Manchester United’s Midfield Continues to Impress in Spite of Stoke City Draw

OLD TRAFFORD, Manchester — Manchester United’s draw with Stoke City felt very much like a defeat. A litany of missed chances from Paul Pogba and Zlatan Ibrahimovic meant United were unable to capitalise on the almost-total dominance their newfound balance in midfield gave them in the first half.

Marcus Rashford, Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard set up ahead of Pogba and Ander Herrera in a 4-2-3-1 that did almost everything it was meant to do in terms of limiting opposition chances and creating chances of their own. There was attacking intent in the selection, and its tone was set straight from kick off.

Herrera fired an attempted through ball for Lingard to chase—it was off target but served as a signal of intent.

Beautiful again. Need to score soon. Pogba, Mata both playing class.

— Hayley B (@Hayles_101) October 2, 2016

The first Ibrahimovic chance—which looked so certain to result in a goal—began with Mata using his abundant football intellect to read a Stoke pass. He reached the ball, broke up the play and began a fluent United passing move that seemed to set the Swede free to do what he usually does best. He has been slightly off the boil in recent weeks, and that continued.

In midfield, Pogba was the more attacking of the deep-lying partnership and showed his ability with his play around the edge of the area after the ball had reached him; skipping past a challenge and feeding Ibrahimovic with the through ball he wasted.

Pogba’s ball to Lingard on the seven-minute mark was another example of United’s directness and the quality their midfield was now capable of delivering. From close to the halfway line, he effortlessly found his former youth-level team-mate.

Pogba and Herrera were helped in that there was always movement ahead of the midfield, always options on offer. As it had against Leicester City, the balance just looked right.

Ander Herrera on #MUTVHD: “I can’t believe we didn’t win… we should have scored six or seven.” #MUFC https://t.co/kobxw8Ioz8

— Manchester United (@ManUtd) October 2, 2016

Of course, there were brief warning signs that United might not have everything their own way, and Jose Mourinho’s midfield was partly responsible for that, too. Stoke’s first chance came from an error in that department.

Herrera tried to hand Joe Allen off to Pogba when the former Liverpool man drifted out to the right, but the transition did not work, and a one-two and cutback to the edge of the area later, United were lucky not to go behind.

Then, after around 25 minutes of play, Herrera showed his continuing positional development as the more defensive partner in a midfield two. Having broken up Stoke possession—with excellent reading of the game, it must be said—his misplaced pass was spread wide to Stoke’s left for a Marko Arnautovic chance.

Having done the part of his job that comes perhaps less naturally, he fluffed his easier line. By the end of the game, he had done an awful lot more right than wrong. Two tackles and four interceptions were vital to the Red Devils overall control of the game. They finished the match having had 24 shots to Stoke’s seven and 67.3 per cent of …

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