Match date: 8 August 2015

The English Premier League is back and the first match of the season was a good advertisement for the league.

Louis Van Gaal enters his second season at the helm of Manchester United and, historically, the Dutchman’s teams perform better in the second season under his reign. Manchester United again spent a large amount of money in the summer bringing in Memphis, Schweinsteiger, Schneiderlin, Darmian, and Romero. All five had some part in the game, with four starting in Van Gaal’s 4-2-3-1.

Tottenham and Pochettino find themselves trying to undo the post-Gareth Bale recruits with Paulinho, Capoue, and Chiriches all moving out of the club, along with Kaboul and Stambouli. Toby Alderweireld has been brought in from Atletico Madrid and started alongside Vertonghen in Tottenham’s 4-2-3-1.

Both Sides Press

Tottenham were by far the better side in the opening 20 minutes of the match, both in possession and out of possession. Both sides pressed high up the pitch, but Manchester United’s pressing was relatively ineffective as Tottenham were able to bypass it easily with quicker decisions being made on the ball. Van Gaal noted the pressing in the game during his post-match interview saying, “It was a very difficult game because you have seen two teams that want to press, so every player at the ball had a very small time to play.” One reason the Dutchman said it was ‘difficult’ was that both sides were playing a 4-2-3-1. On paper this allows for one of the holding midfielders to be free when their team is in possession of the ball, unless one of the opposition’s holding midfielders steps in support of the pressing. For Manchester United, Schneiderlin was always slow to support Memphis in the pressing of Dier and Bentaleb, which was one of the key reasons to Tottenham’s opening dominance of Manchester United. There were a few times that Manchester United were able to put Bentaleb under unexpected pressure, which caused him to struggle when receiving the ball, but he got away with it countless times. In the end, it was not the Manchester United pressure, but a poorly played, routine pass that changed the game.

Another interesting part of Manchester United’s high press was their willingness to allow Eriksen to sit in space. Schneiderlin was not helpful in either the first line of pressing or the cover and neither was he helpful in cutting out a passing lane further up the pitch. A few times, Eriksen was allowed space behind Carrick and Schneiderlin when Manchester United were pressing high and this caused Daley Blind to come out of his centre back position if read a possible ball being played to Eriksen. The problems that could stem from this (but ultimately did not) are Spurs being able to hit a long ball to Kane, who would be in a 1v1 situation against Smalling, which in itself might be okay, but a supporting run from midfield to support Kane would leave Manchester United exposed. Below is this situation; Alderweireld is on the ball, Carrick and Schneiderlin are high up the pitch, Eriksen is on his own, and Blind begins stepping to the Spurs number 23 (sorry for the poor quality on this one, NBC does not have their ‘tactical cam’ for match replays).

On the other side, while Schneiderlin was poor in supporting the Manchester United press, Bentaleb excelled in doing so. Dier would sit, and did well in reading the game, but Bentaleb would break out from his holding position and give Eriksen and Kane support in the middle while Chadli and Dembele would pinch inside which made it hard for Carrick and Schneiderlin to find space to receive the ball from Smalling or Blind and start attacks. Bentaleb did not win possession high up the pitch, but it allow Tottenham to forced Manchester United into the wide areas a bit more and forced Memphis out of the central areas to get on the ball. Tottenham notably won the ball through Dembele as Schneiderlin was caught out in an incredibly dangerous position, but Spurs were unable to use the opportunity. The pressing got to Romero in goal as his short distribution was incredibly shaky, giving the ball away in dangerous areas a few times, and without Manchester United having a target type player in the match, like Fellaini, Romero’s clearances meant a loss of possession for Manchester United each time.

After the Kyle Walker own goal, the game changed significantly. With a goal behind them, Manchester United gained more of a foothold on the game and began to dominate throughout the end of the first half and for much of the second half. Tottenham’s pressing became less effective as they were pushed back by Manchester United. Tottenham were not well organised as they were pushed back and defended in a 4-4-1-1 for most of the match, though Chadli and Dembele would pinched in a lot, until needed to support their respective full backs.

Manchester United Going Forward

Despite their win, Manchester United looked a bit sluggish going forward. There were good sparks, good moments, as every team has, but there was a lack of consistency. Memphis Depay, thus forward known as just Memphis, was deployed by Louis Van Gaal in the middle of the three behind Rooney, rather than someone like Mata, who was stuck on the right side of the pitch.

There were a lot of issues with the front four. Ashley Young was mostly absent on the left hand side, contributing very little to the play and struggling to get by Kyle Walker at any point during the game and consistently failed to deliver any final product. On the other side, Mata too did not get high up the pitch against Ben Davis, but Darmian provided Manchester United’s width on the right when it was needed. As mentioned above, Memphis struggled to find space in the middle of the pitch, squeezed out by Dier and Bentaleb. A lot of the Dutchman’s best moments came when he drifted out wide and more specifically when he connected with Mata on the right.

There was a lack of penetration from Manchester United. Mata and Young did not offer it in the wide areas. Coming from deep Shaw and Darmian did well to provide a wide option for Manchester United, but again neither were able to give the home side a penetrating option.

Centrally, there were a few issues. Carrick and Schneiderlin were very deep during Manchester United’s build up, almost in line with Smalling and Blind, and it left a huge space between Memphis and the two holding midfielders. Memphis constantly had to find space in the wide areas to be effective as the passing lanes to him were closed off and he never looked to get in behind the Tottenham back line. Rooney too never looked to break in behind, instead opting to try to find space between the Tottenham lines, allowing Spurs to squeeze play and negating any opportunities for Manchester United to get in behind. Much of the Red Devils’ play was incredibly slow in the final third and there was a real lack of creative and spark, with too few opportunities and too few touches in the Tottenham penalty area.

Changes

Tottenham looked long a lot more often in the second half, trying to pick out Kane as he tried to isolate himself against Daley Blind, who had a relatively comfortable time playing at centre back. Pochettino made the first change of the match, bringing on Ryan Mason for Bentaleb. Tottenham continued in a 4-2-3-1, but with Mason pressing forward like Bentaleb did, Dembele narrow, and Eriksen now win left, Spurs looked like a 4-3-3 at times and, as the game went on, they began to look more like a 4-4-2 when in possession and a 4-4-1-1 when defending.

Schweinsteiger was brought into the game for Carrick, with the latter not having his most influential game for the home side. The German played alongside Schneiderlin and closed the gap that had been between the holding midfielders and Memphis, but overall, the change had little influence, as did the remaining changes by both Van Gaal and Pochettino.

Conclusion

For their opening 20 minutes, Tottenham deserved something from this match. Eriksen was unlucky not to score after being played through by Kane, but the Dane’s effort was a bit too weighted and just went over the bar. Had that gone in, Tottenham would have certainly been able to continue to control the flow of the match, but goals change games and Manchester United were able to capitalise on Bentaleb’s mistake. At that point, Manchester United had yet to register a shot on goal. In fact, Manchester United had just one shot on goal, coming in the 65th minute.

Both sides looked a bit sluggish as the game went on, with players seemingly lacking fitness and both managers noted the disappointments of their respective team’s performance.