Manchester United 2-1 Watford: 5 Talking Points & Tactical Analysis

Manchester United triumphed Watford by a margin of 2-1 at Old Trafford yesterday courtesy of goals in either half from Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial respectively.

It can be argued that Watford were more dominant and creative when compared to United, but the Red Devils managed to snatch a victory through sheer equanimity at the end.

Abdoulaye Doucoure scored a goal in the closing stages of the match, and Watford had a chance to equalize through a Roberto Pereyra free-kick in the final minute.

However, they failed to do so and had to succumb to a defeat as the final whistle blew shortly after that. Here, we analyze the major talking points and analyze certain instrumental junctures from the match.

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#5: Watford narrow in possession, Ole’s team fails to use the wings

Abdoulaye Doucoure had a good game, overall.

Watford were straightaway ambitious in possession from the kickoff and managed to cause United many troubles in the initial part of the game.

They played in a unique 4-2-2-2 formation and hence there was a sense of narrowness in their entire gameplay, where they didn’t move the ball to the wider areas and rather concentrated on breaking the midfield lines through some slick passing.

The duo of Abdoulaye Doucoure and Etienne Capoue didn’t just shield their backline, as they were the initiation point of many attacking moves as well. Nemanja Matic and Paul Pogba were just not industrious enough to deal with the tenacity that Watford brought to the table.

Will Hughes too played in the inside right wing channel and made some good runs into the box, playing one-touch passes on the move and thereby causing chaos inside United’s box. The home team had set up narrowly too, with Anthony Martial and Marcus Rashford leading the line and Juan Mata played in the hole behind the two strikers.

This way, they sort conceded the wings too, which they could have utilized to greater effect whilst dealing with Watford’s gameplay. There wasn’t much switch of play from United’s perspective either, except Nemanja Matic trying it a couple of times.

The Hornets were way too diligent, compact and efficient in possession, hence oppressing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side for the major portion of both halves.

#4: Individual brilliance shines through; both goals come against the run of play

Luke Shaw changed the game for his team.

Except for a few moments of controlled possession near Watford’s box, United were chasing the ball for quite a long time in the game.

However, Watford too, weren’t consistent with their shape when they moved ahead, as all of their players seemed to be caught off-guard whenever someone like Juan Mata or in this particular instance, Luke Shaw, got hold of the ball.

For the first goal, Shaw brilliantly recovered deep inside his own half and steered ahead with good pace. Marcus Rashford spotted this and managed to get behind Watford’s backline through a diagonal run of sorts.

He then asked Shaw for a pass, quite an ambitious one, but the left-back delivered it with utmost perfection, with the appropriate curve, trajectory and weight on the ball to cross almost three Hornets’ players before landing on Rashford’s right foot.

The striker kept his calm, and merely placed the ball behind the back of the net as Ben Foster had advanced a bit too much to intimidate Rashford. For the second goal, there was some composure with the ball from United’s perspective, but the goal came as a result of some really weird mix-up inside Watford’s box, through which Anthony Martial shot in a ball from a very short distance.

Now between these two goals, United hardly had a period of dominance, and hence it could well truly be said that both of them came against the natural run of play.

Watford surely lacked some more incisiveness or composure in their offensive moves, as David de Gea was able enough to thwart most of whatever came into his way.

#3: Some bright spots from a rather dull performance by Manchester United

Juan Mata dropped in an impressive display.

Let’s be clear, United certainly weren’t optimizing their potential yesterday and that is something that we will discuss about in the further slides. However, it is important to note that there were certain performances that were the difference, which showed in the eventual scoreboard yesterday.

Firstly, Luke Shaw was outstanding. For quite some time now, Hughes has been a menace from that right-wing for Watford but Shaw was able to shut it out effectively well. He tackled, intercepted and blocked the ball once during the game.

Shaw made five clearances at crucial junctures though, which stopped the ball from making its way inside the box. Lastly, his assist was beyond sumptuous, as the pass had class written all over it. Just the pace and accuracy with which it was released, and how it landed perfectly where it was supposed to, was pleasing to see.

Secondly, Marcus Rashford delivered a fitting performance too. Noting how United failed to dominate the flanks, the 21-year-old stretched the Hornets’ backline and often shifted wider to attempt a cutback at one of his teammates. On one of the occasions, Foster had gotten out of his way and there was an open goal to shoot at if any of the other players would have arrived at the end of Rashford’s pass. Neither Martial nor Mata managed to do that and in this way, United faltered a very good chance.

Juan Mata played very well in the hole, the number 10 position as well. He displayed his passing acumen and vision by releasing both Martial and Rashford on some occasions. The Spaniard was quick to recover and attempt a pass breaking Watford’s defensive and midfield lines in quick succession. Again, the 30-year-old showed how he is most efficient and creative whilst playing in his preferred central attacking midfield role.

#2: Watford might feel hard done by at the end

Javi Gracia had drawn out the perfect plan.

To be fair, United got through in the end through a great piece of individual brilliance and Watford’s lack of composure in both ends of the box. I say this because; the Hornets were clearly the better team in terms of working with the possession.

They were much more direct, creative and constantly knocked the door to breach United’s resilience. Each of their outfield players had their plans and targets set on the field and managed to constantly achieve that for a long period of time in the game.

Troy Deeney led the forward line to perfection, as he wandered around at some times in search of recovering the ball as their team pressed collectively whenever a certain United player was caught alone in possession of the ball.

They looked to press their adversaries in packs and were quick and agile enough to dominate the duo of Matic and Pogba in central midfield. They definitely had a definite, set game plan that they had decided to follow, to specifically target the weaker points of United’s setup.

Javi Gracia deserves applause for the same. Roberto Pereyra delivered an incredible performance, though his goal-drought continued here again. However, he was quite precise with his passes, finally delivering around four of them throughout the course of the game.

Despite their immense performance, Watford might just feel hard done by the cruel nature of the game, as United’s level-headedness in both ends of the pitch allowed them to snatch three points out of this game.

#1: Manchester United need to improve a lot

Manchester United might have managed to sneak in a victory eventually but these sorts of performances cannot continue if they are to get through this difficult period of two months.

Come the business end of the season, Ole’s team is in for a tough race for the top four spots and the match against FC Barcelona awaits them too. Starting off, Pogba was definitely not up to the expected level of performances yesterday.

The more worrying factor is that this kind of inconsistency seems to have become regular with him as the Frenchman’s tendency to go off-guard after a burst of good displays tend to hamper the entire balance of the team.

For a player with his talent, consistency and importance, dropping in a 3/10 performance for two-three weeks in a row is simply unacceptable. Matic seems to have been following the same pattern this season as the Serbian has failed to get back to his best after suffering an injury before facing Liverpool in February.

Since then, he has not looked comfortable whilst screening the defensive line and seems to get overpowered and outrun by any group of midfielders in front of him.

Only Ander Herrera is someone who can be banked upon to be tenacious, diligent and appropriate with the given task but this sort of dependency of certain tasks on specific individuals just would not help a team of United’s calibre and potential.

The reason the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City have been consistent throughout the season is the fact that their midfield knows how to collectively carry out the required tasks, something that United don’t seem to be doing right now.