Woof! Jose Mourinho, unlike most predicted, completely outclassed the beautiful, free-flowing football of Mauricio Pochettino with his own gutsy, counter-attacking, and high-pressing play. Though the team selection surprised some, as Eric Bailly and Marcus Rashford were left out, Mourinho inspired his team to their 20th FA Cup final with a disciplined and clinical performance.
Here we rate the United players from the game:
David de Gea: 6/10
United’s numero uno did not have to do much, though he collected some corners confidently and denied Harry Kane having any chance to head the ball in. He could not have done much about the first goal.
Antonio Valencia: 7/10
The captain came up with a rugged performance, strong, no-nonsense one, in which he timed his blocks well and made some extremely important challenges in crunch situations.
Chris Smalling: 8/10
Smalling continued his consistent run of form and denied Harry Kane space. Another top-drawer performance from the centre-half who was under the spotlight even more with Bailly not named in the lineup.
Phil Jones: 8/10
Jones read the game well. His last-ditch tackle on Dele Alli near the post will remain a highlight of the game.
Ashley Young: 5/10
Young dealt with most attacks well but his positioning for Alli’s goal was absolutely horrific as he allowed Christian Eriksen acres of space to work with on the flanks.
Nemanja Matic: 6/10
Matic quietly went about his work as he put pressure on the Spurs’ midfielders, adjusted himself to the pace of the game well and eventually led the midfield with his composed presence.
Ander Herrera: 8/10
Another feisty performance from the Spaniard, as he did not allow the Spurs time on the ball with his determined challenges, high pressing, and then capped off the performance with a beautifully placed goal that typified his role as that of a box-to-box player.
Paul Pogba: 8/10
The Frenchman was mercurial at the left side of the midfield, as he did everything that was apparently demanded of him and eventually reaped the profits of it. Pogba kept things a bit simple, he used his incredible vision and passing range to create a few chances and then actually outmuscled, yeah, outmuscled Moussa Dembele to set up Sanchez’s goal.
Alexis Sanchez: 8/10
The Chilean was a livewire on the field as his determination to sink Spurs was quite visible as he ran behind every loose ball, put in constant challenges to stop their run of play and eventually grabbed his chance by scoring an excellent equaliser.
Jesse Lingard: 6/10
Lingard ran well between the lines, he was putting pressure on the Spurs players and worked the ball around the penalty box with his beautiful one-touch play.
Romelu Lukaku: 6.5/10
Lukaku could have scored a couple of goals, but he showed that he could do good work off the ball, as he dropped down a line at times to win the ball and eventually tirelessly worked on the channels and even stopped a few counter attacks.
Substitutes
Matteo Darmian: 6/10
Won the ball on a couple of occasions and mostly sat back on the field during his short stay.
Marcus Rashford: 5/10
Unfairly booked for simulation and then missed a simple 1v1 in the final stages of the game.
Marouane Fellaini: N.A
