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

#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.