Manchester United 2-1 Watford: 5 Talking Points & Tactical Analysis

#1: Manchester United need to improve a lot

Paul Pogba was atrocious

Manchester United might have managed to sneak in a victory eventually but these sorts of performances cannot continue if they are to get through this difficult period of two months.

Come the business end of the season, Ole’s team is in for a tough race for the top four spots and the match against FC Barcelona awaits them too. Starting off, Pogba was definitely not up to the expected level of performances yesterday.

The more worrying factor is that this kind of inconsistency seems to have become regular with him as the Frenchman’s tendency to go off-guard after a burst of good displays tend to hamper the entire balance of the team.

For a player with his talent, consistency and importance, dropping in a 3/10 performance for two-three weeks in a row is simply unacceptable. Matic seems to have been following the same pattern this season as the Serbian has failed to get back to his best after suffering an injury before facing Liverpool in February.

Since then, he has not looked comfortable whilst screening the defensive line and seems to get overpowered and outrun by any group of midfielders in front of him.

Only Ander Herrera is someone who can be banked upon to be tenacious, diligent and appropriate with the given task but this sort of dependency of certain tasks on specific individuals just would not help a team of United’s calibre and potential.

The reason the likes of Liverpool and Manchester City have been consistent throughout the season is the fact that their midfield knows how to collectively carry out the required tasks, something that United don’t seem to be doing right now.