Analysis: Sunderland 0 Manchester United 1
Premier League,
Saturday 30th March 2013
Another win, another clean sheet,
and on marched Manchester United towards what now looks like an inevitable 20th
title. This was United’s 25th win out of their 30 league games this
season, a Premier League record. An own goal after good work from Robin van Persie
in the first half proved decisive, and the Reds, in a blue kit, held on to a
satisfying win. Here’s some analysis:
Defence
United’s sixth league clean sheet
in a row was a demonstration of the recent new found defensive security. The
Reds have only conceded three goals in eleven league matches since the Boxing
Day thriller against Newcastle. As has been a recent theme, United established
an early lead before inviting some pressure for the rest of the game, something
the defence adequately coped with. Chris Smalling was perhaps the pick of the
bunch with a towering and confident performance, but the efforts of De Gea,
Vidic and Evans should not go unnoticed either. Even Alex Büttner at left-back had one of his better games, as he
appeared to grow in confidence.
One particular nuance to United’s
defending appeared to be an attempt to nullify Adam Johnson. Whilst sporadic in
his form, Johnson is arguably the biggest threat in the Sunderland team on his
day, and Sir Alex Ferguson and his team seemed to target him as the man to
stop. When advancing on the left Ashley Young would track back well (making up
for some of his errant forward play) and double up on Johnson with Büttner, meaning the winger had little room for manoeuvre.
Similarly at other times, Michael Carrick could be seen offering support to a
full-back when faced against Johnson. Stopping this particular threat no doubt
contributed to United’s secure defensive display and Sunderland’s lack of
clear-cut chances.
Combinations
An interesting aspect to the play
against Sunderland, particularly in the more impressive first half, was some of
United’s combination play. Anderson and Ashley Young showed their link-up
ability with the latter often making good runs out wide enabling the Brazilian to
spread the play-think back to Anderson’s goal against Reading earlier in the
season as a demonstration of how well these two can work together.
Another combination of interest
was Shinji Kagawa’s link-up play with those around him. Despite predictably
fading late on, the Japanese artist had a good first half in which he would
sometimes come deep to add extra men in midfield and control possession, when at
other times he would advance behind the forward players in order to stretch the
opposition. The technical quality of Kagawa is obvious, and it will be his
intelligent movement and combinations with others that will really make him as
a United player.
Going Forward
United’s inexorable march towards
the Premier League title took another important step against Sunderland with a pleasing if not
electric performance. The Reds’ attentions now turn to an FA Cup replay at
Chelsea only 48 hours later, a match in which Ferguson is likely to make
wholesale changes. Should United lose to Chelsea then the last couple of months
of the season are likely to become nothing more than a steady walk towards the title.
Ratings
[4-4-1-1]:
De Gea-6, Rafael-6, Smalling-8, Vidic-7, Büttner-7, Valencia-6, Anderson-6,
Carrick-9*, Young-6, Kagawa-7, van Persie-7
(Evans-7,
Welbeck-6, Cleverley-6)
*Man of
the match
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