When Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson appointed René Meulensteen his assistant manager, he told him, “Basically, I’ve written down here that when I close my eyes, this is the best Man United that I see.” Here is what he told him.

René Meulensteen tells the story on The Overlap Breakdown:

The manager was very clear to me, and it may be interesting to explain that. When he moved me up to be his assistant manager, he brought me into the first team. He brought me into his office; he had a flip chart there. On the flip chart, he said, “Basically, I’ve written down here that when I close my eyes, this is the best Man United that I see.”

He said to me, “Listen, if Manchester United defend, right, I want us to be able to defend really press high, really aggressively. Don’t let them out. In other games, I like us to drop off. We press an area, or we press certain players to be able to create spaces in transition, you know, to go forward and hurt them. There will be times that we have to drop deep; no problem at all. We nullify the chances, but then it’s all about counterattack. So, we then spring from box to box. Great examples are the games against Arsenal. You know, it was like we were the red arrows, you know what I mean? Unbelievable. 

But we did this. I manufactured a lot of sessions with that box-to-box running, with, let’s say, eight mannequins in the middle representing, like, four, let’s say, two bands of four. Then people have to run too, so there were little combinations, third-man runs, and all that. So, that was the defensive side. Obviously, we need to look after the defensive set pieces as well.

In possession, he said, “Possession is key because that will give us the initiative, but it always has to have a purpose. The purpose is for us to go forward, create chances, and score goals.” The most important thing in possession is rhythm. The best teams in the world create the rhythm, maintain their rhythm, or change it.

In other words, if we play out from the back, we might be a little bit cautious, but when we break lines and it gets congested, the rhythm has to change to one-touch football and movement.

I love this way of thinking, this way of playing. Attacking first, forward first. 

To me, facing a potent attack is more frustrating than facing an “impenetrable” defense, especially an attack that can counterattack effectively, because it is so hard to commit to your own attack fully when you know the opponent will hurt you. I put “impenetrable” in quotes because there are only a handful of teams in history that are truly impenetrable. Defensive football delays the inevitable.

Rhythm is something that is not talked about enough in modern football. Anyone can go forward, but that version of Manchester United had a certain rhythm and understanding that is hard to describe. It was unique to their squad, and it was usually completely overwhelming for the opposition.

Within that possession, there were a few golden rules.

One was: think forward, look forward, play forward. The manager hated it when the ball was played back; that was the last option. You go square to go forward, or you go back to then go forward. But the key is every player had to think, look forward, think forward, look forward, and play forward. 

The other thing was when players had time on the ball, center backs and center midfielders—movement, forward runs, or players coming into the pockets. We wanted both, you know what I mean, depending on how deep the opposition was set up. So, that was from a possession point of view. 

A lot of times, when you do win the ball back, it was always, ‘Was it regain and attack, or was it regain and retain?’ That’s what the players had to understand. Depending on the opposition, where you are in the game, and the score on the board.

Then the last bit was those things that we spoke about before—the attacking things. He said when he flipped it, “This is the most important thing; this is what United is, in my opinion.” He says, “When we attack, we attack with pace, power, penetration, unpredictability, and all those things that you see on those flip charts. Basically, I want you to instill in that team every single day.”

So, on three flip charts, there was my whole navigation system for all my sessions. That was coming back in everything that we did, whether it was a finishing drill, a conditioned game, or small-sided games. Those elements were always coming back. I reminded the players constantly about that. And then you come back to the quality of the players to execute it.

This clear and simple approach is what made Sir Alex one of the greatest managers to ever grace the beautiful game of football. In one meeting he could, in simple terms, lay the groundwork perfectly. Imagine how much knowledge you could take from working with him for a week let alone multiple seasons.