How Jose Mourinho’s Squad Managed To Defeat Burnley

Mourinho had the perfect plan for Burnley’s aerial bombardment. Marouane Fellaini was deployed within arm’s length of Lindelof who was targeted by burly Burnley striker Chris Woods. Matic formed a dual axis with the Belgian giant and it worked like a charmed defensive blanket for the United rear guard.

The Old Trafford outfit did not concede any chances from open play and only ceded some ground from setplays, that too after going down to 10 men and the harrakiri following the double whammy of a penalty miss and red card. The defensive duo worked so well that the Burnley crowd did not have anything to shout about until Pogba’s penalty gaffe.

Depending on the opposition’s strength, this could be a recurring feature in future games with healthy rotation of playing spots between Matic, Fellaini, Fred, Herrera and McTominay (Perreira looks to be out of favor after Brighton debacle).

United had a flat back four with aggressive full backs, two defensive midfielders, rotating three ahead of them and Lukaku as the centre-point of attack. Actually, the front four of Lingard, Sanchez, Pogba and Lukaku were constantly moving between the lines and creating angles with their movement. They looked a well drilled team with different patterns of attack and possession play. Obviously, Fellaini and Matic were instrumental in their intelligent circulation of the ball but it was sharp interplay and manipulation of spaces by the fab four that opened up Burnley’s defensive knot, time and again.

Intriguingly, Lukaku stressed a similar point, in his postmatch interview, about the team working on such different plays and attacking strategy in training over the last month or so. We saw certain signs in the first half performance against Tottenham last Monday but the second half capitulation grabbed the headlines and captured all the mindspace post that loss. Maybe this is a start of a more expansive yet controlled form of play that the fans can relish at Old Trafford this season.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *