Outworked. Outfought. Outclassed.
Manchester United turned in a shocking, gutless, disgrace of a performance against Newcastle; eventually succumbing to second-half Anthony Gordon goal in a result which massively flattered the Reds.
With perhaps 2 or 3 exceptions, United looked disinterested and unbothered by the footballing lesson handed to us by the Geordies last night. There was a brief rally in injury time when Harry Maguire was sent up-front, but it would have been a robbery if United had taken anything from this game.
an insult to the travelling fans
United’s heavily over-subscribed away ticketing system means that around 8,000 season ticket holders, including myself, missed out on a ticket for St James’ Park. The ‘lucky’ ones that were allocated a ticket have had to travel a long way, probably book accommodation and give up their Saturday night, for the opportunity to stand high up in the gods at Newcastle on a bitterly cold December night.
The least that is expected, the minimum acceptable output from United’s players is effort. The willingness to track back, to run, to care about the football club – if not for yourself but the travelling fans and Reds around the world. These have nothing to do with footballing ability and everything to do with character. For whatever reason, a majority of United’s players just didn’t seem to care last night.
A still from MOTD showing how far Rashford (top left) is from his man on the wing. This was only one of many examples
player ratings and motm
Onana – 4. Made some decent stops but kicking was awful. Bought for being press-resistant but was nothing of the sort against Newcastle.
Wan-Bissaka – 4. Caught napping at the crucial moment for Newcastle’s goal. Received almost no help whatsoever from Rashford all game.
Maguire – 6. One of only a few players that turned up last night, made plenty of blocks and headed clearances. Say what you want about Harry Maguire – the effort and desire is always there.
Luke Shaw – 6 & MOTM. Played at centre-back and did all he could to keep Newcastle out along with Maguire.
Dalot – 4. Outmatched against Kieran Trippier, although received very little help from Garnacho. Doesn’t look comfortable on the left-hand side.
McTominay – 4. Kept going but doesn’t seem to want the ball in big games.
Mainoo – 5. Composed on the ball but can’t be expected to influence games on his own when those around him are performing so poorly.
Fernandes – 4. Not able to influence the game in any way.
Garnacho – 4. Looked the most lively of a poor frontline in the first half, but did nowhere enough in defence and faded in the second half.
Rashford – 2. A horrorshow of a performance devoid of the any of the qualities expected of any Manchester United player, let alone a born-and-bred Mancunian. Brought off after an hour.
Martial – 3. Did nothing going forward because had almost literally no service. Ineffective/lazy pressing and was rightly subbed on the hour-mark.
Subs:
Hojlund – 5. At least provided some presence up front and tried to put himself about
Antony – 5. Looked quite bright and tracked back more in half an hour than Rashford did in an hour. Unlucky not to score the equaliser when Maguire was offside.
Reguilon – 5. Solid enough and almost levelled the game up with a screamer.
Amrabat – 5. Looked OK and was composed on the ball.
bad managerial decisions
None of us are experts and we do not know what goes on behind the scenes. However, even to the casual observer, it looked like Erik Ten Hag got some decisions wrong yesterday.
The re-worked back four didn’t really work, the midfield 3 was ineffective leading to Mainoo being overran, and at least 2 of the starting 3 frontline players had no business being on the pitch in the second half, yet the substitutions were made 15 minutes after the restart.
Ten Hag is a proven tactician and winning manager, but he just can’t afford another performance like that. We have Chelsea, Bournemouth and Bayern at home followed by Liverpool away.
We should be able to overcome Bournemouth but another performance like last night’s in any of those other 3 big games could quite easily cost the manager his job. It needs sorting out – fast.
