Manchester United’s ‘ridiculous’ duo and a rejuvenated Luke Shaw are thought to be able to play a key role in Saturday’s match between the Red Devils and Tottenham.
Ruben Amorim leads the team to Tottenham Hotspur Stadium. There, Spurs have won just one, lost three and drawn one in the Premier League this season, reaching bottom of the table with last weekend’s sound loss to Chelsea at their London rivals.
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However, United have only won one away game this season, a 2-1 win over Liverpool at Anfield, so this was a particularly tough game.
However, former Arsenal defender Martin Keown has backed United and highlighted key players who could make a difference.
“I think Manchester United are slightly ahead,” Keown told talkSPORT.
“Spurs are struggling to win home games. I think they’ve only won one in five games, but they’ve been doing very well in home games. I have to say that’s progress.”
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“I think the players have finally accepted what the manager has asked them to do. I think that’s down to (Mateus) Cunha and (Brian) Mbeumo. The amount of work they’re doing is absolutely ridiculous.”
“They are able to retreat to the edge of their own box and have three players on the flanks. And what is happening is, if you look at Luke Shaw, he will now come out of the back three, so he will go to press and then Amad on the right will form the back four.”
“There’s a lot of information on those players. It’s taken them a tremendous amount of time, but look at the number of chances they’re creating now. I mean, they had eight shots on target against Arsenal at the start of the season.
“In terms of totals since then, I think it’s probably eight wins compared to every opponent Arsenal have played since then. So you can see that although this team looks like an improved Manchester United team, there’s still a way to go.”
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Keown also highlighted Spurs’ weaknesses that United could exploit.
“I sat and watched the last hour of the game against Chelsea last week and to be honest, there were no stops, no starts, no intensity, no pressing from up front,” Keown added.
“Thomas Frank, I’m impressed with him, but there was an incident after the game where the players refused to shake his hand.
“I don’t even know if Thomas Frank should have been on the pitch at that point. It might have worked for Brentford, but when you’re playing Chelsea, they’re Spurs’ arch-rivals. You remember when Spurs were denied the league title all those years ago.
“He probably shouldn’t have been there. They were hurting and rightly so, I like Thomas Frank. But there’s an intensity, or lack of intensity, at home and that’s what they’re struggling with right now.”
