According to Adam Lallana, part of the plan for the opening weekend victory at Manchester United was to target new arrival LisandroMartinez.
Graham Potter’s side got their first ever win in the premier league, with the former England international a key figure to their success.
It was not enough for the hosts to get a goal in the second half, as the two first-half goals by Pascal Gross were enough to give them the win.
The Argentine’s partnership with Harry Maguire was put to the test early on by the movement of the visitors, as he made his debut after a pre-season move from Amsterdam.
Lallana said it had been part of the plan to try and unsettle him as he was a new player in the league.
The plan was to have a lot of courage. We had a shape andtriggers. Danny and I have experience in the final third.
“We went a little bit more direct because we knew United had been pressing well in pre-season, with new ideas from the manager, and Wells caused them problems all game.”
We thought we’d ask the new signing questions early on. We landed on second balls and attacked the ball. Getting across the front post is something we’ve been talking about.
Even though he only played 45 minutes in the pre-season due to personal reasons, there had been constant speculation that he wanted to leave.
His introduction early in the second half led to a change of shape, with another United debutant, Christian Eriksen, moving from a false nine position into the middle of the park.
Lallana credited Potter with taking the sting out of the game, while also complaining about some refereeing decisions that went against them, including a push on Welbeck in the penalty area that the officials deemed fair.
He said that they knew they were going to react tactically or with personnel. We weathered the storm despite knowing it wasn’t going to be the same.
There were decisions that didn’t go our way. We had a penalty chance and a couple of fouls, but we made good subs at good times. The manager took the sting out of the game and we shored the game up in the last 10 or 15 minutes.
It was good game management.
