McTominay, Maguire, Mainoo, momentum
United are on a roll at last, even if they're riding their luck
FIVE ASIDES Premier League: Villa 1, United 2
Six-pointer? More like 12. On Christmas Day United were eighth, 11 points behind Villa, who were third. With the two sides meeting twice in seven weeks, United badly needed to win both games. Over the full 200 minutes they could hardly claim to be the better team, but they were definitely the more efficient one. On expected goals they should have lost the home game 2-1 and drawn this one 2-2. Somehow, instead of 3-4, the final aggregate was 5-3. United rode their luck and showed some ruthlessness. In the two games together Villa had more attempts on goal (33-30), more shots on target (14-12), more of the possession (55-45). The only big contest in which they came second was the most important one of all: finishing. Rasmus Hojlund, who brought no league form at all, outshone and outshot Ollie Watkins, who brought loads.
At last, Erik ten Hag has a big away win. For 18 months his record in this department was awful, with no victory anywhere more daunting than Fulham. For two months, though, United had been quietly getting better against the big nine (the old big six plus Villa, Newcastle and Brighton). After five straight defeats, they managed two wins (Chelsea home, Villa home) and two draws (Liverpool away, Spurs home). And now this, which was also United’s fourth victory in succession You wait ages for a big away win and then … you have to go to the Etihad. United can’t be expected to get anything from that game, but their only other remaining trips to clubs in the current top ten – Chelsea on 3 April and Brighton on the final day – suddenly look hopeful.
Top five is now a realistic aim, which may be enough for the Champions League. But this United still feel more like a top-six team than a top-four one, with Hojlund’s purple patch papering over the cracks. A side in better form than Villa would have come out after half-time and destroyed a defence that had Victor Lindelof filling in at left-back. Harry Maguire and Rapha Varane, United’s 11th centre-back pairing in 24 league games, played pretty well, but Lisandro Martinez’s piercing passes were missed and by the end Ten Hag was jittery enough to resort to placing four old-school centre-backs in a row, like Victorian lamp posts. When Martinez and Luke Shaw are not there, the undoubted star of the defence is now Diogo Dalot, even if he’s still hit-and-miss with both his clearances and his crosses.
United finally have some momentum, and for that they mostly have to thank a few other Ms. Scott McTominay grabbed the winner and the headlines, and his goals have now added more points this season (12) than those of anyone else in the Premier League (Son Heung-min has 10, Dominic Solanke nine). Maguire was a questionable choice as player of the match after his dawdling on the ball, but he was certainly the main man in the air, winning several duels and supplying an assist for Hojlund’s opener, just as he did for McTominay’s winner against Brentford. If there was a prize for the most little chats with the ref, he would have won that too: he’s a lot better at it than Bruno Fernandes. In their Sky interview afterwards both Maguire and McTominay came across as leaders, clear enough in their own minds to comment on the whole team. No wonder David Moyes was after them both.
There was another moment of magic from Kobbie Mainoo, who carved out the winner with a typically sharp piece of awareness. It wasn’t just that he held the ball up well and occupied two defenders to enable Dalot to hit his first-time cross: it was the way that he stage-managed the scene that led up to that. As Varane hesitated on the ball, Mainoo pointed to where he wanted it in the inside-right channel. An 18-year-old rookie was telling a 30-year-old World Cup winner what to do. That reflects well on Mainoo, who seems to have been born a boss; on Varane, who was humble enough to take the hint; and also on the dressing-room culture, which evidently doesn’t force the young players to defer to their elders. Mainoo will surely be United captain before too long, if he doesn’t get snapped up by Real Madrid.
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.