Last night saw a rare comfortable victory for Manchester United. The final home game of the season had something of a testimonial feel with players such as Juan Mata, Nemanja Matic and Phil Jones playing their final games in front of the Old Trafford crowds. Here are five things that we learnt watching the Red Devils put three past Brentford.
Juan Mata Swansong
What a difference in performance levels we saw last night compared to against Chelsea. Night and day. What was the change that was made. Juan Mata played from the start and he actually played in his position. For years now we have seen the Spaniard being unfavoured at the club and played on the right wing. However, last night reminded all of us what a class player he actually is. He was linking up the play exceptionally well and creating some decent chances. One of those being the assist for Ronaldo that got chalked off for being offside. Again all of this was highly surprising given how absent he has been from the starting XI recently. I think it is right for his time at Manchester United to come to an end. However, he is by no means done and hopefully he can get himself a good move somewhere he can thrive.
Ronaldo is not the problem
Last night Cristiano Ronaldo showed everyone why he is one of the greatest players of all time. We all know that his goal-scoring instincts are fantastic and his record speaks for itself. Against Brentford though, he showed that he can still put in an all-round brilliant performance. He had everything to his game. Tracking back and making challenges on the edge of United’s box. His movement in the final third next level. He was even busting out some of his signature flicks and tricks. There is speculation as to whether Cristiano will be a part of the plans for next season. However, if the Portuguese forward can continue to put in performances like that, I would be very surprised if he was not a part of Erik ten Hag’s plans.
Control
Controlling a game was one of the key things that Ralf Rangnick talked about when he arrived at Manchester United. And how many times can we say that we have actually seen that control in games? Nowhere near as often as was needed. Yet last night, we did see that level of control. With 64% possession and a pass success rate of 91% the Red Devils were in control for near enough the full 90 minutes. Getting an early goal will always help that level of control over a game, as with the case here with Bruno Fernandes ending his goal drought with a fantastic one touch finish from Anthony Elanga’s cross in the opening 10 minutes.
What also helps that level of control is keeping a clean sheet. However that has been such a rarity for this team. The last time we kept a clean sheet was when we drew 0-0 with Watford in February. The last time we won with a clean sheet was the 2-0 victory against ten-man Brighton earlier that month. Against Brentford, both Lindelof and Varane had very solid games defensively. Almost quiet at times. And that is exactly what we want from a centre-back partnership. Granted, it was only Brentford, however they still posed a threat at times with deadly balls into the box from the likes of Christian Eriksen. And the back four, along with a few big saves from de Gea kept the Brentford attack out of the goals.
Attacking movement
Throughout the game Manchester United got a lot of joy from running in behind. The Brentford backline allowed quite a lot of space behind at times, and the pace of our attacking players exploited this opportunity. The first goal was a perfect example of this. Diogo Dalot put in a good ball over the top. Elanga looked like he wasn’t going to get to it before it went out. However, we saw something that has been lacking from a lot of players this season, desire. The young forward showed a bit of hunger and put in massive shift to get to the ball and put in a fantastic cross back across the box for Bruno Fernandes to rocket the ball into the back of the net.
There were several other instances of this attacking fluidity and movement paying off. The Ronaldo goal that was ruled out for offside being another example. The run that Ronaldo made that won his penalty again another instance of pace in behind paying off. It sounds so simple and something that isn’t exactly re-inventing the wheel. However, with the poor levels that this United team has been operating at lately, these simple tactics being executed well are a welcome surprise.
Too little too late
It is very hard to look at this game in isolation and be overly happy about it. The nature of this game being the final home game of the season offers a very reflective feel to this match. Whilst we saw a good performance and a comfortable win for Manchester United, the questions have to turn to why we haven’t seen similar performances earlier in the season. To be clear, I don’t even mean against the top teams, not to excuse those performances but anyone can get torn apart by these Liverpool or Man City teams. I refer to those teams like Watford, Everton, Norwich, Burnley. All fighting relegation and we either dropped points or won very unconvincingly. Why were we only able to perform as we should’ve done when it meant nothing. Yes it was good for the fans to see a solid performance for the final home game of the season but it would’ve been better for the fans to see these performances all season. This is something that will have to change under ten Hag.