Manchester United 1-0 Tottenham: 16 Conclusions

Daniel Storey

* Jose Mourinho needed that. Manchester United needed that. Every supporter needed that.

United fans would surely have preferred a free-flowing, three or four-goal victory, a swaggering win over a team with top-four aspirations, but Mourinho needed to show that his party trick was not broken. A Mourinho team must be able to gain a first-half lead before spending the last half hour seeing out the match, and not concede. There was even the late introduction of Marouane Fellaini to show that even that curse could not stop United.

It had to work. If United had conceded yet another late equaliser in a game they deserved to win, those questions of Mourinho would have been asked at an even louder volume. The time for entertainment will come, but this was about seeing it out. Seeing it out with a mixture of counter-attacking spark, gutsy defending and the odd cynical foul committed in the opposition half.

Saying United merited victory is nothing new; saying that they actually achieved it is.

 

* For Tottenham, another afternoon of just not quite, and more evidence that this squad required a summer shot in the arm that Georges-Kévin N’Koudou and Moussa Sissoko did not constitute. Pochettino is getting used to this mood of disappointment. Manchester United join Leverkusen, Monaco and Chelsea in making him feel glum.

Disappointment is truly the word for Tottenham’s performance. They are not a club that has suffered humiliating defeats in the last 18 months (except a dead rubber final-day loss at Newcastle) like Manchester City’s at Leicester, Manchester United’s at Chelsea or Chelsea’s at Arsenal this season, but no player in Pochettino’s squad is performing at a level as high as last season or as well as they did against Manchester City in October. Too many passes are slightly misplaced, too many shots slightly astray, too many reactions slightly too late and too many players slightly out of position. These are the fine margins on which the big games are decided.

It all gives the impression of a side playing in a fog, unable to find cohesion in the final third and solidity in their own. Pochettino must find a remedy.

 

* One familiar feeling for Manchester United supporters over the last three years has been looking at the teamsheet and wincing. Fellaini starting again? Yay. Marcos Rojo at left-back? Right-o. No Ander Herrera or Henrikh Mkhitaryan? Jolly good.

At 1.15pm on Sunday, a strange feeling rushed over those same supporters. There was the midfield three of Herrera, Michael Carrick and Paul Pogba. There was Mkhitaryan keeping his place in the team and starting two league games in a row for the first time as a Manchester United player. There was Anthony Martial starting on the other wing. How lovely.

Juan Mata can count himself unfortunate to be dropped from United’s team, but this team selection also made sense. With Tottenham’s two full-backs possessing great pace, Mourinho wanted to match that to try and pin back Kyle Walker and Danny Rose.

Yet Manchester United weren’t the only ones back to fuller strength. Toby Alderweireld was passed fit for Tottenham, meaning the defence of Walker, Rose, Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen played together for the first time since beating Manchester City. It was the first time this season that Mousa Dembele had started in front of Tottenham’s first-choice defence.

 

* The first half followed a pretty simple script. Tottenham enjoyed the majority of possession (59%), but did very little with the ball. Victor Wanyama and Dembele were busy, but too often play broke down in the final third, making them easy to defend against.

There were three probable causes of that:

1) Christian Eriksen played too safely. Simple pass and move is all well and good, but as some point invention and drive are required. See Mkhitaryan for details.

2) Mkhitaryan and Martial pinned back Rose and Walker, meaning that there were very few overlaps in the final third without the full-backs bombing on. Last week against Swansea, Rose and Walker made six crosses. Neither managed one in the first half at Old Trafford.

3) Dele Alli was in one of those infuriating moods where he prides himself on nutmegging the opposition but not actually achieving anything of note. More on that later.

That all starved the service to Harry Kane, who failed to even have a touch of the ball in the Manchester United penalty area before the break.

 

* United were the opposite. They ceded possession and territory to Tottenham, but held them at arm’s length and had 11 shots to the visitors’ seven, also having double the number of shots on target.

United’s intent was obvious after two minutes. Mkhitaryan turned on the ball in midfield and drove towards goal, laying the ball off to Zlatan Ibrahimovic. He played a wonderful ball across the penalty area to where Pogba stood. His left-footed shot was expertly saved by Hugo Lloris.

United may have had less possession, but seven of their ten outfield players had a shot in the first half. The full-backs and Marcos Rojo were the only exceptions. You can see that Mkhitaryan is used to playing in a counter-attacking Borussia Dortmund team.

 

* We talk of systems, strategies and tactics long into the night, but it’s impossible to overstate the importance of individual mistakes on the course of a match. Last week Kevin de Bruyne missed a chance to put Manchester City 2-0 up on Chelsea, and paid the price. At Old Trafford, Kane’s dire pass in midfield allowed United to take the lead.

A sideways ball was intended for Eriksen but found only Herrera. The Spaniard’s instant through ball caught Tottenham’s defence off guard and played in Mkhitaryan on goal.

In my Portrait of an Icon piece on Ronaldo, I lamented the decline in strikers rounding goalkeepers when in one-on-one situations. That has been replaced by strikers choosing to fool goalkeepers with their eyes before sliding the ball past them, or committing them and dinking it over.

I’m prepared to move on from players not rounding goalkeepers if they all agree to finish one-on-ones like Mkhitaryan did against Spurs. Rather than placement or guile, the Armenian scored his first Premier League goal by leathering it into the roof of the net. The percentage call it is not, but it’s a damn fine sight for those of us watching.

 

* The exception to Tottenham’s sluggish attacking display was Heung-Min Son, who was excellent during the first half. The South Korean was the only Tottenham player who seemed keen to play with urgency. It was his shot that David de Gea tipped over the bar, and his dribbling from midfield into attack that gave Manchester United any headache at all.

It was therefore surprising that Pochettino chose to sacrifice Son as his first substitute in favour of Sissoko. Sissoko’s arrival actually inspired Tottenham to move onto the front foot, but could Son have been moved infield with Sissoko on the right? 

 

* Mkhitaryan was wonderful again, the third time in four games that the Armenian has been the best player on the pitch. His goal was majestic, but the moment that best demonstrated his skills came after 80 minutes. Mkhitaryan picked up the ball on halfway, and sprinted past Wanyama. Next came Rose, who too was left for dead. That’s one of the quickest full-backs in the league.

Unfortunately, his afternoon came to an end at that point. Rose’s frustrated tackle from behind saw Mkhitaryan’s ankle twist in the turf. Rather than leaving the pitch to a standing ovation, it was on a stretcher with blankets over both legs. It was a d*ck move from Rose.

 

* I’m aware that I’m in danger of going full grumpy old man, but is it only me that finds this kind of tweet slightly problematic?

Firstly, he’s called Mkhitaryan. That’s not incredibly difficult to spell, particularly as he’s been a prominent name in world football for the past four years. Secondly, is ‘foreign player has funny name’ really that good a joke?

 

* You can understand why a manager might want to leave Alli on the pitch. He’s young, he’s energetic and he can make things happen when in form.

When in form.

For it’s all very well giving Alli the full 90 minutes if he’s offering sparks of brilliance, but not when he is at his wasteful, careless worst. This was a cold water performance from Alli, hampering Tottenham as much as helping them.

The problem for Pochettino is that this is becoming a regular occurrence. Alli has turned in some frankly immature performances of late, desperate to run with the ball and nutmeg players but actually achieving very little. That might be okay in a game against substandard opposition, but not at Old Trafford.

Alli needs to be taught, reminded and coached that it’s not about how you look on the ball or how many times you make an opposition player look foolish, but about the difference you make. Against United, he had more touches of the ball than Herrera and Mkhitaryan, but created one chance and had one off-target shot. Herrera created five chances, Mkhitaryan had three shots and those two combined to create the winning goal.

It’s a difficult balance between over-coaching a natural talent, thus quashing his natural ability, and under-coaching one, thus allowing bad habits to fester unchecked. In Alli’s case, there may be an argument that a little more guidance is needed.

 

* If the first half followed a pattern, the second was a replica of many recent Manchester United matches. Mourinho clearly instructed his side to break quickly on the counter-attack, but concentrate on getting men behind the ball and soaking up pressure. You don’t need me to tell you that it’s a strategy that has cost United points recently.

Tottenham had their own hand in failing to draw level. Wanyama missed a golden chance to equalise from a free-kick, somehow heading sideways when seven yards from goal rather than past De Gea. Equally frustrating was the lack of service to Kane and Kane’s own wretched display. The striker touched the ball twice in the penalty area, and one of those was to miscontrol the ball in stoppage time and let it drift out for a goal-kick.

Yet let’s look on the positive side instead, and praise Manchester United’s defence. The only people who think Antonio Valencia, Phil Jones, Marcos Rojo and Matteo Darmian is a perfect back four are the parents of those four players, but Jones and Rojo were brilliant against Spurs. I’ll be kind to Darmian by saying nothing about his performance.

For Jones especially, this is a wonderful comeback. He won every single one of his aerial duels, made six clearances and five interceptions and blocked four shots. Most importantly, there was none of the clownery that has dogged his career. When you don’t notice Jones, he’s playing well.

 

* There were two penalty decisions from Bobby Madley (no you can’t stop singing his name to Lady Gaga’s Paparazzi) to cover, and I think there was a case in both for a spot-kick to be awarded.

Rojo on Wanyama – He’s holding his shirt as the corner comes in, he continues to hold his shirt as the ball enters the area and he doesn’t let go until the danger is cleared. Classic ‘seen them given’ territory. You’re lucky Mike Dean wasn’t in charge. For many reasons.

Vertonghen on Herrera – His foot is high so it’s dangerous play. There was a slight defence issued by the fact that Herrera lowered his head, but it was still wild. Lucky boy.

 

* If every great team needs a bastard, Manchester United have theirs in Herrera. There is enough snide in the Spaniard’s fouls, protestations of innocence and falls to the floor to make him loveable to every United supporter. There’s enough quality in his passing and energy in his performances to make him loveable to the watching neutral.

For a player who loves to tackle in central midfield, Herrera has plenty enough vision and creativity to cause damage in the final third. United created eight chances against Tottenham, and Herrera accounted for five of them. His through ball to Mkhitaryan was instinctive and accurate.

Herrera is also excellent at what we can call the Gareth Barry, namely the ability to commit a large number of fouls without receiving a booking, and also commit several more after being booked before any further punishment. Being nice is a compliment for no team; Manchester United should cherish such magnificent bastardry.

 

* Niche football fetish #47: Commentators making references to popular culture.

Example: “Jose Mourinho has hardly left the bench in the last two matches. Either he’s trying to be on his best behaviour, or taking part in a 90-minute mannequin challenge.”

*Cue tumbleweed*

 

* Even if you don’t like Fellaini, and even if you think he should never play for your club again, don’t boo him for goodness sake.

Honestly, ask yourself: What does it achieve? Does it make him likely to play well when he comes on? No. Is it likely to help your team? No. Is it likely to help his long-term morale? No. Would you like it if someone attacked you for trying your best? No.

Of course you have a right to be frustrated, but booing an individual player on your own team is absolutely mad.

 

* I’m going to end with Michael Carrick though. Too many people might assume that Ibrahimovic is the elder statesman of Manchester United’s team. Not by more than two months, he isn’t.

That prize instead goes to Carrick, a player who can no longer play twice in a week but can still perform once at the highest level. Tasked with protecting a makeshift defence and looking after Alli and Eriksen as they roamed free, Carrick was excellent again. His work is easily overlooked, but crucial.

It’s an indication rather than proof of Carrick’s effect on this United team, but their record in the last 15 matches he has started reads: Won 12, Drew 3, Lost 0, For 35, Against 12. The last time United conceded more than once in a game Carrick started was in April.

Daniel Storey