Vintage Ronaldo: now mortal, but still lethal
A galactico's 700th club goal delivers the goods at Goodison
FIVE ASIDES Premier League: Everton 1, United 2
You wait months for a United comeback, then two come along in four nights – and both away from home. As in Nicosia, so at Goodison Park: United went behind against the run of play, kept calm and carried on, equalised and went ahead. In Cyprus they added a third, and they would have done so here too had Marcus Rashford’s buccaneering finish not been ruled out by the VAR. Or had Rashford squared to Bruno Fernandes, as you’re allowed to handle the ball inadvertently in the build-up to a goal as long as you don’t score it yourself. That law really is an ass.
It was United’s first league win since 4 September, five weeks earlier. This had more to do with the Queen’s death than anything else – they played only one game in between, losing 6-3 to someone or other. But it was still impressive. They have bounced back from their latest battering, just like the one before, with consecutive wins. They are now fifth, only just behind Chelsea; both are adrift of the top three, but have a game in hand. The title is surely a shoo-in for City if Erling Haaland, their Roy of the Rovers, stays fit, and Arsenal are unexpected favourites in the race for second. So, to make the top four, United probably have to overtake either Spurs or Chelsea. They face both next week, in a four-night challenge for which the past two games were just a leisurely rehearsal.
Erik Ten Hag, like a good pilates teacher, has strengthened the core. He has added pugnacity with his signings from the Eredivisie – Lisandro Martinez, Tyrell Malacia and Antony, street-fighters all. He has added composure and experience with his other outfield signings, Casemiro and Christian Eriksen, who started together as the double pivot for the first time in the league. They’re not the quickest, but they got the job done because in central midfield, more than anywhere else, the first yard is in the head.
Eriksen strolled forward a lot, often doubling up with Fernandes at inside-left. Against middling opponents, he turns Ten Hag’s preferred 4-2-3-1 into a fast-moving 4-1-4-1. Less predictably, Casemiro made the odd surge upfield too. At one point he even found himself as United’s centre-forward, receiving a cross from Rashford that was so pinpoint, all Casemiro had to do was nod it into the net. Not being a centre-forward, he managed to send it well wide. His performance was an odd mixture: he gave the ball away more times than any other United player, and regained it more too. One of the giveaways led to Everton’s goal, but another led to United’s winner as Casemiro first lost the ball, then won it back from Alex Iwobi and sent a beautifully simple pass through for Cristiano Ronaldo to run onto and score. The goal was 100-per-cent made in Madrid. It could even give United’s galacticos a good name.
That was Ronaldo’s 700th club goal, and his first in open play since the equaliser against Chelsea in April. He took it as if he was in form, beating Jordan Pickford at the near post after staying on his left foot when many a striker would have switched to the right. There’s a photo of the shot that shows those feet looking dainty, like a ballet dancer’s. Ronaldo’s bad patch had ended with a good performance and an assist in Cyprus, and now, given an hour to play with by Anthony Martial’s latest injury, he found the goal he’d been desperately seeking. He is what he is: a skilled operator in the box, a target for the long ball, a master of the hold-up and the lay-off. But he’s not what he was – not as speedy, not as springy, not as busy in the press, not as ready to run back from an offside position, not as scary for opposing defenders. Tony Cascarino, the Ireland striker turned Times columnist, says today that the first thing to go in his own game was the jumping, and at 37 Ronaldo has reached that stage. He is mortal now, while still capable of being lethal. As he’s about two-thirds of the player he was at 35, an hour is just right for him. If Martial lingers on the treatment table, Ten Hag will have to fast-track Charlie McNeill (18 years Ronaldo’s junior) to take over for the last chapter of each game. No harm in that: it’s the United way.
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.