The players are trying, the manager isn't managing
And his handling of Marcus Rashford is infuriating
FIVE ASIDES Premier League: Everton 1, United 0
A manager’s job is to make a team add up to more than the sum of its parts. Ralf Rangnick hasn’t done that: the parts are luxurious, even without Mason Greenwood and Edison Cavani, yet week after week United have been less than the sum of them. They’ve had three bosses this season and the only one to add value was Michael Carrick. He managed it in the space of three games, all of them tough assignments (Villarreal away, Chelsea away, Arsenal home). If the Glazers had any idea how much of a crisis the club is in, they would be begging him to come back and save their miserable season.
The Rangnick regime is failing as a whole, because he’s not inspiring the players. But it’s also failing, more surprisingly, in the details. He is getting some simple decisions wrong. Yesterday he recalled Aaron Wan-Bissaka, which was too defensive – by all means do it at Anfield next week, to smother Sadio Mane, but there’s no need for it at Goodison with Richarlison. Wan-Bissaka is a terrier in the tackle, but he makes United lop-sided because he’s so hesitant going forward: twice as many of their attacks went down the left as the right (53pc to 26). When he did get into the box near the end, a good chance fell to him, and nothing came of it. You just longed for Diogo Dalot to be there to blast it through Everton’s low block.
Rangnick removed Marcus Rashford after 64 minutes, judging him on his recent struggles and somehow failing to spot that he had been United’s best player on the day. While Cristiano Ronaldo was making an impact only on a fan’s phone, Rashford took half United’s shots on target (two out of four), tested Jordan Pickford early on with a high-class half-volley and even drew a save with a sharp header, which is not his strong point. He was back making runs in behind which, just like two years ago, were making Bruno Fernandes’s speculative long balls worthwhile. Rashford had put his shoulder to the boulder and pushed it halfway up the hill of form. And then he found, yet again, that when he needed a pat on the back, Rangnick was ready with a rap on the knuckles.
The winger to go off should have been Jadon Sancho, who has slid back to the stuttering form of his first four months at United. To be fair, Rangnick was right to bring on Juan Mata, still United’s leading lock-picker, and he was unlucky that one substitution had been used up by the injury to Fred, the only player Rangnick has improved. The problem was that for the second match running, Mata was brought on as a holding midfielder, which is not his natural habitat, just as Rashford has repeatedly been stationed on the right, his weaker side. If you change the shape when you need a goal, you may as well hold up a sign saying that you started with the wrong shape.
When results go wrong, there’s a temptation to accuse the players of not trying. Rangnick, to his credit, hasn’t done that. United’s expected goals were double Everton’s – only by 0.8 to 0.4, but still, that should have given them a 1-0 win. It took a wicked deflection to defeat them. This wasn’t a 0-1 of the kind they’ve put us through at home against Villa and Wolves. It was more like the 0-0s of this time last year, at Palace and Leeds. (Rangnick was right to predict that the game would be like Leeds, but quite wrong to think it would resemble the 4-2 funfest in February.) The players were trying: Bruno Fernandes ran 11.3km, second only to Alex Iwobi among all those on the pitch, and Alex Telles was busting a gut down the left wing. Telles and Fernandes both had a hundred touches, whereas no Everton player managed more than 57. The problem isn’t a lack of effort: it’s the lack of direction and drive from the boss. Just look at Spurs. They replaced a middling manager with a formidably driven one on November 2. At that stage their chances of making the top four, as estimated by the geeks at 538.com, were 8pc and United’s were 35pc. By this morning, Spurs’ chances had soared to 65pc, while United’s had shrunk to 1pc. A good manager makes all the difference.
Tim de Lisle writes about sport for The Guardian and music for The Mail on Sunday. If you’re on Twitter, do follow him – and United Writing.