United are in danger of becoming a real-time experiment exploring what happens if you just don’t sack the managerWith 56 minutes gone, as Manchester City’s players pinged and tickled the ball around, 2-0 up and basically doing a yoga workout, a team conga in the Manchester United half, Jadon Sancho went to press Kyle Walker, looked behind and saw Luke Shaw 40 yards away watching with an expression of vague interest.Sancho raised his arm and began to shout a complaint. He reined himself in. The forward is 20 years old and yet to carry out a single significant act in a United shirt. He has though, played at the Dortmund school of science. Continue reading...
Evidence before Manchester derby suggests system-based City and structureless United signed the wrong player last summerWith Manchester City desperate for an equaliser against Crystal Palace last weekend, Jack Grealish was taken off. He was also taken off as City sought goals against Paris Saint-Germain and Liverpool. Grealish has started nine of City’s 10 Premier League games since his move from Aston Villa and registered two assists – in the 5-0 win over Arsenal and the 4-1 win over Brighton – and one goal – in the 5-0 win over Norwich. It’s a crude measure and the season is only a quarter gone, but Grealish is yet to deliver game-turning moments in the biggest games or when the pressure is on.But...
Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s star player rescued him again but his team looked confused and overrun in a 2-2 draw with AtalantaThe genius of the modern Manchester United is that for all the attention lavished upon them, for all the granular analysis they attract, they remain a largely unknown quantity. When they take the field, you genuinely have no idea what to expect from them. And not just in terms of results, either: tactics, personnel, effort and mood are all equally unforeseeable. They are the hyperactive toddlers of English football, equally capable of moments of startling insight and unfettered joy as they are of throwing valuable household ornaments into the toilet.Naturally, this is a quality greatly prized by Ed Woodward and...
Solskjær pulls off a tactical trick, Potter gives Brighton fans a treat and De Bruyne endures a rare horror showOle Gunnar Solskjær deserves credit for Manchester United’s win over Tottenham. The switch to a back three worked and a front two with a combined age of 70 proved far too good for Spurs, whose defenders were thoroughly outclassed by Cristiano Ronaldo and Edinson Cavani. Ronaldo opened the scoring with a banger and Cavani was impressive on his second start of the season, offering intelligent movement and producing a cool finish after being set up by his strike partner. The question now is whether this is sustainable. Is the 3-4-2-1 system the way forward for Solskjær or an emergency solution? Will...
Fans’ fury at Daniel Levy is understandable – the on-pitch stagnation is only highlighted by the luxury surroundingsThere were always going to be boos from one end of the ground or the other and, as Ole Gunnar Solskjær’s side pulled off another of those increasingly familiar job-saving victories, they came from Spurs fans. At half-time, at full time and, probably most significantly, when Lucas Moura was taken off for Steven Bergwijn. By the end there were chants against the chairman, Daniel Levy. It seems absurd to say it 11 games into the manager’s reign but already for Nuno Espírito Santo the situation is critical.Manchester United were more solid than they have been. There may be problems ahead if Marcus Rashford,...