Google News Paul Merson on Manchester United player: "He made the difference"
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Paul Merson analyzed the match between Arsenal and Manchester United, where his former team was defeated by a score of 3-1. Merson believes that the main advantage of Manchester United was Christian Eriksen “The first 15 minutes of the second half they got ripped to shreds.
Arsenal should have gone on and won it,”
Merson said, as quoted by eurosport.com “I know they’ve come back, and they have, and he was probably the difference Eriksen. I thought he got run ragged by [Martin] Odegaard at times.Odegaard was getting him, and he was turning him and squaring up. And he was running the show, Odegaard.
Arsenal haven’t got that. They’ve got [Bukayo] Saka, [Albert Sambi] Lokonga - them two - they’re not going to put the ball through the lines, and that was the difference for me between the two teams.
That was it. It was [Eriksen’s] passing. It’s the same old story. You come away from here and you’re like - we’ve done well today”.
Gary Neville analyzed
Garry Neville also analyzed the match and thinks that Arsenal made a big mistake.
“At 2-1 there was no need to go so desperate so early," Neville said. "With 20 minutes to go I thought this could be 4-1, 5-1 or it could be absolute mayhem at the other end. [But] United actually went more solid. Fred came on, Casemiro came on, and they just countered off the back of that.
I don’t think they needed to go so desperately. They were dominating the game”. Neville also commented on Oleksandr Zinchenko's game “When Zinchenko came on they lost their shape in possession," Neville said. "Tierney could have come on.
I just think when you lose your shape - you look at the way in which Pep Guardiola chases a game of football and how all these managers now chase a game of football. They chase it in a very methodical way.
“I remember here we used to chase games sometimes [with the] kitchen sink, gung ho, [with] five minutes to go.
Not 20. At 20 you still play. You still try to play the extra pass. I just thought they got so desperate so early”. Merson believes that the Arsenal players had to have a different approach, especially after losing 2-1. “Ramsdale hadn’t made a save," Merson said.
"It’s not like he was man of the match and they were getting... So just keep it tight and they will get a chance in the game. They’ll cause havoc. You know what it’s like in the last 15 minutes [of a game], people will get nervous here, players would get nervous and for me it was a knee-jerk reaction, too quickly, with 20 minutes to go”.
