Aston Villa 0 Manchester United 1
It’s Dutch pattern football, played strictly.
Very precise and technical, wingers waiting wide and high, keeping the shape, not giving the ball away in silly areas.
United were leading 1-0 at half-time after a nice goal by Januzaj, who started in the No.10 role.
At HT co-commentator Gary Neville made the Understatement of the Season: “It’s not been a great first half, in terms of quality.”
Rooney has been told to stay up top and wait for chances.
He hardly got a kick.
In 73 a Mata crossfield ball released Memphis and the 21-year old did the right thing.
He side-footed the ball first time across Brad Guzan…but wide of the far post.
By September he’ll be slotting those.
Commentator wrapped it up: “It’s not been a swashbuckling Manchester United performance.”
The Theatre of Dreams tends to want more momentum and balls into the box, rather than always such tidy passes to feet.
But King Louis doesn’t play that way. He wants to see a very controlled game with few mistakes.
Reminds me of a young Dutch couple I met on a family holiday in the Algarve. He worked in computers and they didn’t have kids yet and he watched Arsenal on TV to see Bergkamp and Overmars.
He said, “In England the crowd cheers when you hit a shot over the bar. In Holland we see that as a mistake.”
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PS: I wrote the above on the final whistle.
Then saw some of the post-match after watching TV cook Rick Stein.
DWIGHT YORKE saw the game as I did.
Dwight said, “What we all expected was the old United way. We all like to see that free-flowing football with the likes of Giggsy and Becks running down the wing. You get one goal, you get two goals, and so on.
“I’m afraid, with this manager, that is likely not to happen. So we ‘ve got to get used to it.”
GRAEME SOUNESS said, “I don’t think he can win this league, and you can’t win the Champions League, playing like that.”