This season under Jose Mourinho, Manchester United have employed several tactical set-
ups, as the Portuguese manager tries to find the system that best fits his players and,
to an extent, tests his players’ versatility.
Mourinho is a thoughtful tactician, prepared to adapt to
each opposition, and flexible, especially defensively, as he seeks to nullify the opposition’s
creativity while enhancing his team’s own opportunities to attack.
Mourinho is first and foremost a pragmatist: if attacking football
works, that’s fine, but against strong opposition, a game-plan is devised to counter and restrict
the opposition’s chance to play.
Mourinho’s use of Jesse Lingard exemplifies this approach.
Lingard might have less raw talent than other attacking midfielders on
the United roster, but his hard work, energy, and
ability to adhere to a Mourinho game-plan has seen him used far more effectively under
the Portuguese manager than he was last season
under Louis van Gaal . So far this season, Lingard has played 20
matches or 1131 minutes.
Under van Gaal, he debuted in 2014/15 but only played one game
as a sub.
In 2015/16, he played 25 games, or 1635 minutes.
While Lingard scored more last season, four goals and one assist, this season
he has been used primarily to recycle the ball, create, and provide energy and pressing,
while also contributing one goal and two assists.
His output as an all-round player has improved, albeit at the expense of his scoring rate.
In the PL, Lingard has been used in a variety of positions this season, starting as an attacking
left midfielder and right midfielder in a 4-2-3-1, as a deeper winger when United have
played a 4-1-4-1, and up front in the wide positions
of a 4-3-3, again on both flanks.
Against Chelsea, he played up front with Marcus Rashford
in a 3-5-2.
Lingard is an accomplished dribbler of the ball, as shown against Leicester in the Charity
Shield, where he also finished well, but this season, his job has been to drop off, receive,
and recycle.
He is good at holding up the ball and often receives it with his back to the opposition
goal, before carrying it back towards support players, passing, and then moving off the
ball into channels.
United, especially Paul Pogba , Ander Herrera, and Michael Carrick, have a good range of
passing, and Lingard is used as a pivot, receiving vertical, low passes.
He can then turn and burst forwards with the ball, often cutting inside if played on the
left, return the pass before moving, or lay the
ball off, a preferred option if playing on the right
with the mobile, strong crosser Antonio Valencia behind him.
The emphasis for Lingard, though, is keeping the ball through short, simple passes, and
this style of play explains how United currently
have the second best passing accuracy in the league, as well as the fifth best possession
stats.
Lingard is also energetic, and as shown against Chelsea, is willing to sacrifice his impact
on the game as an attacking player by working
hard to create space for others.
With Pogba driving from deep and Fellaini also pushing
up, Lingard’s job against Chelseawas to pull the ​
centre-backs apart with his movement.
The intention was for Rashford to then find space, or
to create overloads through the middle by dropping back.
While the plaudits in the 2-0 win rightly went to Herrera and Rashford, Lingard’s
constantly annoying movement, tidy use of possession,
and tactical discipline went a long way to securing the win.
He is a quintessential Mourinho squad player, capable and comfortable of
playing in a variety of positions in a variety of roles.
He might pass under the radar, but Jesse Lingard is exactly the sort of player that
top level squads need to oil the rest of the system
and exactly the sort of player Jose Mourinho prizes in his teams.