Manchester United 1-1 Southampton: Saints break United hearts at the death
A match against Southampton at Old Trafford is like a walk in the park, or is it? Manchester United continued on the line of its worst start in two decades to manage a meagre draw at home turf and there was nothing new provided by David Moyes to change this. Kagawa was again left a spectator as he has been most of this season and a poor show by Rooney was enough to leave the home crowd yet again frustrated.
TEAM LINEUPS –
Manchester United (4-4-1-1) : De Gea, Rafael, Jones, Evans, Evra, Nani, Carrick, Fellaini, Januzaj, Rooney, Van Persie
Southampton (4-2-3-1) : Boruc, Clyne, Fonte, Lovren, Shaw, Wanyama, Schneiderlin, Davis, Lallana, Rodriguez, Osvaldo
A LOOK AT THE GOALS –
Manchester United fielded an attacking line up with Van Persie again leading from the front as he scored in the 26thminute of the match to take his tally in EPL to 4 goals. An accurate through ball from Adnan Januzaj, who has been in tremendous form lately, found Rooney one-on-one with the Goalkeeper. While he couldn’t put the ball in the net himself, RVP was there to help and slotted home with ease.
Southampton had a balanced line up and it showed towards the end when they were able to string together some good passes to lead them to an attacking position. A corner kick resulted in United’s heartbreak as Southampton displayed some brilliant movement in the box to leave Utd’s defenders chasing shadows. Dejan Lovren was the man who finally netted the ball at 89th minute after some hustling inside the box.
SAME OLD, SAME OLD!
Southampton was more than happy to field the same side against Manchester United which they have been using so far with the exception of Ricky Lambert.
But the heading’s credit goes to the decisions taken by Moyes which had a familiar look to it. Kagawa, Again on the bench…… Fellaini, Again picked(they did not have much choice there to be frank)……… Moyes, Again making irrational substitutions…….And the over-dependence of UTD on Van Persie. This has what has been the season so far for United and there are no signs of improvement as of yet. But, it was good to see a fresh pair of centre-backs namely, Jones and Evans, in place of Vidic and Ferdinand.
Rooney – Januzaj: Contradicting stories
Rooney was just losing the ball far too easily. It was definitely not one of his best outings as he looked completely out of sorts and Victor Wanyama was his chief tormentor. Wanyama, the surprisingly economic buy at 12 million has been the chief reason for Southampton’s mean defence this season.
While Januzaj enjoyed a fine afternoon and looked comfortable on the ball, he also played an important role in the only goal United scored. His good form continued and he was the sole reason Manchester United did not fully lose the midfield battle today. Nani was another bright spark as he continued his remarkable improvement in form. His balls into the box were much more precise than usual and his tenacity was definitely there for everyone to see.
All in all, Manchester United v/s Southampton resulted in a 1-1 draw with both the teams sharing equal points. So, was this a glimpse of the dark future of United or is it the calm before the storm that Moyes can unleash, we leave this for the readers to decide.