United Drop Valuable Points Against Stubborn Saints
Ahead of United’s game against Southampton yesterday, many fans were feeling excited and confident. Not just because we were coming off a huge win against Leeds, but the fact that we had the possibility of seeing new signings Jadon Sancho and Raphaël Varane starting together.
Two hours later and neither Sancho or Varane started, and the Reds left St Mary’s Stadium with just 1 point after a disappointing 1–1 draw to Southampton.
In my review of the game, there will be a fair amount of points that will be discussed, including the lineup of the game, and my overall thoughts including Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s substitutions.
Starting Lineups
Here is where the first of my concerns arose from. I was contempt with us playing in the 4–2–3–1 system, due to no Varane being in the starting lineup. However, I’m still not sure why Martial was starting and Sancho did not.
As highlighted by his SofaScore match rating of 6.2, it was clear that Martial was ineffective throughout the game, hence his substitution. Though to be fair to him, he received almost no service and he had barely anytime on the ball, where he only had 13 touches and 6 passes in an hour of football.
Yet aside from that, Martial offered next to nothing as a number 9, with 0 movement and a poor attitude every time he or a teammate was dispossessed with the ball.
Though my problem with the lineup wasn’t solely due to Martial or the fact that there was no Sancho or Varane. It was Solskjaer’s inexplicable decision to play Nemanja Matić and Fred together in a double pivot. Many United fans would agree that those two together offer nothing from a ball progression perspective or a defensive perspective either.
Matić was clearly the better of the two, though he didn’t really do that much in the game to influence our attack. Fred on the other hand had probably one of his worst games I have ever seen him play. Defensively he was poor and was ultimately at fault for Southampton’s goal, and offensively he was even worse. There was one instance in the first half where he completely missed a simple 5 metre pass to Mason Greenwood, as it went out of play.
I felt Paul Pogba was one of, if not our best player in the game. He did have a few chances to score but technically he was super. His long passing range was on full display, as well as his quick feet and interplay. Pogba also got the assist for Mason Greenwood’s goal, which happened to be his 5th assist in just 2 games.
Bruno Fernandes was hit and miss for me. Understandably, it would’ve been incredible for him to repeat his feat against Leeds, so I can accept a drop off in performance. But like Martial, he didn’t have the ball as much as we would’ve liked and we didn’t see him get the ball in areas where he could damage the opposition.
My Thoughts on The Game
For me, this was a very good opportunity for United to pick up three points. Southampton were coming off the back of a 3–1 loss to Everton, while we pumped Leeds 5–1 at home in an unbelievable performance.
But for some reason, that I can’t explain why, we were the polar opposite of how we should be playing. Too many times, particularly between Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelöf, both of whom I felt played poorly, there was very slow ball circulation between them.
It was as if Chris Smalling and Phil Jones were playing, as those two on the ball were always so afraid to advance with the ball and make a dangerous or line breaking pass to an attacking player.
But it wasn’t just Lindelöf and Maguire who were at fault for the slow tempo, both Matić and Fred, like I said before, offered nothing going forward. 0 speed on and off the ball from those two, and we just allowed Southampton to get back into their defensive shape too easily.
There were opportunities for us to pounce and punish the Saints, however either an underhit pass from Fred or 4000 touches too many from Matić, caused the momentum to drop and the attack would end.
On a more positive note, I thought we looked really dangerous whenever we had an attacking set piece. Pogba and Maguire both had a huge presence in the box, and Pogba was unfortunate to say the least to not come away with at least one goal after multiple set piece deliveries found his head or his foot for him to volley.
Mason Greenwood again was a standout, especially in front of goal. He certainly has the potential to be an elite forward, with his movement, dribbling and his deadly finishing proving to be a huge resource for the team.
Solskjaer’s Substitutions
New season, same old useless substitutions and at useless times in the game from Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. My criticism may seem a bit harsh, however this has been an issue for many years now, while Ole has been the manager of the club.
You would think that someone who made his name as a result of coming on as a substitute would know in future when to substitute influential players on, or who not to bring on to change a game.
When Ole brought on Jadon Sancho, I was ok with that as we had a lot of momentum from the 60th minute onwards following Greenwood’s goal. However, what baffles me was the following two substitutions.
Fred should’ve been taken off at half time for me, however Ole waited until the 76th minute to sub him off — not for the player that I wanted, who I’ll get onto later, but Scott McTominay.
Personally, I don’t rate McTominay and it showed when he came on. He was too aggressive in the challenges, when we needed more discipline and control from him, and he didn’t help at all with quick ball circulation to either Sancho or Fernandes.
What was even more frustrating was him bringing on Jesse Lingard in the 86th minute. This substitution made Pogba have to move from left midfield, into a more deeper position, where he was then made ineffective. Pogba was one of our best players, and to move him to a less influential position made no sense to me.
But what made even less sense, was that Ole was ok with bringing Lingard on (who bare in mind only recently recovered from COVID-19 and has had minimal training sessions) but doesn’t even start Sancho or give Varane any minutes. If those two players were to start, then I feel that the game would’ve had a different complexion completely and we probably would’ve won.
Yet of all the substitutions Ole made, he didn’t bring on a player, who I believe would’ve changed the game for me; Donny van de Beek. Honestly, I have no idea why Ole doesn’t even play Donny, let alone start him in games.
This fixture would’ve been a perfect game for Donny considering his technical ability and his movement. However, it was the same old story, with Ole neglecting a £35 million player to bring on players who are nowhere near as good as him. Even more infuriatingly, when United played Southampton last year at St Mary’s, van de Beek was one of our best players.
I think this game also reinforced many fan’s opinions, that we need another central midfielder. We will not be considered serious title contenders with either Fred, Scott McTominay or Nemanja Matić in our midfield.
As pointed out by some United fans on social media, Wolves midfielder Rúben Neves had an outstanding game against Tottenham. There’s only a few days left until the transfer window closes, so if I was Manchester United, I would move heaven and earth to bring in a midfielder (Neves, Camavinga or Bissouma I don’t care, bring someone in!).
