Article 57 — Draw United
Everyone would have known by now that Manchester United restarted their season with a 1–1 draw against Tottenham Hotspur in our first appearance in the new-look White Hart Lane.
If for some reason, you have been too busy to find out what went on or rely only on my blog articles for the latest on football, I would briefly sum up what went on in the game. United had a lot of possession and had the best chance of the match spurned by Marcus Rashford. Tottenham took the lead against the run of the play capitalising on a slack passage of play in United’s defence to take the lead through Steven Bergwijn.
Tottenham then had the better of the rest of the half and nearly extended their lead. United started the second half sharper and faster, pinning back Tottenham. The game changed with the introduction of Paul Pogba and Mason Greenwood off the bench. United finally got the equaliser from the penalty spot when Pogba was tripped in the box after a wonderful piece of skill. Bruno Fernandes stepped up to convert the penalty and salvage a point for United. For those that prefer something visual, I am attaching the brief highlights of the match here.
The purpose of this article is to analyse the draw. Considering the balance of the play overall, I felt a draw was fair. Tottenham and Jose Mourinho knew United’s strength lied on the counter-attack so they ceded possession to United while keeping a compact shape.
United struggled to find a solution past the compactness of the Tottenham unit in the first half. We were a bit too slow in possession and laboured in our approach. Tottenham took the lead against the run of play and had better of the game after scoring while United looked nervous and untidy in possession.
The first big chance of the match fell to United and to Marcus Rashford. I might be harsh to say this but he should have taken it. Of course, it is never as simple as that because he was up against a great goalkeeper in the form of World Cup-winning captain, Hugo Lloris. There was every chance Lloris could have saved it which he did.
For the goal conceded by United, I felt it was a mistake in our defence in playing the ball out of the back. The ball was intercepted and Bergwijn turned on the accelerator to leave Harry Maguire flat-footed. In that passage of play, I felt Maguire should have done a lot better in dealing with Bergwijn. David De Gea has received criticism as well for his part in the goal.
I felt he was partly to be blamed. When you watch the replay of the goal, you could see that he was caught in two minds, either to punch it or to parry it and he did neither. For his indecision, he deserved a bit of criticism but I am sure he would have seen that and seen it as a mistake made. He would have seen it as something he could have done better with.
In the second half, very evidently we increased the tempo of our overall play as we pinned Tottenham back looking to find an equaliser. The substitutions to bring on Pogba and Greenwood for Fred and Daniel James respectively was the right one. Fred and James were not having the best of games. Pogba wasted no time settling in the game, showing hunger and desire from missing so much of the season being injured.
Bruno Fernandes was our best, the most consistent player in the game. He is not shy of taking a shot on regardless of the outcome and when it works, we are all cheering. Otherwise, we feel a bit frustrated that he could have played in someone in a better position. It’s perhaps an area he can work on, decision making on when to take a shot on and when to pass it on.
Fernandes had laid on a beautiful ball for Anthony Martial but he was too slow to get the shot off and was blocked brilliantly by Eric Dier. Martial had a great shot heading to the top corner that was well-saved by Lloris. Besides those two passages of play, there was little we saw from Martial in the game. Rashford too was guilty of not looking sharp enough in front of goal. My doubts on either player being a clinical striker we need are still there. I really feel we need to invest in a proper out and out centre forward. Odion Ighalo came off the bench but wasn’t as involved until late in the game when he laid the ball on for Greenwood whose shot went narrowly wide.
Paul Pogba looked hungry, strong and determined. We have missed a player of his quality in the team. All he needs to do now is to stay fit for longer and to be able to form a cohesive, fruitful and sustained partnership with his team-mates, most notably with Fernandes.
I felt tactically, to level the score, Solksjaer was smart in replacing the injured Victor Lindelof for a midfielder in Nemanja Matic and pushing another midfielder in Scott McTominay back in central defence. United moved to a back three and that allowed Aaron Wan-Bissaka to get forward more.
Marginally, we were the better team due to our better possession and for creating some great chances in the second half. However, our mental fortitude is still questionable. We had to huff and puff to scoring an equaliser. I was hoping it would be through gameplay but we will accept a penalty too. It would have been a shock and a pleasant surprise had this team be able to overcome the deficit to win the game.
Mourinho spoke about the number of penalties we have got this season and it sounds bitter. It is just one of those things that he says. There was a phase this season where we were missing penalties. We are getting penalties because we are running at our opponents and forcing them to make mistakes. It’s a positive for us if our attacking players are running at our opponents with the ball in the box or is there are good pieces of play that force our opponents to commit an error.
Tottenham did very well tactically to keep things tight and look to hit us on the counter-attack. There did have more attempts on goal in the first half. I was impressed by the makeshift central defence pairing of Davinson Sanchez and Eric Dier. I was also impressed by the response from Tottenham to conceding the equaliser. They didn’t just sit back but went forward looking re-take the lead.
To end it all, it was very nice and endearing to see Jose Mourinho meet his ex-players at full-time.
In the other match that took place, Norwich City look like they are edging closer for a return to the Championship after they lost 3–0 to Southampton.
