Saints vs Man Utd: Match Review

By Dara O'Brien, published on 23/08/21

Going into Manchester United’s second game of the season, United fans’ expectations were high after witnessing a 5-1 trashing of Leeds the weekend prior. United’s away form had rarely let them down last season; they had been nearly flawless, and the fans were excited and ready to see another exhilarating display by Solskjær’s players, but instead they were brought back to the harsh realities of the Premier League.

The game started in a fashion that United no doubt would’ve wanted to avoid; conceding a silly free kick in a dangerous position to one of the most deadly dead-ball specialists in the world in James Ward-Prowse. That was a problem, and although that incident didn’t come to anything, the way a team starts a game is very important, and although United were able to get themselves back into the game for a period afterwards, it gave Southampton that bit of belief and self-confidence that they could get something from the game.

After a small spell of dominance for United, Southampton were first to score, with Che Adams' effort deflecting off of Fred to put the hosts ahead. All of a sudden United were behind. It was a situation they were all too familiar with: going behind in the first half while playing away from home. It wasn’t until the 2nd half, after a lovely piece of play by Paul Pogba that United drew level threw Mason Greenwood. At this point in time, the momentum was all with United. This is where United won their games all last season; after equalising United would step their foot on the gas and kill the game. However this was not what occurred on Sunday, and was one of the biggest reasons for the dropped points. Instead of killing the game after equalising, United allowed Southampton to get back into the game, and even create more chances than United. The spell after United’s equaliser was one of the biggest reasons for the disappointing result.

Another contributing factor to the poor performance was the midfield pairing that United started the game with: Nemanja Matic and Fred. Because of an injury to Scott McTominay, it was Nemanja Matic’s turn to step in and play with Fred in midfield, however they were simply unable to gain any sort of control over the game, giving the ball away frequently, being outrun by Southampton’s midfield and generally being second-bested in their battles. With only 93/123 (75.6%) passes completed between them they were extremely sloppy in possession, and although Fred was able to cover a lot of ground, Matic simply wasn’t able to keep up with the pace of the game — something that unfortunately is likely to be a recurring theme for the Serbian this season. While Fred by no means had his finest performance, he was perhaps not as poor as made out to be; the Brazilian, although sloppy in possession, was at least able to cover ground out of it, winning 8 of 13 ground duels, 2 of 3 aerial duels, making 4 tackles all without conceding a foul. This does not make up for his lack of quality on the ball, however it offers a little bit of redemption.

Matic however, was was poor in and out of possession. He was outrun for much of the time that he was on the pitch, winning only 3 of 8 ground duels and making only 1 tackle all game.

Stats per SofaScore

The lack of urgency shown in the final 20 or so minutes was not only harmful to the result, but very disappointing to watch as a fan.

While minutes away from a 1-1 stalemate away to a relegation favourite, you would expect United to go for the kill, but instead United looked lacklustre, uninspired and content with a point. Even in the final few minutes, we were not committing enough players forward, instead looking as if we were defending a lead.

All of these factors combined for what was a very disappointing day in Southampton. However, we can still take something away from this, so what have we learned?

Well the most obvious take-away from Sunday is the need for a midfielder. With time running out in the transfer window, the club will hopefully be able to pull funds together through outgoings such as Jesse Lingard to be able to sign a midfielder that would improve the squad before the deadline shuts.

Despite the poor performance and result, there are still 36 games left this season. United will no doubt be back before too long, and with the additions of Raphaël Varane and Jadon Sancho, we will be looking to make amends this Sunday when we take Wolves on at the Molineux Stadium.