Tactical Analysis: Should David Moyes utilize a ‘false nine’ with Manchester United?

Sitting up to watch the UCL final group game between Man Utd and Shakhtar, I couldn’t help but realize the immediate problem facing the current tactical system employed by David Moyes. Choosing to give importance to fast, counterattacking football with a high level of intensity, the Manager has sacrificed the hallmark of all great United sides: Ball retention. One minute we would have Shakhtar attacking the United goal and within some 20 seconds the ball would be in the hands of the Shakhtar goalie.
The reason: Rio Ferdinand would play out the ball to one of the full backs who would blast forward like headless chicken and interchange the ball with Phil Jones or Ryan Giggs then would lay on the ball for Ashley Young who would either find row Z or give catching practice to the keeper.
The need for a calming presence in midfield who will string passes together and wait for a gap to appear has been evident for the past five matches. Plain and simple: the absence of Michael Carrick is the reason for United’s most horrible run of form in decades. Playing Giggs and Jones in midfield did work against Leverkusen where Giggs bombed forward with the ball often. However, against more narrow opposition, Giggs couldn’t carry the ball out against a packed Shakhtar midfield.
Man Utd completed a worrying four key passes all night against the Ukranians. They had eight attempts off target and two on target, one of which was Jones’s goal. Compare this to the mellifluous ball distribution that Dante and Jerome Boateng treated us to in Bayern’s defeat to City.

The ability of the Bayern center backs is compounded by the system that Guardiola employs, giving as much importance to width and Gegenpress as he does to attractive, attacking football, encouraging risk taking and ball retention.
Squad Strengthening
Even if Carrick comes in, United lack the brutish ball carrying capacity of someone like Moussa Dembele. Any effort that David Moyes takes to strengthen his squad should include a passer(Sneijder, Herrera, Berisha, Cabaye, Gundogan), a tackler(Tiote,Medel,Nzonzi,Wanyama,Schneiderlin) , a proven ball carrier(Dembele), a left back (Baines, Shaw) and a left footed winger (Griezman,Gaitan,Everton Ribeiro)

Dispensing with Tom Cleverley, Anderson, Nani, Young, Evra, Ferdinand in the summer might seem harsh but it is perhaps necessary. The latter are getting past their peak and the former have never really convinced they are of the quality required to make it at United long term.
A case in point here is that the young dynamic and high tempo passing that can be achieved by playing both Cleverley and Anderson in front of Carrick to form a midfield trio would seem to solve problems but this is no time for experimentation. Their chances have come and they have failed to take them as well as young Adnan Januzaj has. Promoting promising youngsters Powell, Lingard and Cole might save the club some money as they can save spending on one position at least (passer or ball carrier).
False Nine Systems
With the current squad unlikely to be disbanded till the end of the season, Moyes can try and play a false nine system that will make the most of four talented no.10’s that United have at their disposal:  Rooney, RVP, Januzaj and Kagawa.

A false 9 system with RVP stradling Rooney and Januzaj. All 3 can interchange positions at will. Kagawa can also fit in here.

Position Swap while attacking: Evra and Rafael can bomb forward, leaving Evans and Smalling to move wide and cover whilst Jones steps into the center of defence as backup.

A full blown attack can still have able players at the back in case of a counter

A defensive mod of the same system: Fellaini is playing as a target man  to use his height and turn crosses into goals

Two at the top with either of 10, 20 or 44 playing in the hole

A Juventus-esque 3-3-1-3 with Rooney at the top

Of course, if only Moyes has the free thinking, attacking mindset that United’s teams under Fergie had, we would not be going over false number 9s and midfield destroyers. It remains a solid fact that the present United team were pushed on to the Championship by nothing other than the will of the Old Master. Moyes neither commands such respect nor does he inspire such fear into his pupils and it remains to be seen whether his high tempo, rigorous training methods (already not received well by van Persie) will yield any results in the longer term but at the moment, his system is not working and is at least 5 years behind the philosophy that Guardiola has imbibed into the Bavarians.
  source: thinkfootball.co.uk