Rashford came off the bench to seal the three points at Tottenham, as United bounced back from last week’s disappointment in style.
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Forward Marcus Rashford was happy with how Manchester United executed their plan to perfection in the thumping victory over Tottenham Hotspur. The manager’s game plan seemed to work on Saturday night, as the Red Devils registered a 3-0 victory over Spurs. Following last Sunday’s disappointment against Liverpool, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer switched the team’s formation from their usual 4-2-3-1 to a 3-4-1-2. The team was led by a strike partnership of Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani. Both the veteran forwards found the back of the net on either side of half-time to give United a two-goal lead. Then Rashford came off the bench to seal the win. More than the three points, it was the response shown by Manchester United following a week of intense scrutiny in the media, was commendable.
“It was a difficult week,” Rashford admitted to club media post-match. “The only way to respond is to win the game and get three points. I thought we did that well today but also the way that we executed the manager’s plans was really top. We were always connected throughout the game, even when it got a little bit stretched towards the end, we stayed tight as a unit and made it difficult to score against us. Against a team with as many quality players as these have, you have to be switched on at all times and I thought the lads at the back did exactly that, and the midfielders put a shift in, the forwards scored the goals.”
It was not only about United scoring three goals without a reply, but the way they controlled the match was impressive. The way Ole’s side executed the plan to perfection was a pleasing thing. After the match, Rashford explained how having a week of rest helped the team return to the winning ways.
“We’ve had a full week to work on it,” Rashford said. “It’s a little bit unusual for us not having a midweek game, but I think we used it terrifically.
“We had to clear our heads from a terrible result against Liverpool and sometimes that can take a couple of days itself, and just focus throughout the week on playing against Tottenham and getting the three points, so I think we got what we deserved today.
“I think it was a confident performance, we defended well, we were compact, we were tight. The main thing was that we were all together on the pitch.”
Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer also opened up about their preparations for the Tottenham match following the last weekend’s disappointment. Speaking to MUTV and Sky Sports, Ole said, “The boys have been really good, they’ve worked really hard. It has to be banter in football, that’s how it should be. Ever since Tuesday morning when we came in, we had a plan with the coaches. We sat down with the players, made sure that we’re all buying into this plan. It’s a little bit of a different approach when you’re away from home, we’ve had a difficult week and they’ve stuck at it and worked really, really hard to get this result.”
“We know when we have a clean sheet we have a chance to win any game because of the quality we have up front, but it’s about control. I thought we spread the game really well with the wing-backs. After the first six or seven minutes, when they had most of the ball, we settled down, we kept passing, we kept switching the ball, and you could see things opening up.”
