Abhranil Roy
Manchester United vs West Brom: 3 things we learnt from the game
Manchester United finally scored a Premier League goal as they registered a 2-0 win vs West Bromwich Albion today. The Magpies are a typical Tony Pulis side, who defend well and breakfast, which is shown by the fact that they had 4 clean sheets in their last 5 away games. However, United made sure that that run ended tonight, and here we list 3 things we learnt from the game:
1.United haven’t lost their identity
With Borthwick Jackson getting his senior debut, Jesse Lingard regularly starting. and Andros Pereira on the bench, Manchester United continue to enhance their reputation as a club which nurtures young talent no matter what the cost. Although the Red Devils have spent over 200 million pounds in transfers over the last 2 seasons, yet they have persisted in sticking to youngsters, and it was Jesse Lingard today who repaid that faith, scoring an exquisite goal which was probably a culmination of the run of very good games that he was having recently.
2.United’s defence looks stronger than ever
With the ever reliable Chris Smalling(made 6 interceptions today) growing in stature every day, Manchester United’s defence looks the best in the league at the moment. David De Gea has now gone a total of 555 minutes without conceding a single goal in all competitions, their best run since the 2008/09 season, and it doesn’t seem that there are many teams out there who can end it. The fact that Morgan Schneiderlin hasn’t played in the last 2 games and yet, there has been only a handful of chances created by the opposition just goes to underline our point further.
3.The philosophy is starting to work
Van Gaal was heavily criticised for preaching a slow, dull, possession-based system to the team that is completely opposite to the traditional United way of playing, yet one can’t deny that its finally starting to click.The defence has been very tight, while the offence is looking to settle in now, with Rooney having 2 good games back to back while Martial and Mata both bringing an unpredictability to the attack with their vision, skill and pace. While there is still some way to go before the system is perfected, yet things are starting to look better now!
