Sidney Sladen
Manchester United boss Jose Mourinho is thinking of playing midfielder Marouane Fellaini up front as the striker as United’s preparation for the huge FA cup clash with Chelsea took a twist with injuries to Wayne Rooney and Anthony Martial and an illness to Marcus Rashford.
The three of them are set to miss the trip to Stamford Bridge and this leaves united with no options left up front. Zlatan Ibrahimovic will serve his 3-match suspension starting with this game and hence Manchester United are short up front.
This has reportedly led Mourinho into thinking of playing the strong and tall Marouane Fellaini up front as the striker. This might prove to be a huge gamble as Fellaini is not a proven goal scorer and playing him as a striker would be a disaster.
How Would It Play?
Fellaini is not one of the most skilled finishers around in the Manchester United squad and hence it would be suicidal to play him there as any number of chances that may be created by the genius in Mkhitaryan, Mata and Carrick would go for a waste.
However, one big advantage in playing the Belgian up front would be his aerial abilities. He is absolutely unbeatable in the air and can head the ball so really well. Though his legs may let him down with his finishing, his head might still be able to back him up and United can make use of his aerial quality to cause the Chelsea back line few problems.
Another plus is that Fellaini is a strong lad and hence he can also be used as a target man to bring Mata, Pogba and Mkhitaryan into the game. They are all decent finishers than Fellaini and using him as a target man to get the ball moving forward would be a very good move and would certainly hit Chelsea defence by surprise.
However, this has only been reported by The Telegraph and this seems like a non-ideal solution for Manchester United’s shock striker crisis.
The Ideal Solution
The ideal solution, however, would be playing Ashley Young up front or playing Mkhitaryan as the No.9. Young and Henrikh are good finishers and are quick off the mark and hence they may come good against the Chelsea team who are known to be compact while defending.
The fact that Chelsea don’t let their opponents to play out of their own box suggests that the best option for United would be to hit the Blues on the counter.
Chelsea play a 3-4-3 formation and have been pressing their opponents high up the pitch using their midfielders, thus forcing errors from the opposition defence and strangling their midfield as well. The Chelsea gameplan this season has always been to push the opponents to their backs against the wall.
If United are to have any chance of tackling the complete football played by Conte’s team, the best way would be to hit them on the break with pace, which Manchester United have in plenty, despite the absence of Wayne Rooney, Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford.
