With Cristiano Ronaldo back on the bench, Manchester United secured their second Premier League victory

The start of the season will not be a bed of roses for Manchester United and their new manager, Dutchman Erik ten Hag, has not yet finished finding the form for his team. That’s why oddities like keeping Cristiano Ronaldo on the bench are allowed. This Saturday he did it again in a 1-0 win over Southampton. To celebrate this victory, the second consecutive of the competition, the red devilswho had Lisandro Martínez in the rear, had to water the field of St. Mary’s Stadium with blood, fatigue, tears and sweat.

It was surprising to see the space reserved for the visiting team substitutes in one of the stadium stalls. There was Cristiano, but also the Brazilian Casemiro (his old partner at Real Madrid with whom he found himself this week), captain Harry Maguire and another United supporter, winger Luke Shaw. And there was also an opportunity (which did not come) waiting for the young Alejandro Garnacho.

They all had to watch the difficulties posed to their team by an opponent who had just beaten Leicester City away and wanted to score their first home win of the campaign. In the first half the local managed to neutralize Ten Hag’s team, which showed very little resources to violate the defense of the saints.

On the only clear chance of the first-half trip, neither Sweden’s Anthony Elanga nor Portuguese Bruno Fernandes nor Denmark’s Christian Eriksen managed to beat Irish goalkeeper Gavin Bazunu in a play in the area that resembled target practice. Southampton also had theirs with a too high shot from German Armel Bella Kotchap from captain James Ward-Prowse’s corner from the right.

The landscape had not changed much in the complement, but when 10 minutes were played, United intertwined an excellent collective maneuver that started Elanga and Jadon Sancho, the Portuguese Diogo Dalot continued with a precise center and closed Bruno Fernandes, much neglected by the rival defense, with a flying right from the edge of the area.

The benefit didn’t simplify things too much for the red devils. Quite the exact opposite. Because Southampton have abandoned their conservative stance and charged themselves for the draw. Then Ten Hag stretched out on the bench and gave the minutes to Cristiano Ronaldo (replaced by Sancho) and Casemiro (replaced by Elanga), who thus made his debut in his new team after seven glorious years at Real Madrid.

In any case, these takings have not prevented the dubious Manchester team from having to suffer to the last to ease tensions. For this he needed the work of the Spaniard David De Gea, who covered point blank the header of the Nigerian Joe Aribo destined for the net, and also the lack of punch of the rival.

In this way United, who had defeated Liverpool at Old Trafford on Monday, added their second consecutive victory after starting the tournament with two crashes. In the same way, he will have to improve a lot if he aspires to fight side by side with the other greats of the most competitive championship in Europe.