It was another tough night for Manchester United on Wednesday as they went down 2-1 away in the Champions League to Turkish side Istanbul Basaksehir.
It was a game in which Ole Gunnar Solskjaer opted to deploy a 4-2-3-1 formation, a change from the 4-4-2 diamond he used in each of United’s previous two matches vs RB Leipzig and Arsenal. In fact, it was the third time in four matches that the Norwegian coach had opted to deploy a formation different from that used in the match prior.
This does indicate that the United boss is still unclear as to what formation he thinks suits his side best.
The way in which he lines his team up does seem to vary on the type of opposition United are coming up against. When facing inferior teams, the Reds seem to deploy a tactic centred around dominating the ball and pressing high up the pitch.
Yet, against more traditional top teams, Solskjaer usually reverts to a counter-attacking tactic.
Changing the formation from game to game is often key in order to accommodate both philosophies, yet over a small sequence of matches it usually delivers a run of inconsistent results. This has been an underlying theme for the bulk of Solskjaer’s time in charge of United so far.
To try and get a simplistic overview of what formation has statistically worked best for the Norwegian at Old Trafford, below is a run-down of the most common formations used by United during Solskjaer’s time in charge and the win percentage of each.
As illustrated above, despite defeat in deploying the formation on Wednesday night, the 4-2-3-1 set up has proven to be United’s most used and indeed most successful under Solskjaer in terms of win percentage.
It’s also statistically been United’s best in terms of defensive solidity, conceding just 0.9 goals on average per game when playing it.
Although it’s to be expected that some adjustments can be made to a tactical set-up based on the strengths of the opposition and the availability of players, there is an argument to say that veering away from the 4-2-3-1 set up hasn’t been beneficial.
Whilst we are dealing with varying sample sizes, this set-up does seem to produce United’s best football. Therefore perhaps instead of consistently modifying and reshaping United’s set up from game to game, Solskjaer should instead continue to fine-tune the formation that has, on the whole, delivered his best results for him thus far as United boss.
This means not implementing drastic tactical changes when facing ‘top’ teams, but instead trusting and learning to master the one with the best potential.
Failure to do so will most likely damage United’s progression in the long term - and maybe even Solskjaer his job at the club.
