Southampton 0-3 Manchester United (De Ligt 35′, Rashford 41′, Garnacho 90+6)
Manchester United have been wildly unpredictable for so long they’ve almost become predictable.
If you’d have asked an AI chatbot to prophesy events at St Mary’s on Saturday afternoon, “Southampton dominate but United win both comfortably and uncomfortably” would have been the default answer.
For 35 minutes on the south coast, United were harassed and squeezed and discombobulated by most bookies’ favourites for relegation. They largely appeared happy to concede possession to a team who prioritise retaining it, voluntarily trapping themselves in a spin cycle between their own penalty area and the half-way line.
Lesley Ugochuwku, making his first Premier League start since joining on loan from Chelsea, ruthlessly constricted Kobbie Mainoo, while Tyler Dibling and Yukinara Sugawara left Diogo Dalot unsure which way the world was turning.
The Portguese conceded a cheap penalty to Dibling – a wonderfully direct and fearless 18-year-old making his first Premier League start – but if anything that spot-kick changed the game in United’s favour.
Blame for Cameron Archer missing the first penatly he’d taken in a professional match has to fall as much on Stuart Attwell for making him wait nearly a minute to take it, and on Martin for putting someone so inexperienced under such great pressure.
Yet United had scored less than three minutes later, first through Matthijs de Ligt and then again thanks to Marcus Rashford before half-time, both from short corners. From then until Alejandro Garnacho finished Dalot’s cutback six minutes into injury time, Very Little happened. Southampton even ceded possession, dropping below 50 per cent for the first time this season.
But for United, there were two overwhelming positives at St Mary’s, a match which flirted – as United so often do – with grand embarrassment.
One was Rashford’s first Premier League goal since 9 March, a low curler which appeared to remind the 26-year-old who is he and what he’s capable of.
Through that goal and the ensuing hour, there was an odd sense of a man rediscovering himself and his own talents, each shot and pass and dancing flick slowly regenerating something which has occasionally felt permanently lost. Even he wasn’t sure he could still do that.
United have long been the footballing home of false dawns, but this was the first sighting of confidence or joy from Rashford this season. Nurturing and protecting that is now Erik ten Hag’s primary challenge.
The other is the early indication a coherent defence is forming at United, something Erik ten Hag has not had since he joined.
Noussair Mazraoui, De Ligt, Lisandro Martinez and Dalot complement and enhance each other as a unit. While Dibling and Ben Brereton Diaz were allowed space early on, Southampton didn’t even managed a shot on target in the second half. This was just the second game this quartet have started together. Every time they do so in the future will only develop and improve their relationships and United’s defence.
Last season, injuries forced United to use Casemiro, Jonny Evans, Harry Maguire, Willy Kambwala and Victor Lindelof in various constantly-rotating, anxiety-inducing combinations, removing any opportunity to build functional partnershps and leading to the fifth-worst expected goals conceded figure in the league.
Yet against Southampton, De Ligt completed 92 per cent of his passes (50/64), won three aerial duels and three ground duels and made six clearances, two tackles and blocked a shot off the line, alongside his goal. While his error against Germany earlier this week demonstrates he’s still not at full match sharpness, as Ten Hag has repeatedly made clear, this was imperious and impressive.
And alongside De Ligt, Martinez won all four of his ground duels, made four interceptions and completed 97 per cent of his passes (57/60). Despite conceding the penalty, Dalot went on to make two key passes and one big chance, completing 94 per cent of his passes and four ground duels. Mazraoui continued his remarkably sound start, sharp in tight spaces.
For all the jokes about Ten Hag only being able to recreate his former glories by signing the same players, it’s worth noting De Ligt and Martinez only overlapped in Amsterdam for 17 days in July 2019, so this isn’t so much getting the band back together as assembling the All-Stars.
The defence’s task should also be made much easier once Manuel Ugarte settles in. Every team needs foundational figures to rely upon and for United, that has often only been Bruno Fernandes. A great defence can only be great as a collective. Ten Hag may finally have found the right individuals to forge into that collective.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/jeRB5EZ
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