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Once the final whistle blew at the St. Mary’s on Sunday, most of us United fans were ecstatic, screaming at the top of our voices and going gaga over Van Persie. But at the end of the day, that injury time winner succeeded in not only giving every United fan a very sore throat but also a long thought over what was a really sub-par performance from the team.
Going 2-1 down to Southampton is not even the biggest issue, neither is the fact that we have conceded 5 goals in our last 3 games. No, I’m speaking about the one area of the team that is screaming for some help but Sir Alex seems to be oblivious about. If you haven’t guessed it yet, I don’t blame you; after all they were almost invisible against Southampton. It’s our brilliant midfield, the same midfield that needed a 37-year-old former retiree to come on and save the day as Van Persie himself alluded.
Michael Carrick, who was to run the game from midfield, seemed to be still recovering from his deployment in defense as he kept taking up dreadful positions, playing far too deep even for his own standards. While Tom Cleverley, for all his hard work, just could not match up to Southampton’s midfield trio who closed him down the moment he made a charge forward. So poor were we in midfield that Southampton’s 17-year-old midfielder, James Ward-Prowse, who was making only his 3rd start for the club was more influential in my opinion.
I’m not deriding our midfield or trying to ruin the memory of Sir Alex’s 1000th game. But lets face the fact, for almost 80 minutes we were outplayed by a team who just won promotion from The Championship. They weren’t spectacular or amazing in midfield, all they did was be organized, disciplined and also run their socks off for 90 minutes.
None of which I saw from either Cleverley, Kagawa or Carrick; even after going a goal down, they seemed incapable of waking up and taking the game to the Saints. While one seemed intent on losing the ball, the other kept getting pushed around like a kid amidst a crowd of bullies and finally Carrick seemed to have gone back to the days of forgetting what a forward pass is.
Carrick and Cleverley were inept in midfield
While on paper the combination of the Cleverley and Carrick with Kagawa ahead seems perfect, and so it should be on the pitch too if you ask me but unfortunately they all sucked against Southampton. But it wasn’t just down to all 3 having a bad day in the office, the matter were compounded by other factors.
Well, for one Carrick for all his great attributes seems to lack the authority to take control of a game from midfield and while Cleverley is one who can push the team to play more quickly and dictate the tempo, but having Carrick sit so deep and play short passes meant that each time he took a step forward and turned around to distribute to Carrick, we just went two steps back. Kagawa, who can rip apart any defense when playing in the gap between the defense and midfield was resorting to coming deep to get the ball but unfortunately that didn’t work either because Southampton were all over him the moment he got possession of the ball. It was basically Kagawa’s welcome to the Premier League game!
All this was just made worse by Danny Welbeck’s urge to drift inside and play, which meant Van Persie kept going wide to offer some width. But all it resulted in in the end was that Southampton’s back four were rarely stretched. The only time we looked threatening was when we attacked down the right flank with Valencia and Rafael and that was what yielded the first goal too.
At the end of the day, they would have not struggled as much as they did if we had played a proper left winger. Because Danny Welbeck kept drifting inwards, Southampton were able to congest the midfield and make passing the ball a difficult task and meanwhile our disarray in the middle of the park also meant when they were on the attack, we were all over the place and gave them ample time and space to build attacks patiently.
The proof that my above statements are true is in how we suddenly got back into the game when Scholes, Nani and Hernandez came on. This was because, in them, United had a player who could control the tempo, a winger who actually stayed out wide and a striker who was playing off the last defender and causing Southampton to sit deep.
United’s super-subs.
So even when Southampton decided to sacrifice their best attackers to bolster the defense, we were still able to break through what in my opinion is truly nothing more than a mediocre defense. A back four that should have been in tatters before the 1st half ended but instead we gave them a comfortable ride for 80 minutes.
The knockdown effects of Danny Welbeck’s positional ill-discipline was that we were overrun by Southampton but Sir Alex made the right changes in the nick of time to allow us to come away with 3 points. Maybe, that was how his 1000th game had to be played out, needing 3 super substitutions to salvage victory from the jaws of defeat.
But I worry what will happen the next time we decide to play with a team so very unbalanced, because the chances that a comeback like this will happen again are less and to play a game hoping for a miracle every time is nothing more than waiting for a disaster to happen.
