Silvestre 3_5_2 hard for United

Mikael Silvestre: Unsurprised by United's defensive struggles

Former Manchester United defender Mikael Silvestre admits he is unsurprised that the players at Old Trafford appeared to struggle to cope with Louis van Gaal's 3-5-2 formations

And the 37-year-old, who is now the lynchpin of the Chennaiyin defence in the Hero Indian Super League, believes United’s defenders are happier playing four at the back.

"From the beginning, I thought this system would be a hard one to cope with particularly when the players are not used to it," Silvestre told

"When you look at it from a tactical point of view, I think overall in England the players are always playing 4-4-2 or 4-3-3, so this system was new to them.

"They are still getting used to it so they must work hard at it and they can only get better at it."

Chennaiyin are skippered by former United reserve-team captain Bojan Djordjic, who believes the club’s English contingent paid the price for their lack of experience of playing with three central defenders.

"Offensively, United are probably the best team in the Premier League but defensively I still think they are lacking a little bit," he said.

"I blame it on the fact that the English players are not used to playing with three at the back. They don’t seem to be as comfortable with the three as perhaps the Dutch and Spanish are.

"Playing with four at the back keeps them safe and they have shorter distances between each other, but when they play with three they seem to panic and they always seem to be in the wrong space.

"They seem to be quite unsure of what they are doing, but they will learn that and when the confidence comes they will know the right way to play in order to help the other members of the team.

"It’s a learning process but when you play for a club like Manchester United you don’t always have that time."