Manchester United were held to an entertaining draw by Tottenham in north London on Thursday night. The Red Devils were cruising with two goals from Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford, only for Pedro Porro and Son Heung-min to earn a point for the hosts. Express Sport looks at five things we learned from the match.
Unlike predecessors Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ralf Rangnick, who frequently sat during games, United manager Erik ten Hag stands for the bulk of them.
And the Dutchman demonstrated his tough side to three players, with Express Sport witnessing the 53-year-old barking orders as his team threw away a 2-0 lead for the second time in a month.
Ten Hag yelled at Aaron Wan-Bissaka early on after the 25-year-old allowed Richarlison to get in behind him, prompting the defender to receive a yellow card.
The United manager also chastised Antony for remaining down following a tackle rather than rising to assist his teammates.
Sancho, despite his goal-scoring contribution, was also not safe. Ten Hag screamed at the forward for failing to track back just moments after scoring, which says a lot about the Dutchman and how he expects absolute perfection from all of his players.
Before the game, Tottenham fans protested outside and inside the stadium against Daniel Levy.
And their rage erupted at halftime, with fans jeering the team off the field after goals from Sancho and Rashford in the first 45 minutes.
Tottenham’s in-house TV channel continued focusing on Levy, which didn’t help the mood at home for those tuning in. However, after the break, they were a completely different team.
Spurs fans were similarly vociferous in their disagreements with their players’ decisions. Richarlison, in particular, received criticism for opting to cross the ball rather than shoot.
However, their criticism seemed to motivate the home team, no pun intended, and Ryan Mason’s team deserves credit for that.
