To the surprise of many yesterday, Manchester United started with a back three; with only one recognised centre-back starting…
We all knew that Victor Lindelof was injured, but it was a shock to see Chris Smalling and Eric Bailly completely absent from the squad. Now, the excellent Manchester Evening News has seemingly discovered why.
Let’s start with Smalling, who has played his fair share of football recently. Mourinho didn’t mention an injury worry for him during his pre-match press conference, and perhaps the manager was trying to keep it under wraps. The MEN say that he is dealing with an ankle injury, although the severity of the problem remains a mystery.
As for Bailly, he hasn’t been playing much recently, but the report claims that he has a back problem. Those sort of issues are the worst to deal with as your movement is completely limited. Again, Mourinho didn’t mention it, probably because he didn’t want to let Southampton know that both Scott McTominay and Nemanja Matic would be playing as make-shift centre-halves.
Who knows, the result may well have been different if we had a defence filled with actual defenders, but once again, the performance, on the whole, was poor and United simply have to do better.
Be the first to comment