At the St. Mary’s Stadium, Southampton hosted the earliest game of the fourth match week as they welcomed Manchester United. It was not the best of matches, but also not the worst as both teams showed what they were capable of. After Dangerman Daniel James gave the away side the lead, Jannik Vestergaard levelled the game up with a header inside the second half. The game finished with a 1-1 draw, capping off a very decent week for Southampton.
Ralph Hasenhüttl continued to use his favourite 4-2-2-2 formation but he also faced the absences of Nathan Redmond and Moussa Djenepo. Sofiane Boufal and James Ward-Prowse stepped in to replace them as Oriol Romeu and Pierre-Emile Højbjerg screened in front of the defence.
The Norwegian manager Ole Gunnar Sojskjaer also chose his familiar 4-2-3-1 formation. Luke Shaw missed his return to the St. Mary’s Stadium due to an injury and Ashley Young was chosen to fill in his spot. Andreas Pereira and Juan Mata also returned to the lineup as they completed the attacking midfield line with James.
Similar to the game against Liverpool, the home side entered this game with a high-intensity press and attempted to disrupt Man United’s build-up. Right from the first few goal-kick situations, Che Adams and Danny Ings had already put pressure on the centre-backs. Meanwhile, two attacking midfielders moved higher to close down Young and Aaron Wan-Bissaka.
But Sojskjaer countered that strategy by instructing Paul Pogba to drop deeper than usual. This created passing triangles inside their defensive third and allowed Man United to have a spare man inside that block. At the same time, when the French midfielder came short, he also dragged along one of Southampton central midfielders. It left gaps behind his back and the attackers could position themselves inside it to wait for an attack.
When the ball entered Southampton’s half, they formed a narrow 4-4-2 defensive structure. While keeping similar pressing principles, they also focused on narrowing space between the lines to prevent Man United’s attackers from capitalising it. Their intense pressing style also meant that the players have to take the risk of making fouls. It would create dangerous chances towards Angus Gunn’s goal that either James or Marcus Rashford could capitalise.
Still, while they managed to keep that space in control, it opened up on several occasions. When Man United pushed their players up to join the attack, this pinned Saints’ defensive line down and they have to retreat back in front of the goal. During that process, the midfielders can be caught off marking the wingers and it led to space being created. James did capitalised that gap with his dribbling ability to score the opener for Man United. Their right-hand side was also very vulnerable as the Welsh winger usually cut inside and worked in the central area. He also had three chances coming from that flank just by drifting into the half-space with or without the ball.
On the other side of the pitch, the home side relied on quick counter-attacks that involved short combinations between the players. Again, they focused on distributing the ball wide and allowed the wing-back and the winger to link up with each other. The emphasise was put on the left-hand side of Kevin Danso and Sofiane Boufal. But since the Moroccan winger tended to dribble on his own, Danso didn’t have many chances to send crosses into the box.
But in the second half, he was the one who set up Jannik Vestergaard’s header to equalise the score. From a corner, the ball was cleared out and Danso immediately picked it up. He aimed his float cross into the far corner and the Danish centre-back arrived on time to head it into the goal.
The home side also had more chances to threaten David de Gea, unfortunately, Adams and Boufal did not have the luck to convert those. As the game passed the 70th-minute mark, the ultimate twist of the game happened. Earlier in the game, Danso has received a yellow card for a bad foul. Once again, his bad timing led to him made an unsuccessful tackle on Scott McTominay. He didn’t touch the ball and eventually, it became a two-foot lunge.
In that situation, the Austrian defender should have done better. He had the pace to keep up with McTominay while signalling for support from his teammates. Another option for him was to stay conservative and attempted to recover possession without getting stuck in. Nonetheless, it is what it is and Southampton were playing with 10-men.
This forced them to take on a very defensive approach which saw them sitting deep inside their half. They defended with a 4-4-1 and were happy to let the opposition controlled the tempo. As a result, Man United had more chances to approach the box from both the wide-area and the central space. But on a day that Angus Gunn had a really impressive performance, the former Man City goalkeeper managed to keep the scoreline until the whistle blew.
Securing one point against Man United can be considered a success for Southampton. Firstly, there were times that the home side could have been better in converting those chances into goals. But Vestergaard showed up on time to help Hasenhuttl’s side secured a point.
Secondly, Danso’s dismissal made things harder for them as now they have to defend against Man United’s pressure. Sitting deep was the only option and they adopted it with high concentration and tactical discipline to prevent Gunn from conceding another goal in the day. Heading into the international break with a positive week besides two injuries will help Southampton shaping their season and their tactics. Hasenhuttl now has more time to work on what he wants his players to play to return for their next Premier League match.
