Manchester United moved up to third position on the table leapfrogging surprise package of
the season, Southampton with a below par performance, getting the much needed victory
through a van persie double either half after Pelle had levelled things up for
the Saints in the first half.
It was a narrow escape for United and manager Luis Van Gaal admitted
that his side were lucky to win the game and must improve. For United there
were a lot of lessons and talking points from the game, Redly United looks at
and highlight five lessons from the game:
1.
Despite the five man backline, United defence
still a suspect. Van gaal in his tactical way, surprised most pundits when he
started with five men in defence, against the saints. But he was justified as
the game proceeded, as the United’s defence was caught napping on a number of
occasions. The defence was not helped by an early injury to Chris Smalling -
who has recently been getting commendations for his recent improvement, and was
replaced by Johnny Evans, who was just returning from injury and put in a
decent performance. Rojo’s defending at times was questionable in the game,
winger turned defender Ashley Young had his own worrisome moments. In general it was a below average defensive
performance by United’s standard, that if the opposition were more clinical in
front of goal, they could have punished the team for some lacklustre defending.
That must improve considerably considering Liverpool is the team next opponent.
2.
Fellaini and Mata needs to be more consistent:
both players seems to have improved lately, consdring their performance in
United’s last two or three games, but in the game against Southampton, both
players were flat, Fellaini was
responsible for some lose passes in the game, and to be specific his lose pass,
led to the Southampton’s goal. For a player of his form and quality, it was a
below par performance. While for Mata, he didn’t stamped his authority on the
game and was a peripheral figure, for a large part of the game. Before he was
finally substituted. Both players must look back at this performance, and
determine to get better.
3.
Passing was awful: United lacklustre performance was
characterised by bad passing, for a large portion of the game. United on a number
of occasions gave the ball away cheaply in the first half in delicate parts of
the field. The passing accuracy was not top notch, and against a better
opposition, the tem would have been punished.
4.
RVP may be back: he has come under immense
criticism this season, for a lot of performances that are way below his potential
and on a number of occasions fan would have preferred Wilson or Falcao in his
place. But his brace in this match was his first under new manager Van Gaal,
and his first since 17th August 2013 against Swansea City. With three goals in
his last three matches, and a man of the match performance in the game against
Southampton, it may be fair to say Van Persie is getting back, though he still
needs one or two top match winning performance to fully convince the United
fans that he’s back.
5.
United getting lucky and grinding out the
results but must improve: ask any great manager, and he’ll tell you one of the
ability of any top team is their ability to win matches, even when they are not
playing well. And that’s what United
have done in their last two matches, winning by a goal margin, even though
they’re not at their best. This used to be a norm under Sir Alex Ferguson, and
was lacking during the David Moyes era. The team has crawled it way to the
third position on the table, after a bad start to the season. But to be honest
and frank, the tam stills needs to improve. The defence still needs to up its
game, United needs to get some of its injured players back, and some players
need to be more consistent.
In all the future looks bright
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