Bastian Schweinsteiger must be less gung-ho if Manchester United are to make the most of Anthony Martial

TALKING TACTICS: Former Manchester United and Stoke defender Danny Higginbotham looks ahead to this weekend

The flaw in Bastian Schweinsteiger’s attacking approach was exposed in United’s last game by the pace of Arsenal’s Theo Walcott (Getty Images)

I have to say that the way Manchester United approached their game at Arsenal before the international break really astonished me. They were playing against the side which, when given the freedom and the space to attack, possess arguably the best attacking force in the Premier League. Yet United’s game plan was affected hugely by the way that Bastian Schweinsteiger, their holding midfielder, went flying up the field in an attempt to get the ball off Arsenal.

He’d done exactly the same thing against Wolfsburg in United’s Champions League game and while that sort of approach is fine for a box-to-box midfielder who can get back again to help out, it was disabling for United. That’s because Schweinsteiger – brilliant though his game is in so many ways – just couldn’t get back.

The lesson for United at Everton is: don’t make the same mistake twice

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The knock-on effect of him getting at Arsenal in that way – with Michael Carrick outnumbered on the counter-attack because he and Schweinsteiger were too far apart – was that the United defence had to move forward too. That often will happen because any defensive line will tell you that they hate a pocket of space opening up between themselves and the midfield lines.

It is perhaps the fact Schweinsteiger is adjusting to the pace of the English game that led him into that trap. At Bayern Munich he was playing for a hugely dominant team for which there was no danger in bombing on. But at the Emirates it proved fatal.

Arsenal were able to sit back, watch United come on to them and pick them off by getting in around the back, or finding the pockets of space between their midfield and defence for Mesut Özil and Santi Cazorla to operate in. They couldn’t believe their luck. Bang, bang, bang: United were three goals behind in 19 minutes and the lesson for them as they go to Everton is: “don’t make the same mistake twice.”

We’ve talked before on these pages about the home team having to earn the right to sit back and play like the away team by taking the lead, because it is usually the home side who are the ones under pressure to dictate the game. It was too easy for Arsenal.

The first goal is more important than ever now, especially for the away team. In the Louis van Gaal era, United have won only two Premier League games out of 11 in which they’ve gone behind. But they’ve lost on only three of the 23 occasions when they’ve gone ahead in the Premier League, since the start of last season. Going ahead is their strength.

There’s just no need for United to forsake the strategy of letting the opposition come on to them at Goodison Park. They should be actively encouraging Everton to fall into the today because with Anthony Martial they finally have the pace to cause opponents damage. If you watch the game, have a very close look at the relationship between Martial and Juan Mata because this is one of the very exciting new combinations we’ve seen emerging in the early weeks of the Premier League season.

It works like this: Martial uses his pace to put defenders on the back foot; the average position data proves what has become increasingly clear to the naked eye – that he likes attacking the left-back in United’s right channel, drawing the left-sided centre-back across to help. The huge beneficiary of that is Mata, because he’s been operating on the right-hand side of United’s midfield. As the two defenders are drawn into Martial’s ambit, Mata suddenly finds himself with much more space than he had before the French player arrived.

Just look at the numbers. In the 10 games he’d played before Martial appeared for United, Mata had contributed two goals and one assist. In the three games he’s played since Martial became a part of the team, we’ve seen two goals and two assists for the Spaniard.

In Everton, United will find a side who have come across a far more effective way of playing, with Gerard Deulofeu beginning to provide them with some width to attack from and Steven Naismith, who likes to tuck in, joining in from the opposite flank. Previously, the width of their line of three behind Romelu Lukaku had looked very narrow and there was no out-ball route. We’re also seeing Lukaku stretching defences more, because Everton are a lot less ponderous than when we discussed them here early in the season.

All the more reason, from a United perspective, to see the dangers of Schweinsteiger going gung-ho again. You can’t afford to do that against sides who do have pace in them.

United’s strategy at Goodison needs to be to nullify the opposition and then counter-attack, testing whether the balance which Van Gaal has stumbled upon with that 11th-hour move for Martial can bring a consistent presence at the top of the table.

Who would have thought, back in July, that we’d be talking about a 19-year-old from Monaco as the individual dictating United’s way of playing come autumn. The surprises are one of the sheer beauties of football.

Even top clubs can’t keep a world-class striker in reserve

The problem with being in the market for the world’s best strikers is that it’s difficult to stock replacements who are close to the same mark, especially if you play only one up front.

There’s no way Manchester City could have someone approaching Sergio Aguero’s class on the bench as a back-up option, because he’d become restless and want out. It becomes a real headache when injuries occur, like the hamstring strain which could now keep Aguero out for a month.

The same goes for Chelsea and Diego Costa when he was suspended. It tells you why managers at the highest level worry more about their strikers’ injuries than any others.

Wise methods of Fergie and Pulis aren’t in the manuals

I’m reading Leading, the book Sir Alex Ferguson has written with the financier Michael Moritz, and the emphasis it puts on management strategies – the single most important aspect of the profession – has brought back some devices employed by other bosses I’ve known.

If we’d had a bad first half at Stoke, Tony Pulis would sometimes tear into me, Ryan Shawcross or Rory Delap – even if we’d not been the culprits – because he wanted to get his point across and knew we wouldn’t take it personally. He knew what he was doing. We knew what he was doing.

You won’t find the devices managers like Ferguson and Pulis use in coaching manuals. They come from understanding how your workforce thinks and knowing how to motivate them.