FIVE ASIDES Premier League: United 3, Bournemouth 0
If the United squad had a contest to find their most one-footed player, the winner might well be Luke Shaw. Admirable as he is in many ways – dynamic on the field, refreshingly direct off it – Shaw believes that his right foot is just for standing on. Every two minutes the ball is shunted out to him near the touchline and he doggedly receives it with his left foot, even when a flick with the right, down the line to Marcus Rashford, looks the easier option. Yet here he was, bursting out of defence, playing a one-two with Rashford, setting off on a 40-yard dribble, then loitering on the penalty spot and finishing smartly with his right foot. So he does have one – it’s just that he keeps it for shooting. Restored to left-back after his stint in the role of Lisandro Martinez, Shaw wasn’t named man of the match against Bournemouth, but he should have been. Not content with scoring the second goal, he was the main architect of the third, spotting Bruno Fernandes’ run in behind and delivering a gorgeous long high ball, floated up into the rain with some back-spin on it, so that Fernandes had ample time to glance across and see Rashford advancing into space for the tap-in. On a night like this, Shaw is United’s Andy Robertson.
Erik ten Hag tried some rotation, for once. He rested Rapha Varane, United’s one-man guarantee of a clean sheet, and found himself giving an unexpected encore to Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s preferred defence – Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Harry Maguire, Victor Lindelof and Shaw. The comeback four acquitted themselves well apart from a sudden wobble on the hour mark when Bournemouth had three shots on target in the space of a minute, including two close-range headers. If a couple of those chances had been taken, it would have been 2-2. The other sign that this was a reserve back four came early on as United relapsed to the ponderous build-up that made them so turgid last season. They do need the more progressive passing that comes with Varane and Martinez, and the fearless runs from Diogo Dalot. Reliable as Wan-Bissaka has been on his return from the wilderness, he’s a defender who occasionally turns up in attack, whereas Dalot is a modern full-back, there to make things happen.
Ten Hag, who gets so many things right, has a curious habit of evicting his star players from their best position to make way for an understudy. He does it with Rashford when Garnacho comes on, and with Fernandes when Donny van de Beek is given a go. In each case the bigger figure gets shunted to the right wing, allowing Garnacho to come in on the left, and Van de Beek to get a central role at No 10. It feels like sacrificing a strength to fix a weakness. Van de Beek played pretty well, combining nicely with Christian Eriksen, but a few minutes after he went off injured, Fernandes was back at the heart of the action, as the link between Shaw and Garnacho, who then played that intelligent cut-back to Shaw. Fernandes isn’t scoring as many goals as he did two years ago, but he still racks up the assists – and plenty of pre-assists. In the WhoScored rankings, he is level with Casemiro as United’s player of the season.
Casemiro scored a beautifully simple goal. When Rashford won a free-kick on the left, Casemiro saw the Bournemouth centre-backs tied up with Maguire and Lindelof, slipped between them, met Eriksen’s masterful delivery and volleyed home. I was in the north-east quadrant, which gave Casemiro and Eriksen as big a hand as it had given Martinez when he waved his World Cup winner’s medal. With this goal, Casemiro and Eriksen went past McFred’s tally of league goal involvements for the whole of last season: they now have 11 (Eriksen six assists, Casemiro two; Eriksen one goal, Casemiro two), whereas McFred managed 10 (eight of them to Fred – four of each). They have played 2233 minutes between them, which is an hour less than Scott McTominay played in the 2021-22 season (2293 minutes) for one goal and one assist. As upgrades go, it’s like leaving your seat in economy and strolling all the way to the front of the plane. Ten Hag has now found the right role for Fred, who, when United have a lead, comes on for the last half-hour to seal the deal with his ball-winning energy. Poor old McTominay, on the other hand, is now fourth choice in the pivot. It might make sense for him to look for a move: he could add some grit to a struggling midfield, such as West Ham’s.
You wait six months for a 3-0, then two come along in a week. Is it greedy to ask for more? Both these wins, if they had taken place at the Etihad, would have been drubbings. Forest lost 4-0 at City, Bournemouth 6-0 (though, to be fair to both, that was when City were playing like gods, scoring three and a half goals a game, whereas now they’re mortal again, averaging one and a half). As Ten Hag pointed out afterwards, United created enough chances to score five or six. Their goal difference has gone from abysmal to not too bad, but something is stopping them giving it a dramatic lift. Anthony Martial’s stream of goals has dried up, though – unlike the elderly gentleman he has replaced – he offers plenty in terms of link-up play and decoy runs. Apart from Rashford, the only United forward having a hot streak is Amad, playing for Sunderland in the Championship and surely a good shout for a recall. Still, the bottom line is that United have four wins since the World Cup, and four clean sheets, and they’re now looking settled in the top four. They’ve rediscovered the lost art of dismissing lesser teams. Now they just need to go toe-to-toe with the top two – both of whom they’re about to meet for the second time before the Premier League reaches the halfway mark. It’s such a bizarre season that United could yet end up in the title race.
Tim de Lisle writes about sport for The Guardian and music for The Mail on Sunday. If you’re still on Twitter, do follow him and United Writing.