Devil is in detail when you look for positives in Magpies defeat
Manchester United 4 Newcastle 1
NEWCASTLE United took a shock lead at Old Trafford and Magpies fans dared to dream – but eventually Manchester United’s class told as a Paul Pogba-inspired Red Devils side claimed a 4-1 victory.
This third-straight loss will leave Newcastle fans feeling low, but there were some positives – as well as many negatives – to take from this defeat.
Here, NUFC Writer Chris Waugh takes us through what we learned from Old Trafford.
1. Even given the scoreline, there were positives – and Jacob Murphy was chief among them
With Christian Atsu ruled out with a thigh-muscle injury, Benitez had a huge decision to make as to who was going to start wide on the left.
A significant proportion of fans wanted to see Rolando Aarons given the nod, despite the fact he had not played a single minute of Premier League football this season, but instead, it was Murphy who started at Old Trafford – despite having appeared short of confidence in recent weeks.
Given he was the most-expensive signing of the summer at £10m, however, Benitez is keen to integrate a player who he firmly believes has bags of potential and will eventually have a big future at Newcastle.
His first contribution of note was to give the ball away after five minutes when the visitors had launched a promising counter attack.
But, from then on, he grew in confidence – and showed exactly why Benitez believes he has immense promise.
Full of pace and trickery, Murphy unsettled Ashley Young and Martial down the Man United left, helping lead a number of first-half counter attacks.
His run and curling effort, which forced a flying save from David de Gea during the second half, also showed how his direct style could be effective.
One area in which the 22-year-old must improve is his decision-making, with the winger shooting on occasion when he should have passed – and perhaps that is one of the reasons we have seen so little of him so far.
This was his most encouraging display to date, and hopefully it provides him with a welcome confidence boost.
2. Rafa opts for 4-4-2 again – but not as we know it
I wrote a fortnight ago that he would
Old Trafford won’t be a happy hunting ground for United until there is investment for a manager to use be surprised to see Benitez regularly opt to field a 4-4-2 formation again in the Premier League, particularly on the road.
Yet, in the very next fixture and at one of the most daunting away grounds, Benitez did exactly that.
Dwight Gayle and Joselu both retained their places – but this was not a conventional 4-4-2 formation.
In recent years, such a system has become seen as an extremely attacking formation given the dominance of 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 and, latterly, 3-5-2.
But in the past, 4-4-2 was far and away the most regularly used formation, and it can be tweaked to be both offensive and defensive.
Benitez’s bespoke system offered a bit of both. Even when Newcastle have lined up in Benitez’s favoured 4-2-3-1 system this season, they have often reverted to 4-4-2 without the ball, after all.
At Old Trafford, Newcastle defended in a 6-2-2 formation at times during the first half – before things went awry – with the wingers doubling up as extra full-backs.
But on the counter attack, the pace of Newcastle’s transition play during the first half was electric. DeAndre Yedlin and Murphy’s speed down the right unsettled the Man United defence, with Matt Ritchie and Jonjo Shelvey pulling the strings with some excellent through-balls.
Unfortunately, a string of individual defensive errors saw Newcastle fall behind before the interval, and that undid all of their excellent work.