Henry says Reds could be the next Invincibles
UNITED already resemble Arsenal’s legendary Invincibles with their ‘power’, ‘pace’ and ‘ideas’, according to Thierry Henry.
Jose Mourinho’s side got their Premier League title challenge off to the best possible start with a dominant display in the 4-0 win over West Ham on Sunday.
It was, arguably, the club’s best performance since Sir Alex Ferguson’s retirement in 2013 with new signings Romelu Lukaku and Nemanja Matic making an immediate impact.
And, addressing United’s title credentials this season, Henry already sees similarities between Mourinho’s team and the great Arsenal side who went a whole league season unbeaten in 2004.
“Oh yeah. When I see them especially on Sunday I saw that,” he told Sky Sports .
“I saw power, pace, guys with ideas and legs. They can cover the ground really quickly, that’s very important. We had that at Arsenal.
“Arsene went into more guys that can play in and around the box.
“A lot of the players at Arsenal look to be the same type of player, the same frame in a way.
“Mourinho likes bringing players he knows are going to be able to play the way he likes to play.”
Arsenal won 26 league games and drew a further 12 as they became just the second top-flight English club to finish the league season unbeaten. AFTER witnessing 10 Premier League draws at Old Trafford last season United supporters were entitled to get giddy following their weekend walloping of West Ham.
The visitors took a knife to a gunfight but the Reds of 2016-17 would have fired blanks and fans enjoyed the most buoyant start to a campaign since the evisceration of Fulham 11 years earlier.
Nemanja Matic’s impact was so profound the supposed defensive midfielder received the man of the match award ahead of the influential Paul Pogba and ruthless Romelu Lukaku. Matic has been United’s outstanding outfielder in his two starts and it is disingenuous to regard him as ‘defensive’ when he has sharpened a previously blunt attack.
“He comes from Serbia,” was previously reserved for Nemanja Vidic but J Stand has quickly taken to the United great’s namesake. Matic’s fleet of foot surprised many and his mazy run in front of the Sir Alex Ferguson Stand was, to quote the Scot’s first memory of a teenage Ryan Giggs, ‘like a cocker spaniel chasing a piece of silver in the wind.’
The importance of Matic to this United is so great Jose Mourinho omitted the fans’ player of the year from his line-up. Few Reds would have demoted Ander Herrera to the substitutes’ bench but the move was entirely justified; against reticent and unadventurous visitors United do not need three central midfielders when an additional attacker is required. Mourinho, as he said ahead of the Europa League final, ‘needs Juan Mata’s brain’ and the Spaniard’s intuitive running flummoxed West Ham.
Herrera’s toiling against Real Madrid might have made Mourinho’s decision to omit him from the XI easier but he was merely retaining a specialist holder over an auxiliary option. A graphic contrasting United players’ average positions against West Ham in the home draw last term and Sunday’s triumph provides a subtle difference; Herrera teetered on the halfway line whereas Matic mainly remained in his own half. It would be inaccurate to owe Sunday’s positive outcome to Herrera’s absence. He was actually United’s best performer in the corresponding game and Pogba, supposedly freer on Sunday, assisted Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s leveller with an adroit dink nine months ago. Herrera is far from redundant in a deep-lying role. Still, Mourinho craved an expert foil for Pogba. “I am more a manager that likes specialists,” he stressed at his press conference unveiling. Few players embody that statement more compellingly than Matic and he is at the ideal stage of his career to make United more tactically versatile. United supporters are now speculating the formation once team news is confirmed and Mourinho effectively has three teamsheets; 3-5-2, 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3. Whatever the shape, Matic is United’s pivot and Samuel Luckhurst