The problem against Southampton is there wasn't any real organisation about how we wanted to go about getting an equalizer.
There are several ways to force pressure at the end of the game, but we didn't really do any of them properly.
1. You obviously push bodies forward - the problem we had with this approach was a) we had 3 centre backs on the pitch, none of which wanted to push any further then half way, and b) our main striker was Rooney, who kept dropping deeper then the last man... Fellaini, Herrera and Mata tried to push forward, but the spaces between our players was still two big, as we only really had those 4 players in advanced positions, due to our lack of wings.... which brings me to:
2. You use wide men to keep the ball high up the pitch and work an opening into the box. We did this a lot under SAF, as obviously we were very reliant on our wingers pressing high up the pitch, keeping the ball up high and either getting it into the box into a dangerous position, or working an opening to create a chance. With no wingers on the pitch, we didn't have anyone high on either side, and neither Blind nor Valencia could stick up there due to having to work back and be part of their defensive unit... Blind did put in one or two dangerous balls - which was all the more frustrating, as if we had him consistantly higher up the pitch (which would have been possible with someone behind him) he could have put in some more, and from more advanced/dangerous positions. So, without wingers, and people pushing up the pitch, we resorted too:
3. Knocking it up to the big man. In principal this is a fine tactic - but we played it all wrong. The idea of knocking it long isn't neccesarily for the big man (in our case Fellaini) to get the perfect knock on (though its great if that happens, it is limiting your chances - yet it is seemingly what we were hoping for), rather for him to make sure the ball isn't cleared comfortably by a defender, and people in and around him can either pick up his short knock-down, or a short clearance (due to the ball being contested) and thus retain possession higher up the pitch. However, we didn't really adopt this strategy properly as - going back to point 1, not enough people were high enough up the pitch to feed off the scraps and keep the ball alive... instead we had a Fellaini trying to get a perfect flick on to an on running Rooney/Herrera - which is difficult enough when you're not chasing the game and have everyone back.
I would have been fine with the long ball shit, had we actually done it proplery - by flooding bodies forward and keeping the ball alive... unfortunately we did no such thing, thus tour strategy was flawed. In future, I'd certainly like for us to move away from 3 at the back if we're losing in the dying stages, because having 3 people playing CB at that point of the game is totally pointless.