Manchester United are becoming a multi-faceted football team
Under Erik ten Hag, United know more than one way to win
In the Premier League a game is never truly won till the final whistle is blown
That might sound like a very cliched, ex-pro commentator way of putting things but to help contextualise this sentence I’ll leave it up to one of the greatest football managers to ever exist to sum things up,
*taken directly from a clip of him giving a half-time remonstration in the Amazon documentary Tottenham: All or Nothing*
Jose Mourinho: In England? Two Zero even with 5 minutes left? It’s not safe
A game can turn in an instant, is the point I’m making.
This is exactly what has happened to Manchester United on both occasions they have played Crystal Palace this season. A game at Old Trafford on Saturday looked to be a sure-fire three points with the Red Devils pretty much cruising toward victory and closing the game out comfortably.
Then a random melee occurred when Antony’s attempts to bite back at a shove by Jeffrey Schlupp got both teams involved in handbags. Shirts were pulled, necks were grabbed. the crowd roared and in the ensuing aftermath Casemiro was sent off.
United’s cement that was helping them blissfully lay the bricks had disappeared, and the wall almost came crashing down
The Brazilian’s sending off was the cue for Palace to suddenly be zapped by the defibrillator and remember they have a number of players who can hurt any Premier League team, it helped too that the perpetrator that caused the melee in Schlupp poked in a close range effort from a corner a mere five or six minutes after Casemiro’s red card.
Palace laid siege to United’s goal, attacking in throngs. spurred on by the numerical advantage. I watched the game live and then watched it back to write this, it was doubly nerve-wracking the second time. It really was a backs to the wall defensive performance for the last 15 minutes and United survived.
It wasn’t even as if in that pressure cooker of a quarter of an hour there was much respite or relief to get up the pitch, it was 4-4-1 and very obvious the game plan was ‘See out the last 15 minutes and deal with attacks’.
Marcel Sabitzer came on for his Manchester United debut and his task for 15 minutes was to join the deep back line and defend, United kept the ball in Palace’s half for all of 1 minute after Schlupp’s goal.
It invited pressure but also spoke of the guts and sheer balls that this United side has developed with Ten Hag at the helm. Unafraid and confident in the fact that they would ride the storm and see out the win as the ball kept going wide to Olise and flung in dangerously. Bruno Fernandes in the 87th minute was defending Mateta who attempted to aim his header goal-wards, he didn’t win the aerial duel but cheered when he did enough to put the big man off.
United would want to completely avoid situations like this, but throughout the season unforeseen twists and turns regularly occur, the fact that United had it in their locker to quickly adapt to circumstances in the face of looming pressure and take away 3 points is a big plus.
Adapting to circumstances and the peaks and troughs of the season are where a team and manager really show what they’re made of. It is highly unlikely you have all the tools necessary at your disposal in the most rosiest of circumstances.
You’re starting eleven is not going to be available for 90 minutes in 38 games. You’re first choice midfield pairing WILL be disrupted at some point (unless you’re incredibly lucky)
Adapting to situations beyond your control and reacting to when a game state swiftly changes will form a big part of how a season pans out
Antonio Conte speaks of it all the time when referencing his teams ability to ‘suffer’
We can store United’s win vs Palace in the ‘Gritty Wins’ section nestled next to the win vs Everton, Leicester and Southampton where for a certain period United defended a 1 goal lead and came out on top
The Stretford End roaring, sensed the team needed that extra push to get over the line as Lisandro Martinez put in block after block and Rapha Varane cleared 100243 crosses into the box.
I mentioned in an earlier piece (above) how United’s canny ability to pick up wins when the going gets tough was a sign of Ten Hag reviving a spirit of a team that was in tatters last season. A win like that on Saturday is a solidification and recognition of how much this team’s spirit has not only been revived but is now thriving.
There might’ve been other options for Ten Hag in those last 15 minutes, push the players higher and deploy Fred to press, pop the ball into the channel for Rashford to hold it up, don’t invite pressure by putting the defensive line so close to their own goal, but this team has been there and done the defending before and Ten Hag was happy to risk them doing it again.
The 2nd goal is probably one of the goals of the season from a United perspective, moving the opposition around waiting for an overload or space to appear wide before crossing the ball in for a forward to finish when defenders are out of position.
However, the fact that United are able to to have that possession-based, patient second goal in the locker as a result of time on the training ground AND also have the flexibility to shape-shift and defend for their lives when the game throws a curveball at them shows this is a team that knows how to win a football match in more than just one way or the way they would like.
So, you have the possession-based working the ball around the pitch waiting for wide spaces to appear with full-backs/wingers inverting.
The ability to quickly catch opposition cold in transition with Fernandes releasing United’s pacy attackers and, though United would want to avoid the version of themselves against Palace as much as possible, it is a testament to how quickly the steely morale of this team has developed that it wasn’t the first time they had to hang on to see a game out.
You could see how pleased Ten Hag was on the touchline when the referee blew on the 97th minute for United to pick up three points.
He then spoke of United’s mental toughness again:
Ten Hag: ‘Yes, we had some warnings about our team reacting like this, but you have to do it,’
‘You have to protect each other. We can’t cross lines but we have to stick together and stand up for each other.’
United might’ve gotten themselves into a pickle by backing each other up and fighting for each other.
But they also hauled themselves out of a predicament using that same wolfpack mentality.