Solskjaer was right – and wrong
It was another frustrating Saturday lunchtime, but not because Ronaldo was on the bench
FIVE ASIDES Premier League: United 1, Everton 1
‘Another Saturday night,’ Sam Cooke sang, ‘and I ain’t got nobody.’ Another Saturday lunchtime, and United ain’t got a victory. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has taken some flak for benching Cristiano Ronaldo against Everton, but that was refreshing – and brave. It made sense in terms of maths: a 36-year-old striker had played the full 96 minutes of a Champions League game about 64 hours earlier. Where Solskjaer did go wrong was in taking Edinson Cavani off as he brought Ronaldo on. When he starts with Plan A, Solskjaer seldom shows much appetite for Plan B, making his changes too late. When he starts with Plan B, as here, he can’t wait to go back to Plan A. Either way, he ends up showing a lack of faith in his supporting cast. On Saturday he seemed to have instantly forgotten that United’s best recent spell in attack came in the last few minutes against Villareal, when Ronaldo and Cavani were both on the field. Cavani did the pressing, Ronaldo the scoring. Cavani can do both, which makes him a perfectly reasonable pick against teams that struggle to escape the press. Solskjaer is not the only United manager to have had a bout of amnesia at the weekend. ‘You should always start with your best players,’ said Sir Alex Ferguson, perhaps forgetting all the times he left out Scholes and Giggs in favour of Park Ji-Sung and Darren Fletcher.
Picking Anthony Martial was brave too, and it paid dividends as he suddenly remembered that he was once the new Thierry Henry. But in taking him off, Solskjaer had another brain-fade and forgot about one of his strongest weapons. When United are desperate for a late goal, who is it going to come from? Although Jadon Sancho was brighter than before, and is on track to settle in by Christmas, he was surely a worse bet for a winner than Jesse Lingard.
United are two points off the top of the league, and yet about two games away from a crisis. The forecasters at 538.com, who are pretty good, have them finishing fourth, and not even getting close to third – Chelsea are 10 points ahead. The only consolation is that United are down to finish a long way ahead of fifth – that’s Everton, 11 points behind them. If Tom Davies had any confidence in front of goal, United would have lost this match, and that would have been the end of a sequence that has now run for 502 matches in all competitions. Not since May 1984 have they lost a game at Old Trafford in which they have taken the lead. It’s a magnificent record, but it’s not enough. Granted, United have the same number of league wins as Man City – four out of seven. But City have already got through their two trickiest assignments (Chelsea and Liverpool away), plus three other games against teams from last year’s top eight. The toughest opponents United have faced are Everton, who finished 10th. Last season United came bottom in the Big Seven mini-league (that’s including Leicester, and not ditching Arsenal just yet). This season, if they’re going to get a sniff of the title, they will need to be near the top of it.
Since Marcus Rashford last played a competitive game for them, United have signed Sancho and Ronaldo. One is Rashford’s mate, the other is his one-time idol, and they fish in the same waters as him, between the opposing right-back and the goalie. While he was recovering from shoulder surgery, he could have been forgiven for watching and worrying about his place. But now that he’s training again, he should sail back into the first XI. He’s a better marksman than Sancho, a better presser than Ronaldo, and a better sprinter than either. In his first game back, Wednesday’s friendly against Blackburn, he scored two of United’s three goals. In this season’s Premier League, nobody has created more chances than Bruno Fernandes, with 23. And yet the only one that led to a goal was the neat lay-off to Martial on Saturday, which followed a typical sleight of foot. Last season the man most likely to score from a Fernandes pass was Rashford: if his shoulder is up to it, he needs to leapfrog Sancho.
Why is McFred like Brexit? It isn’t working. And its supporters are still in denial. Fred, who had a tiring summer with Brazil, is making too many mistakes; his best performance this season came against Villareal, when he played six minutes at left-back. Scott McTominay’s attitude is admirable, but he can’t split a defence to save his life. They’re terriers, not creators, so picking them both only makes sense against the top teams.