Crystal Palace 1-3 Manchester United: 5 Tactics from Solskjaer that won the game

#1 Playing with 2 creative outlets

Pogba dictated terms from the midfield for United

Palace started with a narrow back four and placed their midfield in close proximity to their defense. This meant that there was very little space between the midfield and defense for United to exploit. To counter this, Solskjaer made a few changes of his own.

He started Pogba on the right of the three-man midfield, moving the Frenchman from his normal position on the left of the midfield three. With Alexis Sanchez also cutting inside from the left, this meant that United had two creative outlets on the night and it was what helped the Red Devils break open Palace.

Pogba had a deeper role, mostly preferring to use his long passes to influence the game. Sanchez on the other hand, enjoyed greater freedom on the night, popping out almost everywhere and trying to feed Lukaku with the final balls. His movements kept Palace on their toes, while Pogba took charge whenever the Chilean was marked.

As the game progressed, Pogba took greater responsibilities and ultimately, he freed up Ashley Young in the dying minutes of the game to score the decisive third goal to seal the three points for United.