Tottenham 0-1 Manchester United: 3 Tactical factors which were crucial in United's win

#3 United’s attacking players contributed a lot defensively after the goal

Paul Pogba

Tottenham threw everything at the United defense in the second half, but the latter held firm. Moreover, United’s forwards also dropped down to the middle third frequently to thwart the Tottenham attacks. Rashford fell back repeatedly to his own half to counter Trippier’s overlaps. Martial looked a bit jaded in the second half and was replaced by Romelu Lukaku.

Both Lukaku and Jesse Lingard continued to contribute defensively by falling back and marking the Tottenham players. Pogba also spent the majority of the last 30 minutes inside his own half. Instead of playing box-to-box, he kept playing from his own box to the half line in the second half and stopped quite a few moves by Tottenham.

He was replaced by McTominay in the injury time, but his contribution to United’s win was immense. Overall, it was a dogged defensive performance the whole United team should be proud of.