Paul Pogba says that Manchester United knew how to hurt Spurs after their 0-1 victory at Wembley.
It was a game of contrasting halves at Wembley on Sunday evening. A goal on the counter-attack from Marcus Rashford after Pogba released him on the right flank with a perfectly weighted ball opened Man Utd’s account before the break.
United approached this game slightly differently than they had for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s previous games in charge of the club. The Red Devils started with a diamond formation that had Rashford and Anthony Martial playing slightly wider than usual in attack.
The Red Devils dropped their high press from previous games and were set up to hit Spurs on the counter. Pogba says they knew exactly how to hurt them. “We knew we could hurt them like this (releasing Rashford and Martial quickly). They are very good on the ball.”
“It’s a great ball [to set up Rashford’s goal], but we’ve been training on this,” Pogba told Sky Sports.
“We knew that was the weakness of Tottenham. We needed to attack on the opposite side, that’s what we did and we scored a goal. We knew it would be very difficult, we knew we could hurt them on the counter.”
The second half was an entirely different affair as United found themselves hanging on for much of the game after Spurs peppered them with wave after wave of attacks.
Since the start of last season, De Gea is the only goalkeeper to make 10+ saves and keep a clean sheet in a single Premier League game.
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United seamed exhausted after all the running they did in the first half. Harry Kane and Dele Alli will be kicking themselves after this game, as they had multiple opportunities to take advantage of the Red Devils after the break. But David de Gea was simply unbeatable between the sticks, saving United’s bacon 11 times before the final whistle.
Manchester United have won their last five games in the Premier League under Solskjaer and have now drawn level with Arsenal with 41 points after 22 games.
United have a fairly easy run of fixtures in the league to close out January. They play Brighton & Hove Albion at Old Trafford next Saturday.
The post Paul Pogba: Man Utd knew how to hurt Spurs appeared first on Squawka News.
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