20 Jun 2020 10:06:22
An interesting game to restart our league campaign, firstly it is unfair to judge players on this first performance back. The players have had three months of no football, played 1 or 2 closed door games, and had 2-3 weeks' worth of training. Some will pick it up fine, others will need a few games to blow out the cobwebs and find their rhythm.

I think on the balance of play a draw was probably a fair result, we may have just shaded it. DDG made one good save after his howler, while Lloris made two great save, one from Rashford with his feet after diving the wrong way and another from Martial when he found half a yard in the box. While both Fernandes and Greenwood had shots that whistled just past the post that had they been on target would have certainly gone in.

Spurs sat deep and compact and gave us very little chances, yet with Pogba on the bench and our players lacking match sharpness we managed to create a few openings. I think that is encouraging moving forward. On paper that was our toughest remaining league fixture, and we got a decent result.

As for our players, DDG had another poor performance, saw a stat this morning that since the start of last season no keeper has made more errors leading to a goal than DDG. Henderson is breathing down his neck. Maguire also had a nightmare, slow to react, poor reading of the game and a liability at times. AWB was solid enough defensively, although Son got the better of him once or twice but continued to be poor going forward and with Spurs sitting deep we needed more from him offensively. Shaw I thought actually had the best game of our defenders, he looked fit, covered 2 or 3 times when Maguire switched off, and pushed forward well. Lindelof didn't do much at all, hardly noticed him most of the game. I like both Fred and McTominay, but both aren't great technically meaning that they need to take an extra touch when moving the ball through midfield which slows the movement and allows the opposition to get back into position. Against teams that sit deep and give up possession we don't need both of them on the pitch and will benefit from having a more technically gifted midfielder who can move the ball quicker and more dangerously. Dan James was an odd choice against a team that was never going to give you any space in behind. Martial needs to learn to be cuter with his movement against deep sitting teams, he kept dropping deep, when what we needed was for him to stay high but move across the front line. Bruno Fernandes was at the heart of all our best moments, what a signing he is turning out to be. I thought Pogba and Greenwood changed the game when they came on. Greenwood meant we actually had a player who could get involved as opposed to James being a passenger due to how Spurs were setting up. While Pogba's cameo 30 minutes highlighted what a good player he can be, against teams that sit deep playing him and Bruno will get us the results.

All that said I will go back to what I said at the start, it was the first game back and certainly no sweeping conclusions can be drawn from that game. DDG isn't a busted flush, Maguire isn't a poor defender, Fred and McTominay will be key players, James will cause havoc against many sides, Martial still has great potential etc etc.

1.) 20 Jun 2020
20 Jun 2020 10:29:35
Bit depressing to hear pundits still grumbling about Utd passing sideways and lacking creativity, after we’ve changed managers four times and spent a trillion pounds. It’s glaringly obvious how important Fernandes is already so hopefully one or two first team signings can make a big difference. Also not keen on why Rashford was shaping ip for the second penalty. Bruno is 3/ 3 and still on the pitch, haven’t we learnt from this need to haggle over who takes them?