Comment: Manchester United got the slap in the face that finally woke him up. A return to what worked last season helped

Manchester United managed to come back in the third round of the league despite being down 0-2 to Nottingham Forest in the fourth minute and even win the game. Will the whole team finally wake up and start picking up points not on strength but through quality performances?

The Red Devils have three more points in the table after three league rounds than they did last season. However, what hasn’t changed much is their performance on the pitch, which certainly doesn’t match their ambitions, or rather didn’t match them.

However, just like last season, Erik ten Hag’s charges got such a slap in the face that they woke up and started to show their game, although despite the victory the team has a lot of work to do, especially in defence.

Waking up with Nottingham

Manchester United looked far too professorial, and not just in the third league round. Both goals then were the result of mistakes that were clearly avoidable with careful concentration by all. In this case, however, they helped.

The Red Devils players didn’t panic after a scary looking opening four minutes, on the contrary they continued to stick to their strategy and were rewarded for it afterwards. We witnessed this several times last season. In some cases it ended tragically, such as Brentford (4: 0), Manchester City (6: 3) and Liverpool (7: 0).

The aforementioned match with Brentford offers a pause to think about the whole thing, as it was after that that Manchester United “woke up” and started winning. The following victories against Liverpool, Southampton or Leicester were far from the later great performances.

I would personally compare the Brentford game to Saturday’s game against Nottingham. At least that’s what Red Devils fans are hoping for. That, in fact, will be tested in the next two games when Manchester United first visit London to face Arsenal and then welcome Brighton to Old Trafford.

A return to the classics

Ten Hag has also been forced to change the starting line-up due to injuries. So the defence was on fire beyond belief and chances were created by Nottingham players throughout the game. The Dutch coach has a lot of work to do in this direction and reinforcements are already being addressed, especially on the edge of defence where the problems are the biggest.

However, the rest of the team can be assessed positively. For the first time in the season, we saw the trio of Eriksen – Casemiro – Fernandes alongside each other in the starting line-up again, and it was a good result. Mount certainly hasn’t looked particularly good in the opening two games so far, although he certainly hasn’t dropped off. However, the aforementioned trio is a level above and the results clearly confirm it!

The play on the wings has improved as well, where the Antony-Rashford pairing terrorized the opposition defence. Although Martial was not miraculous at the tip, both of the aforementioned wingers are a huge danger for the opponent and if Hojlund fits well into the lineup, Manchester United will be very strong in this lineup.

Garnach can be rated very positively, however, he is still very young and needs more time to become a real difference maker. The game against Nottingham clearly showed that putting Rashford at the top is not an ideal choice.

Together with the Brazilian winger on the other side, it makes United’s game that much less legible for the opponents and, on the contrary, the team has more options when you can say that whether you give it to one or the other, something interesting will almost always happen.

Then if the defence improves, which is necessary for the next two games when the opponents are clearly very active going forward, the Red Devils could celebrate another point.

Source: Manchester United, Whoscored