Sky Sports pundit Paul Merson tells Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag to “learn how to shut up shop”. (Photo by Bryn Lennon/Getty Images)
Paul Merson believes that Manchester United could drop points against Tottenham Hotspur
Football pundit Paul Merson, while speaking to Sportskeeda (h/t The Express) believes that Manchester United could lose their first points of the new season in the upcoming game against Tottenham Hotspur.
The Red Devils were lacklustre in their 1-0 win over Wolverhampton Wanderers in their season opener and appeared ill-prepared for the match.
Still, the fact that it was a home game where Wolves dominated us for a large portion is worrying. Had they taken their chances, we might as well have had to settle for a loss.
Manchester United were lacklustre against Wolverhampton Wanderers (Photo by Stu Forster/Getty Images)
Merson believes that if United end up playing in a similar manner as they did against Wolves, they could drop points in their away game to Spurs. Tottenham are rebuilding but look dangerous under Ange Postecoglou.
“If Manchester United play like they did last week, they won’t win.
But that’s the thing about United; they are often not at their best and still manage to win. They’ll be a lot more solid this weekend against Spurs than they were against Wolves.”
“That being said, they are likely to do well against United as the Red Devils look like they’re a fair bit away from settling down or hitting their stride. I’m going for a 2-2 draw.”
It is indeed true that we would need to raise our level of performance to stand any chance of winning against Spurs. They looked impressive under new manager Ange Postecoglou in their 2-2 draw against Brentford.
Manchester United manager Erik Ten Hag would be hopeful of a better performance against Tottenham Hotspur (Photo by Charles McQuillan/Getty Images)
The way Spurs will approach the game would be very different to the team that we have been used to playing over the past few seasons.
They would play with a back four and would bring the game to United rather than sit back and wait for the counter attack, which was quite glaring in the plays of Antonio Conte and even Jose Mourinho.
It would be an open game that could result in plenty of goals and an exciting one to watch for the neutrals. Hopefully, Erik Ten Hag has been able to work on patterns that could come in handy against Spurs.
One of the major aspects of the performance against Wolves was the lack of involvement of Marcus Rashford, our star goalscorer from last season and it would be wise to bring him back to his favoured left side.
Anthony Martial could come in for Alejandro Garnacho while the midfield balance also needs to be taken care of. It would be interesting to see how United approaches the game against an opposition where we have done fairly well against in the past.
With the right preparation and application, we can hopefully prove Merson wrong.
Yuvraj Singh
