Come in McFred, your time is up
United need a different double pivot, a new centre-back – and better marksmanship than they managed against Liverpool
FIVE ASIDES Premier League: United 2, Liverpool 4
United’s season is ending as it began, with knackered legs, scrambled minds, half-arsed defending and humbling home defeats. In their first two home games, they lost 3-1 to Crystal Palace and 6-1 to Spurs. In the last two, they’ve lost 2-1 to Leicester and 4-2 to Liverpool. The least bad of all these results, the Leicester one, was achieved by the 2nd XI. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s sudden swing from selectorial conservatism to sweeping changes was not a success. By the time they trudged off last night, United had lost three games in eight days. The one consolation is that there might be no price to pay for any of them, bar wounded pride. After a hard-earned weekend off, they will have to rise from this slump, beat Fulham and secure second place. Then Solskjaer can rest some of his stars – not ten of them – at Molineux on Sunday week. A draw there would be enough to preserve United’s unbeaten record on the road in the league, and, let’s face it, would be par for the course against Wolves. As it’s on the last day of the season, it could even be 5-5.
Liverpool’s night in Manchester was a tale of three buses. There was the normal red one, which was a decoy, or possibly a red herring: it found itself hemmed in by anti-Glazer protesters in a manoeuvre that was Line Of Duty minus the shooting. And then there were the two plain black ones that smuggled the players from their hotel in town to the back door of Old Trafford. On the pitch, though, there were no buses at all. United didn’t park one, so at least we were spared another 0-0. Liverpool didn’t park one either, allowing United to start fast and go 1-0 up, which is usually fatal. This was a meeting between the top two teams in the form table (Liverpool 14 points from the previous six league games, United 13, City 12), although only one of them played like it. United had plenty of attempts on goal – 18, to Liverpool’s 17, and in open play it was 15-9. But their marksmanship was way off, with only three on target to Liverpool’s eight. Bruno Fernandes scored a fine goal but missed with his other five attempts and forgot that captains have to be diplomats as well as leaders. But the worst miss came from Edinson Cavani, of all people. Unable to believe his luck when Alisson passed to him, he skewed his shot wide. Still, he did atone by teeing up Marcus Rashford’s goal with a beautiful one-two.
‘McTominay and Fred have always
been uncreative and have now
become unreliable too, perhaps
out of sheer exhaustion’
been uncreative and have now
become unreliable too, perhaps
out of sheer exhaustion’
‘Maguire’s had a good game,’ Rob Smyth said in our WhatsApp chat at half-time, and that was spot-on. United missed their captain’s authority, his anticipation and his ability to shove Luke Shaw down the wing like a pushy dad (Aaron Wan-Bissaka, as well as being United’s best player, was the more advanced of their full backs, which is unheard of). Maguire’s understudy Eric Bailly, so good at playing the ball, too often plays the man as well, and couldn’t have complained if the penalty given against him had stood. At 27, he’s still apt to make one or two decisions per game like a beginner, while Axel Tuanzebe, who’s 23 and further down the pecking order, is more of a grown-up. Pacy though he is, and popular with the other players, Bailly can count himself lucky to have landed that new contract. United still need a new centre-back, someone as cool and composed as Ruben Dias or Virgil van Dijk. Come on you Glazers, spend £40m on Raphael Varane. Better ten years late than never. They could even arrange a swap with the man who arrived instead, poor old Phil Jones: that should knock the price right down to £39m.
Dean Henderson had his worst game for United, but it wasn’t all bad. Liverpool could have had six, as Roy Keane kept saying, and they would have if Henderson hadn’t made himself big against Diogo Jota (who thumped the post) and Sadio Mane (who wilted, showing why Jurgen Klopp had demoted him). But then Henderson managed to make himself small against Mo Salah, handing him a gilt-edged invitation to shoot into the bit of the goal he was already eyeing. Henderson and David de Gea are different characters, representing different eras of goalkeeping, but one thing they have in common is the ability to be watertight one minute and wobbly the next. Henderson, as well as being younger and bossier, is a better fit for the fashion for taking goal kicks short and making the punt an endangered species. One day we will look back in wonder at the fact that, in the age of the high press, so many managers persisted with playing out from the back.
Come in McFred, your time is up. These two were United’s worst performers on the night, which is saying something. Shaw was almost as bad, but he did summon one surging overlap and has credit in his account after a superb season. The same can’t be said of Scott McTominay and Fred, who have always been uncreative and have now become unreliable too, perhaps out of sheer exhaustion. Between them, in 60 league appearances this season, they have been responsible for one assist. When Fred went off after an hour last night, United were instantly transformed, and not just because his replacement was the red-hot Mason Greenwood. For the Europa final, they’re surely better off reverting to the double pivot that shone in the Restart XI last year. Nemanja Matic is far calmer than McFred, Paul Pogba is far more inventive, and they complement rather than duplicate each other – when Pogba gets slapdash, Matic turns up with a mop. And the clincher is that Rashford and Greenwood can then slot into their best positions, either side of Cavani. United are the Red Devils: they need a proper trident.