FIVE ASIDES FA Cup, fourth round: United 3, Reading 1
They can do it on the beach back home, but can they do it on a wet night in Manchester in January? Yes they can! United’s Brazilians got the job done in style. Casemiro scored a delicious goal and immediately followed up with another one. The first assist came from Antony, the second from Fred. Then Fred scored the third with a cheeky back-flick, made on the beach. The assist for that was by Bruno Fernandes, the only non-Brazilian to play a part in these three goals. In the space of 13 minutes, the boys from Brazil had turned a stalemate into a party. And United had secured an easy win without a goal from Marcus Rashford – although his finish, for the goal disallowed by the VAR, was another gem to add to his collection, athletic, opportunistic and as switched-on as his celebration.
Casemiro’s whole performance was a masterclass. He topped United’s tables for shots on target (two – the goals), duels (14) and dribbles (two, equal with Rsahford). He came second for tackles (four) and chances created (three). He was two midfielders in one, both holding and box-to-box. He was the most influential player on the pitch by a country mile, as WhoScored acknowledged by giving him 8.9 marks out of ten. And yet he wasn't made man of the match by ITV’s co-commentator, Lee Dixon.
That award went to Antony, which is like giving the form prize to the kid who has gone from bottom of the class to the middle. Antony has certainly improved in these past two games, discovering some urgency and taking four or five touches in one go rather than eight or nine. Now, after 21 appearances, he finally has his first United assist, and it was a good ball – simple, quick, responding to Casemiro’s run. But he still makes more bad decisions than good ones. He took eight shots in this match, when at least four of them should have been crosses. He plays like someone who has never watched Riyad Mahrez, let alone Bukayo Saka. It’s hard to see him keeping his place when Amad returns from his sparkling spell with Sunderland.
Erik ten Hag, so admirable in most ways, is a very boring selector. Part of the fun of being a fan is picking your team and seeing how it compares to the manager’s. Erik, who is great with the fans when he finds them waiting for a selfie, is mysteriously determined to stamp out this innocent pleasure. Presented with a golden chance to ring the changes, he went for only one, resting Lisandro Martinez and recalling Harry Maguire. That worked out well, with Martinez’s terrier tendencies not needed and Maguire effectively playing in a back three (as he often has for England) because Aaron Wan-Bissaka, rightly, ran off to join the midfield. Maguire was braver than his fellow defenders in trying to beat Reading’s low block with through balls, and not made sense to have his forehead on the field in case Reading had any set pieces. By the end United were fielding the team that many fans might have preferred, with Facundo Pellistri and Alejandro Garnacho racing down the wings and Kobbie Mainoo, still only 17, in the middle. But for the first hour or so this was another case of Ten Hag’s selection being so conservative that it ended up being risky.
The risk was that one of the four irreplaceables playing here – Rashford, Fernandes, Casemiro and Christian Eriksen – would get injured. Sure enough, Eriksen found himself colliding with an elderly battering ram called Andy Carroll. We just have to hope his ankle isn’t too bad. Fred has become good at trotting off the bench and replacing Eriksen for half an hour, making up in drive what he lacks in guile, but if he had to do it from the start United would become a different team – less artful, less inventive, easier to stifle. The move that led to Casemiro’s first goal began with Eriksen spraying the ball from the left to Antony on the right. He brings the vision and precision that we used to get from Paul Scholes, with slightly better tackling.
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.