It took a late winner from Zlatan Ibrahimovic to seal the deal for Manchester United at Wembley, who managed to beat Southampton 3-2 to win the 5th league cup in their history. The Red Devils went 2-0 up thanks to goals from the Swedish striker and Jesse Lingard, but the Saints levelled it with a brace from Manolo Gabbiadini who scored on either sides of the half-time break.
Also Read: EFL Cup 2016/17 Final: Manchester United 3-2 Southampton, Player Ratings
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Ultimately, it was left to United’s star forward, who is now the highest goal scorer in England this season, to head the ball home after a brilliant cross from Ander Herrera. The win not only saw Manchester United overtake Liverpool as the country’s most successful domestic club with 42 trophies, but also placed Jose Mourinho in the company of Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough as the only manager to have won four league cup trophies.
Here are the 5 things we learnt from the game:
#1 Fatigue is taking its toll
No matter how expensively assembled your squad is, it is always a mammoth challenge to deal with playing in four different competitions at the same time. Manchester United have been doing just that, and the results have been pretty satisfying so far.
They are 6th in the league, but are only five points away from 2nd place and are in the Round of 16 of the Europa League as well. The way United’s midfield got run over by Steven Davis and Oriol Romeu last night pointed clearly to the fact that exhaustion had set in, as the Red Devils had to play four games since the last time Southampton played theirs.
Mourinho summed it up succinctly when he said that the win meant he has one less competition to worry about. The coming few weeks will see them face Bournemouth in the league, FC Rostov in the Europa League, and Chelsea in the FA Cup, things are only going to get tougher and it will be interesting to see how Mourinho copes with it.
#2 Southampton have a very promising forward line
Nathan Redmond, Dusan Tadic and Manolo Gabbiadini all had excellent games yesterday, and were truly unlucky to lose the game in the manner that they did yesterday. Marcus Rojo and Eric Bailly had a torrid time in marking them, and were repeatedly caught out of position while defending.
While fatigue did play a major part in the game yesterday, especially when it came to United dominating in the midfield, the Saints certainly played with gusto and precision in the final third. They had a goal wrongly ruled out as their Italian striker was adjudged offside when he was clearly not, and if a correct call had been made, the story of the game might have been completely different.
#3 Zlatan Ibrahimovic delivers on the big night
26 goals in all competitions, breaking records at will, leading the line and scoring decisive goals, all this at 35 years of age. Zlatan Ibrahimovic has had a brilliant career so far, but he is seemingly taking it to another level now.
The former PSG forward was unstoppable again last night, as he gave the Red Devils the lead with a superb free-kick and then won them the game with a well-placed header in the dying minutes of the match.
Fans and pundits alike have likened his impact so far to the one Eric Cantona had in the 1990s, and that is certainly not to be taken lightly. In fact, such has been the deftness of the Swedish superstar, that Jose Mourinho has asked United fans to camp outside his home in Manchester so that he pens down a contract extension.
#4 Goalkeepers make the difference
Aside from killer finishes and refereeing howlers, it was the goalkeepers who made all the difference last night. Fraser Forster had a poor time under the crossbar, as he should have saved the opening goal which was nearly a yard inside his far post.
However, the injury he suffered a few months back seems to have robbed him of his agility, and as such, he could not reach out that far. On the other hand, despite shipping two goals, David de Gea was spectacular for United once again.
He blocked two piledrivers from Davis and Dusan Tadic, and then went on to produce the save of the game as he somehow tipped away Nathan Redmond’s superbly taken volley. The Spaniard was the unsung hero last night.
#5 Jose Mourinho is the Cup expert
The Portuguese manager is undoubtedly the expert when it comes to Cup competitions, as he has now won 11 out of the 13 competitions that his teams have participated in. The former Chelsea manager has a special liking for the League Cup it seems, and he has won all four of the finals he has participated in.
Jose got it right once again last night, as he put on Michael Carrick in place of an ineffective Juan Mata after the break to assert control in the midfield and eventually that helped his side to see off the match.
He did not seem too pleased with his team’s gameplay after the match last night, but he will see this as a stepping stone to something bigger.
