3 Formations That Will Save Moyes’ Job At Manchester United

David Moyes’ squad is currently full of players who are good as backup options, but are not the right fit at this moment to come into the starting eleven and make an impact. So, looking at the options available to him, here are some of the options that he could use.

1. 4-2-3-1

United could continue to rely on the young shoulders of Adnan Januzaj in the current formation that they are using with Mata playing off the right side. Rooney is dropping deeper into the hole to get the ball, and United can persevere with this formation in the hope that it will click, and when it does, goals will flow.

However, this formation leaves the pitch very narrow as both Mata and Januzaj love to drift into central areas and require the fullbacks to put in that extra effort to provide the necessary width in the final  third. The problem is that on counter attacks, United’s wings are left exposed when the two midfielders are unable to cover for the advanced full backs.

2. 4-2-2-2

The next option is to play a wider player on one wing. In the above formation, it shows Shinji Kagawa or Ashley Young taking up a wider role on the left, but it could as easily be Antonio Valencia taking up a wider role on the right in what would be a mirror image of the above formation.

This will provide a bit of width on at least one wing while the full back can push up on the other wing to provide width. This will obviously make it easier for the midfielders to cover the fullback if only one of them is pushing up at one time.

3.  4-3-3 (with wing backs)

The main problem of playing Mata in a wider role is that he does not put in the defensive shift that is expected of a natural wide man. As a result, the formation will always be slightly lopsided. The solution to this problem can be to dispel the notion of wingers altogether, and playing Mata in a central role just behind the striking duo of Rooney and van Persie.

Rafael and Evra can play as full backs with Jones, Carrick and Fletcher forming a defensive minded midfield trio needed to cover in case the fullbacks are caught out of position venturing forward. The alternative is to employ Evra and Rafael as wingbacks, giving them a lot more freedom to express their attacking abilities. Jones consequently will drop further back to form a three-man defense with Vidic and Evans.

While this seems like a left-field idea, it might actually provide a nice balanced outlet to best utilize the talents of the attacking triumvirate.