{"id":635855,"date":"2024-02-13T10:41:00","date_gmt":"2024-02-13T15:41:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=635855"},"modified":"2024-02-13T10:41:00","modified_gmt":"2024-02-13T15:41:00","slug":"aston-villa-manchester-united-key-takeaways","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/02\/13\/aston-villa-manchester-united-key-takeaways\/","title":{"rendered":"Aston Villa 1-2 Manchester United: Key Takeaways"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United continued their fine run of form with a battling 2-1 win over top 4 contenders Aston Villa at Villa Park on Sunday, February 11. Goals from Rasmus Hojlund and Scott McTominay gave the Red Devils all 3 points. A bullish Erik ten Hag claimed that his team &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bbc.com\/sport\/football\/68270263\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Could beat anyone, away or home<\/a>&#8221; following the win. Let&#8217;s look at some key takeaways from the victory that allowed Manchester United to continue building momentum.<\/p>\n<h2>Manchester United Key Takeaways From A Late Win At Villa Park<\/h2>\n<p><strong>WATCH<\/strong>: Football Fans Are Being Lied To<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Football Fans Are Being Lied To\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/hEQkQsNQGzo?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<h3>Casemiro Back To his best<\/h3>\n<p>Decorated Brazilian midfielder Casemiro had been under fire during the first half of the season, with several underwhelming performances, but was somewhere near his best at Villa Park. Only two Manchester United players have made nine or more tackles in a single game in the last eight seasons (Fred vs Leeds in 2023 was the other instance), showing just how all-encompassing the five time Champions League winner&#8217;s performance was.<\/p>\n<p>If the Red Devils want to claw the six-point deficit to the top 4 back, midfield performances like yesterday&#8217;s from the Brazilian will be essential in the run in.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Casemiro for Man Utd vs. Aston Villa:<\/p>\n<p>\u25c9 Most duels won (13) <br \/>\u25c9 Most tackles (9) <br \/>\u25c9 Most possessions won (7) <br \/>\u25c9 Most fouls won (3) <\/p>\n<p>Just look at that heat map. \ud83e\udd75<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/AVLMUN?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#AVLMUN<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/kLFjVLoow8\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/kLFjVLoow8<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Squawka Live (@Squawka_Live) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Squawka_Live\/status\/1756749789239058872?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 11, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<h3>Harry Maguire Is No Longer A Meme<\/h3>\n<p>The former team Captain has had to put up with criticism, online abuse and memes deriding his performances over the past year or two. Whilst there was a period where the Englishman was under par (Much like the rest of the team), there is an argument that he has been singled out for unwarranted individual criticism because of the inflated \u00a380m that Manchester United paid Leicester City to sign him back in 2018.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE<\/strong>:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/02\/12\/manchester-united-rebuild-garnacho-hojlund-mainoo\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">How Manchester United Can Rebuild Around Alejandro Garnacho, Rasmus Hojlund &amp; Kobbie Mainoo This Summer<\/a><\/p>\n<p>This season, however, is much a different story with Maguire looking assured and accomplished in most of his 14 Premier League appearances, a Man Of The Match award from yesterday&#8217;s game further testifying to the centre back&#8217;s renaissance.<\/p>\n<h3>Rasmus Hojlund Is Something Special<\/h3>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Rasmus Hojlund is in some form at the moment \ud83d\udd25<a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/MOTD2?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#MOTD2<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/BBCFootball?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">#BBCFootball<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/4XcYDLL1YJ\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pic.twitter.com\/4XcYDLL1YJ<\/a><\/p>\n<p>&mdash; Match of the Day (@BBCMOTD) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/BBCMOTD\/status\/1756928622126899303?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">February 12, 2024<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n<p>Five goals and two assists in his previous five games have catapulted Rasmus Hojlund to the top of the Premier League form table after a cautious and possibly underconfident start to life at Old Trafford. Incidentally, Hojlund finding his feet in the team has coincided with an upturn in form and Ten Hag consistently starting Alejandro Garnacho ahead of Antony, meaning that the Dane has more service and more direct wingers to supplement his game.<\/p>\n<h3>Onana&#8217;s Potential<\/h3>\n<p>You don&#8217;t get awarded UEFA Goalkeeper Of The Year for nothing. Andr\u00e9 Onana reached the Champions League final with Inter Milan last season and was widely regarded as one of Europe&#8217;s top keepers upon signing for Manchester United this summer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>READ MORE<\/strong>:\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2024\/02\/12\/manchester-united-augmented-reality-experience-plan\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\">\u2018Huge Opportunity\u2019: Manchester United Planning Game-Changing Project For Fans<\/a><\/p>\n<p>As with the rest of the team, the Cameroonian endured a torrid first half of the season but has recently looked much more like the elite goalkeeper the Red Devils thought they were buying, his shot stopping and distribution standing out in a commanding performance at Villa Park.<\/p>\n<h3>And Finally..<\/h3>\n<p>A word of advice for Douglas Luiz: Never dance too early when Scott McTominay is ready to come off the bench.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Manchester United continued their fine run of form with a battling 2-1 win over top 4 contenders Aston Villa at Villa Park on Sunday, February 11. Goals from Rasmus Hojlund and Scott McTominay gave the Red Devils all 3 points. A bullish Erik ten Hag claimed that his team &#8220;Could beat anyone, away or home&#8221; [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5004,"featured_media":634926,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[18,3],"tags":[4323,1178,9794],"class_list":["post-635855","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-manchester-united","category-premier-league","tag-andre-onana","tag-harry-maguire","tag-rasmus-hojlund"],"modified_by":"Alex Richards, LWOF Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635855","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5004"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=635855"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/635855\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/634926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=635855"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=635855"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=635855"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}