Manchester United have a great record against Southampton.
The last time the Red Devils lost at St. Marys’, Tom Cleverley and Jose Kleberson
partnered in midfield.
However, despite coming into Saturday afternoon’s early kick-off on the south coast as the game’s overwhelming favourites, it has been the home team who started the better.
Despite dominating play, both centrally and out wide, Southampton have found themselves trailing after Matthijs De Ligt opened the scoring just before the half-time break.
The Dutch centre-back scored just minutes after Cameron Archer missed a penalty following a foul inside the box from Diogo Dalot. Scoreline aside though, Russell Martin’s Saints were unlucky not have been leading after 25 minutes.
One passage of play in particular saw United carved open. Left-back Kyle Walker-Peters squeezed his way into the Red Devils’ box, and had it not have been for a poor final pass, could have helped fire the Saints into a shock first-half lead.
Erik Ten Hag fumes at Manchester United duo
And relaying Erik Ten Hag’s reaction to the piece of play’s build-up, TNT Sports pundit Joe Cole, who spoke live at the game’s 20-minute mark, said: “He’s bounced straight up and he’s got hold of [Christian] Eriksen and [Kobbie] Mainoo.
“It looked like he was he was saying ‘get a bit tighter together’, you know, because I think there’s still a bit of space in between them that Southampton are capitalising in midfield.”
Ten Hag’s surprising decision to start Eriksen ahead of Casemiro or new signing Manuel Ugarte was one of the game’s biggest talking points prior to kick off.
Although, at the time of the writing, there is still an hour left to play, it does seem like the Dutchman’s tactical plans are at risk of backfiring.
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