No tackles or crosses: Is Patrice Evra to blame for Manchester United's loss against Tottenham?

There was a time, not that long ago, when a trip to Old Trafford was treated like a visit to the queen or the dentist by opponents. Sides would come to the Theatre of Dreams full of fear, respect and awe and wouldn’t dare of upsetting Manchester United by taking the game to them, or attacking from the start. Those days are long gone though and now teams, even those managed by rookies, are willing and able to give the Reds a run for their money.

2014 started where a lot of 2013 had left off under David Moyes with a Premier League home defeat: United’s third in four games. Spurs rode their luck at times and were fortunate not to concede at least one penalty from former Red favourite Howard Webb, but the truth of the matter is yet again there were too many below-par performances from the home side.

One player who’s been criticised by fans almost yearly since the 2010 World Cup is Patrice Evra. Despite being popular with the Old Trafford faithful, due to his attitude and the sense that he truly ‘gets’ United, there’s often the feeling amongst some that the French left-back isn’t always at the races when it comes to his defensive duties.

Part of the problem isn’t that Evra’s lazy or stupid, as some claim, it’s just that at 32 years old he’s forced to play far too many games as Moyes knows Alexander Buttner is about as much a Premier League player as Eric Djemba-Djemba was.

Against Spurs it was always going to be a struggle for United’s vice-captain as historically Aaron Lennon has always given Evra a tough time- even during the left back’s ‘golden era’ circa 2007-2010. Evra’s cause wasn’t helped by Kyle Walker starting, a full back who relishes getting forward almost as much as the Frenchman himself.

Adnan Januzaj was often deployed in front of Evra and despite being one of United’s most exciting players, didn’t offer the protection that his teammate so desperately needed at times. It wasn’t just Januzaj who was operating down the left as United mixed it up, with the likes of Wayne Rooney, Shinji Kagawa and Ashley Young all switching and at times finding themselves down Evra’s flank- but rarely pulling their weight defensively.

Spurs opener came from a cross down the left and there was little doubt the away team, had targeted that side as one where they could get the most joy.

As one would expect with a 32 year-old being run ragged, Evra’s performance graph decreased steadily- especially in defence as playing his third game in seven days it began to take its toll.

With United chasing the game, Evra was expected to get forward as much as possible- regardless of the Spurs threat and while it was far from an assured performance, the player David Moyes described as a ‘leader’ didn’t shirk his attacking duties as the heat map shows.

All in all it wasn’t a great day at the office for Evra, or much of the United side for that matter and although he’s often an easy target, considering what he was up against, the amount he’s played and the little protection he was given, maybe it’s time to cut the Frenchman a bit of slack.