FIVE ASIDES Carabao Cup, third round: United 7, Barnsley 0
United needed to batter Barnsley, and they did. For the second game in a row – well, after the first half-hour at Southampton anyway – they played like a top-four team. Their goal difference, which had been a bad joke for a year, has been impeccable since the international break: ten goals scored, none conceded. Are you old enough to remember when a Dutch manager could send United out to face a lowly team in the League Cup and see them lose 4-0?
This was an improvement even on their cup form under Erik ten Hag. His team have tended to win games like this 3-1 or 4-2, so they were twice as ruthless as usual. They played really well, making good decisions at high speed. And there was plenty of individual progress. Alejandro Garnacho, back in the starting XI, showed that his star quality doesn’t just come out in cameos. Christian Eriksen, picked as a No 8 against Southampton, was pushed forward into Bruno Fernandes’ role and he had a blast, first as a supplier, then, when Fernandes came on to join him, as a finisher. Ten Hag himself managed some rotation. Antony scored a goal!
Casemiro, after his nightmare against Liverpool, woke up to find that he could still play quite well. He also captained the side and intervened, like a dad in the park, to make sure that Antony was given the chance to convert the penalty he had just won. Toby Collyer did a Sofyan Amrabat, establishing himself as an option at left-back, even if a bolder manager might have given Harry Amass his competitive debut. Manuel Ugarte had his first start, played for an hour and looked tidy apart from topping the foul charts: if he gives away six free kicks when United are this dominant, how many he will tot up in a big league game?
Above all, there was Marcus Rashford. We told you he was back. He built on his fine goal at Southampton with two more, the first time he’d helped himself to seconds since Leicester home in February 2023. He scored with his right, he scored with his left. And he didn’t just score: his all-round performance was so sharp that in the WhoScored ratings, where 7/10 is good going and 8 is exceptional, he got a perfect 10. He showed that, even if he prefers the left wing, he can still be the best option through the middle. He has a rapport with Garnacho that he has found only fitfully with Rasmus Højlund.
Well, it was only Barnsley, Rashford’s many detractors will say. Yes, but his problem in the past year hasn’t been rising to the big occasion – he hit a screamer at City, he scored at Arsenal, he scored against Liverpool and Spurs, and he played one of the two killer passes that led to Kobbie Mainoo’s winner in the Cup Final. His struggles have come in the small and medium-sized games, so this was another landmark on the long road back to the top. On Sky, a caption popped up to announce that since his senior debut in February 2016, Rashford was the leading scorer in the League Cup (ahead of Eddie Nketiah). It’s not exactly the Golden Boot, but it struck a chord because he was playing like his younger self, with pace and freedom and a sense of fun. Prompted by Garnacho, he dug out his pointing-to-the-temple celebration. Any day now, he’ll be sitting on an ad hoarding.
Tim de Lisle is the editor of United Writing and a sportswriter for The Guardian. If you’re still on the medium formerly known as Twitter, do follow him and United Writing.