Manchester United boss David Moyes has gone back to the drawing board ahead of Wednesday’s crunch Champions League clash against Bayern Munich.
The Red Devils go to Germany with the tie finely-balanced at 1-1, a result that will send the Bavarians through to the last-eight of the competition if United fail to score at the Allianz Arena.
And Moyes was forced to defend the defensive tactics he employed in the first leg at Old Trafford.
“You can go into some Champions League games from recent times when teams sat back and waited and waited and waited and then got something from the game and got through,” Moyes said.
“I don’t think there is any shame in what we did (in the first leg), not by a long way.
“Tactically, I thought we played very well on the night. But I have got to say, in the second game, we might need to think differently, look at it in a different way to the first game.”
However the Scot admitted he may have to approach the second leg with a different mind-set.
“Tactics is something that I am looking at and thinking about. We played with a gameplan and I would think Pep would need to alter his team slightly,” Moyes said.
“Tactically, they will play the same type of game, maybe differently in terms of positions.
“For us, we have to make a decision, do we play differently? That is something I am mulling over at the minute.”
Moyes will be encouraged by United’s away form this season, which has been far superior to their woeful Old Trafford worries.
With ten wins on the road in the Premier League, Moyes’ men have the best away record in the league and will be boosted by an emphatic 4-0 win over Newcastle at the weekend.
And with Pep Guardiola’s side’s first league loss in 53 matches with a 1-0 defeat against Augsburg at the weekend, the tide could turn in United’s favour.
“I think the way modern football is going, you just never know [what can happen in games],” Moyes added.
“Many teams have lots of possession but your job is to score goals at the end of the day. Many teams who play on the counterattack might get a goal.
“I’ve watched Bayern play two or three times recently and saw them at Arsenal, and I just felt that with their pressing game, we might be better not having the ball at the back on the night. We wanted to try to to get at their back line as often as we could in a decent way.”
More goals will be a must in the season-defining Bayern clash if United are to continue English sides’ strong recent record against the Bundesliga champions.
The Bavarians have failed to win any of their last four encounters with Premier League sides on home soil, although they had the last laugh over Manchester United in their most recent 2009/10 encounter when a 3-2 win for Sir Alex’s Ferguson’s side was not enough to prevent a European exit on away goals.
This was the Red Devils only win against Bayern in normal time, underlining the scale of Wednesday’s task.
“I think it tells you that people can go there and get good results,” he said.
“We talked about the good performance [at Old Trafford], and in a lot of ways people said it was a good result as well, but at the moment Munich are going through unless we do something about it.
“That doesn’t necessarily mean in the first minute, but somewhere within that game we have to do something that gives us a chance of getting through.
“We have to make sure that we give ourselves a chance by not conceding and then having to chase the game. If you have to chase the game against Bayern, it could be difficult because they are very good with the ball. We have to try to get the first goal.
“They were very good with their possession [in the first leg] and we were very good with our attacking play, so this game is in the balance. It’s a tight tie.”
United will be without Juan Mata, who is cup-tied, while Wayne Rooney is a doubt with bruised toe.
The key absentees are with Bayern boss Guardiola after Bastian Schweinsteiger and Javi Martinez received suspensions in the first-leg.
Image courtesy of MUTV, via YouTube, with thanks.
