Man United beat West Ham United in the Premier League this weekend meaning they are once again back in the second spot, after being dethroned momentarily by Leicester City.
United won the match 1-0 but had it not been for a few good saves and the crossbar then the hosts could have easily racked up a few more goals. But it looks like the Man United manager is much happier with the fact this side have managed to keep a clean sheet in the end.
He said after the match: “It hurt when we conceded that goal [to Milan] but we are defending better. We are defending from the front.
“Our forwards sometimes you think, ‘come on’, when we are attacking, but they have done so much running and pressing. That is one of the pleasing things today, the energy was there, Mason [Greenwood], Bruno [Fernandes], Dan [James], Marcus [Rashford]. I didn’t feel we needed to make a change because they did such a good job up there.
“Big three points, we know West Ham are challenging to get into top four, so a big result, we kept a clean sheet again which we’ve done really well lately, defensively, so the attitude, desire, determination is getting better and then the experience, the confidence will come because we’re still a young team, with young players up front there. We’ve had a ‘few injuries, but the ones who’ve played have performed.
We know what momentum can give you or take away from you and, of course, the goal we conceded in the last minute against Milan, it is a mental test. How did we react and everyone has reacted in the right way.
“We have kept a clean sheet. We started poorly. The first 15 minutes, I have to say, we kept giving them easy turnovers, giving them chances to break on us. Then again our back four, they won the ball back for us. The recovery was really good and we kept them away from hitting the target once. Dean [Henderson] didn’t have one save to make which is the sign of a good performance.”
Man United let in an injury time goal vs AC Milan last week and that crucial away goal has kept the Europa League tie very much open. And with the kind of attacking prowess that West Ham posses, a repeat of the same could very well have been possible on Sunday.
But thankfully, Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof rose to the occasion and they came up with a stellar performance. This clean sheet will give Man United a lot of confidence as they prepare to head to Italy for the second leg vs Milan.
Harry Maguire won five aerial duels during the match and also made seven clearances. Lindelof too made four clearances along with one successful tackle.
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Data courtesy Whoscored
