Manchester United need more from their £130million midfielders after Tottenham defeat
Man Utd slipped to a tame 2-0 defeat at Tottenham to maintain their poor away record from last season, with the midfield an area of concern for Erik ten Hag.
Midfield yet to click
Mason Mount started this game brightly and was involved in some of United’s best moments in the early exchanges, but he drifted out of the contest once again and is still yet to leave a significant imprint on a struggling midfield.
A trio of Casemiro, Mount and Bruno Fernandes was supposed to take United up another gear, but none have found their form at the start of this season. Casemiro looked sluggish for the second game in a row and while he produced some neat touches early on here, Mount is doing his best work off the ball and not impacting games enough on it.
Wolves found it far too easy to play through the middle of United on Monday and Tottenham found the space to their liking as well. Yves Bissouma was the dominant holding midfielder on the pitch and Pape Matar Sarr was the most productive forward-thinking midfielder.
This was a midfield that lacked energy and influence as the game wore on. Ten Hag has overseen a clear-out at OId Trafford, but it was tempting to wonder whether this was a game that might have suited Fred, now at Fenerbache. United’s passers had little impact, so maybe a more disruptive presence might have fared well. There was no similar option on the bench.
This is still early days for United’s midfield and there is certainly more to come from Mount, but he needs a performance sooner rather than later and Erik ten Hag will want to see some more dominant displays from Casemiro as well, who is a shadow of the influential player he was last season at the moment.
The wait for a significant away win in the Ten Hag era goes on for United. Having failed to beat any of the top nine last season, they continued a poor record on the road in big games in north London.
This was a game United should have won at the end of April, when they led a dispirited rabble of a Spurs side 2-0 before somehow having to cling on for a draw by the end of the game.
They looked the better side in the first half on Saturday, but the way they folded after the break was alarming. They barely mustered a response after going behind.
If United are to improve on last season’s third place then getting more points away from home is essential. This could have served as a confidence-boosting win. Instead, it just reinforced last season’s flaws. United went behind in a game they had played well in and then just folded in the manner of the paper aeroplanes gathered behind Andre Onana’s goal.
High press high wire
This was a fascinating battle between a team keen to play out from the back and one who has taken their desire to press to a new level this season.
The improvement in United’s press in Ten Hag’s second campaign has been obvious since the start of pre-season and they often committed at least six players to try and win the ball back when Spurs went short from Guglielmo Vicario at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.
It’s a strategy that comes with risk and reward for both teams. Tottenham played through the press early on for an excellent chance for Son Heung-Min, but a few minutes later Mount moved up to win the ball on the edge of the area and the turnover in possession led to Antony curling a shot just over.
United found it harder to execute as the game wore on, however, partly due to the control Tottenham exerted in the second half. They looked the fitter side as the game wore on and opportunities for United to try and pin them in were few and far between.
Onana’s passing
There will come a point when having a goalkeeper who is good with the ball at his feet is no longer such a shock to the system for United, but we’re not quite there yet and if Andre Onana continues to play passes of the quality he produced midway through the first half, we might not be for a while.
The whole move encapsulated why Ten Hag saw Onana as such an upgrade on David de Gea. He was in a position to sweep up play 30 yards from his own goal, taking a touch away from the chasing Tottenham attackers, before looking up and spraying a crossfield pass from one corner of the pitch to the other, finding Alejandro Garnacho with space to attack as both sides looked to reorganise.
Garnacho’s low cross was cut out when United had options in the box and it was a waste of a really good attacking position, created by their goalkeeper-cum-holding-midfielder, who showed he can the basics as well with a sharp save from Pape Matar Sarr on the half-hour mark. He was let down by his teammates here.
Handball confusion
Maybe every Premier League weekend should start with an update over the handball rule for that week. What with all the talk of silhouettes and natural positions it’s hard to keep up.
Who knows what the rule is if it’s now in a position to let defenders put their arms out to make themselves bigger when trying to block a shot. That is what Cristian Romero did when closing down Garnacho in the first half. Predictably the shot hit his arm, but somehow neither Michael Oliver nor VAR Simon Long felt it was a penalty.
He would have been given without a pause for thought last season and if a rule change has been intended to try and even the balance, it has clearly gone too far. This was Romero gaining an advantage by using his arms to make himself bigger. It’s a nailed-on penalty.
United got away with a VAR failure last week. There is an idea these things even themselves out, but trying telling that to Wolves. They should have conceded a penalty at Old Trafford on Monday and had one here.
