One of the more curious aspects of Sir Alex Ferguson’s reign at Manchester United, when looking back from the vantage point of 2019, is the lack of an obvious tactical identity throughout most of his 26-year tenure.
Some notable themes began to emerge in the mid-to-late 2000s when Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney, and Carlos Tevez formed a fluid counter-attacking front three. But even that’s a mostly imagined ideology applied retrospectively thanks to a couple of particularly memorable goals colouring the era.
There are no essential tactical characteristics running through his teams. You could say it was Ferguson’s biggest strength.
Whereas Arsene Wenger’s dogmatic belief in his aesthetic possession game led to stagnation, Fergie’s tactics were flexible; open and listening as football’s patterns melted and reformed.
His durability is often credited to regular changes made to his backroom staff. Ferguson’s sides – though always contemporary – never swayed deep into a particular tactical identity.
This is most notable during the late 1990s, arguably the peak years and the period in which Ole Gunnar Solskjaer played at Old Trafford. Back then, the Premier League was a simpler place, a time before Champions League money caused a financial chasm and an ‘us-and-them’ landscape of possession versus counter.
English football was not so territorial. Matches drifted. The ball was lumped from end to end. Teams pressed, sort of, but it lacked the order of today’s game, where teams swarm, compressing and decompressing.
Football was individualistic in tone and one-on-one battles defined its flow. Games were won and lost in moments that sprung out of nowhere; a long ball into the box, a sudden sprint down the left wing. And that’s why it’s hard to define exactly what Ferguson’s United were about.
They certainly weren’t an aggressively attacking side, famous instead for nicking matches with a late goal – or in other words for overcoming even contests by sheer force of personality.
GOAL
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