When you’re Louis van Gaal even a blunt and slightly frantic 0-0 draw can offer the consolation of being proved unarguably right. Manchester United were inventive and territorially dominant in the first half at White Hart Lane. In the second they were flat, most notably towards the end of a match that was “not football”, according to United’s manager, but “a struggle for life”, presumably up there with the Christmas Truce Match on the Van Gaal scale of festive footballing miracles.
The issue of burdensome festive programming pre-dates by at least a century the Van Gaal era at United. But here, for all the (undoubtedly correct) concerns over conditioning and preparation, it also provided a handy piece of misdirection for a manager who would naturally prefer not to discuss poor finishing or another enforced tactical rejig that began to come loose at the seams a little as Spurs were increasingly dominant in the second half.
Wayne Rooney has played well in midfield, most notably at Old Trafford on Boxing Day. Here, though, United felt the absence of the team’s best finisher at the sharp end of things. Plus of course with Rooney playing deep, the crowd were denied a like-for-like match-up between two of the most impressive English strikers playing in the Premier League: one currently a reconditioned midfielder, the other an endearing tyro who seems to be widely disregarded as a serious prospect even as he keeps on out-scoring and outperforming those of a greater pedigree.
If the Wayne-Kane showdown provided no goals – both had 14 before this game: here they mustered a single shot between them – it was still a revealing point of contrast. For one thing it isn’t hard to see why Kane is beginning to flourish under Mauricio Pochettino. Much was made earlier in the season of Pochettino attempting to implement a system – blitz defence, swarming attacks – on a group of players not suited to his tactics. Certainly Roberto Soldado (lone-sniper role) and Emmanuel Adebayor (indolent walking-around role) were never likely to suit the part.
Kane, though, is a perfect fit. Here is a player who looks insanely delighted simply to be on the pitch at all, and who retains a tiggerish joy in skating about all over the place, pressing opponents in possession and making runs for his team mates. Here, even as United dominated early on, Kane remained energetically prominent, twice leaping for crosses from right and left, and moments later sending Andros Townsend in for his habitual cut inside followed by low left-foot shot. It is tempting to wonder if Townsend is occasionally rested at the request of the White Hart Lane groundsman, tired of repairing that well-worn L-shaped furrow match after match.
If there were no shots at goal for Kane, he still touched the ball more than any Spurs player beyond the defence and goalkeeper, and was manhandled to the ground (by Rooney) while making the usual nuisance of himself at a corner. Dismissed by some as having a bit of everything but no real outstanding qualities, his touch was good here and his movement relentless – never mind the right run: if in doubt he simply makes all the runs – as Spurs came on strong in the final third of the game.
For United the weakness, if there was one here, was central midfield, the referred pain evident in attack. Rooney and Juan Mata are wonderfully gifted footballers, but neither convinced entirely as a central midfielder. Having said that Mata was sensationally good at times in the first half, producing a succession of dinked and lofted passes that displayed the full voodoo of that left foot. He hit a post with a free-kick and even defied those who have suggested away from Old Trafford he struggles to tackle a gin and tonic by winning several tussles in central areas.
And yet as Spurs began to press and as a change of tempo was required, a regrouping, Mata continued to follow his instincts to attack, producing too many flicks, too many instant passes, and not enough in the way of guarding the ball and allowing his team to rest in possession. The Spaniard has been instrumental in United’s fine run. But here by the end he had made no tackles and one interception in a high end but oddly frictionless display. United will be pleased with a point, just as Van Gaal will be quietly pleased with his needs-must central midfield. But there is clearly still need for reinforcement here. Rooney played deeper than Mata and can rarely have run so much for so little sight of goal (a single header, easily saved in the first half). For United it was overall a case of a strength sacrificed: Rooney, on current finishing form, would surely have made more of some of the chances that fell to the sluggish Van Persie and the worryingly ineffective Falcao, who reached perhaps a career nadir on 72 minutes when, having just given the ball away (again) he was extravagantly nutmegged by Vlad Chiriches. Falcao, to his credit, kept fighting to the end. But he looks a distinctly blunt-edged high-end loanee centre-forward right now. Indeed on a busy, slightly frantic afternoon at White Hart Lane it seems fair to say he was no Harry Kane.
