Jose Mourinho's job done, Anthony Martial's two sides and Mile Svilar's bad luck as Manchester United win again
United made it four wins from four on Tuesday night
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Your support makes all the difference.Four games, four wins and one happy manager. That’s the state of play at Old Trafford on Tuesday night after Manchester United despatched of Benfica to go within a point of qualifying for the Round of 16 of this season’s Champions League.
It wasn’t straightforward or overly comfortable with David De Gea pulling off a wonderful save, but it was the goalkeeper at the other end, Mile Svilar, who had a large say on the result once again through a terrible bit of bad luck, before Daley Blind added a second from the spot.
Here are five things we learned from Manchester United’s win over Benfica…
McTominay proves Mourinho’s word
Back in the summer, on the back of a fine pre-season, Jose Mourinho questioned the decision of Andreas Pereira to leave the club on loan for the second season in a row and gain more first-team experience. As it is, he is now playing regularly for a side who are, so far, Barcelona’s nearest challengers in La Liga.
However, Mourinho wasn’t impressed and criticised Pereira for not backing himself to push his way into the United first team this season. Scott McTominay took his place in the squad and is now the one finding his hard work rewarded with a Champions League start. He has become a player Mourinho now trusts and allows him to rest those who remain of his injury-hit midfield.
Svilar’s brief redemption
Mile Svilar’s Champions League debut against Manchester United in gameweek three turned into an evening the 18-year-old would rather forget as he carried Marcus Rashford’s free-kick over his own goal-line to gift Mourinho’s side the three points. However, it was his reaction, coming out and facing the media and owning his mistake that showed that Svilar wouldn’t be scarred by that mistake.
And it seemed like he wouldn’t be when he got down low to his right to push away Anthony Martial’s first-half penalty expertly before denying Romelu Lukaku twice to really get the confidence flowing. But he was still left looking towards the heavens wondering what he has done to deserve such rotten luck when Nemanja Matic’s shot thumped the post before ricocheting off his backside and into the net. It wasn’t his fault this time but it still won’t be any easier to swallow.
A tale of two Martials
Fresh off scoring the winning goal against Tottenham on Saturday to keep United within touching distance of their city rivals, Mourinho continued his rotation policy on the left and started the Frenchman on Tuesday night. Martial thanked him in the best way possible, by turning the Benfica defence left, right and on their behind with a series of mazy runs.
One of those mazy runs led to the penalty and when he had the opportunity to prove to Mourinho that he has the ability to be trusted unconditionally to start every week, he saw his penalty saved. He did continue to terrorise down the left-hand side after that miss and didn’t let it get him down but it is goals as much as hard work and dribbling that is expected of him.
Everyone knows their roles
One of the reasons why Tottenham have done so well this season despite a plethora of injuries, especially in midfield, is Mauricio Pochettino ensuring every player knows the system he wants to employ in every situation. And that is what is starting to happen now at United.
There is a reason why Martial and Marcus Rashford have been so seamless in their rotation. Or why Ashley Young and Blind and Antonio Valencia and Matteo Darmian have never really had their areas exposed in the Champions League. It may not be as pretty as Pochettino’s Spurs, but Mourinho’s tactics are effective, with each player knowing exactly what they have to do. Saturday’s result against Spurs suggests that Mourinho are arguably more effective.
Time to rotate
Four wins from four and that is one point away from job done as far as United and Mourinho are concerned for the Champions League group stages. They have 12 points which should see them through, although it is mathematically still possible that they can go out. That’s not to say that they can afford to lose their final two matches as they will still want to finish top, but it certainly gives them more freedom to rotate and push the Premier League back to the top of their priorities until February.
This will be much to the relief of Mourinho who, despite insisting he doesn’t talk about all his injuries, is running low on central midfielders. He will also be hoping his side can carry this momentum into Sunday to face his former club Chelsea.
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