Is United Attacking Mindset Exposing The Defensive Frailties?

Sir Alex Ferguson is concerned that Manchester United's wide-open attacking style is having an adverse effect on the team's defending, which could be worrisome, especially with all of the injuries.

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Over the last couple of years, there has been extra bit of emphasis on keeping a clean sheet, but this season, coupled with some of their emphatic scorelines, it seems as though the Reds would rather attack with reckless abandon than focus on being organized.

Ferguson admitted that he "feared the worst" during the game against FC Basel, because he knew how inept his players played as a team, but it's obvious to see that United is set up to attack and defeat teams 5-3 rather than 1-0 now.

This style of play has greater peaks and troughs, because it can either delight the supporters to no end or frustrate just as much.

Some of the attacking play against Basel was breathtaking, but, contrastingly, the defensive errors made you want to stop breathing. The organization of the back-four was non-existent and ever defender should share the blame, equally. Collectively, there was enough energy, enthusiasm and experience to offset any threat by the Swiss champions, but, for some reason or another, the defense continually let themselves and United down.

"Some our forward play in the first half was absolutely fantastic, but there was always that lax attitude at the back and they were creating chances. We were fortunate not to have lost a couple of goals before half-time. Equally though we could have scored four or five.

We said to the players at half-time you can make this game easy or hard for yourselves. And we made it hard. The attacking instinct in the team meant we got really exposed in midfield and at the back.

There's sometimes a tendency to enjoy that part, particularly at home, but in big game situations you would anticipate better defending and better concentration. Yes, we've been making changes to the back four, too many times maybe at the moment, but nonetheless they can do better than that."

Back in the mid-1990s, Manchester United were well known for their 5-2 or 4-3 score lines, and was a neutralist's idea of how football should be played, but some of the supporters - as well as some of the players - might have a hard time adjusting to it.