A fan view on the United defeat

Nothing, we offered nothing in a match where we could have put some serious daylight between us and the team from Old Trafford. Our front 4 were ponderous and slow on the attack, Wanyama did his best to break up any United attacks but was often found too far up field when Mkhitaryan, Ibrahimovic and Pogba picked up the ball.

Dembele is missing something which can only point to a lingering injury problem that hasn’t been picked up yet, he isn’t playing nearly as well as last year and that can mean one of two things, either he has re-entered his mindset of playing it safe and being happy to pass sideways, or he is being restricted by a persistent injury… my guess is the latter as Poch will not allow for any passengers in the squad.

With that being said, I do believe he is being forced to play certain players because of the lack of quality options behind them. He clearly does not trust N’Koudou yet as his introduction was far too late to be worthwhile with Mousa Sissoko (to my disbelief) already on the pitch. The Frenchman bought from Newcastle for a staggering amount of money in the summer put a shift in and gave Darmian some problems when he came on, but has a lot more to do to justify that price tag.

Our defensive unit is again something to build on and thank god for Hugo Lloris. A few crucial saves maed by the French stopper to keep the score respectable as we could have nicked a point late on but the balance of play suggested that it was never likely.

Overall, it is not time to panic, Tottenham are still in a good position, although even Poch will agree that our front 4 need to give a lot more if we are to really challenge for a trophy/ title this year. In my opinion, I still believe we have the right man to deliver us trophies and that the first one will open the floodgates. You never know, he might even be sat at the table with Daniel Levy’s arm around his shoulder signing a new contract soon…