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MOTD: Manchester United 0-1 Southampton

By on January 11, 2015

Old Trafford may be one of the only places where you can see Angel Di Maria start a move, Juan Mata then nutmeg his marker, Michael Carrick scoop a lovely pass out wide to Antonio Valencia, and then… Phil Jones waste the chance by bulldozing the ball straight out of play. Southampton didn’t dominate today’s match as in the reverse fixture earlier this season, quite the opposite in fact, but set up to frustrate United. The finishing that won the game for United in December was lacking for United tonight and Ronald Koeman won his tactical battle with Louis Van Gaal. In the end, it was a defensive mishap that lead to Southampton’s sole goal of the match.

Van Gaal should pin the loss more on his attack than anything else. United saw 60% of the ball and had ten shots, but not even one found the target. Juan Mata missed three of United’s few big chances, however, United for the most part struggled in even creating chances. Southampton pressed high throughout the match, Jose Fonte was brilliant at making that last ditch poke for the visitors, but United simply seemed out of ideas in the final third – more often than not their attacks just fizzled away. What United were lacking was a defense that could cover up when United’s attack failed them. United started with their fifteenth different back-line so far this season, a back three, but changed it multiple times throughout the match.

Meanwhile, Southampton, who have so often been exuberant in going forward, were quite the opposite in sitting back. Ryan Bertrand and Nathaniel Clyne were cautious in pushing up the pitch, and their forwards and midfielders were disciplined in getting back following counter-attacks. In every way it was much the opposite of the reverse fixture and how been accustomed to seeing each side play recently.

United hardly carved a chance of note in the first half despite piling the pressure on; Angel Di Maria dragged a low effort wide from twenty-five yards early on and saw Fraser Forster block his cross-turned-shot later in the first period but Southampton weathered the storm. In the early stages of the second half the story was much the same, with Robin Van Persie finding space for a shot fifteen yards out only for Florin Gardos to get back and block the shot. And then came the mistake. United were all in a jumble as the ball came down on the edge of their box and Dusan Tadic got on it, fed it wide to Graziano Pelle, and was there to capitalize on the rebound of Pelle’s low effort off the base of the right-hand post with a cool side-footed finish.

The match began to stretch and United finally saw decent chances – Mata had an all but open goal at the far post from Fraser Forster’s tip of Daley Blind’s cross, only to see his low effort slice wide of the left-hand post – but failed to finish. Just moments after his first big chance Mata saw another, yet missed the target entirely in miles of space six yards out from Blind’s bouncing cross. Five minutes later, eighty-three minutes in, the ball fell nicely to Mata on the edge of the box, but once again his side volley flew wide of the post. And bar those three chances, United hardly looked very threatening at all, with Southampton breaking yet another club’s long losing streak at Old Trafford, posting their first win since 1988.
Man of the Match: Jose Fonte

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.