Today United played against Chalton ath. To be sincere when I found out United were going to face them I didn’t think it will be easy. This was the same Charlton ath that knocked out Brighton. A league one side whom we all thought was going to take not less than 3 against Brighton. They managed to take the game to penalties and I don’t know how they did it but they knocked Brighton out of the EFL cup.
Today United started the game quite well, they looked to score and they did score early from an Anthony goal. To be sincere I’ve not seen the goal yet but I hear it’s beautiful. Anyways I was there for the remainder of the match and I must say it wasn’t comfortable for United.
United got their goals but they needed to bring players off the bench. They needed to bring in Rashford, Casemiro and Erickson to see out the game. Charlton pressed and pressed but in the final third, they were pretty shit. Watching them progress with the ball was pretty fun but as soon as they crossed the halfway line they didn’t know what to do with the ball.
They defended quite well; before the big boys came in though. In the midfield area, they did quite well but the forwards were asleep today.
You could see that even after they got the goals and the win there was that much of a smile on Ten Hag’s face. I think he knew how they suffered against a league one side even though he named a weaker 11 to face Charlton. Am sure he might have been thinking of what would have been the result if they were paired against a side with better forwards or even a championship side.
This is where quality made the difference. When Casemiro, Rashford and Erickson came in, the game changed totally. They moved the ball forward better and when Rashford got it he knew where to put it. He knew that he needed to kill the game off fast or they could suffer later. He didn’t want to score a stylish goal. All he wanted was to put it in the back of the net and that was what he did.
The quality of casemiro and his passes was on display and I must say what a player United managed to get off Madrid. A lot of people questioned why United will buy such a player for 70m but week in and week out he shows that he was even worth more.
