Sluggish Red Devils
Disjointed and overrun, United slump to loss on EPL return
LONDON: Manchester United began their English Premier League campaign with a performance as disjointed as their offseason.
Maybe the 3-1 home loss to Crystal Palace on Saturday shouldn’t really have come as a surprise.
After all, United only ended a pandemic-prolonged 2019-2020 season 33 days ago with a demoralising loss to Sevilla in the Europa League semi-finals.
Since then, high-profile midfielder Paul Pogba contracted the coronavirus, captain Harry Maguire was convicted of assault in Greece (he has been granted a retrial), and young star Mason Greenwood was dropped by England – and made to train alone – for breaching coronavirus rules.
To top it all off, United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was without the majority of his squad for more than a week because of international commitments.
Still, how to explain such a listless display against an injury-hit Palace team?
“Today was a performance you don’t see very often from this group,” Solskjaer said.
There was the sight of Pogba repeatedly giving the ball away.
Maguire and fellow centrehalf Victor Lindelof constantly got twisted and turned.
Marcus Rashford was peripheral on the left wing. Greenwood only played the second half.
Meanwhile, Palace – battle-hardened after a more intense preseason and an opening-day win over Southampton last weekend – simply picked off United at an empty Old Trafford.
“We knew Manchester United didn’t play last week and that we had the mental advantage,” Palace winger Andros Townsend said.
“If anything, we could have won it by more.”
Townsend scored the opening goal in the seventh minute and former United winger Wilfried Zaha netted twice in the final 16 minutes, the first being a retaken penalty after United goalkeeper David De Gea was adjudged to have encroached before saving the initial spot-kick taken by Jordan Ayew.
The only positive for United was a debut goal for offseason signing Donny van de Beek, who came off the bench and made it 2-1 in the 80th with a precise finish following a mistake by Palace.
However, Van de Beek slammed his side for playing too “slowly” in their “really bad” defeat.
“My first match for the club and then you want to win. It doesn’t matter how you want to win,” Van de Beek said.
“I’m really disappointed that we lose 3-1 at home. I think it’s really bad. Yeah (we did not have as much match sharpness as Palace) but last week in training we did really well.
“We trained good, so my feeling was really positive. But, yeah, today we played too slowly.”
United should improve as the season progresses and perhaps more players are signed to add depth to the squad. Solskjaer will sure hope so. On a day when 21 goals were scored in four games, there were also wins for Everton, Leeds and Arsenal.