Manchester United (Away) 19.10.2022

The first shot of the match after four minutes came from Anthony, who came infield and hit a shot that swerved away from goal, which was responded to by Rodrigo Bentancur, who was sent away on the right and flashed a low shot across de Gea and a yard wide of the far post. It was Anthony who tested Hugo Lloris in the seventh minute when a long ball was cut out, but the Brazilian tried to catch the Spurs keeper out with an early shot.  Hugo managed to nervously fumble it wide for a corner, which came out o Fred just outside the box and drove a shot at goal, but it was straight and Lloris could easily push it over the top.

With ten minutes gone, Anthony came inside and curled a low shot that grazed the outside of Hugo’s right-hand post on its way off for a goal-kick. There was a lot of passing in midfield without making any penetration into either penalty area, but Kane picked out Doherty on the right, who fired a left foot shot across goal and wide.

Fred’s pass in behind Dier sent Rashford into the box in the 20th minute, but his low shot was brilliantly saved low to his right by Lloris. Then Fred got fouled by Cristian Romero in a central position 25 yards out, with the free-kick taken by Fernandes aimed at the top right corner of the Spurs skipper’s goal, but Hugo was equal to it and pushed it over as he dived up to his right. The corner produced a shot from Rashford that was directed down into the ground and over by a Spurs man. Dalot then played the ball beyond the far post from the right, but Lloris was there again to push the ball wide at his near top corner as Shaw caught the volley sweetly.

It was from about the 18th minute that United started to be more offensive and Spurs were struggling to stand firm, but did so, although the five-man midfield that Conte went with were having trouble retaining possession.  Casemiro hit a shot a foot wide to the right of the Spurs goal after a series of short passes around the penalty area and it was the 33rd minute before Spurs threatened the United goal again, although there was little to worry about as Son turned and tried to bend a shot into the top corner, but it flew high into the Stretford End.

Ten minutes before half-time Son was bundled over from behind without the referee giving a free-kick and the tackles then started to bite. United were making inroads with Fred set up for a shot that he hit off target and then Dier got in the way of a shot from Dalot, taking it right on his chin, needing some attention before he could continue. Spurs needed to hold the ball for a period of time, but when they tried to force the play, it usually got turned over to United. When it didn’t, Spurs worked the ball through Son and Bentancur to Doherty, who slipped the ball into the box for Harry Kane on the right. Tight to the dead ball line, he let go a shot that de Gea beat out at his near post and it went back to Harry who smashed the ball into the chin of Dalot.  Play continued and ended with Casemiro nodding it back to his goalkeeper, who, along with Fernandes and Shae berated the referee for not stopping the game as he had done when Dier took one in the face.

With all the chances of any note coming from United, Spurs had dug in to keep it 0-0 at the break. Having come off the back of a similar first half against Everton, the Spurs players would no doubt have been suffering, as Conte has it. What they needed in the second half was to turn the tables and give the home side some suffering.

That didn’t happen as Man U scored within two minutes of the kick off. Fernandes nipped in front of Hojbjerg to win the ball and it was worked across the Tottenham box to the left and then set up for Fred, who shot from the edge of the box and Ben Davies stuck out a leg that left Hugo stranded as the ball went inside his right hand post, when he would have been right behind the shot if it hadn’t deflected off the Welsh defender.

United started to ramp it up and a minute later, Rashford was played into the box and looked to fire it over Lloris from eight yards out, but going the wrong way, Lloris threw up his left hand to make a fine stop. The same United player tried another effort from inside the area, but it was blocked and Spurs broke away to earn a corner, when Kane’s shot was deflected just wide.

In the next fifteen minutes, there was too much loose passing that gave Spurs more work to do than they needed and United failed to make much of their possession other than a good ball into the box that Rashford got his head to, but got his direction and timing all wrong. Perisic produced a good cross from the left that was headed away and then another that was flicked on by Hojbjerg to Kane at the far post. His shot was beaten out by de Gea and the offside flag went up. The referee played on and United broke with Fred’s awful slice hit Dier and dropped for Fernandes to curl a shot past Lloris to his left to give them a 2-0 lead with just 22 minutes left.

Spurs were playing without any sort of tempo and when Perisic’s cross was nervously tipped over by the United keeper, it gave Spurs a corner, but nothing came from it. There had been too much space and time afforded to the home team by Spurs, who failed to look like they would cause a lot of problems to any team. They made Dalot and Fred look like world-beaters. Fernandes forced Lloris to a low save in the middle of his goal, getting right down behind it and then Fred’s determination won the ball three times before it went to Rashford in the box and he lashed a shot at goal that Hugo made a marvellous save from, getting his left hand down under his body to push it wide, when the United forward should really have scored.

United had the ball in the net again with ten minutes to go when Rashford played Fernandes into acres of space beyond the Spurs defence, but Dier had stepped up just at the right to time to catch him offside. Conte made three substitutions with ten minutes to go, but it looked to be too late.

A very sub-standard performance by Spurs brought the same result as last season, but at least then we had a go and were beaten by a Ronaldo hat-trick. This time, without Lloris and an offside flag, it would have been a slaughter.  While it was no difference to last season’s result, whereas we had been matching or bettering comparative games so far, it is the nature of the defeat that could be damaging.  Once more, it was a tepid performance against one of the “top” clubs and another game where we didn’t really turn up.  Yes, we were without Kulusevski and Richarlison, but the way we play best is to go at teams.  Not in a way that leaves us vulnerable to counter-attacks, but to push them back, but here United’s wing-backs were forcing Doherty and Perisic to retreat, thus blunting our forward play.  

The midfield were getting played around and that gave the home team the space they needed to create chances, with Rashford getting in behind to have a number of shots on goal.  Luckily, he is not that good at finishing at the moment, otherwise it could have been embarrassing.

Newcash come to the Lane on Sunday and they are on a good run, with few goals scored and few conceded.  It will be another tough game for Spurs and we will need to be more creative and pro-active to get us back in winning ways.

Pete Stachio

• –