FIVE ASIDES Europa League: United 1, Omonia 0
If at first you don’t succeed, try 33 more times. Scott McTominay’s shot in the 93rd minute did the business for United. He took it well, keeping calm, carving out 18 inches of space, shooting through a defender’s legs, reminding you that he was a striker in his teens. But it really shouldn’t have taken that long. Of United’s first 33 attempts on goal, the only really good ones were a couple of curlers from Marcus Rashford, kept out by fine saves from Francis Uzoho, and a screamer from Casemiro that hit the bar – via the keeper’s fingertips.
United won the match, just, but Uzoho won the heart. What a performance. He saved shot after shot – something a few visiting keepers have done at Old Trafford down the years, but unlike most he did it with a big smile on his face, so infectious that even Cristiano Ronaldo was grinning too. And Uzoho is not even Omonia’s first-choice keeper. A Premier League contract is surely beckoning to him: Nottingham Forest haven’t signed anyone for at least five minutes.
One word looms large in the headlines today: blushes. McTominay spared them, apparently. The unwritten rules of sportswriting state that blushes should never be mentioned unless they’re being spared, in which case they are compulsory. United are giving them plenty of outings – this Thursday, last Thursday … and we might even settle for another blush-sparing this weekend. It’s Newcastle coming to town, and they’re looking a lot stronger than a year ago when Ronaldo was making his comeback and they were just the cannon-fodder. But still, results are what count and United have won three in a row, which makes eight out of 12 competitive games under Erik ten Hag. Of the last 12 games under Ralf Rangnick, they won three.
Ten Hag’s substitutions are working like a dream. This was the third game in a row where the difference was made by a sub, with McTominay’s winner joining Ronaldo’s at Everton, and Rashford and Anthony Martial grabbing all three goals in Cyprus. But some of those subs were needed because the original selection had predictably gone awry, such as Jadon Sancho in Nicosia.
Ten Hag is bold with his subs, which is great, but he’s not very brave with his starting line-ups. He was conservative again here, resting only Christian Eriksen (hard to argue with that) and Luke Shaw (more debatable, as he’s just back from a long exile) when Alex Ferguson would surely have made about six changes. You can understand the urge to establish a first XI, but Ten Hag is flying in the face of the fixture list. There are two big league games next week, against Chelsea and Spurs – three if you count Newcastle. United are going to have some weary players on the field, and some rusty ones on the bench.