Southampton V Manchester United The Verdict
Saints put in a battling performance, perhaps their best of the season, but ultimately it turned out to be not enough and as usual VAR did them no favours, however it shows that we can look forward with confidence.
This was a close fought game with more plus points than minus, however the one stat that really mattered was the scoreline and sadly that was a 1-0 defeat.
Ralph Hasenhuttl opted for only one change from the side that started at Leicester City and that was pretty predictable given that it was Che Adams who came in.
The main talking point from the game though was the handball incident when McTominay handled not once but twice, the first one was nailed on, but for the second week running we were denied a blatant penalty.
This proved to be costly when United scored in the 55th minute, a well worked goal that left Gavin Bazunu with no chance.
There had been chances for both sides, not least a goal mouth scramble in the first half where not only did Gavin Bazunu do well to block, but also a couple of other Saints defenders to keep the scores level.
Saints chances were not so blatant, but they still had some good efforts, not least when De Gea had to make a smart save to keep out a Joe Aribo header after some great work down the left.
Indeed most of Saints work came from that side with Djenepo having a fine game both in defence and going forward, likewise Adam Armstrong whose speed and guile was at the heart of a lot of Saints attacking play.
At the back Mohammed Salisu & Armel Bella-Kotchap were big and strong when needed.
Although I am a big fan of Ralph, I have to say I was a bit puzzled by some of his substitutions, Elyounousi comming off for Stuart Armstrong was an obvious choice and did strengthen the side, but taking off Adam Armstrong on 77 minutes seemed to lessen our attacking flair on the left, far better choice would have been to take of Joe Aribo who was not making so much of an impact as in the last two games.
Secondly why Romain Perraud was brought on for Djenepo in the 89th minute was strange, if we had been 1-0 up I could have understood it, but with a long period of injury time looming bringing on a defender meant we lost the attacking flair of Djenepo, the left side which was our main attacking strength up till the departure of Adam Armstrong was effectively nil just when we needed it most in injury time chasing an equaliser.
But despite the defeat there was much to be pleased about, yes we know we need a striker, but we are getting better defensively and again it showed we have made some good signings in the summer.
Always a disappointment to lose to Manchester United, but sometimes the bigger picture has to be looked at and i think we now seem to have a squad that is committed to the manager and packed with young talent.
It shows how far we have come in the past two years when it was the norm for the bench to include at least a couple of youngsters making up the numbers, now our bench is full of experience and that was not including the likes of Romeu, Walcott, Redmond & Stephens who all look likely to leave the club in the next few days.
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