LINGARD’S SWEET SOLO
United star’s wonder goal seals win after Young strikes twice
THERE is more than one way to extinguish a fightback. One is to defend for your lives and hope for the best and another is to do what Jesse Lingard did here last night.
With four minutes to go at a fevered Vicarage Road, Watford were threatening to burn Manchester United’s house down.
To lose a three-goal lead would have left a huge dent in United’s pursuit of Manchester City at the top of the Premier League and left Romelu Lukaku’s confidence in bits.
With the score at 3-0, the United centre forward had missed the kind of chance that a Sunday League player would surely have scored.
So, as the game reached a quite unexpected crescendo, United were indeed in very real danger.
A penalty from Troy Deeney and another goal from Abdoulaye Doucoure had dragged Watford back into a game they had seemed to be waving farewell to during 12 calamitous first-half minutes.
So Lingard’s goal was the definitive one. The two scored by Ashley Young in the first half were fantastic and given further significance by the fact he learned his football at Watford.
But the way Lingard sealed this game and ended Watford’s hopes of something remarkable was even more significant.
Picking the ball up 15 yards inside his own half, Lingard perhaps broke forward with only thoughts of relieving territorial pressure in his mind.
But as he entered Watford’s defensive zone and players started to back away from him, it was obvious that Lingard realised the opportunity to do so much more beckoned.
The 24- year- old has scored important goals before. He has scored in an FA Cup final and a League Cup final. So we know that he doesn’t lack the confidence, even though he doesn’t have the consistency to always land a starting place in Jose Mourinho’s team.
Here, he ran forward with such pace, single- mindedness and directness that he terrified the Watford defenders.
By the time they realised what was happening he had driven a low, right-foot shot across goalkeeper Heurelho Gomes and into the far corner of the net.
It could be argued that he didn’t actually beat that many players on his way to goal.
He skipped past Adrian Mariappa but perhaps only one other. The key point, though, is that Lingard scared the Watford players into retreating and as a result scored a goal that sealed the game.
It was really important that United did win, too.
They face Arsenal in the Premier League in London on Saturday evening and then play at City eight days later. So a point — instead of three — would have been a real setback.
Earlier in the game, there had appeared no chance that United would not win.
Watford had started well and were the dominant team in the opening 15 minutes or so. But once Young scored his first goal midway through the half, the pattern of the game changed completely.
Lukaku actually did well in the build-up and that, for him, was rare.
He won the ball and fed Lingard higher up the field. Then, when the ball was moved on to Young, the former Watford player smashed it low into Gomes’s right-hand corner with accuracy from the edge of the penalty area.
A goal up against the run of play, United moved through the gears impressively.
Young’s second goal — a fantastic, right-foot free-kick from 30 yards — arrived five minutes later.
Watford players then missed three opportunities to clear, enabling Anthony Martial to beat Gomes — this time to the Brazilian’s left.
As United improved, Watford fell apart. They had regressed territorially and emotionally and in many way this inconsistency summed up their season under Marco Silva so far.
Just before half-time Watford’s Brazilian Richarlison headed against the bar but, that apart, there was absolutely no hint of a comeback from the home team. Nor would there have been one had Lukaku not proved so feckless in front of goal with 15 minutes left.
With only the goalkeeper to beat, the Belgian’s lack of belief was laid bare as he dallied over the chance, almost falling over the ball and then managing to find some space only to shoot against the leg of a defender who had found the time to get into a covering position.
It didn’t seem significant at the time and ultimately it didn’t cost United anything more than some shredded nerves.
But it was another dismal moment in Lukaku’s deteriorating season and it will be interesting to see if he survives to start at Arsenal on Saturday.
Watford’s late path back into the game arrived almost immediately as Marcos Rojo felled Roberto Pereyra in the penalty box.
It was a dreadful challenge and Deeney duly scored from the spot.
Eight minutes later Pereyra was involved again, squaring the ball for Doucoure to score right-footed.
At that point anything seemed possible and it was always likely that there would be one more chance. When it came, Lingard managed to create and finish it all by himself.