It was good to see Mason Greenwood back in the team last night, considering he was a major doubt after the injury he picked up against Southampton. He’s become something of a target.
The way Mason plays with the ability to stay on the ball, travel with it and look to get shots off at every opportunity around the box, he is always going to draw challenges and suffer with getting kicked and fouled a lot.
The challenge from Romeu was a particularly nasty one – late, with his stud showing which can cause serious injury. The pleasing thing was of course he was able to bounce up and carry on the game, incredibly without the perpetrator being shown a red card!
The early signs we have seen from Mason would suggest he will be able to deal with poor challenges and rough treatment very well, he seems to have a very cool temperament for one so young.
He doesn’t make a fuss and just gets on with it. He plays with no fear at the moment which is great to see and shows bravery by always showing for the ball and wants to be the player that can make something happen and provide the spark, which he has certainly done on several occasions already.
I think the hard work he has done in the gym and the more strength he will gain physically coupled with his temperament will see him take any targeting from opposition defences in his stride, just as he has done with everything else in his short career to date!
The whole performance against Southampton and for large parts of the game against Crystal Palace have been a little disjointed. Both of these opposition teams have played with their central units much more compactly to limit the space between the defensive and midfield lines where United have been so devastating in recent weeks.
This resulted in Bruno and Pogba and to a certain extent the two wide players being unable to have much effect in central areas. Pogba did look more laboured than he has done in the past few games, with his performance level nowhere near as high. I think it needs to be accepted that all the players are going to have off days where things are not coming off, but at the same time need to have the same work rate and endeavour out of possession when results need to be ground out.
This has been something aimed at Paul before, I think sometimes a little unfairly due to his style of play. I do think his work rate has improved since his return but at times can be overlooked due to his languid style and long running stride – because of this it sometimes looks like he isn’t work as hard as say a Paul Ince or Roy Keane, great players of a similar position of years gone by, or even Scott McTominay from the current squad.
It has been plain to see over the past two games the players are beginning to look fatigued, they have been asked to play a number of games in a short space of time coupled with the long break it was always to be expected.
With the team playing so well, Ole has kept pretty much the same team trying to build some continuity which has worked very well. I would say fatigue is the reason for the slight dip in performance over the last two games but not for the injuries to the defensive line.
Luke Shaw went over on his ankle which looked quite innocuous at the time while running with the ball, but on the replay looked like he’d rolled it, thankfully he should be back soon and Williams was a nasty clash of heads. Strangely I would say it is the two central defenders who are looking the most tired at the moment and have lost a little spark in possession to play quickly and break lines with their passing and seem a little loose defensively making some poor decisions.
It will be interesting to see if Ole freshens it up back there against Chelsea on Sunday bringing Bailly back who played against Norwich in the previous round. It will be a much tougher test against Chelsea who have a much more potent attacking force particularly in the big open spaces at Wembley!
There will be no fans at the semi-final but we’re all coming out of the lockdown. Lockdown has been a tough period for The Football Fun Factory as it has been for most businesses, with all our programmes suspended! We have stayed very proactive though through this period and have taken the opportunity to grow our brand awareness and be in a position to roll out our organization nationwide when we get the green light for grassroots football to return in earnest.
We have huge ambition to become the largest football coaching franchise in the world, and of course humble enough to realise we are a long way away from that at the moment it’s something we truly believe we can achieve in the future! Exciting times!
