Man United 1-2 Swansea: 5 things we learned from the Premier League opener Louis van Gaals reign as Manchester United manager got off to a rocky start with an opening-day loss to Swansea. Goals from Ki Seung Yeung and Gylfi Sigurdsson either side of Wayne Rooneys second-half strike secured the win for Garry Monks side. Disappointed Van Gaal said after the game: We never played as a team. Thats our error. But what else did we learn from the the opening 90 minutes of the season? Heres Siya with five things. The new guy(s) Perception is so important in football. If, in the late, troubled days of David Moyes’ reign he had gone into a game with Ashley Young and Jesse Lingard as his wing-backs, people would have assumed this was him putting pencils up his nostrils and pants on his head in Captain Blackadder’s time-honoured plea of insanity. If Louis van Gaal does it in the first game of his brave new era then it is instead a touch of genius, or at least it is seen as thus, and the Dutchman’s reputation for brave calls and faith in youth preceded him. Indeed, as many Sunday paper intros will remind us tomorrow, Sir Alex Ferguson was once famously warned that “you’ll never win anything with kids,” but the Iron Tulip has spent his entire career trying to disprove that. He handed debuts to most of Barcelona’s greatest-ever players. He won Ajax a Champions League with the youngest average age ever. Tyler Blackett and Jesse Lingard were only used out of necessity today but the reception to their inclusion tells you much about how Van Gaal has changed the atmosphere and confidence around Old Trafford. As it turned out, Lingard – who was mostly used on the left of a front three by Birmingham last season – didn’t have the best game. He let Wayne Routledge run across him dangerously for one first-half chance and then conceded a dangerous free-kick before being taken off injured. Yet such is Van Gaal’s aura that what was ostensibly a failed move likely won’t be remembered as such. Wideboys The wing-back switch has been the major feature of Manchester United’s summer with a real focus on the tactical switch made by Louis van Gaal. In the first half of this game we saw the disadvantage of the system as United laboured down the wings. They succeeded in getting the ball to the flanks early and running at the opposition but as soon as Swansea got a second man to help the full-back, the hosts were outnumbered and Adnan Januzaj in particular found himself being encased in a 2-on-1 and forced to try and create a magic moment from nothing. In the second half, having switched to a 4-2-3-1, Januzaj found himself both closer to goal and far less isolated – which resulted in him winning the corner for United’s equaliser. Flying Swans Garry Monk is one of the leading contenders in this season’s sack race, presumably for his lack of managerial experience and unfancied taste in bodywarmers. But he played it perfectly at Old Trafford today, pressing his wingers high behind United’s wingbacks and getting his combative midfield two right on top of Ander Herrera and Darren Fletcher. He was helped by captain Ashley Williams having a superb game at the heart of the defence, but every little touch that he had planned ended up paying off, especially in nullifying the hosts’ threat from wide positions and keeping Juan Mata’s influence to a minimum. A manager has just three substitutions and none of his were wasted. Dwight Tiendalli brought fresh legs into the full-back area at a time when the yellow-carded Neil Taylor was being taunted by Januzaj. Jefferson Montero put the onus back on the United defence by injecting even more speed into the Swansea attack and then Bafetimbi Gomis provided energy and distraction to pin back the Red Devils in the later stages. Monk will face tougher times this season but he deserves a success that was planned and executed perfectly. Threedom Man United’s back three was always going to be a test of the defenders in the squad. British players, like most of Europe, are brought up playing in flat-back fours and with three English centre-backs featuring from the start there was an opportunity for Swansea City to take advantage of any uncertainty in the new areas that Phil Jones, Chris Smalling and Tyler Blackett were finding themselves in. The ability of Wayne Routledge and Nathan Dyer to stretch the United backline was key in putting pressure on the hosts, unbalancing them an preventing them from dominating the game. Then the introduction of speedster Jefferson Montero further served to trouble the tip-toeing defenders, who looked like they might need that three months that Van Gaal has been talking about… Herr and now Ander Herrera had been one of the more impressive performers on Manchester United’s tour of the United States and the Old Trafford faithful were looking forward to seeing him strut his stuff for the first time. But the Spaniard failed to make any significant impact in his first Premier League game, with Ki Seung Yeung getting on top of him early and the former Athletic Club man never really impressing himself upon proceedings. The Basque midfielder will undoubtedly have his day as a United player but his maiden appearance in English football was hardly one to remember.
Posted on: Sat, 16 Aug 2014 14:30:59 +0000
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