A Christian Eriksen-led Tottenham side outplayed and outfought United on a bitterly disappointing night for Jose Mourinho’s side.
After 28 minutes of this highly-anticipated showdown between two Premier League heavyweights, Phil Jones could be seen sinking his face into the padded posts behind the goal while Alexis Sanchez looked on with that familiar sunken expression, as if coming to some harrowing realisation on this, his league debut for Manchester United. The Tottenham players wheeled away jubilantly in celebration as an incandescent Jose Mourinho yelled into the Wembley night.
Yet, for all the Portuguese coach’s histrionics on the touchline, there wasn’t to be even the slightest whimper of a response from his players. Emerging from the tunnel after half-time, there remained a lingering sense of expectation that United’s star-studded attack could yet turn the game back in their favour.
The problem was that Spurs were organised, hungry and determined to crush United. Dele Alli’s runs through the middle wreaked havoc on the increasingly haunted pair of Chris Smalling and Jones, while Eriksen was afforded the time and space to pick United apart, much like had done for Denmark against the Republic of Ireland.
Indeed, the midfielder’s opener arrived after just 11 seconds, having been allowed to dart into the United penalty area unchecked and curl a first-time shot beyond a helpless David De Gea. United’s response was a purposeful one. Jesse Lingard was denied by Hugo Lloris before Romelu Lukaku’s woefully under-hit cut-back to Anthony Martial squandered another promising opening. Martial, deployed on the right to accommodate Sanchez, then dribbled into the area before hoisting an effort on his weaker left high into the stands behind Lloris’ goal.
Then Jones happened. The centre-half, who has been rock-solid recently let’s not forget, made the wrong decision to defend Kieran Trippier’s with his right foot, the ball skewing off his boot and into the top corner for a comical own goal. Speaking to BT Sport post-game, Mourinho jokingly remarked that Kane would have been proud of the finish. Ouch.
But there was nothing about United’s toothless, disturbingly imbalanced display from which Mourinho to draw pride. When Jones converted into his own net and Wembley erupted, so too did the United boss, exploding out of his seat and marching into his technical area to berate his players.
He was rightly incensed. The screenshot below shows the build-up to Spurs’ second goal. Quite simply, Pogba – guilty of positional discipline throughout the game but by no means the sole villain in United’s downfall – shouldn’t be allowing Eric Dier the space to move the ball on after receiving it from Mousa Dembele.
Dier moves the ball onto Eriksen, who is allowed to take it on the half-turn after eluding Sanchez. The Chilean spotted the danger but spotted it late. He then makes a major error in judgement.
In the image below, you can see that Sanchez, chasing the ball in that incessant, tenacious style that has become synonymous with his play, makes the mistake of leaving Eriksen free in favour of closing down Alli. Realising this, the Spurs midfielder pokes the ball through Sanchez’s legs and back to Eriksen.
While Sanchez was at fault, though, he can be aggrieved that Pogba failed to block the path to Eriksen. In addition, it should have dawned on Lingard to drop five yards deeper and occupy the space Eriksen is about to turn into. Failing to do so allows the Dane to pick out Trippier on the right, thus leading to the goal.
Spurs’ quick thinking and fluid movement caused United myriad problems but Mourinho’s men struggled to muster up a meaningful response in the second half.
While it’s unfair to apportion blame exclusively on Pogba, the Frenchman was guilty of straying from his base position too often, thus leaving Nemanja Matic exposed. The idea behind Mourinho’s 4-2-3-1 at Wembley was for Pogba to initiate United’s counter-attacks from deep, much like he did away to Arsenal in December in a thrilling 3-1 win.
As an exceptionally gifted individual, there is a certain expectation that Pogba can fit into any formation but he seems to struggle with bolstered defensive responsibilities. Against the lower teams in the league, Pogba is afforded more freedom to roam forward without fear of exposing Matic because, bluntly put, sides near the bottom of the table don’t offer the same counter-attacking threat.
At Juventus, he established himself as one of the most exciting emerging talents in the world as part of a trio that saw Andrea Pirlo as the deep-lying playmaker and Claudio Marchisio the tenacious ball-winner. He isn’t surrounded by the same type of players at United but his inability to follow tactical instructions legitimises Mourinho’s anger. He doesn’t get subbed off often but when he was hooked after 63 minutes for Juan Mata, it wasn’t at all surprising.
The key now, especially with Marouane Fellaini widely tipped to be moving on and Michael Carrick set to retire, is for Mourinho to invest in the kind of all-action midfielders United need to unshackle the Frenchman; someone like Roma’s Radja Nainggolan or Arturo Vidal of Bayern Munich, two players the club have been linked with in the past.
But, as previously stated, it’s not purely down to Pogba. Lukaku once again failed to turn up against a top-six side while Sanchez’s influence in the game waned after initially offering flickers of promise in the opening 20 minutes.
Perhaps the sheer gulf between Spurs and United can prompt Mourinho into action. Saturday’s visit of Huddersfield to Old Trafford would be a good game in which to experiment. However, Mourinho hasn’t always seemed entirely willing to show tactical flexibility. After Wednesday’s derisory display, he may need to change that.
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