SOLSKJAER FEELING THE HEAT AS UNITED DRAW LITTLE COMFORT AGAINST VILLA
MANCHESTER UNITED 2 ASTON VILLA 2
OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER will come face to face on Wednesday with the man he replaced as Manchester United manager when Jose Mourinho’s Tottenham visit Old Trafford and, in one aspect at least, nothing has changed since the Portuguese left the building.
United still have an awful recent record against newly promoted sides and this draw, a damaging result ahead of a forbidding looking week, extended what has become a disconcerting trend. In 15 games against teams that have come up over the past three seasons, United have taken just 24 points from the 45 on offer and, despite coming from behind after a Jack Grealish wonder strike gave them the lead, Villa claimed the point their efforts merited.
They certainly did not look like a team with the top flight’s worst away record coming into this game, although perhaps that says more about the many shortcomings of Solskjaer’s side.
United have won just four of 14 Premier League games this term and have taken just 10 points from the last 27 on offer and, with Mourinho up next and a trip to the champions in the Manchester derby to follow three days later, their predicament could look even bleaker a week from now. The boos at the final whistle told their own story.
What United would do for someone like Grealish, whose quality on the ball becomes more pronounced next to such limited figures as Andreas Pereira, but they will need a lot more than just a player like him to make sense of this mess. Tyrone Mings’s volley, two minutes after Victor Lindelof had put United 2-1 in front, was no less than Villa deserved on an afternoon when it was again hard to discern what Solskjaer envisages this team to be.
Certainly, Villa will have gone in at the interval wondering how they could be level after bettering United in almost every department. There were no survivors from United’s starting XI against Astana in the Europa League on Thursday so Solskjaer could not use fatigue as an excuse.
Woefully
They had looked woefully short of ideas, quality and a plan in the first half against another newly promoted side in Sheffield United the previous weekend and it was more of the same here.
Careless in possession, too static, too slow to close down the space, cumbersome in the challenge. Villa, by contrast, were better on the ball, better organised, hungrier, more energetic and, in Grealish, possessing a playmaker who would walk into this pedestrian United side.
He is a pleasure to watch is Grealish and, boy, did he exposes the glaring limitations of Pereira who, before delivering a fine cross from which United equalised, was a candidate for an early substitution.
Pereira somehow escaped a booking for hacking down Grealish twice in the first seven minutes and, by the time the Villa player picked up the ball in the area from a cross, the Brazilian’s apprehension as he went to close him down was abundantly apparent.
Still, there was not nearly enough urgency to shut down the space and Grealish was able to sidestep Pereira before bending an exquisite shot into the top corner, giving David De Gea no chance. It was his third goal of the campaign, and with four assists also, he has the best statistics of any English midfielder in the Premier League this term.
Anwar El Ghazi’s 17th-minute withdrawal could have disrupted Villa but Trezeguet was superb in his place, the substitute’s hard work down the right side offering Villa a frequent outlet. Solskjaer was grateful a marginal offside against Grealish was spotted in the build-up to Villa scoring again through Trezeguet on the half hour.
It was more or less the prompt for Solskjaer to switch formations. Daniel James was shifted to the right and looked United’s most likely catalyst for long periods thereafter, Juan Mata moved to the left and Marcus Rashford joined Anthony Martial down the middle as United went 4-4-2.
United certainly needed some impe
tus; the surprise was that Pereira provided it. He had been hopeless up to that point, routinely hitting passes into no man’s land, chaotic positionally and at one stage apologising to Martial after belting an intended 15 yard pass into his team-mate’s ribs. But his cross from a short corner routine by Fred and Mata was a peach.
It was on a plate for Rashford, who, a few yards out, was perhaps a touch relieved his header bounced off the inside of the far post and off the back of Tom Heaton and in. United were improved in the second half – they had to be – and had been knocking on the door for a while before taking the lead, even if it did last only two minutes.
From an inswinging cross by Fred on the right after Villa again had trouble dealing with a corner, Wesley inadvertently flicked the ball to the far post where Lindelof steered a controlled header into the opposite corner.
The frustration for Villa was the goal came moments after Grealish missed a glorious chance. Villa were not going away, though. Matt Targett scooped the ball over a posse of United bodies.
Several Villa players were offside but not Mings, and the defender lamped home a volley. Assistant Ian Hussin kept his flag down and the Video Assistant Referee (VAR) ruled he had been correct to do so. (© Daily Telegraph, London)