United play well for more than half an hour!
Rashford and Eriksen get back to where they once belonged
FIVE ASIDES Premier League: United 3, Forest 2
United got away with it, again. They’ve taken a clear step back since last season, yet still started better in terms of points, taking six rather than three from the first three games. They’ve done it by maintaining three of last season’s habits. They’re still seeing off the smaller teams (two out of two), albeit only by the skin of their mostly missing teeth. They’re still winning at home (also two out of two). And they’re still losing away to the bigger clubs (eight of the top nine last season, one out of one this time). So they’ll probably go down in flames at Arsenal on Sunday. But this was better. Against Forest, after conceding two slapstick goals in four minutes, United didn’t merely show resilience. For the first time this season, they actually played well for more than half an hour. In fact, for more than 90 minutes. Normal service – putting two or three goals past Forest without reply, something they did four times in 2022-23 – was resumed. We may look back and say that United’s season truly began at 3.05pm on Saturday, 26 August.
Marcus Rashford is back where he belongs. Not yet among the goals, but on the left, among the assists, and also among the pre-assists, which will surely soon be added to the standard stats. He had a hand in all three United goals. The first was classic Rashford: he burst past his wing-back, Serge Aurier, on the outside and fizzed in a low, left-foot cross that Christian Eriksen needed only to flick into the net. (It was, as Statman Dave spotted, Rashford’s 38th Premier League assist, one up on Ole-Gunnar Solskjaer and Cristiano Ronaldo – full list here). The second was more the sort of thing you’d expect from Eriksen: an artful chip from midfield that formed part of a latticework free kick, built from lateral thinking – Bruno Fernandes turning a free kick into a long low crossfield ball to Rashford, Rashford taking a moment before curling it back to an onrushing Fernandes, Fernandes heading it square to the unmarked Casemiro, the whole thing complex but effective. For the third goal, it was back to classic Rashford – a dash for the byline, an invitation to Danilo to stick out a thigh, a tumble to the ground, a glance at the ref, and over to Fernandes for the match-winning penalty.
When Rashford and Fernandes are on form and in tune, it hardly matters who the other two forwards are. They even managed to sparkle alongside Wout Weghorst. For this game Anthony Martial took over from Rashford as the invisible man up top. On his 300th appearance for United Martial had only 19 touches, the fewest of any starter – but one of them was a neat lay-off to Rashford that led to the first goal. He may be exasperating, but Martial has never been as useless as his critics make out. Antony, on the other hand, gets a better press than he deserves. After finally getting some stick for his part in the panto at Tottenham, he did manage to improve his passing here, topping United’s table of shot-creating actions with seven, one ahead of Rashford. The difference was that one winger was involved in all three goals and the other in none. When you’re called Antony, you don’t have a middle name, but if he did we can be fairly sure it wouldn’t be End Product.
Mason Mount’s injury did Erik ten Hag a favour. With Eriksen back in the slot he should never have lost, the midfield ran less, but it ran more smoothly. And productively, and securely. Neither of the goals United conceded was down to the midfield being overwhelmed as it had been on Mount’s watch. Both were all about organisation at corners. Taiwo Awoniyi’s muscular breakaway could only be blamed on the coaching staff, who somehow set United up for an attacking corner in a way that allowed Rashford to become the last line of defence. Willy Boly’s free header from a Forest corner was down to either the set-up or the decision-making by Casemiro, still more less commanding than he was last season, and Aaron Wan-Bissaka, whose watertight reliability evaporates when his feet leave the ground.
Goals are spreading slowly through the team, from the back. First it was Rapha Varane, then Eriksen and Casemiro, and finally Fernandes from the spot. At this rate, we could even see a goal at Arsenal from one of the front three. But before that there may well be more transfers, and United show every sign of making some wrong moves. They’re now reported to be flirting with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg of Spurs, when they could be buying James Garner back from Everton – younger, classier, far more promising, and probably a third of the price. They’re also scrambling around for a left-back they don’t need. It was bad luck that Luke Shaw got injured, and especially bad luck on Brandon Williams, who had just been shipped out to Ipswich. But United have still got Diogo Dalot and Alvaro Fernandez. A bolder selector than Ten Hag might have used the last 20 minutes on Saturday, when Brennan Johnson had been taken off, to give Fernandez a senior debut. He’s as skilful as you’d expect from someone who has played for Spain Under-19s. After winning United’s U23 Player of the Year award in 2022, he put in a proper shift on loan at Preston, playing 39 games. Never mind Shaw: on his Preston highlights reel Fernandez is reminiscent of the young Gareth Bale. He can even shoot with either foot, so he could even end up ousting Antony from the right wing, if Amad doesn’t get there first.
Tim de Lisle, a United fan since the days of Carlo Sartori, is the editor of United Writing and a sportswriter for The Guardian. If you’re on Twitter, do follow him and United Writing.