A Week To Forget For Manchester United
Manchester United has had a roller coaster for a week. They started the week beating Everton 3-0 at Goodison Park where everyone played extremely well. We witnessed one of the greatest goals in Premier League history. Alejandro Garnacho, what a young talent he is. He is only 19 years of age and has been incorporated into the first team already, either as a super sub or a starter. He also scored his first Champions League goal against Galatasaray.
The world was also introduced to Kobbie Mainoo this week. There's no way he is 18 years old, he plays with so much maturity and calmness it's hard to believe he is just 18. He brought a lot of balance to the midfield, something United has been lacking since the season started. He can dribble past opponents and break the lines with his beautiful passing. There hasn’t been a player that was able to do that since Paul Pogba.
Martial and Rashford both scored like they did in the good old days. They are one of the highest-scoring duos in the Premier League. They have both scored in the same game 17 times.
This good result wouldn’t matter after they finished playing against Galatasaray. They tied 3-3 away from home which keeps them in 4th place in their group. It's looking hard for United to make it to the next round because they play Bayern Munich who are 1st place in the group and beat them already. Even though it doesn’t look good there is still a chance, but it all depends on the other teams in their group. Manchester United must win and hope Galatasaray tie with Copenhagen.
The whole Champions League campaign has been a nightmare for the Red Devils. The team hasn’t shown any backbone, when things go bad, they don’t pick themselves up. For example, in the game against Copenhagen, after Rashford got a controversial red card, they lost their 2-goal lead and ended up losing the game. Or when they’re holding a lead as soon as the other team scores United loses their spark and forgets how to defend.
Onana has been a very disappointing signing. He came to replace David de Gea who had been performing for the past 4 years. After half a season the only thing Onana has over De Gea is that he can play the ball out. He doesn’t come out for the ball when there’s a cross and his shot-stopping ability went down after he put on the United jersey.
He has conceded the most goals in the Champions League this season and 4 of the 14 goals have been because of his mistakes. You can argue that United tied against Galatasaray because of his two mistakes that game. In one of the goals, he put the ball in the back of his net.
The weird thing is that Onana doesn’t have this problem in the league, he is one of the keepers with the most clean sheets. Unlike in the Champions League, United struggles to score goals in the league. They are one of the highest-scoring teams in the Champions League, but one of the lowest-scoring teams in the Premier League.
Rasmus Hojlund has five goals in five games in the Champions League but has a total of zero goals in the league with more appearances. Before the Everton game, the only attacker that had goals in the league was Rashford and it was only one goal. A lot of the attackers wearing the United shirt are not good enough and shouldn’t be near the team.
There's a spoiled brat in the name of Jadon Sancho who doesn’t want to play for the club anymore. Antony who was purchased for 100 million and offers nothing. Garnacho and Pellistri are young players who United shouldn’t depend on yet. Anthony Martial can't complete a full game because he always gets injured. The last time he completed 90 minutes was three years ago.
Finally, the poster boy Marcus Rashford, has arguably been the worst one this season. He has poor body language, and it seems that he has no hunger to play. He has lost his position to a 19-year-old and has done nothing about it. You would imagine a player with his experience would use that as motivation. It's not the first time either, this is the third time he has had this type of season. This shouldn’t be a cycle for a player of his caliber. The manager needs to drop him sooner rather than later, it's like he is playing with 10 men when he’s on the pitch.
Players like this are all over the team, which is why they lost to Newcastle United. A lot of them are not good enough to play for the team. Why would any team fear United’s midfield and defense when they start players like Scott McTominay and Lindeloff? They wouldn’t even start for a top-six team in the league.
Newcastle was all over them, United couldn’t handle Newcastle’s physicality or technique. United couldn’t hold the ball for more than 10 seconds. They were holding out for 50 minutes because of Harry Maguire who had a great game, but he couldn’t do everything.
Erik Ten Haag needs to fix this team, if not his job will be on the line. A lot of supporters are done with him already. He hasn’t made any progress in 18 months while spending hundreds of millions on players. He has been unlucky with injuries, but when the team plays it’s like they have no identity. There are other managers in the league like Ange from Spurs who gave them an identity and is having them play great football in such a short time and way less money. It’s going to be an interesting couple of months for United because it’s the time of the year when they start playing multiple games per week and to be honest, they don’t have the players to do that.
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