If you watched Manchester United in the preseason or against West Brom, the one obvious difference between this season and last season is that United have a younger, faster, more mobile team where players easily interchange positions.
United are a yard faster all over the pitch than they were last season. This newfound speed caused two problems for Spurs today. One is that United close down the Spurs players quicker than they expected, or United players were able to recover quicker when beaten. There was no better example of this then in the second half when Gareth Bale got away from Phil Jones at the beginning of a run, but when he went to make the cross, there was Jones to block it. Jones’s speed allowed him to get back into position.
The second area where United’s speed showed up was how tired Spurs players were in the last 10 minutes of the game. They has had to chase the faster United players all over the pitch for 80 minutes and they were exhausted. As a result United created several good scoring chances late as Spur’s midfield was unable to get back and defend like they could earlier in the match.
Quick Thoughts On The Match
- United won 3-0 thanks to second half goals from Welbeck, Anderson and Rooney
- Phil Jones and Jonny Evans were terrific tonight. Jones looks like a bargain at £16.5million. Rio is supposed to be back for Arsenal game, but based on what we saw tonight why rush him? After the Arsenal game there is an international break so Rio will have plenty of time to get fully fit.
- Danny Welbeck took his goal really well and the back-heel that created Anderson’s goal was simply exquisite. Until Hernandez is fully fit, I expect Welbeck to be United’s main striker, which makes me wonder if Berbatov will be sold in the next ten days
- Having the Everton game last weekend cancelled really hurt Spurs as their players looked to be missing a little in terms of match sharpness (the Hearts game in midweek was like another friendly)
- The match could have changed completely had Aaron Lennon found an unmarked Van der Vaart in the penalty box when the score was 1-0. Lennon has great speed, but no footballing brain. His final pass or cross is what lets him down time and time again
- Spurs really missed the creative play of Modric tongiht. Spurs need to decide soon whether they are going to keep him or sell him and bring in new players. It is no use selling Modric at the close of the transfer window if Harry has no time to bring in new players.
