PROVE WE’RE NOT A SPENT FORCE
Call for United chiefs to splash the cash or face being left behind
MAN UNITED 1
CRYSTAL PALACE 3
NOTHING in Ed Woodward’s programme notes suggested Manchester United are about to prise open the wallet and start splashing the cash any time soon.
His message seemed pretty clear in that the board must continue to be “responsible” with resources hit hard by the continuing loss of match- day revenue.
Yet after watching Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s team slide to a dismal defeat, there is little doubt the executive vice- chairman will have been grimacing behind his mask in the stands.
United were shockingly off the pace. Their forward line was terrible, the midfield bypassed and the defence all over the place against a vibrant Crystal Palace. Andros Townsend opened the scoring before Wilfried Zaha netted twice, the first a controversial penalty retake after goalkeeper David de Gea came off his line early.
Donny van de Beek, United’s solitary signing of the summer, pulled one back on his debut but aside from that there were few positives for the hosts.
“Ninety minutes game time and fitness – that was more or less it,” said boss Solskjaer, above.
Defender Luke Shaw suggested that United need to spend if they are to compete against the top sides.
“I think we need more players to strengthen the squad,” he said. “It can give us a boost. When you look around at how other teams are strengthening, then we must also do it to keep up.”
Yet Shaw also admitted United’s preparation had been less than ideal.
“My first day back I could have probably counted on one hand the number of people who were training,” he said. “It’s not an excuse because we have the quality of players to be able to win games like this. But we weren’t up for it and we have been punished.”
United will get better as the season progresses – and they will need to.
MAN UNITED ( 4- 2- 1- 3): De Gea 4; Fosu- Mensah 3 ( Ighalo 81), Lindelof 4, Maguire 5, Shaw 5; Pogba 4 ( van der Beek 67, 6), McTominay 6; Fernandes 6; James 4 ( Greenwood 46, 4), Martial 4, Rashford 4. Goals: Van de Beek 80.
CRYSTAL PALACE ( 4- 4- 2): Guaita 5; Ward 6, Kouyate 7, Sakho 7, Mitchell 7; Townsend 8, McCarthy 7 ( Milivojevic 87), McArthur 7, Schlupp 8 ( Eze 75); Zaha 8, Ayew 7 ( Batshuayi 81). Goals: Townsend 7, Zaha 74 pen, 85.