Man Utd 1-3 Crystal Palace

Manchester United 1-3 Crystal Palace (Van de Beek 80) (Townsend 7, Zaha 74 (pen), 85)

So here we go, 2020/2021. The start of the season is usually a time for hope, yet the prospect of empty stadiums for the foreseeable future has limited my excitement. If no one is there to watch it, did it really happen? Behind closed doors football is better than nothing though, and sure enough I was soon devouring the latest transfer news like everyone else. In any case, my eagerness for the football to return, or lack thereof, probably related more with my current displeasure with how Manchester United are run.

United started a week late after our involvement in Europe, and in that time the picture of the season ahead became clearer. Aubameyang and Grealish signed new deals with their clubs. Out of nowhere, Liverpool and Tottenham made transfer splashes with world superstars Thiago and Gareth Bale respectively; Diogo Jota and Sergio Regulion were mere footnotes. 

In this context it was more crucial than ever for United to make a good start, and so came the team news, with David De Gea preferred as expected to Dean Henderson. Paul Pogba, fresh from a positive Covid-19 test, partnered Scott McTominay in a double pivot, with Nemanja Matic not fit enough to make the squad. The right flank raised eyebrows, as a Fosu-Mensah and James combo was not the strongest available to the manager. Palace lined up in an attacking 4-4-2. A makeshift back four featured promising 21 year-old left-back Tyrick Mitchell (the beneficiary of Van Aanholt's injury in the last meeting between the sides) and a midfielder, Cheikhou Kouyate, in the centre. 

It was interesting to note pre-match that Mata, Pereira and Lingard, three players seen as exemplifying United's lack of quality options last season, were left out of the squad all together. While I've been critical of all three, you cannot with a straight face say that Ighalo is more worthy of a place in the 18 than them, and that's not even getting to the picking of Fosu-Mensah, a player whose loans at Palace and Fulham were mediocre at best. Nevertheless, the team must be given a chance, time to shut up and watch Ole's lot perform and stop my pessimism, right?

United weren't the team to watch in the first 20 minutes though. The visitors from South London fielded four players who can run at people in their 4-4-2, and pressed high. Straight away they targeted United's weak right hand side of James, McTominay and Fosu-Mensah. Only 5 minutes had gone before De Gea, unsettled by the press, passed straight to a Palace player who couldn't collect it properly. Pogba committed a couple of needless fouls to put us under pressure. It was a sign of things to come. 

The opening goal was astoundingly simple. Jeffrey Schlupp with a simple 3rd man run forward had caught out Fosu-Mensah who had been sucked in by the player coming short. Lindelof came across to cover far too slowly, and the ball came across the box to Andros Townsend who finished with Luke Shaw failing to track his run. Lindelof and Shaw, showing his new buzz cut, were at fault, guessing how the play was going to develop and not reading the danger. 

It was a horrible start but even worse was that United didn't respond, instead Palace carried on dominating. The home side were so sloppy, getting dispossessed regularly. Pogba in particular looked all at sea in the opening stages. Shaw was beaten easily but Townsend's daisy cutter went wide. On the 15 minute mark, Bruno Fernandes' horrible touch saw him robbed by Schlupp, and Wilfried Zaha led the first of what turned out to be many counters Palace had on the day. This one led to nothing, but in no time a poor back header by Lindelof required De Gea to sprint out of his goal to stop Zaha from having a shot. Palace looked hungry and full of running, United shocked by their aggression, embodied by Joel Ward, warrior-like in his desire to get blocks in.  

Gradually after 20 minutes or so the Red Devils got a foothold, getting moves going. After nice interplay, Rashford setup Pogba for a shot from the edge of the box, and Guaita made a good stop down to his right. Then McTominay curled wide from the inside left position after a sharp Bruno pass. But chances kept coming for Palace due to unforced errors. McTominay and Fosu-Mensah had a mix-up, however after a slick counter Townsend went for glory with a wild shot when Zaha was better positioned. 

Towards the end of the half United had almost nullified the Palace threat, and went in search of a goal. Palace, however, are marvellously coached by Roy Hodgson. While he named a positive team, the defensive fundamentals that are synonymous with his teams were clear as day. The shuffling across, the ability to cut out passing angles and organisation in general may not sound complex, but it requires painstaking attention to detail on the training ground to perfect. Remember it was a defence including a midfielder in Kouyate at centre-back. It is doubtful our manager makes a similar impression on his much better and valuable squad given the evidence of the tactical mess of the 2nd half. 

United were showing adequate movement for once, but the care in the pass was lacking. Even Anthony Martial's technique let him down, a dreadful touch ruining an attack and resulting in a free-kick for Palace, pressure released. The complacency after a quiet period for Palace kicked in, and it should have been 2-0 at half-time. Zaha led another break but Bruno, who always runs hard for the team, delayed him, leading to the ex-United winger moving it onto Jordan Ayew. The Ghanaian beat McTominay easily but De Gea made a top class save. From the resulting corner, after United half cleared the electric Zaha hit a tame effort wide, and the whistle blew. Phew.

James had seen more of the ball than Rashford and Martial. He had never beat his marker, always coming inside into traffic, the confidence gained from playing well for Wales nowhere to be seen. Mind, he wasn't helped by Fosu-Mensah who had never run beyond him; what does Ole see in him to pick him over Dalot? Palace might be disciplined, but without Matic holding the fort they knew we were vulnerable from counter attacks and thus pushed the front four forward. McTominay had shown some good stuff with his height and strength helping us keep the ball, but overall it was a tame performance from the Scot in the middle.

The manager made a sub at half-time, new no.11 Greenwood replacing James, but the second half started exactly the same as the first - Palace looking dangerous, United lax. McTominay lost out and Palace once again streaked away, Ayew shooting straight at De Gea. Pogba and Maguire sent simple balls straight to opposition. Our captain picked up a booking after Zaha, who had been coached by Solskjaer on loan at Cardiff, had beat him. It was relentless, Lindelof was looking so poor when he was exposed. 

United did improve, Pogba pinging some long passes as they changed strategy. On the hour came the big miss. Maguire switched to Fosu-Mensah, Rashford's run on the right gave him time to measure a cross onto Greenwood's head, but the boy wonder put it wide. His head ain't as clinical as his left. At the other end the ever impressive Zaha scored after the umpteenth break, but it was given correctly offside. Ole responded to this escape by bringing on Donny Van de Beek for his debut hooking Pogba. You couldn't argue with the sub, he was just too wasteful. 

Lindelof volleyed over from a very difficult chance after McTominay flicked on a corner, but Palace were still the team that looked more of a threat, attacking with pace against a back four clueless when they dropped back, the game would've been dead already if they had better forwards. McTominay wasn't able to give the defence any protection throughout the 2nd half. Once more they poured forward but Ayew didn't get proper contact on his shot. Or so I thought - VAR intervened to give a pen from this incident, for handball against Lindelof. Are. You. Kidding. Me. It was so quick, the Swede so close, but it's pointless moaning too much about VAR, something I was totally against from the beginning, as people like myself and Hodgson (who, to his credit, said it wasn't a pen after the match) seem to have lost the battle. 

Justice was done as De Gea stopped Ayew's relaxed pen, but the nerds stepped in again as our keeper was a few inches off the line, and Zaha sent the retake high into the net with a far better spot-kick. Palace completely deserved the 2-0 lead, but honestly, since when can you change the taker? De Gea's sarcastic applause summed it up. 

Van de Beek marked his debut with a goal, as for once Palace were at sixes and sevens at the back and the Dutchman calmly finished first time. On came Ighalo to pile on the pressure, but the hope didn't even last five minutes. Zaha, fired up after a little argument with Maguire following a heavy tackle, shrugged off the painfully weak Lindelof to arrow a shot into the corner, clinching the win and marking a virtuoso display. You couldn't argue with the result, United had been well beaten. Well done Palace, well done Zaha, well fucking done Man United. At no point did they look like they were going to even get a draw. They were lucky in fact that sub Eze was a bit selfish at the very end - the bench seems the right place for the talented young forward for now while he adjusts to the top flight. Countless blocked shots after running out of ideas mean nothing, and the final whistle came to our mercy, the players avoiding the inevitable boos that would've been ringing out in a full Old Trafford. That's two in a row for Palace at the biggest club stadium in England, the first time they've ever managed that.

The postmortem wasn't pretty. The much vaunted front 3 were held at bay easily. Greenwood made no impact at all. Martial started well enough, holding the ball up, a skill that doesn't always come easy to him. In the 2nd half though, he disappeared, and it was like playing with ten men. As for lockdown hero Rashford. he simply must offer more. He was on the periphery in every sense, and the first time he took on a defender was in the dying minutes on the right. The rest barely deserved comment. Ighalo, with all due respect, was never going to score. At least Van de Beek was impressive given the situation he arrived in, playing one touch, the Ajax style. 

We'll be better with everyone - especially Matic who was a huge miss - back and Ole mentioned the lack of break to the players. But due to his lack of rotation, we have many squad members who should be fresh - you can't say players like Bailly, Mata, Lingard, and Fred can't do a job against bloody Palace at home. A Palace side that hadn't scored more than twice in the whole of last season (The last time they did score 3 was against Cardiff in May 2019). It is galling that a side that has been put together for so much money struggles against a side who were without Dann, Van Aanholt, Tomkins and Cahill at the back. Hodgson worked with what he had to maximise the performance, and it was terrific. 

The young left back Mitchell was excellent, so quickly out to James, and then Greenwood, when they got the ball. Palace's holding pair were so good at closing the space, and McCarthy supported the four outlets at times too. Schlupp was a great pick in left midfield by Hodgson as up against our weak side he could attack 1 v 1, but was solid defensively as well. Townsend rolled back the years, driving with the ball from deep, working tirelessly to support his team and always reliable in the press. Ayew was asking questions of the defenders, if he was clinical, it could've been a rout. 

Nonetheless, it was all about Zaha. In the first half his maturity was on show, as he won fouls up the pitch, held it up and made the correct decisions in and out of possession. His tremendous stamina allowed him chances to run at defenders and always give Palace an outball, and his selfless attitude created chances for his teammates. He fully deserved the two goals against his former club which never gave him a proper chance and the ongoing professionalism he shows despite clearly wanting to leave is testament to both himself and Hodgson.

Signings are needed to challenge for the title, not to not lose 3-1 to Palace at home. Sancho would be lovely but his arrival would not change the fact that Ole is out of his depth. He never really gets the criticism either. United were in the end outplayed by a side featuring one player who gets into our team and yet again the press reacted to the loss by saying we don't have good enough players. It's mind-boggling. 

It's important not to be too reactionary after just one game; Palace were ready and match-fit, whereas United have essentially back-to-back seasons to deal with. Zaha was decisive in a way not many will match this season. This was a crazy game week in general, 44 goals scored (beating the goals record for a 20 team Premier League) and dodgy penalties awarded frequently. But my word, United have to improve fast. Transfers will be demanded by many, although a bit of coaching wouldn't go amiss. 

United (4-2-3-1) De Gea 7; Fosu-Mensah 4.5 (Ighalo 81, 5), Lindelof 3.5, Maguire 5.5, Shaw 4.5; McTominay 4, Pogba 5 (Van de Beek 67, 6.5); James 5 (Greenwood 46, 5), Fernandes 5.5, Rashford 4; Martial 4.

Palace (4-4-2) Guaita 7; Ward 7.5, Kouyate 7, Sakho 7.5, Mitchell 8; Townsend 8.5, McCarthy 7.5 (Milivojevic 88), McArthur 7, Schlupp 8 (Eze 75, 5.5); Ayew 7.5 (Batshuayi 81), Zaha 9.5.

The troubles of Spurs?

As Tottenham went through the motions at Goodison on Sunday, you felt that this game meant more than just a decent point for two teams who were having poor matches. No, this was Spurs in microcosm this season.

Despite the huge investment in the summer, Andre Villas-Boas's side have been thoroughly unwatchable this campaign. Although defensively solid, -with Hugo Lloris and Jan Vertonghen in particular proving to be arguably the best in the league in their roles - there has been no inspirational attacking moves, no ripping apart of teams, no glut of goals from new purchases. The game at Everton was obviously going to be a tough test for AVB's players and a draw is not to be sniffed at considering Spurs lost in the corresponding fixture last year. But it was the way that the away team played that was so disappointing, and the continuing failure of Spurs to utilise the range of talent at their disposal is embarrassing people like myself who predicted a new look, slick, and dynamic team to rip through teams this season.

But what's this? This apparently dull and boring team is sitting comfortably in fourth in the league, only five points behind Arsenal, and level on points with Chelsea, not to mention looking down on the two Manchester clubs. This must be a weird phenomenon for the White Hart Lane faithful- despite turning in performances like they did against Hull in the league, er, Hull in the cup, and many more they keep winning. They have a great chance of a trophy in the Capital One Cup. So what exactly is wrong with a Tottenham team doing so well and grinding out victories, especially when surely their new signings are yet to fully acclimatise to English football?

It seems there is still a few things wrong with Spurs.

1) AVB's terrible media skills.

Unlike his predecessor 'Arry, Villas-Boas is not a favourite of the press pack for a few different reasons. Firstly, he replaced the nation's messiah, the people's prince Redknapp, itself a sin in the xenophobic eyes of some journalists given the amount of sound bites and car window related transfer stories he gave them every week. This hasn't been helped by his perceived 'failure' at Chelsea, in which the rumours are he was effectively sacked on the senior players say so. This has led to the press jumping on every tiny mistake the Portuguese coach makes in an effort to turn the Spurs fans against him- eg. the non story over whether Lloris or Friedel would be in goal last year. His recent criticism of the fans was not needed but was hardly as insulting as the papers made out. A top coach, the guy would do well to improve his relationship with Fleet Street.

2) Roberto Soldado seldom scoring.

For £26 million, you need more than accuracy from the penalty spot.

3) Replacing Gareth Bale is no picnic.
A rather obvious, but important point. Spurs knew there was no chance they could replace the world class Welsh winger with a player of similar quality, so spread out his record transfer fee on purchases all over the side. This was logical, but has left the side a little short on match-winning quality. So often last year Bale would change a game with an outstanding piece of skill, a dribble past two defenders, or best of all, a stunning goal. Erik Lamela the £30m buy from Roma, who plays a similar position in a different way, has been injured which is unfortunate. He's fast, elegant and also adept at cutting in from the right, scoring 15 Serie A goals last season. Spurs perhaps need to have more attacking players on the field in a more offensive style to compensate for the loss of the Real Madrid galactico (See point 5).

4) Eriksen needs time.

The closest player in terms of pure talent (if not style of play) to Bale is the exciting young Danish schemer Christian Eriksen, who has for a while been one of my favourite up and coming players. I have no doubt he'll be a success in England, but he has taken time to settle in after his move from Ajax and the more gentle domestic competition there. It is important he adapts sharpish to the Premier League though for Spurs to fulfil their potential under AVB. If he does, I'm sure Soldado will get more chances to showcase his clinical finishing as well.


5) Their 3 best midfielders can't really play together.

Paulinho is a Brazilian first teamer and has made a good start to his Spurs career. Sandro is one of the best defensive midfielders in the league. Moussa Dembele oozes class and composure on the ball. There is an argument that they are all too good to be left out, which AVB has generally agreed with and I said myself at the start of the season. But what has become clear is that when all 3 are there, that often leaves only 3 attackers to actually, y'know, score goals. Yes, Sandro may unleash the odd thunderbastard, and Paulinho's clever late runs can grab the odd goal but they are midfielders who generally don't get many goals or assists. Unless Spurs are against one of the bigger teams, one of them should probably be on the bench for a more progressive player to ease the scoring pressure on Soldado. In Europe, it will be intriguing to see if they could play well together in the slightly slower environment, and I think they could - but in the Premier League, it's too cautious a set up for a top team for most games.

6) Andros Townsend is believing his hype a little.

How wonderful was the right winger's England debut against Montenegro, an adventurous display capped off by a stunning goal from outside the box. A few days later, he turned in another encouraging performance in the crucial qualifier vs Poland, and overnight he became a lot more famous. As is tradition, he was straight away involved in an England 'scandal' when Roy Hodgson was alleged to have been racially insensitive to him when telling the team to 'feed the monkey' referring to an old NASA joke which obviously flew over the head of the dumb red top hacks in this country. Of course, Townsend wasn't offended in the slightest. But that hasn't been his problem, its more that since then he's tried to shoot from 30 yards at least 5 times in every game, perhaps wanting another incredible moment for the highlight reel. Is he now treating himself like a star? The kid should be told that he still is a relative novice at Spurs and should concentrate on feeding Soldado rather than taking it upon himself to act like Bale-lite just because of two brilliant England games.


7) They need a left-back.
Danny Rose isn't ready to be a starter for a team chasing top 4, and Vertonghen is wasted away from his favoured centre-back position. Perhaps they don't need so many midfielders (are Lewis Holtby and Capoue really the required level?) and could sell one in January to sign a quality young number 3. The 22-year-old Porto flier Alex Sandro is very highly rated by the nerds* who have enough free time to watch the Portuguese League and would probably be available for a decent price, with AVB possibly being able to use his links with his former club to make a move to Spurs seem more attractive to the young Brazilian.

*I am one of those nerds.

So there are plenty of issues that have to resolved, but it's still a good time for Spurs fans, in my opinion. I'm not one myself but I can see the progress there from Redknapp's time, and on the quiet they have built a very decent squad, fighting with clubs way above their financial station. It's important the board don't overreact to some of the criticisms and retain faith in the overall plan. The medium term future looks rosy, as long as Spurs keep hold of their best players and their talented young manager.