Premier League 2018/19: Southampton vs Manchester United

Jose Mourinho took his struggling Manchester United side to the south coast on Saturday, to face perhaps the only manager under more pressure than he is at the moment, Mark Hughes. Southampton have been dreadful this season, providing no evidence to suggest that Hughes permanent appointment in the summer has helped the club to move forward. United, on the other hand, seem to have left behind all the positive momentum generated from the comeback wins over Newcastle, Bournemouth and Juventus, and look unlikely to make the top four this season. The football has been dire as well, and Mourinho definitely needed both a strong performance and the result to match from this game in order to inject a modicum of positivity back into the club.

Lineups

Mark Hughes stuck to a three-man backline, which meant that youngster Yann Valery played at right wing-back, with Cedric Soares switching over to the left. Michael Obafemi was also trusted to start up front alongside Nathan Redmond, giving the Saints a pacy two-man strikeforce.

Jose Mourinho was without all of his centre-backs bar Phil Jones, and so he opted for a three-man backline as well, but with midfielders Nemanja Matic and Scott McTominay flanking Jones. Marouane Fellaini and Ander Herrera were drafted in to provide protection to this makeshift backline, while Marcus Rashford partnered Romelu Lukaku in attack.

New shape, same old problems for United

While the change in shape was somewhat forced upon Mourinho due to his centre-backs being injured en masse, one would have expected that it would provide a little more protection to David de Gea than in recent weeks. Those hopes were dashed within the first 20 minutes, as Southampton raced into a two-goal lead.

The same issues that have been plaguing United for weeks, and indeed that we have been highlighting here on this website during that time, surfaced once again. Players were caught out of position, there was a complete lack of urgency which allowed Southampton time on the ball, and there were massive gaps between the lines. The build-up to the first Southampton goal itself had shades of all three of these issues manifest itself.

Southampton Manchester United Premier League Tactical Analysis Statistics — Herrera gets caught ball-watching, allowing Redmond to drop deep and collect the pass

This was something which continued throughout the game, and despite United ending the game with 60% possession, they were outshot by the Saints. Southampton had 16 shots, with six of them on target, compared to Uniteds 11 and five. Uniteds midfield was too passive, while Matic and McTominay both looked ill-suited to playing at centre-back. This all came together to allow Southampton one of their more productive evenings in recent weeks.

Rashford the only bright spark

It was a similar story in attack United huffed and puffed a lot, but to no avail. Romelu Lukaku did end his goalscoring drought, but that was the only positive from a nondescript performance otherwise. The Belgian was sluggish and lethargic outside the box, slowing down attacking moves and struggling with his control of the ball. The lack of creativity in midfield was painfully obvious, as Paul Pogba had another off day, while Ander Herrera and Marouane Fellaini are hardly renowned for their nous on the ball.