Manchester United 2-0 Southampton: Five Takeaways

Southampton’s rough start to the 2016/17 campaign continued with a 2-0 loss to Manchester United at Old Trafford, as Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored twice.

Claude Puel faced his first away challenge against the world’s most expensive team with a few changes in the lineup from last week’s outing vs. Watford. Pierre-Emile Højbjerg, who impressed in relief last game, got the start at midfield this week over James Ward-Prowse, while Southampton welcomed back captain Jose Fonte, recently the subject of speculation regarding a potential move to United. For the second week, though, the Saints had to make due without the services of half-back Ryan Bertrand, who remains out with a knee injury.

Despite the score line at full-time, the match could be considered a slight improvement on last week, with the defence surrendering fewer mistakes and doing well to stem the damage after 2-0 up. Once again, the offensive side of the ball was active in creating chances, but failed to capitalise on them. With that said, let’s look at five takeaways from the last match.

Targett is good, but Bertrand is missed

Southampton left-back Ryan Bertrand missed his second match, still laid up from a knee injury apparently sustained in training before the Watford match. As with last week, the absence showed. Matt Targett makes a decent enough stopgap against midtable and below clubs, but when going box-to-box with the likes of Pogba, Rooney and Mata to be responsible for, the 20 year old was understandably gassed. Claude Puel’s system is a big believer in wing-backs getting forward when the opportunity presents, and Targett has definitely shown he can do that. At his young age, though, it’s simply a matter of lacking the extra little bit in the tank to keep up for the

full 90.

While there’s been no word yet as to whether Bertrand will be match-fit for Sunderland next Saturday, Southampton supporters will be hoping to have him back and should be at least somewhat-comfortable with Targett providing late substitution service if necessary.

Jose Fonte is unflappable

Putting paid to the rumours of his departure, Portuguese international and team captain Jose Fonte started and played the full 90 today, showing everyone why he still wears the captain’s armband. The 32 year old Fonte was flawless for Southampton, closing down all challengers and managing the box well in some tight situations in the second half, as Ibra and United looked to take a third goal against the Saints.

One of my earlier concerns was the players staying focused with the Fonte-drama swirling around them, knowing Jose Mourinho’s penchant for head-games. It’s safe to say that the man himself is unflappable under pressure, and his leadership trickles down to the rest of the squad. A good captain should be able to influence the team’s morale, and the pace of the game, by his attitude and performance. Fonte did just that, and once again showed us why he’s so much more than just another player in the red-and-white.

Midfield needs another big defender

Going to Old Trafford is never an easy experience and was never going to be a walkover game for Southampton. That said, losing defensive midfielder Oriol Romeu to injury early on didn’t make the task at hand any easier for Saints and exposed a flaw that, until now, most fans probably didn’t realise the team even had. Romeu is no Victor Wanyama, in terms of size and pure physicality, but when Wanyama was out through one of his many card-related suspensions the Spaniard was always able to provide a serviceable outing. With Wanyama now in lily-white at Tottenham Hotspur, the team are stretched thin at the bossing, physical DM role that had always previously had two occupants.

More from Saints Marching

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• Grading the Southampton Transfer Window Part 1: Departures
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• Rain clouds on the horizon? Southampton beat Plymouth Argyle
• A lament for Southampton legend James Ward-Prowse

In the interim, Pierre-Emile Højbjerg was rotated back to the holding midfield role and proved himself able. But, having to hold back the 21 year old Dane took a bit off the Southampton attack that he’s proven keen to make himself a part of. It’s not a compromise that suits the team’s fluid, attacking play style well, and not one that should become an expected feature when Romeu inevitably gets injured or suspended for part of the grueling European campaign ahead. With 12 days left in the transfer window, the Wanyama-sized hole in midfield has never been more apparent.

Chemistry up front still not there

For the second straight week, Nathan Redmond and Shane Long paired up at the front with Dusan Tadic laying off at the tip of the midfield diamond. Once again, it seemed that Long and Redmond weren’t on the same wavelength. Shane Long had a poor run of it tonight against one of the better defences in the League, but wasn’t helped much by Redmond seeming at times to forget he was even there. Dusan Tadic, too, seemed a bit stuck by his new role at times; he’s a great distributor as evidenced by his 12 assists last season, but his finishing ability just isn’t there.

The highlights of the front section from tonight are definitely Redmond, who continues to impress, and Charlie Austin, who wasn’t able to repeat his magic of last outing but still put in a good shift for Southampton. With Long ineffective and Tadic still not fully acclimated to his new position dead-center, don’t be surprised to see Austin replacing either of them next week as Claude Puel tinkers with the attack.

Højbjerg is the real deal

At this point, I don’t think you can even call it bias on my part: Pierre-Emile Højbjerg will be one for the future if he keeps up as he did today. While his game wasn’t perfect, and he did look a bit clumsy at midfield at times, overall he slotted back to DM effortlessly and did a bang-up job holding together what could’ve become a disastrous situation. I like to think in another scenario, if Romeu hadn’t gone down, the 21 year old Dane might’ve gotten more chances to come forward and maybe Southampton could’ve taken a goal out of Old Trafford as a consolation prize.

What impressed me even more than his play, though, is his maturity. A postgame interview away after a crushing 2-0 loss in a match that saw you forced into a position you weren’t expecting to play is never an easy experience. Older and wiser players than Højbjerg might’ve given a snippy response to the interviewer, if any at all. What he did, though, was keep his head and give a thoughtful interview acknowledging the result and analysing the match in as close to a neutral, respectful tone as you’ll get from a player on a defeated team.

“We had the ball quite a lot, we dominated quite a lot…but the last details were missing,” Højbjerg told Sky Sports in the postgame. “We tried to do what we can, but we need to analyse what we can do better,” the 21 year old Dane continued, before crediting Manchester United and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, whom he described as “impressive” in his heading ability.

Bottom line: at 21, a youngster in footballing terms, Højbjerg already has the mentality of a captain and a born leader.