Welcome back to the blog after 2 weeks on international break!
If you’re too cool to click over to the about page, these blogs are going to be synopsis of the games through the structure of the iconic 4-4-2. Each matchday, I’ll give my thoughts on the game via 4 takeaways, 4 players worth talking about, and 2 things worth saying that no one else might be. I’ll wrap it up with some forward looking things. The fun of writing this blog is to let out the fan, don’t worry about being absolutely right, and be unabashedly biased.
Quick Summary for Context:
Manchester United collects the three points to break up the two game skid with a win against Southampton on the road. Testing us early, the Southampton youngster Dibling got a penalty against Diogo Dalot, but Onana denied Archer from the spot. Minutes later, De Ligt scored off a well executed set piece delivery from Bruno Fernandes in the 35’. From there it was all Manchester United. Six minutes later, Marcus Rashford doubled the lead with a pinpoint precision strike curled low into the goal at minute 41. Then cruise control for the second half with some chances and a Jack Stephens Red Card after a dangerous tackle on Garnacho in the 79th minute had it all but sealed. Garnacho got the last laugh with a 90+6 goal stuffed into the top netting to call game, 3-0 United in comfortable fashion.
4 Takeaways:
- We played differently than when we came out against Liverpool, Brighton and Fulham. It was pretty obvious that we effectively abandoned the high press in the game. I think there are a couple of reasons for that. The first is that I think Ten Hag understood the international break, which for me is a positive sign. So often you see these smaller clubs come out strong against bigger clubs like ours where practically all the important players and starters go out for international duties. I haven’t heard anything explicit, but you do have to consider that Southampton likely came out expecting and having trained on the press and we might’ve thrown them a changeup. The second reason is I think it is smart to not come out and expend yourself against a team that poses no real threat in breaking you down once out of their own third. The press can be wonderful, but it often poses some risk and against a team lacking equal quality it is wise to rely on your own players’ abilities rather than execution of a tactic. All in all, despite the first 30 minutes which will be an upcoming takeaway, Ten Hag got the lineup and tactic right in my opinion, substitutions included, along with trying to manage some knocks occurring in the game.
- Let’s talk about the back line here and let’s talk about it in the context of when are we going to get a complete performance from them all together? Starting with the good, Martinez and Mazroui put on what I’ll call Cadillac performances. Smooth, in control, not overplaying the game, and in general perfectly quiet and unnoticed. Mazroui continues to show he’s the right back we needed so badly last year against these lower level sides with his balanced attacking and defensive game. De Ligt had a really strong game, outside of getting cooked on the right touchline leading to an opportunity. He cleaned up a chance that might’ve been going in early on in the match which was emblematic of his strong positioning during the initial wave in the game and then throughout in possession as we took control. Not to forget that getting that goal off the set piece is huge for us, as we haven’t had an option to manufacture goals like that in so many years and for him to even provide that threat going forward will be massive. The final piece of the back line is Dalot, and let’s be honest he had one to forget despite the assist in extra time. The youngster Dibling absolutely skated by him on 4 occasions in the game, with the first one requiring a solid save by Onana and the third one resulting in a penalty where Dalot had no business getting caught in no man land as a defender given the situation. It’s emblematic that he’s still playing out of position and when I think about our back line with Dalot in it at left back it does have me miss Luke Shaw.
- 30 minutes is way too long to get going in a game like that. I expected nothing less than Southampton to come out and push us first in the match given our players returned to Manchester Late Wednesday/Thursday from international duty and to be frank the Southampton squad did not. It’s a big advantage for these teams on the schedule, just ask Liverpool. The facts are that 30 minutes is just 15 minutes too long. All the credit to Onana for not letting that turn into a deficit, and to be fair we did immediately punish them after the penalty save with a couple goals of our own. It is worth noting that we didn’t get outplayed the first thirty minutes, it was more or less even. Ramsdale is a super quality keeper that had them in it much longer than the scoreboard would indicate. I just think we left some meat on the bone and coming off two losses it’s fair to be critical of the first half hour even if the international break context existed.
- Is Ruud’s impact becoming more evident? The answer has to be yes. Take a look at the obvious which is the set piece goals. Something that we have consistently gotten wrong as far as what kinds of sets we should be taking when, and compared to last year he’s the clear change. What made sense is to avoid Ramsdale, and we did that. We went short on the first one and changed the angle to keep the ball flowing in so it was more difficult to come and collect and De Ligt finds the side netting off a great ball from Bruno. The second goal intentionally long away from Ramsdale and you can tell that because the motion of the players trying to get free were from near side of the goal to the back stick. Yes it does roll out, and Rashford executes on a 1 v 1 with a beautifully placed shot, but in years past Eriksen hits that to the goal side of the 6 yard box where a keeper of any confidence like Ramsdale comes and collects and we’ve wasted yet another build. One last quick anecdote but the cameras flashing to Ruud and Ten Hag showing them working together looking at the tablet and celebrating together after the goals means that there’s more collaboration going on there and it’s clear going to benefit the performances.
4 Players Worth Talking About
- Andre Onana – Man of the Match level performance for me just based solely on not letting us go down one or even two goals. The first save on Dibling’s shot was huge and parried away from danger was excellent. Then the penalty save was great not only because it kept us from trailing but also he saw the bad penalty and made Archer suffer the miss. I like that he didn’t guess fully, and then to pop back up and secure the follow up was massive. Sure, was he largely unbothered the remainder of the game, yes. However without Onana being engaged from the jump we potentially struggle to collect all three points.
- Christian Eriksen – How nice was it to watch someone dictate play through the middle and essentially go unnoticed. Eriksen gave us the plain yogurt performance of the day. I’m not sure he made a pressing ball forward, but I sure know he didn’t make one pass that wasn’t random or counter attack generating for the opponent. I also liked how he was positioned, he’s not a ball winner but with Kobbie in there even covering up some of the space with presence by not chasing random players didn’t let Southampton get comfortable that going through the middle was going to be an option. It’s hard to give him a gold star performance, but it’s worth emphasizing that sometimes less is more and for that we thank you, Christian.
- Rashford – When he’s switched on and fast tracking to the goal he’s still a really good player. He was positively selfish today and it was good to see. He got through on a nice counter team up with Amad (who was also great today even though I’m not mentioning him specifically) and tested Ramsdale near post. There was also a counter leading up to the goal from De Ligt where Marcus was on the full sprint with Zirkzee and they played 2 quick back and forths that ended up with Zirkzee getting a shot off requiring a great saved from Ramsdale that created the corner that led to the goal. It’s the little things like that with his pace and drive forward that make him so impactful. Getting the goal to reward his performance today was excellent also and I hope, I hope, this can springboard him into form we so badly need.
- De Ligt – Needed to see that go in as I think we may be establishing himself as a vocal leader from the back. Moments before the goal when he had the clearance from inside the six yard box he turned to the team and gave a “let’s go” with some hand motion and intensity. Then he comes down and gets the goal to lead the charge ahead. It’s huge for us we have someone like that in the team. Manchester United is a club built on strong characters and leaders. Bruno is the captain, that won’t change, and he’s a lead by example captain with his never quit attitude but he’s not vocal within the team because Bruno I think is a bit whiny. De Ligt can be the guy that is vocal for us and it’s good to witness a positive step in that direction for him.
2 Things No One Else Might be Saying
- It’s Amad’s job to lose on the right wing for now, and I love Garnacho’s off the bench assassin role for now.
- Need to establish the levels in this game week in and week out, way too much roller coaster in these performances. We get a good chance as we roll out into Barnsley and Crystal Palace over the next 6 days.