Manchester United went home with all three points against Tottenham thanks to David De Gea goalkeeping heroics that proved he isn’t a human being.
Full disclosure: I’m a life long Manchester United supporter so everything I might say in this post may be a little bias. However, I do try to be objective when my heart allows me to.
Manchester United was red hot (excuse the pun) going into this game. Under interim coach Ole Gunnar Solskjær, they had won their last five games in all competitions, scored a bunch of goals, and featured on Paul Pogba’s Instagram account again. Playing against a, at the time, third-placed Spurs away from home was going to be their stiffest test yet.
I would have taken a draw from this game because the last time United met Spurs this happened…
…which led to this…
Me:
In the first stanza, Manchester United were on top. Tactically Solskjær outwitted Tottenham manager Mauricio Pochettino. He placed his three quickest most attack-minded players of Martial, Lingard and Rashford up front and left them there even when Spurs went forward. This left spaces for them to exploit when the Tottenham full-backs Davies and Tripper joined the attack, leaving the trio one vs. one against the slow Spurs centre-backs Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen. This strategy led to a Manchester United goal. Pogba played a good ball into Rashfords path, he beat Vertonghen for pace and finished.
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In the second half, Pochettino decided to spread the field and put pressure on the Manchester United full-backs with Son Heung-min and Erik Lamela going out wide. This forced the Manchester United attackers to help because the tactic left their defenders in 2-on-1 situations.
David De Gea
The change in strategy for Spurs worked like a charm. They put bombarded the Manchester United goal. The only thing between them and a goal was a guy by the name of David De Gea.
https://twitter.com/OptaJoe/status/1084517060330352642
His performance was imperious (that’s a fancy way of saying really good, I just learnt it so I had to use it) but watching the Manchester United goal being peppered with shots was hard to watch. I had to perform the Bird Box Challenge to finish the game. From the 55th minute this is how the game went:
Step 1: Tottenham Possession.
Step 2: Tottenham shot at goal.
Step 3: David De Gea save.
Step 4: Manchester United lose possession.
Step 5: Repeat.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær
Five league wins out of five games. Ole Gunnar Solskjær has equalled Matt Busby’s all-time record.
https://twitter.com/OptaJoe/status/1084516852838133760
He is making a good case for himself to land a permanent job. Manchester United were eight points behind Arsenal when Ole Gunnar Solskjær became their caretaker manager on December 19th but are now level on points with the Gunners.
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Mauricio Pochettino and Tottenham
The narrative of this game was Mauricio Pochettino’s present versus his possible future. Pochettino has been rumoured to be a target of Manchester United for next season. But his Tottenham side were clearly the better team over the 90 minutes. With all due respect to the Spaniard, 80% of the saves David De Gea made any keeper on the planet would have made. Spurs were unlucky. If they had their shooting boots on we would be talking a different story today.
But, has Pochettino run his race with these Tottenham players? Has he taken them as far as he could? Maybe so, but maybe the young team still has another level they can reach. As far as this season goes, they aren’t winning the league as they are now 9 points behind Liverpool. With only 16 games to go, the Reds would have to lose three games and Spurs would have to win all of their remaining fixtures. Highly unlikely.