Sorry, Ole – it wasn’t the players who didn’t turn up
On a frustrating night, United's biggest weakness was their game management
Europa League Final: United 1, Villarreal 1 (10-11 on penalties)
‘We didn’t turn up,’ said Ole Gunnar Solskjaer. Well, almost: there was just one letter in that sentence that needed changing. He didn’t turn up.
On a frustrating night, United’s worst performer was their manager. He just stood there doing nothing. Armed with five substitutions – the very weapon he had campaigned for in the Premier League, and not been given – he didn’t use one of them in normal time. As the writer Richard Jolly spotted, the man who gave United a great piece of their history, as a sub, in the 93rd minute of a European final, hadn’t fielded a single sub by the 93rd minute of a European final.
When he did finally make a change, seven minutes later, the man he hauled off was Mason Greenwood, who had been United’s brightest spark. One of the last two players he sent on, in the 122nd minute, was Juan Mata, the man most likely to pick the lock of a packed defence. Somehow Solskjaer decided that Mata was worth precisely one minute, and United’s next-best lock-picker, Donny van de Beek, was worth none at all.
And yet, in the run-up to the game, Solskjaer had been at his best. He must be as weary as anyone after 61 games and no proper break last summer, but you wouldn’t have known it from his press conferences and interviews. He was bright-eyed and judicious, striking the right balance between saying something and saying nothing at all. He then made a braver selection than expected, albeit partly because one of his comfort blankets, Fred, wasn’t able to play a full part. Solskjaer showed more trust in Paul Pogba than usual, shifting him back to be the rich man’s Fred, which meant that Greenwood and Marcus Rashford could both start in their best positions.
The drawback was that, with Anthony Martial injured, there was little firepower left for the bench. And the people praising Solskjaer for an attacking team sheet may have failed to spot a couple of blunders in the small print. Among the subs, he included Harry Maguire, who hadn’t even been fit to run around the day before, so that was a waste of a place. And he didn’t include Anthony Elanga, who had just shown in his first start against Wolves that he has most of what it takes to be a United centre forward – the pace, the desire, the movement, and even (by the time his third chance came along) the composure. With his fresh legs and fearlessness, Elanga could have been a fairytale waiting to happen.
‘THE HIGH PRESS, AGAINST
A LOW BLOCK, IS ALMOST
SELF-DEFEATING… UNITED
ALLOWED VILLARREAL
NOT JUST TO PARK THE
BUS, BUT TO ENFORCE A
TRAFFIC-CALMING SCHEME’
If Solskjaer really thought the team he picked hadn’t turned up, why on earth didn’t he make any changes when he normally does, around the 70th minute? Actions do speak louder than words, and my guess is that he didn’t really mean what he said. He just meant that they weren’t at their best. They did well in some facets of the game – working hard, pressing high, tracking back, showing fight (well played, Scott McTominay), and above all taking penalties. For every outfield player to score is amazing, and it tells you that, even with knackered legs, they approached that long lonely walk with faith, hope and clarity. Not to mention unity: David de Gea may have missed his penalty, but he didn’t go short of consoling hugs.
They did less well in other departments, starting with defending at set pieces. ‘They’re missing Maguire,’ said one commentator, apparently unaware that they do it when he’s there too. Gerard Moreno’s goal was a close relative of the one from Dominic Calvert-Lewin that cost United two points in the 3-3 with Everton, though, to be fair, Villarreal’s ploy, as Rio Ferdinand showed at half-time, was a clever one, with Moreno affecting a lack of interest before bursting to life.
Unai Emery’s plan was to let United have the ball, and they tamely went along with it. The high press, against a low block, becomes almost self-defeating. Look at Liverpool’s league results this past season: they found the top teams easier to beat than the small fry. United allowed Villarreal not just to park the bus, but to enforce a traffic-calming scheme. Rashford’s electric pace was barely needed – although he did take the long shot that led to Edinson Cavani’s goal, and the sitter he missed wouldn’t have counted anyway, as the flag was up. The people who hurled racial abuse at him afterwards are just disgusting. If you only support the pale-skinned players in your team, you’re not a fan. Or a decent member of the human race.
Solskjaer has built a good squad. It’s nonsense to argue that United don’t have strength in depth: when the strikers are fit, they have Martial, and usually one of Cavani, Greenwood and Rashford, on the bench, as well as the artistry of Mata and van de Beek, the poise of Nemanja Matic, the class of Alex Telles and Axel Tuanzebe. Against Wolves and for the first 80 minutes against Leicester, United’s reserves showed some steel when Solsjkjaer could hardly have complained if they’d been covered in rust.
The problem is not the hand he’s been dealt. And often it’s not the way he plays his cards, either: he has pulled off more than his share of stirring upsets, from the Etihad to the Parc des Princes. But something goes awry in the big knock-out games. With the sole exception of the 6-2 romp against Roma, United have now lost every semi-final or final they have played under Solskjaer. His ability to turn a game round seems to desert him. Jose Mourinho won a Europa League final quite comfortably with a less talented side (Valencia, Darmian, Fellaini!). Emery did so too, by having a plan, sticking to it, and spiking United’s guns – a set of moves from the Mourinho playbook.
Even so, it was mighty close: it all came down to one kick. Nobody could blame de Gea for missing that pen, but in the background there was one more failure of game management. Some of us, in our armchairs and on our WhatsApps, were imploring Solskjaer to send Dean Henderson on for the penalties. Everybody knows that de Gea is a hopeless penalty-saver. Solskjaer might have felt it would be too harsh to take him off, when it would surely have been a case of being Krul to be kind.
Villarreal’s victory may have been dull to watch, but from one point of view it was good to see. As much as we wanted United to win, it wouldn’t have been good for the game if both the European trophies had gone to clubs that were trying to smash the system a few weeks ago. Villarreal have done a Leicester. If United have to miss out, better that they fall to a David than to a fellow Goliath. Now we just need the football fates to arrange one more thing: please can City and Chelsea both lose on Saturday?