EFL Cup 2016/17 Final: Manchester United 3-2 Southampton, 5 talking points
It took a late winner from Zlatan Ibrahimovic to seal the deal for Manchester United at Wembley, who managed to beat Southampton 3-2 to win the 5th league cup in their history. The Red Devils went 2-0 up thanks to goals from the Swedish striker and Jesse Lingard, but the Saints levelled it with a brace from Manolo Gabbiadini who scored on either sides of the half-time break.
Also Read: EFL Cup 2016/17 Final: Manchester United 3-2 Southampton, Player Ratings
Ultimately, it was left to United’s star forward, who is now the highest goal scorer in England this season, to head the ball home after a brilliant cross from Ander Herrera. The win not only saw Manchester United overtake Liverpool as the country’s most successful domestic club with 42 trophies, but also placed Jose Mourinho in the company of Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough as the only manager to have won four league cup trophies.
Here are the 5 things we learnt from the game:
#1 Fatigue is taking its toll
No matter how expensively assembled your squad is, it is always a mammoth challenge to deal with playing in four different competitions at the same time. Manchester United have been doing just that, and the results have been pretty satisfying so far.
They are 6th in the league, but are only five points away from 2nd place and are in the Round of 16 of the Europa League as well. The way United’s midfield got run over by Steven Davis and Oriol Romeu last night pointed clearly to the fact that exhaustion had set in, as the Red Devils had to play four games since the last time Southampton played theirs.
Mourinho summed it up succinctly when he said that the win meant he has one less competition to worry about. The coming few weeks will see them face Bournemouth in the league, FC Rostov in the Europa League, and Chelsea in the FA Cup, things are only going to get tougher and it will be interesting to see how Mourinho copes with it.