Souness blasts ‘off the pace’ Manchester United trio

Matt Stead
LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 10: xxx during the Premier League match between Arsenal FC and Manchester United at Emirates Stadium on March 10, 2019 in London, United Kingdom. (Photo by Catherine Ivill/Getty Images)

Manchester United’s “off the pace” midfield was the reason for their 2-0 defeat to Arsenal on Sunday.

United suffered their first Premier League loss of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s interim reign at the Emirates Stadium.

You can read 16 Conclusions on a relatively even game that was settled by a freak goal and a penalty.

United even hit the woodwork twice and forced a number of fine saves from Bernd Leno, but Graeme Souness is not about to let that dampen any potential hot takes.

“Arsenal started well and grabbed the initiative,” he told Sky Sports.

“United huffed and puffed for most of the game. It wasn’t the United in recent weeks and the biggest reason was that the midfield was off the pace.

“Fred, Matic, Pogba couldn’t get near them. I’ve been critical of Xhaka but he was excellent today. He played like a senior pro.

“United were in PSG’s faces, so aggressive on Wednesday. Every manager says: ‘Make sure we start right’, because once you hand over the initiative it’s hard to get it back. United didn’t start right. I didn’t see high energy.

“United were passive. There was no aggression in terms of how they closed down, nothing. You can talk about systems until you’re blue in the face but that’s secondary – if you’re closing down, if you’re first to the ball, it doesn’t really matter what system you’ve got. Get your energy levels right, get in the face of the opposition.”

Carragher insisted that the system did pose a problem for United, but agreed that the midfield was also lacking.

“I think there was a problem with the way they set up in the first place, the fact they had two strikers who are not the type who come back and help in midfield,” he said.

“There was lot of space. But could the midfield have done more as Graeme says? Yes.”