Sir Alex Ferguson’s title winning side of 2007/08, who also clinched the Champions League
against Chelsea on penalties, were one of the finest teams to have graced the stage
of English and European football in recent times.
In the Premier League, Manchester United were imperious, winning 27 games, drawing six,
and only losing five.
The team were fired by an absurd season’s output from Cristiano
Ronaldo , who scored 31 goals, including five from outside the box and four free-kicks;
he also contributed six assists.
Carlos Tevez scored 14 and managed six assists, and Wayne
Rooney scored 12, but assisted 10.
In fact, this trident scored 70% of United’s goals and
registered 41% of their assists.
The bedrock of the side was the back five, who only conceded 22 goals that season, joint
6 th lowest in PL history, and managed 21 clean
sheets, joint 8 th highest in PL history.
Of 38 PL games, Rio Ferdinand started 35, Wes Brown 34, Patrice Evra 33, and Nemanja
Vidic 32.
Edwin van der Sar started in goal 29 times.
In the league, United could afford to play mostly with a 4-4-2, often using Ronaldo and
Giggs on the flanks, with Rooney and Tevez up front.
The central midfield berths were filled by Michael Carrick and Paul Scholes , in front
of the rock-solid back four.
Stylistically, the foundation of both the League and Champions
League successes were the same in defence.
United defended with two banks of four, vertically compact but strung out quite wide across
the pitch.
Ferguson knew that in Ferdinand especially, he had a defender who was composed, quick,
and adept at reading the game, and who could plug any gaps that such width created.
Both full backs played wide, as did both wide men in the midfield, and the side only tended
to press if the opposition mis-controlled or drifted wide and barely pressed in the
opposition half at all.
Ferguson relied on his individual players’ ability to win the ball, to read passes and
intercept, and the defensive stance was predicated less
on defending and more on being ready to break with extraordinary pace when the ball
was won back.
Indeed, there are strong echoes of Ferguson’s 2007/08 vintage in Diego Simeone’s
defensive approach, differing mainly in the width used.
Going forwards, especially in the Premier League, United’s approach was dictated by
two main factors.
Firstly, Michael Carrick’s ability to screen the back four and lay off short passes
to Paul Scholes enabled Scholes to dictate the game from deep, launching raking counter-
attacking passes or carrying the ball into space created by the opposition’s disorganisation
after turnovers.
And, once Scholes had released the wide men and front players, Ferguson could effectively
sit back and allow the talents of Ronaldo, Tevez, Rooney, and one of Nani or Giggs, to
take over.
In short, United were just too strong for many of their league opponents, especially
when attacked on the break.​ In European competition, Ronaldo scored eight,
and Tevez and Rooney four each, but their march to the title was subtly different from
the way the team set up in the league.
The foundation was still the consistent back seven,
but the two main midfielders, Carrick and Scholes, sat deeper.
Ferguson showed that accusations that he was an astute man manager and buyer of players,
but a second-rate tactician, were nonsense.
Against Roma, for example, United played effectively a 4-5-1, with Rooney on the left
and Park Ji-Sung on the right.
Ronaldo, playing as a front man, dropped and drifted wide, causing havoc.
Indeed, in many European games, the United’s shape was either
a 4-3-3 or a 4-5-1, and the trident of Tevez, Ronaldo, and Rooney played merry hell with
teams – each could play wide, up front, or
come deep to forage for the ball, and the opposition’s blood was twisted trying to
work out who was doing what at which point.
Ferguson would also use an asymmetrical 4-4-2, with Ronaldo pushed much further up and a
more workmanlike midfielder, Park or Hargreaves, playing wide on the other side but tucked
in and deeper, as he did in the Champions League final against Chelsea.
Tactically flexible, technically brilliant, well organised, and built on a core of players
who could be relied on to do whatever the manager
asked of them: the 2007/08 Manchester United swept all before them, and it’s clear
how they managed it.
They were brilliant.