Irwin: Defenders Must Adapt In New System

In 12 years at Old Trafford, Denis Irwin forged a reputation as one of the finest full-backs in the club's history, making 529 appearances and winning 15 major honours. Here, the Reds favourite discusses United's defensive options...

It's a new era for the defence following the departures of experienced players Patrice Evra, Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic. Louis van Gaal has come in and introduced a new 3-5-2 system, a formation I never experienced in my career. We have played five at the back occasionally in the past, when we've struggled with centre-halves being injured, but very rarely as we did on tour.

We all saw Holland do particularly well at the World Cup and we couldn't have started any better against LA Galaxy and we're undefeated so far under the new manager. It's a learning curve for the players. I know they've got through a lot in training, but now they've got to put it into the matches. It is a new era and there aren't too many experienced players in our defence, with Jonny Evans being the oldest and most experienced of them all at 26.

I do think some of the defenders need to work on the vocal side of their game. Jonny is vocally strong but a couple of the other lads are a little bit quieter. One of them will have to take control and move people around. I'm sure that will come and I'm sure the manager will have encouraged them to be vocal. Any new system needs that but it comes with experience, too. When you're younger, you keep your head down a bit and get on with your game. It's up to the experienced players in defence to organise and Jonny's fine doing that.

They have obviously worked on the new formation in training, with the two outside centre-backs moving out wide to offer themselves to the ball. That enables Luke Shaw, Antonio Valencia or Ashley Young or whoever is at wing-back to get forward more than they might have been accustomed to in the full-back positions.

That's probably more of a learning experience for Shaw than it is for Valencia, because Antonio is a winger and is used to getting up and down. Antonio will have to learn more on the defensive side whereas Luke is used to playing left-back and covering his centre-half. He'll be able to get forward more in the new system. It will take them a while to get accustomed to that but they are good players and they'll be able to handle it no problem. Ashley has done well there too.

The modern day full-back has to be very comfortable on the ball and be able to go forward a lot more than a few years ago. But this system is different in that there's no winger in front of them, so they have to combine the jobs of a winger and full-back. It worked for Holland at the World Cup and they went unbeaten. I've been watching with interest as a former full-back myself and it'll be intriguing to see how they fare when the competitive matches kick off.

It has also been good to see young Michael Keane and Tyler Blackett come into the defence and get some game time too, but I think it's an area we may have to strengthen through the transfer market to give us more experience. I think the manager now has a better gauge of the formation and the defenders he has to play in it. These are exciting and interesting times for United.