Look, I do get your point, but with mids pressing back and the back line blocking this is very effective at reducing operationg space for all opposing forward players, you close the hole between the mid and back line, what you are talking about is when united are overrunning a team, in games of attrition that space and the counters don't happen as often. Blackburn was a good example of space being closed down, Arsenal, compared ot Marseille, miles and miles of space because their midfield went missing defensively, which is something when you look at Uniteds, don't even get me started on Schalke. He does well when United can stretch the other team, if they cannot, ala ars Bolton Blackburn Hernandez is not a player for those type of games, Barca press like fk and I would think it a mistake to start him in that game as defensively he doesn't add anything and there will be defensive work to be done by the whole team, reminds me of Ronaldo, because United didn't have the ball he was dead weight and should ahve been taken off. If you look at United v Chelsea, United did this very thing, they occupied their half of the pitch and left no space as shown by Torres getting the ball as with other chelsea players and 3 or 4 United players around them, no room for running this way or that and as they forced Chelsea back they pressed em back to the keeper and it worked quite wel for them, this I think it how they'l approach the Barca game though Chelsea cracked it more than once at OT but Kalou missed sitter of a header I think Barca will too. Anyways, no surprise two fans see the game differently eh
Like I said before, it's easy in theory, but in practice it is much more complicated. If you have all your mids pressing back and back line blocking you may be better able to control the forwards, but you risk surrendering all possession and initiative in the middle of the park to the other team. And of course you are reliant on all your midfielders and defenders playing a solid defensive game and not making a single error. Because if all your players are pressing and blocking the opposition, then as soon as a mistake is made the team cannot easily adapt to cover for it. Again, in the goal vs Chelsea, Giggs got the ball in behind the fullback, Ivanovic had to come across from CB to cover, Terry had to follow Hernandez and a huge gap opened for Rooney to score. And that wasn't a counter attack, it just came from switching possession quickly from one flank to the next. Or when Ramsey scored for Arsenal against us - we were pressing the forwards, and as a result he was able to run in from deep and score.
Yeah... fair enough I see your point. Will just have to wait and see how things work out for him next season.
