Analysis of the goals conceded against Manchester United (4/3)

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Rooney’s goal – Rooney makes a run ahead of Walker, and meets Young’s corner to score from close range.

Walker’s headed clearance from a United free kick loops into the air, and Friedel seems to slightly misjudge his position. The ball is seemingly going over the bar, but he elects to punch it over to make sure.

As the corner is about to be taken, Kyle Walker has a close eye on Rooney.

Walker seems to be paying more attention to Rooney than the ball but, as the kick is taken, Rooney makes a burst ahead of him.

That tiny bit of movement is enough to get him a yard of space, and so he is able to make the header largely unchallenged.

The ball is past Friedel before he can react.

Young’s first goal – Spurs are caught out defensively by a quick throw-in, and Nani runs clear. His cross is partially blocked by Kaboul, and then half-cleared by Walker, but runs through to Young who acrobatically scissor-kicks home.

Phil Jones takes a quick throw-in to Nani. Modric has failed to mark properly, meaning that Nani has a free run in behind.

Our defenders do relatively well to close off the options…

…and Nani takes a chance in just feeding the ball across goal. Kaboul manages to half-block the ball, and the deflection takes it beyond Friedel.

Kyle Walker should hack this away with his left foot, but is presumably worried about slicing the ball on the goal line, so attempts to clear with his stronger right foot.

Unfortunately his weak clearance comes straight out to Young. He still has an awful lot to do, with not much goal to aim at and the ball at an awkward height. He manages to scissor-kick the ball into the bottom corner, leaving Friedel no chance.

Young’s second goal – Spurs are caught pushing too many players forward at once, and as Evra charges down the left, he finds Young beyond our midfield. He is given time to line up a shot, and finds the far corner.

United have possession at the back, with little pressure on the ball. It is played wide to Evra, who has space to push on.

Evra charges forward, unchallenged, and is able to slide a pass in to Young, who has got beyond our midfield. Kaboul is wary of Welbeck making a run in behind, so cannot instantly come out to press the ball.

As Young advances and winds up to shoot, Kaboul makes a late charge…

But unfortunately it is too little, too late, and Young picks out the far corner in some style.

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  1. Hmmm.
    Textbook three times then...
  2. Busy day at the office again Windy and there was I thinking you were joining the ranks of the unemployed.
    Rooney actually makes an extra yard by moving back before the corner. Walker goes with him and Rooney has two yards to move into.
    The second is a complete cock up with Modric thinking that BAE will go with Nani who until that point had been innocuous.
    But as we know it only takes a second.
    Good performance but only in the areas that Man.Utd.allowed.
  3. In retrospect, it may have been better to have Saha as the spearhead with Ade on the right and Lennon on the left, allowing Modric to be in the middle and so able to pull the Utd defence around.
    For the second goal, no one from the midfield was tracking the three incoming Utd players. Our midfielders still don't protect our back four enough.
    Sweetsman
  4. I suspect this was one that Harry had a mind for Sandro and Parker weeks ago, the fact he lost parker the week before may have changed that, but livermore played well in recent weeks and i guess harry felt he'd proved capable of doing the job (and to be fair i think he was proved right).

    However playing on the left no longer suits modric and perhaps kranjcar on the left and modric playing the vdv role would have worked but we'll never know, all we can say is these guys played well but had 3 lapses of concentration against a team that unlike most will take every oppurtunity.

    We at least know what to improve and unlike the spurs of 10 years ago, its not a problem that cant be solved on the training pitch

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