Tricky Stoke clash isn’t ideal for Huddersfield, admits Wagner
DAVID Wagner insists Stoke are the toughest Carabao Cup opponents Huddersfield could have hoped for, despite their difficult start to the season.
The Potters have found their return to the Championship a trickier proposition than many anticipated, but banked a first victory at the fifth attempt at the weekend.
Wagner (right) is still waiting for the same winning feeling after following up predictable defeats by Chelsea and Manchester City with Saturday’s stalemate against Cardiff.
And he does not expect things to get any easier.
“This is probably the most difficult draw we can face apart from the Premier League clubs,” he said. “They have a lot of experience, very good players who have played at the highest level. It doesn’t change the fact that we would like to be successful. “How far we can go (in the competition) is a question we should not ask ourselves, just how we can be successful in the next round against Stoke.
“Wehavetoperformat our highest level with fresh legs and clear heads.
“Everyone knows since I arrived that I use rotation, if possible and if necessary. With three games in a week maybe it would be a good idea. Usually I love fresh legs in all competitions.” MAN UTD: De Gea, Herrera (A Sanchez 55), Smalling, Jones (Lindelof 58), Valencia, Pogba, Matic (Fellaini 61), Fred, Shaw, Lingard, Lukaku.
Subs not used: Rashford, Grant, Young, McTominay.
TOTTENHAM: Lloris, Trippier (Aurier 76), Alderweireld, Vertonghen, Rose (Davies 82), Dembele, Dier, Alli, Eriksen, Kane (Winks 89), Moura.
Subs not used: D Sanchez, Vorm, Llorente, Amos.
Man of the match: Moura
Match rating: 7/10
Referee: Craig Pawson AN ominous story we’ve seen before with Jose Mourinho, from a ruthless result we haven’t seen in some time.
Mauricio Pochettino claimed his first goals and first points as a Tottenham Hotspur manager at Old Trafford, but even the brutal way they cut Manchester United apart with a brilliant 3-0 win will pale next to all of the questions and criticisms that will come about the Portuguese and those fatal third seasons.
With the home fans unable to face up to what was actually happening on the pitch, as so many streamed out following man-ofthe-match Lucas Moura’s cutting late third goal, these are now questions that are impossible for the club not to face up to.
Executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward will now have even more to think about; Mourinho more to growl about.
He will rightfully look to some of his hapless players, not least that defence that he admittedly did want replaced, but he should also look to himself.
There are bigger problems here than a porous backline.
United just fell in on themselves, in a manner — yes — reminiscent of Chelsea 2015-16. It brought the Red Devils’ worst start since 1992-93.
They signed Eric Cantona then, solving an obvious issue. It’s difficult to know what Mourinho will do, though, especially since he himself doesn’t seem to know how to respond. There are so many issues, not least his own very responses to them.
To qualify some of the criticism of Mourinho, it was difficult not to wonder whether that out-of-nowhere opening goal might have been scored had he got the authoritative centre-half he wanted — like, say, Toby Alderweireld.
Kane’s header was itself brilliant, but it’s easier to be brilliant when you have so much space to do so. Having been suddenly thrown back into the team following the mistakes of Eric Bailly and Victor Lindelof, Phil Jones continued to make a series of his own, rushing out for a corner for Kane to then so emphatically and impressively pick his spot in the far corner of David de Gea’s goal.
Kieran Trippier’s delivery was similarly supreme, as was Spurs’ follow-up, as they swiftly cut that United defence to shreds in open play. The full-back was again a thrusting force in the move, feeding Christian Eriksen before he set up Moura to so comprehensively complete a surging counter-attack.
There was to be no comeback for United, nor much of a response from Mourinho, beyond the predictably ostentatious.
It said much that Jones was very quickly hauled back off for Lindelof and, while his performance did warrant it, the nature of the like-for-like swap was just something else reminiscent of that 2015-16 season at Chelsea: Mourinho punishing mistakes in the most extremist way, but then forced to go back on it because the pressure to avoid errors just makes them all the more likely. As if to almost prove the point, the hapless Lindelof was himself guilty of a howler, letting Dele Alli in for what should have been Tottenham’s third.
That wasn’t too long in coming, as Chris Smalling got in on the comedy act and contributed his own error, allowing Moura to claim his second and make it3-0.
The panicky nature of Danny Rose, Alderweireld himself and Spurs in general from earlier in