Team Focus: Where Would Gareth Bale Fit In Best At Manchester United?

Gareth Bale: the name on everyone’s lips at the moment. Will he stay at Tottenham Hotspur? Will Real Madrid land their supposed top target this summer? Will Manchester United swoop for the Welshman between now and the close of the transfer window? Regardless of head coach Andre Villas-Boas continuously stating the attacker is not for sale at any price, the rumours are unlikely to stop between now and September 2nd.

Having accrued an average WhoScored.com rating of 7.89 - no Premier League player attainted higher - it’s understandable why Spurs are fighting off competition to keep hold of their prized asset. Netting 21 goals saw him finish as the club’s top scorer, while only Robin van Persie (26) and Luis Suárez (23) scored more than the 24-year-old, who saw his overall game come on leaps and bounds under Villas-Boas last season.

While it’s fairly obvious why Real would show an interest in Bale, with Los Blancos attracted to the marketing potential and the Spanish capital side readying a potential Cristiano Ronaldo replacement when the inevitable happens, it’s interest from United that is perhaps surprising. With their priorities focused on landing a centre midfielder - at the time of writing, that top target being Barcelona’s Cesc Fábregas - speculation suggesting that a move for Bale may happen this summer refuses to go away, despite the acquisition of Wilfried Zaha.

As Ashley Young and Nani continue to see their name grace the gossip columns ahead of a potential move away from Old Trafford, should either or both of the duo depart the club, it’s fair to say that a replacement would be needed. Having already lost out to Spurs in 2007 to the signing of the former Southampton trainee, it’s understandable to see Bale being linked with a move to United once again. Should any deal go through, the Wales international would become the third player to swap London for Manchester in the last seven years, following in the footsteps of Michael Carrick and Dimitar Berbatov.

Having averaged 5 shots per game - only Suárez (5.7) attempted more - it was little surprise to see the player become the first Spurs performer to net 20 or more goals in a single season since Jürgen Klinsmann achieved the feat in 1995, albeit in a 42-game campaign. Perhaps importantly was that of the 21 goals Bale netted, nine were from the outside the penalty area - the highest in Europe’s top five leagues last season - highlighting his threat from distance as well as his prolificacy from inside the 18-yard-box.

He would add a further dimension to a United attack that netted just the nine goals from outside the area last year, a six-goal drop from the 15 of the 2011/12 campaign. Having seen United lose two of his first three games at the helm, David Moyes will be undoubtedly keen to strengthen further this summer. Acquiring a player of Bale’s ilk would not only bolster his playing squad incredibly, but also send out a clear statement of intent to any of his potential title rivals.

The real matter would be where he would fit him into a potential starting XI. Under Villas-Boas, Bale has been handed a license to roam in the current Spurs 4-2-3-1 and that would be set to continue next year with it looking increasingly likely that the Portuguese tactician will alter his tactics to a 4-3-3 following the big money signing of Paulinho. While it would be expected to see him start encounters on the left-flank, the inclination to drift inside to cover the space behind the lone frontman could boost the likelihood of Bale adding to his nine goals from outside the penalty area.

Compared to how Moyes regularly fielded his Everton side last season - a 4-4-1-1 in 28 of the 38 games - not to mention his determination to keep hold of Wayne Rooney and the option to use Shinji Kagawa in the number 10 role, lining up on the left of the midfield four would be his expected starting position, should he move to United. While it wouldn’t necessarily see Bale’s impact diminish completely - his heatmap from last season shows the player predominantly on the left wing - it can argued that it would hamper his development from a wideman into a fully-fledged attacking midfielder ala Ronaldo.

This argument is further supplemented by the fact that all nine of Bale’s Premier League goals from distance came within a relatively central position, as Martin Laurence noted following the culmination of the Premier League season, although two - Liverpool and Newcastle United - were free-kicks. Harbouring an impressive shot accuracy of 44.2%, one can understand his continued reliance to test his ability to hit the target from distance and it’s fair to say he was duly rewarded as a result, with his 73 shots on target - the most in the Premier League last year - aiding to see him net his aforementioned 21 league goals.

Indeed, with a dribble success of 42.8%, it can be argued that his best position has moved from the left-wing to a more central role behind the striker, especially when factoring in the drop of success by 5% from the 47.8% during the 2011/12 season. This is further enhanced in that only Leighton Baines (247) and Robert Snodgrass (211) played more inaccurate crosses than Bale (210) in England’s top tier last year, while his overall cross accuracy, like his dribble success, dropped again from the previous campaign, albeit marginally, to 22.8% from 23.6%. 

Moreover, much of the reason for his 2012/13 cross accuracy being as high as it was could’ve been as a result of the fact that only Jonathan De Guzmán (49) and Leighton Baines (48) made more accurate crosses from corners than Bale (36) in the Premier League last season.

What can be determined from this is that Bale is evidently beginning to move away from being an out-and-out winger into a more complete attacker, able to move across the frontline to hurt the opposition, not through assists, but goals instead. While Moyes would understandably be more inclined to play the Spurs star on the left-wing in order to accommodate Rooney - should he stay - or Kagawa behind Van Persie, it’s noticeable that his stronger position would be supporting the Dutchman between the opposition's midfield and defence rather than forming part of the United midfield himself.