Analysing Ander Herrera’s display as he bossed the midfield for Manchester United against Chelsea

Add as preferred source on Google

For years now, Manchester United have been looking for a midfield enforcer who could dictate games single-handedly and win them the battle in the middle of the field with ease.

This season, Ander Herrera has shown signs of being that player, and on Sunday afternoon he produced one of his best displays of his Old Trafford career to firmly put himself amongst the elite midfielders of the Premier League.

As early as the seventh minute, Herrera was already at it. Closing down Nemanja Matic and applying the pressure to the Chelsea midfield as he did throughout, he may have been fortunate in that the ball deflected off his arm but he immediately took back possession before threading a sublime pass through to Marcus Rashford.

Having gone from defence to attack in seconds, Rashford duly obliged and beat Asmir Begovic to give the home side the lead.

Later in the second half, that energy and determination aided him as he arrived late, catching out the Chelsea midfield to pounce on Ashley Young’s cut-back and fire a powerful drive into the back of the net, aided by a deflection off Kurt Zouma.

To only discuss his attacking merits and contribution to the goals would be to do a disservice to the Spaniard though, as he dominated the midfield with his powerful display producing more interceptions and clearances than any of his team-mates, also making more tackles than any other player not in the United defence.

That kind of pressure and work rate helped to keep Eden Hazard silent as the candidate for the PFA player of the year award failed to have any kind of influence, with the Spaniard tracking him efficiently throughout. With no space to work with and Herrera snapping at his ankles throughout, the Chelsea forward couldn’t manage a single dangerous move.

With United now pushing Liverpool and Manchester City tight in their pursuit of the top four, this kind of performance from Herrera deserves to be at the very highest of elite levels.

It’s not often that N’Golo Kante is dwarfed by his opposite number, but with this display, Herrera has made himself a midfielder to be feared in the final weeks of the season for Jose Mourinho.

Featured Image: All rights reserved by ninhthuan510