Poor from a young there. Needed to put a better ball in as he had all the time in the world. Free kick in a good area. Depay?
Poor from Mata. Young then makes the right ball from the follow up. Better from us but still not there yet.
Tell you what, if we can perfect our high pressing we will be nicking the ball of teams on their own 18 yard box all season. It could be that Spurs are dithering but 3 or 4 times now we've nicked it but not capitalised, yet. Would be a very useful weapon as the season goes on. Teams will become wary of passing from deep and are more likely to give it a boot up field.
Again, winning it (interception this time) high up and create a chance. Mata comes alive and have two attempts. We are almost, almost looking more like a counter attacking side. Not in the traditional sense mind.
Spurs sitting back is going wreck them. They have a paper thin squad too, I don't expect them to do very well at all this season to be honest. They're relying heavily on 2 players - Kane and Erikson, if they get injured they're royally screwed.
Rooney out wide and then in midfield when we have the ball 30 yards from goal ffs. Discipline Rooney, stay up top or we have no threat in the box!
I dont see the point of having Mata keep coming in with the ball to play meaningless 5 yard one/twos with Depay as the AM. That is not what an AM is about (even in a free role)
Both teams look a little rusty to be honest. As UiR said, United are nicking quite a few balls in the Spurs half and need to capitalise on it. Spurs are sitting back too much, no incisiveness at all going forward. Can see United nicking a 2-0 from this.
Positives. We are winning, Darmian looks good, Romero has done ok when needed. We took control as the half went on but took us almost 20 minutes. Matas role seems confusing and depay wasted so far. Schneiderlin and carrick have pushed Spurs right back. It's been ok, nothing more. Could be so much better.
His kicking under pressure has been a tad suspect though, twice he has conceded a throw in to Spurs when in possession, unnecessarily.
True. Hasn't really been needed but looks suspect to me. Should have been quicker off his line for the Erikson chance and his kicking is dodgy as you say.
For someone who hasn't played since 2014 he's done ok. He's not really had anything to do since the first few minutes but he's stayed awake.
I like Young but take him off and bring Herrera on as AM. We need the understanding between him and Mata and we'll be more incisive and create loads more imo.
Keepers new to the league always seem to have dodgy kicking. Though as I said, almost 9 months since he last played a club game. It's to be expected he would be rusty. Thankfully it didn't cost us. Darmian though, man of the half. All those big names we signed and he's the standout one so far.
That would be the ideal thing to do. Herrera in there will help going forward and defending too, will do much more than Memphis in the middle for sure.
At first I would have taken Mata off for Herrera as mata really wasn't in the game. As it went on he got more involved and as you say, with the understanding he and Herrera have, when we are winning the ball high up, their play would be perfect. Rooneys doing my head in though. Stay forward. There's enough quality behind him after all.
