Manchester United were determined to attack from the start

Fresh off of Manchester United's 1-0 victory over Sunderland yesterday, David Pleat of the Guardian gives a tactical analysis of how United won.

United continued to dominate passing and to control the game after half-time. Sunderland's rearranged central midfield, with Lorik Cana and Lee Cattermole, who had replaced David Meyler in the first half, could not cope with the clever triangles that United played using a combination of their midfield and front men. The work of continually making angles requires application and intelligence. Scholes always had passing options and Sunderland, though they fought to resist, were never able to get enough of the ball to create. Their front two were too far from their midfield, who were forced back, and longer passes were won by Vidic and Evans. Sunderland's best chance of gaining more possession would have come from replacing one of their front players with a midfielder, who might have deterred Rooney, and certainly made it harder for him to collect the ball. At the very least one forward needed to drop back and lend support to his midfield but no tactical shift was forthcoming. Berbatov, who worked well, with some clever touches, had no luck near goal and was replaced by Michael Carrick as United sought to hold the game. Rio Ferdinand and Owen Hargreaves were further additions in the final minutes but United should have been well clear by that late stage.