FIVE ASIDES Premier League: United 1, Southampton 1
We all know United can be maddening, but this is ridiculous. Ralf Rangnick, who arrived as a man with a plan, now seems hell-bent on demonstrating Einstein’s definition of insanity. He keeps doing the same thing and expecting a different result. In the past ten days we’ve had three winnable games, three 1-0 leads, three 1-1 draws, and hardly any changes (just the one yesterday – Ronaldo for Cavani). It’s beginning to feel as if United want to end up in the Europa Conference League.
Rangnick bemoans his team’s inability to ‘defend a lead’, and he’s not wrong, but his choice of words is revealing. The best way to defend a lead is to extend it. Middlesbrough, Burnley, Southampton: each of these matches was a 3-1 waiting to happen. Southampton are much the best of those three sides, but they were weary after battling to a 3-2 win at Spurs. (Or they should have been: as it turned out, they ran three miles further than United, who had had one more day to recuperate.) ‘It’s not a big secret,’ said the other Ralph, Hasenhuttl, ‘that when [United] lose the ball, their reverse gear is not always the best from everybody.’ That damning verdict deserves to be posted on the dressing-room wall. Even so, in this game of two Ralves, United would have wrapped it up by half-time if they had put away their chances – or done better at staying onside.
Cristiano Ronaldo was again United’s worst player. Of their various feeble finishes, his tame left-foot pass with only a defender to beat was the most frustrating - and that was his only shot on target in the whole match. Rangnick was brave enough to bench Ronaldo at Burnley, but not brave enough to take him off here when a switch to a diamond might have brought control of the midfield. It would also have got Bruno Fernandes further forward, by making him a false nine: most uncharacteristically, he went through a whole 90 minutes without taking a shot.
There were a couple of bright spots in the gloom. Paul Pogba was good again: he seems to have used his time in rehab to build up some body strength, so he’s better at holding off midfield terriers. And Jadon Sancho again played like a proper winger, sparky and tricksy, making things happen. He got a bit lucky with the goal, a shot that was heading straight for the keeper until it picked up a deflection, but he was in the right place at the right time to convert Marcus Rashford’s pinpoint cross. The pass that sent Rashford away was immaculate too – a fizzing through ball from Fernandes. The day can’t be far away when the football-stats industry starts counting pre-assists.
After this run of draws, United need a resounding win. They’ll be doing well if they get one: their next game, postponed from December, is against Brighton, who have drawn 12 of their last 18 in the league. And eight of those have ended 1-1. I won’t be watching it live as I’m down to cover City in the Champions League for The Guardian. This seemed like a blow when I saw the rota, but it now feels more like a relief.