Emotions will be high as Manchester City visit Manchester United on Saturday, with the two teams just one point apart and sitting in a position from where a win could take them within the touching distance of the top of the Premier League table.
Ole has usually had the upper hand over Guardiola over the past couple of years, winning three out of five derbies. However, the two are heading into the 183rd Manchester Derby under entirely different circumstances. The Norwegian will be under tremendous pressure from the fans to get his game plan right after United’s Champions League dreams went down the drain midweek. In contrast, the Spaniard having penned down a new contract last month will have the comfort of heading into the game with no such urgency.
Nonetheless, the fixture promises to keep football fanatics around the globe on their feet and their eyes glued to the screen.
Let’s take a look at the three things Ole should do to ensure a much-needed victory against the noisy neighbours.
Ditch the 5-3-2 and revert to the 4-2-3-1
Well, Solksjaer has used his typical 5-3-2 formation against some of the big teams this season. However, it’s beyond doubt that the specific game plan – sit back, allow pressure, win the ball deep into their own half, and catch the opposition on counter-attacks – hasn’t been working as of late. In fact, it has worked only once this season – United’s first Champions League game vs Paris Saint-Germain.
Deploying a 4-2-3-1 or 4-4-2(diamond with Van De Beek/Paul Pogba as the extra man in midfield) should instead help his side to outnumber Guardiola’s men at the centre of the park, providing the forwards with sufficient goal-scoring chances without getting the full-backs exposed, thus playing an all-around game.
We all saw how Wan-Bissaka and Alex Telles were caught denuded for Leipzig’s first two goals within the first thirteen minutes. With Sterling and Mahrez up next, such blunders can cause greater troubles for the home side throughout the ninety minutes.
Form a double pivot to stop Kevin De Bruyne
The formation, the game plan, the tactics – none of them will matter much until and unless one finds a way to close in on the Belgian maestro when his side have the ball.
De Bruyne has a way of distributing passes that are easy to predict, but almost impossible to stop. So how does one stop him? Press high? No, not an option against a team like City. While the answer is not as simple as it sounds, one way is to keep the backline in shape, crowd the areas around him, and force him into wide harmless areas thereby preventing him from making purposive passes.
Ole will be highly dependent on the ‘Fred-McTominay’ partnership to achieve the humongous task as it might well turn out to decide the outcome of the derby.
Make sensible and NOT routine adaptations
While second-half comebacks from Manchester United have become an everyday thing, it vigorously points towards Ole’s lack of tactical ability to coach his side accordingly from the very beginning, with most of his players running up and down the pitch without any purpose or shape throughout the first half of matches.
From keeping Fred on the pitch knowing that he should have been sent off in the first half itself to fielding an all-defensive formation which saw them getting dumped out of the Champions League – all recent incidents underline the Norweigan’s inability to make key decisions when needed.
Although his second-half substitutions have worked wonders on several occasions, we seriously doubt if such heroics can be replicated week in week out.
