Watford and former Manchester United Goalkeeper Ben Foster have revealed that it was easy for Watford to beat Manchester United by going up against them. But these tactics will not work against Manchester City and Liverpool.
Manchester United was defeated 4-1 by Watford last season, the defeat that resulted in the eventual sacking of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
Despite the defeat to Manchester United, the Hornet was relegated from the Premier League.
What did Ben Foster say?
Revealing the tactics behind Watford‘s defeat to Manchester United on the Vicarage Road, Ben Foster to TalkSports: “When you’re playing someone like Man United you’ve just got to go up against them.
“They have got quality players but if you get up into them they will struggle a little bit and that’s always the way that we tried to approach those games.
“Going back to Liverpool and Man City, we would be scared about trying to get up into their faces, because they have got so much more technical ability to play it around you and if they get behind you you’re struggling full stop.
“The home game was great that we won 4-1 but I’d say it was the away game that was the most telling because we went away to Old Trafford, bearing in mind we were a struggling team last season, but we made a point of getting in their faces.
“The longer the game went on the more Manchester United fans would get onto the Manchester United players’ backs and you could feel this sort of atmosphere and that’s what’s wrong with it at the minute.
“There’s a little bit of an atmosphere and around Old Trafford where they’re used to winning, they’ve got [Cristiano] Ronaldo back in the ranks expecting to still be scoring hat-tricks and it’s not quite working like that at the minute.”
The former England international currently doesn’t have a club after running down his contract at Watford. Ben Foster who played for Manchester United from 2010 to 2015 was not surprised to see his former club defeated by Brighton at Old Trafford.
Ben Foster added: “Manchester United in general vulnerable,”
“I watched the game on Saturday and I predicted before the game that Manchester United would lose the game.
“Fair play to Brighton, they’ve lost a couple of massive players, [Marc] Cucurella, [Yves] Bissouma going as well, and you would expect it to have taken a toll on them.
“They went there and they played the way Graham Potter gets them playing and they looked technically just as good as Man United if not better and that’s the worrying part when a team like Brighton comes to Old Trafford and looks just as good as Man United.”
Manchester United’s next Premier League game is against Brentford at the Gtech Community Stadium. After a disappointing start to the season, Manchester United will be hoping for their first win.