Manchester United has a lot of work to do if they were serious about competing in the Champions League this year. This was clear following the UEFA Super Cup.
The UEFA
Super Cup between Manchester United and Real Madrid highlighted the big gap between
the reigning Champions League holder and the Europa League holders. While the
scoreline of 2-1 in Skopje seems to show that only a minor gap separate the two,
Jose Mourinho’s side were dominated for large portions of the game.
While Mourinho
could be right about the “offside” goal from Casemiro that gave Real Madrid the
lead in the first half, making it even easier for Real Madrid to control the
game, this sort of wrong decisions are part of football…sometimes the decisions
favor you, sometimes no, and I think it’s fair to say that all footballers and
coaches are aware of it.
The problem
though lies at the disconnect between the defenders, especially Smalling and
United’s new defender, Lindelof. It was obvious that United missed the presence
of Eric Bailly. In fact, one could easily argue that the “offside” goal appears
to be something that even Lindelof and Smalling overlook. The body language
suggested that the players were not aware of the presence of one another. Similarly,
on the left back, Italian’s Darmian appeared to struggle. I am quite convince
that Manchester United would need Luke Shaw back at his best or buy a new left
back, because it was obvious Darmian lacked the pace required to get the job
done.
Pogba disappoints
Perhaps the
biggest disappointment that Mourinho failed to mention was Paul Pogba. I’m
beginning to wonder if he could live up to the expectations. While a lot of
football analysts were right that Pogba is special, it’s obvious that he don’t
usually turn up, and to get to the best, he needs to do it consistently. In
fact, it is beginning to annoy fans to see how he change his hairstyle every
now and then but his football could hardly justify the fees that he is taking.
Despite the
presence of Matic, Pogba was clueless….wrong timing, selfish, and a lot of
wrong decisions. Let’s hope it’s just his off day because another performance such
as those, Manchester United would not be talking about challenging for the
title.
Matic, Lukaku, Rashford, Valencia, Miki has a
decent performance but needs to improve
Matic showed
a lot of positive that we want to see, and it was good to see Lukaku scored in
the game although he could have scored two more if not for him making stupid
mistakes…the unnecessary offside and the free shot that he wasted. Rashford was
quick with his feet. His presence adds another dimension to the attack as he
dribbled and tried to run at defenders. Nonetheless, he wasted a golden
opportunity that could have turn the game around. Miki was decent but need to
provide more support for the midfield that was obviously outclassed by Real
Madrid.
Well, the
first game for the Premier League will kick off soon as Old Trafford welcome
West Ham. Let’s hope we are ready to welcome Chicharito back because if we are
not prepared, we will be the receiving end of what we used to enjoy see him
doing, scoring goals.
No comments:
Post a Comment