Lads, we're Tottenham!
United had a hopeless half-hour in a game that brought the best and then the worst out of Bruno Fernandes
COMMENT Premier League: Spurs 2, United 0
Another big away fixture, another dismaying defeat. This was one of those games in which the tide turns before your eyes. Yes, United should have had a penalty, but that was rough justice, payback for the one Wolves didn’t get last Monday. And even without it they should have been 3-1 up at the Tottenham stadium. For the first 36 minutes they were easily the better team, winning the ball high, working it swiftly into the box, creating two-thirds of the chances. Then something changed. Bruno Fernandes missed a sitter.
He was clean through, seven yards out, onside, and on the receiving end of a lovely curling cross from Luke Shaw. Somehow he took the header too early and didn’t even trouble the keeper. United had just picked up their first booking (Aaron Wan-Bissaka, for trying to delay a free kick). It was soon followed by their second (Antony, for fouling Destiny Udogie) and their third (Fernandes, for moaning about the second).
No doubt Fernandes did feel that Antony had been harshly treated. But it looked as if what he mainly felt was anger with himself for messing up the header. To add to the frustration, he had been playing at his audacious best. In the space of one move he played a gorgeous outside-of-the-foot switch out to Alejandro Garnacho on the left, then ran over to join him, took the ball back, and sent in a rabona cross to give Marcus Rashford the sort of golden chance he himself would shortly miss. (Rashford missed too, but he was offside anyway.)
Lads, it’s Tottenham, no need to panic. But as soon as United collected those bookings, Spurs got their act together. Their holding midfielders, Yves Bissouma and Pape Sarr, started calling the shots. Their right-back, Pedro Porro, sent a screamer onto the bar. United missed Scott McTominay, with his bite and fight; Erik ten Hag curiously kept him on the bench for the whole game, leading Gary Neville to say ‘he’s trying to manage him out of the club’. At the end of half-time the players went into their new-found huddle and, unlike against Wolves, Fernandes addressed them himself. Whatever he demanded, they didn’t deliver.
For the next 25 minutes United were a shambles. Lads, we’re Tottenham! So shaky, so flaky, so easy to play through. It was as bad as at the same stage of last season, the day they lost 4-0 at Brentford. Christian Eriksen, sent on as a sub, even found himself having the same nightmare – playing at one of his old haunts, standing on the edge of his own area, receiving a hospital pass from the keeper and getting hunted down by a pack of hungry forwards. Isn’t this exactly what André Onana was signed to avoid?
United look tired and out of sorts, as if it was the end of the season rather than the start
Faced with only one game a week for now, United are playing worse than when they had two. They look tired and out of sorts, as if it was the end of the season rather than the start. Antony, who was bad enough last Monday, was even worse here. Garnacho was a bit sharper but still a shadow of the player he is when he comes on as a sub. Rashford had the most shots of anyone in the match (six) and almost opened the scoring when he found himself presented with a collector’s item, a well-directed through ball from Antony. But his body language seemed to be begging for a move back to the left wing.
Mason Mount improved a little on his disappointing debut, pressing hard and keeping out of Fernandes’s way. But he was the invisible man, taking only 26 touches in 84 minutes where Bissouma had 67 in 90 and Sarr 45 in 75. For the second week running, United were more cohesive when Mount gave way to Eriksen, the man whose place he should never have been handed on a plate. Eriksen completed more passes in 25 minutes (16) than Mount did in 84 (15). With his composure, his vision, and his rapport with Casemiro and Fernandes, Eriksen makes United better. Mount has yet to show that he can do that. On the evidence so far, Ten Hag might have been wiser to sign James Ward-Prowse – also English, half the price, more used to defensive midfield, and, with his pinpoint set-pieces, far more likely to change the game.
United were stronger in the last 20 minutes than the previous 45 (Spurs’ second goal was a freak), but they still didn’t look like getting back into the game. Their main creator, Fernandes, had let his indignation get the better of his ingenuity. He is often low in United’s pass-completion table, because Ten Hag gives him a licence to thrill, but here he was scattergun even by his own low standards: only 38 passes completed out of 58, or 65.5 per cent. His opposite number, James Maddison, managed 39 out of 52, or 75 per cent. Maddison was playing with freedom, Fernandes with fury.
This is his Achilles heel. He is the star player as well as the captain, and when things go wrong for him on one front, he lets it affect the other. It’s a tough job being both a leader and a talisman – just ask Ben Stokes. He used to be even more hot-headed than Fernandes, but has cooled down since taking over the England Test team. Fernandes has captained United many times now and still struggles to manage his emotions, let alone convert them into goals. He has to find a way, and to get better at talking to Premier League referees, who, being English, tend not to share his temperament. He could do with learning their language, the art of having a quiet word. The process might begin with Steve McClaren or Darren Fletcher having a quiet word with him.
Tim de Lisle is the editor of United Writing and a sportswriter for The Guardian. If you’re on Twitter, do follow him and United Writing.