Sir Alex Ferguson’s tactical principles

Sir Alex Ferguson would always say: “If you can let players play to their strengths and you can empower them, they will take control of the game. They’re good enough to do that.”

He had that flexibility with the players. He didn’t spoon feed them. That was very clear to me when I took over as the first-team coach at Manchester United.

At that time, he called me into his office. “René,” he said. “I don’t have to tell you how to do the training sessions. I see how the players respond. It’s brilliant.”

He went on. “But I just want to make sure that we are all singing from the same hymn sheet, that we are looking through the same lens.

“When I close my eyes and I see the best Manchester United, this is what I see.”

Then he started using the flip chart he had in his office, as he told me what he wanted.

"the most important aspect of possession is rhythm"

“From a defensive point of view,” he said, “I want us to be able to press really high, press on certain players or certain areas, really aggressive.

“At other times, I want us to maybe drop a little bit deeper. We press in a certain area, and then maybe hit the spaces that are left to us.

“There might be occasions when we have to sit in and defend from a block, but then it’s all about regain and retain, making sure that we can counter from that.” 

Next page on his flip chart: in possession.

“Possession is key,” he told me. “That's how you take the initiative. When you start turning that initiative into goalscoring opportunities, chances and scoring goals, that’s how you start to take control of the game.

“And for me, the most important aspect of possession is rhythm. Look at all the top, top teams, past and present. Then look at the top, top midfielders, past and present. They have the ability to create rhythm, maintain rhythm or change rhythm.

“We need to be able to play through different rhythms with the players we have on the pitch.”

"I want to see us attack with pace, power, penetration and unpredictability"

He had a few golden rules within that possession, which he outlined. It was always about: “Think forward, look forward, play forward, with the aim to break lines, find the pockets or the space in the back four, depending how deep or high the opposition are.”

The other golden rule was: “If centre-backs, full-backs or midfielders have time on the ball and there’s no pressure on the ball, I want to see runners. I want to see people coming from wide areas into the pockets. I want to see full-backs going forward, and wingers running in behind.”

The last page on the flip chart was all about attack. 

“If I see United attack, I want to see us attack with pace, power, penetration and unpredictability.”

Within that, we had certain systems. Take the 4-3-3. That would be executed completely differently if we played with Ryan Giggs on the left and, let’s say, Cristiano Ronaldo on the right, compared with Antonio Valencia on the right and maybe Nani on the left.

"Ferguson was very, very flexible and open-minded"

That is where the tactical flexibility came in with us. That is where we decided whether we wanted the wingers to come in the pockets and the full-backs over the top. Or if we wanted the full-backs to stay a little bit more flat and inside, so the wingers could come down the line, and we made runs deep from the midfield. There were lots and lots of variations there.

Ferguson was very, very flexible and open-minded, in different ways, on how we could exploit situations. To give one example, I remember we were due to play an FA Cup game at home against Arsenal, and we had a lot of injuries. 

We knew Arsenal would never change under Arsène Wenger. They always played the same, playing out from the back. They had a link from the back to the front, like they had with Cesc Fàbregas and Robin van Persie, or later with Mikel Arteta and Santi Cazorla.

So we always made sure that, when we played Arsenal, we pressed. On this occasion, though, we were missing some players. What did we do? We put Rafael and Fabio, the two Brazilians, right wing and left wing, and we had Darron Gibson in midfield, with Wayne Rooney and Chicharito [Javier Hernández] up front.

"the key was always to make sure that we let our players play to their strengths"

That meant we had highly aggressive players going forward, who absolutely pressed the life out of Arsenal. We won that game 2-0. That is just a little example of the tactical flexibility we had.

With the longevity Ferguson had at the club, he could not have been rigid in that sense. He wouldn’t have been able to sustain it. You cannot survive if you do not move with the times and think with an open mind.

But the key was always to make sure that we let our players play to their strengths. To make sure they understood what we wanted from a defensive point of view. We were very structured. 

It was very clear what we wanted. From a possession point of view and going forward, it was all in favour of creativity and spontaneity, to create that unpredictability in forward play.

René Meulensteen was speaking on The Coaches’ Voice Twitter Spaces analysis of the Manchester derby. Listen to the full tactical analysis here…

Author: The Coaches' Voice