Lucien Favre is one of the 5 coaches, Manchester United are reportedly interviewing for the vacant manager position at Old Trafford. These interviews are only for an interim position until the summer when United hope to make a more long term appointment. Favre has been out of a job since his dismissal at Borussia Dortmund. We have previously taken an in-depth look at Favre’s tactics which you can read here.
At Dortmund, Favre was flexible with his choice of formation, mostly preferring the 4-2-3-1 but at times also using the 3-4-3 formation. His teams generally are slow in build up play and wait for chances to arrive but at the same time also look to hit teams with fast counter-attacks. His Dortmund team had the ability to switch between slow build up play and fast counter-attacking football which makes them so hard to difficult. This flexible tactics would suit United perfectly as they have the squad to play both the styles.
Lucien Favre’s 4-2-3-1 formation for Manchester United
The role of Bruno Fernandes becomes very crucial to this formation as Favre’s midfields tend become a three while defending where as while attacking, he expects one from the double pivot to join the attacking midfielder. So for the second midfielder role, Van de Beek will be perfect but Fernandes will have to change his style to suit the formation.
With Rashford and Jadon Sancho partnering Ronaldo upfront, we can expect Favre’s team to rely on fast counter attacks to score goals. This will be supported by aggressive pressing from the midfield three to turn over possession. Even at Dortmund, Favre moved away from Klopp’s heavy metal style football, so Favre’s style might be perfect for United who at the moment have no tactical identity on the pitch.
