The timely return of Christian Eriksen helped the MU midfield to dominate against Nottingham Forest in the match in the 31st round of the Premier League on April 16.
MU’s 2-0 win over Nottingham Forest has a great impression of Eriksen, one of the best players of the “Red Devils” at The City Ground. Fotmob gave Eriksen 8 points, the third highest on the field behind the duo Antony and Bruno Fernandes (both 8.7 points).
Despite playing only 79 minutes, the 31-year-old touched the ball 80 times, passed with 89% accuracy, created three scoring opportunities and launched 17 passes into the opponent’s third of the field. The link between Eriksen and Bruno Fernandes helps MU dominate the midfield and create a series of scoring opportunities in front of Keylor Navas’ goal.
On the day Eriksen returned, Bruno was also promoted to the position of the school’s official, ceding the role of deep-rooted game design to the former Tottenham player. Bruno immediately showed impressive ball skills when creating 6 scoring opportunities against Nottingham Forest, the best statistic on the pitch.
The dominance in the midfield helped MU control the ball 68% of the game, launching up to 22 shots, including 8 times the ball hit the target. MU’s expected goal level is quite high (3.49), compared to only 0.68 of Nottingham Forest. If you make good use of the opportunity, MU can win more boldly.
There have been concerns about Eriksen’s fitness as he has just returned from injury. He was forced to retire after MU’s 3-1 victory over Reading in the fourth round of the FA Cup on January 29. However, Eriksen still showed perseverance and showed the right value compared to the time before retiring.
When Eriksen was absent, coach Ten Hag had a headache to find a replacement in the context of Fred, Scott McTominay or Marcel Sabitzer playing unstable. This affected MU’s performance. Pulling Bruno back to play the role of a deep-lying midfielder is the former Ajax coach’s situational solution, although this is a plan that has worked.
Eriksen returns at the most intense part of the season. The midfield MU is unstable, so the return of the midfielder born in 1992 is a bright spot.
The victory against Nottingham Forest is of great significance when helping MU return to the top 3 in the Premier League. The “Red Devils” took advantage of the opportunity to surpass Newcastle and Tottenham, both teams lost points in round 31. The “Red Devils” were 3 and 6 points higher than Newcastle or Tottenham, respectively. Notably, Ten Hag’s teachers and students also played 1 match less than Spurs.
The victory over Nottingham Forest also helps MU create a good psychological momentum for the Europa League quarter-final second leg against Sevilla in Spain on April 21.