In a summer that’s been filled with turmoil, it’s been a rare joyful week for Manchester United who are still riding high from their shock and impressive 2-1 victory over Liverpool on Monday night.
Jadon Sancho opened the scoring after just 16 minutes in the crunch clash before Marcus Rashford doubled United’s advantage early in the second half. Liverpool pulled a goal back through Mohamed Salah late on but it proved to be too little too late for Jurgen Klopp’s men who remain winless in the Premier League so far this season.
Attention in the United camp though will now turn to this weekend’s early kick-off down on the south coast when Erik ten Hag’s side will travel to take on Southampton. The Saints had been in a pretty torrid Premier League form up until last weekend, going eight games without victory.
Yet they came from behind to secure a crucial win away at Leicester, and then followed it up with a solid Carabao Cup victory against third-tier Cambridge United on Tuesday.
Having found a way out of that bleak run of form, Southampton could potentially be a dangerous opponent for United to be coming up against, especially given that their style of play could cause Ten Hag a tactical dilemma.
On Monday night against Liverpool, the Dutchman reverted to a more basic tactical approach. He instructed his United side to do away with a heavy focus on possession and instead look to play on the counter.
Their average in terms of passes made per possession fell to just 2.45 - it was 5.8 against Brentford and 4.77 vs Brighton - and they actually finished the game with a total possession share of just 29.16 per cent. That was their lowest since their defeat to Manchester City back in March.
Ten Hag obviously took this approach in order to avoid being punished by Liverpool who are known for being an aggressive pressing side without the ball. Yet this is also one of Southampton’s best traits too.
In each season since Ralph Hasenhuttl arrived at St Mary’s Stadium, Southampton have ranked inside the Premier League’s top six for Passes Per Defensive Action (PPDA). PPDA is a metric used to analyse how aggressive a team press high up the pitch.
Have your say! Will Man Utd beat Southampton? Let us know your score prediction in the comments section.
While they may not boast players as lethal as Liverpool when the ball is won, they do still have the potential to cause Ten Hag’s men major issues if they look to again play out from the back in the same way that proved so costly during the 4-0 defeat Brentford two weeks ago.
Ten Hag therefore faces a dilemma. His long-term goal at the club will be to implement a philosophy that represents his ideologies. We know among other things, these are traits like pressing aggressively and dominating the ball. And the sooner he gets his team comfortable playing in such a way, the better.
However, anything but a positive result on Saturday could heap pressure back on the club, this means if Ten Hag doesn’t have confidence in the group to play the way he wants, he might have to continue to implement a more pragmatic approach this weekend.
