We look tired, and I have no idea why Ole waited that long with his subs. At 2-1 with a visibly tired squad out there it wasn't about getting the 3-1 goal first and foremost. Get McTominay, Fred, James and maybe Ighalo on earlier. We know the first three can run for days and Ighalo will provide someone to play it up on.
Credit to Southampton though, they played a good game and deserved to get something from it.
I think our general play has been masked a bit by the great results (and maybe poor opposition?).
Our pressing in general isn't that coherent. Often you'll see Fernandes press urgently and gesturing to e.g. Martial or Rashford to press as well. That results in pressing half-heartedly around Fernandes which means the opponents still has a chance of playing a good pass to someone in space because the player in space wasn't closed down quickly enough. Whether Fernandes is going against the tactical instructions with his pressing or the others are, I don't know, but it looks strange and you can often see Fernandes visibly frustrated by it.
We aren't great at getting the ball out of defence either. Too many slightly off passes, passes that needs an extra touch to control or generally moving it too slowly or dwelling on the ball in dangerous areas.
There's still a lot of work ahead for this team. At least we gained a point on Chelsea and Leicester but if we show up at Selhurst like we did today we'll be in for a long night.
Credit to Southampton though, they played a good game and deserved to get something from it.
I think our general play has been masked a bit by the great results (and maybe poor opposition?).
Our pressing in general isn't that coherent. Often you'll see Fernandes press urgently and gesturing to e.g. Martial or Rashford to press as well. That results in pressing half-heartedly around Fernandes which means the opponents still has a chance of playing a good pass to someone in space because the player in space wasn't closed down quickly enough. Whether Fernandes is going against the tactical instructions with his pressing or the others are, I don't know, but it looks strange and you can often see Fernandes visibly frustrated by it.
We aren't great at getting the ball out of defence either. Too many slightly off passes, passes that needs an extra touch to control or generally moving it too slowly or dwelling on the ball in dangerous areas.
There's still a lot of work ahead for this team. At least we gained a point on Chelsea and Leicester but if we show up at Selhurst like we did today we'll be in for a long night.