3 formation? I believe that Ferguson’s decision to grant Rafael the responsibility in getting tight to the Ronaldinho was the right call and he did ok against a frightening talent. There is that worry about taking a risk and bombing on (as it is in Rafael’s nature to do so), which is what Milan want – to leave the 2002 World Cup winner in acres of space on the left hand side. Tonight, its up to Milan to attack and take the game to United, so don’t expect anything different on the right hand side, even if Gary Neville lines up in his place. Of course United should play the open attacking game we all know the team is capable of producing. But on European nights, we know that Sir Alex Ferguson (rightly so in my opinion) adopts a somewhat cautious approach to proceedings – which has been a frustration to United fans in some games. We of course should always play to our strengths, which will be to get the ball wide to Valencia and support to Wayne Rooney through the middle and could just exploit them on the counter attack if indeed they are chasing the game. The first leg result was impressive, i’m hopeful tonight will be even more so. We’ve lost to Milan in 58, 69, 05 and 07 – lets make sure its fifth time lucky tonight!