Tottenham vs Manchester United Match Report
Tottenham continued their season against Manchester United at the theater of dreams.
With Manchester United struggling in this early part of the season it seems like a perfect time for Tottenham to take on the Manchester club. An important away game against a fellow big six contender who are out of sorts and tearing themselves apart from the inside out makes for a great away fixture early in the season.
In the first half Tottenham played a 4-4-2 with Mauricio Pochettino sticking by Hugo Lloris in the starting lineup and retaining his armband as captain despite his indiscretions from the previous week. Spurs seemed to dominate a large share of possession while making very little of it. With multiple chances falling to Dele Alli, Christensen and Harry Kane in the box Spurs could not seem to break through.
Jose Mourinho as always trotted out a surprise for this important match and stamped his authority on the game with a 3-4-2-1 lineup for Manchester United. His trick here being the use of Ander Herrera as a right-sided centerback.
The first half ended with the teams tied at nil-nil and without a large degree of excitement from either side. United had far more shots but they were ill-measured and off target the majority of the time.
The two teams began the second half in much the same manner as the first ended and the game had the inklings of a bore draw before a quickfire double from Spurs had United 2-0 down by the 51st minute. Harry Kane outjumped a flat-footed Phil Jones to score from a corner and then the second was a fast break and Christian Eriksen picked out Lucas Moura with an inch-perfect pass for the Brazilian to send sharply into the back of the net.
With United 2-0 down in the space of a few seconds Jose Mourinho withdrew Herrera and brought on Alexis Sanchez in a bid to find a semblance of creative impetus among his extraordinarily dull Manchester United team. To make things worse it appeared that within moments of Herrera’s substitution Phil Jones injured his hamstring and Lindelof was forced to come in. Then in only the 60th minute a desperate Mourinho used his 3rd substitute bringing Nemanja Matic out of the game to be replaced with Marouane Fellaini.
After all these moves United did undoubtedly get a better grip on the game but Tottenham’s resolve held perfectly. But then as if to prove Mourinho’s recent castrating remarks correct Lindelof passed the ball half the distance necessary for De Gea and was luckily rewarded by Alli missing yet another chance.
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Then on 66 minutes Harry Kane missed an awkwardly open and free header at the back post. The United defence again trying to make whatever is usually easy about defending seem hard and entirely losing the King in the penalty box.
Tottenham should’ve been up 4-0 but were only up 2-0 in the 67th minute.`
As the game wore on and became more and more of a physical battle with every passing second it became quite obvious that Tottenham had something of a stranglehold on the match. United did most of there creative work with horizontal long balls into the box and never seemed to be breaking through.
Finally on the 84th minute Moura broke through and scored again. A nice intelligent pass from Harry Kane set the Brazilian up. He still had work to do and beat Smalling, again suggesting Mourinho knows what he is talking about with his complaints about the state of United’s defence, and finished with aplomb.
If Moura is able to play like this for the rest of the season he sure seems to be the exact reason why Spurs didn’t make any moves in the offseason.
Following the third goal Manchester United seemed like a broken team. Everything that has been wrong at the club in recent seasons seems to have gotten worse and the storm around Mourinho is certainly getting worse. Spurs were also marvelous and this dominant, clinical and characterful away performance is exactly what the club needs following all their recent issues.
Lloris showed admirable ability to concentrate through his indiscretions and the rest of the team certainly closed ranks around their captain. Alderweireld stepped in beautifully and the Spurs defence never looked anything other than resolute with him back there. Danny Rose as well stepped up and gave an admirable performance. Spurs and Mauricio Pochettino will undoubtedly be making a strong title push this season on the back of performances like this.
3-0 Spurs and a great result for the London club.