THE VERDICT: NEWCASTLE 1 UNITED 0
IT was only last month Jose Mourinho suggested United would make two summer signings. That figure seemed premature at the time and it may have swollen following a second successive away defeat with the same XI at Newcastle.
A player who partly made the only goal of the game possible was Chris Smalling, a defender United signed eight years ago but who has recently played as though he joined at Christmas.
He had already handled within five minutes to allow Jonjo Shelvey to test David de Gea’s palms and escaped conceding a penalty for upending Dwight Gayle.
United had not heeded Phil Jones’ warning. Ritchie was flagged offside in an early second-half attack but Jones recognised the danger, railing at the world in general. Ritchie would elude Jones – and his teammates to rifle into the bottom left-hand corner.
Smalling conceded a penalty on United’s last visit to St James’s Park with some poor defending and it is alarming such an experienced footballer should succumb to mistakes those 10 years younger are prone to making.
On an afternoon where United missed the composure of a defensive distributor, Mourinho left Marcos Rojo and Victor Lindelof on the bench and, suddenly, for a team who has conceded just three times this calendar year another central defensive reinforcement seems essential.
United’s start was so nervy that Smalling visibly called for calm and Mourinho flashed glares from the touchline.
It would be churlish to merely malign United’s defending at Newcastle, where Anthony Martial and Alexis Sanchez squandered gilt-edged chances either side of the interval. Debutant goalkeeper Martin Dubravka thwarted Martial from Nemanja Matic’s threaded pass whereas Sanchez actually beat Dubravka but not Florian Lejeune, who slid in to execute a goal-saving block. Romelu Lukaku had a goal chalked off for a shove and a Martial attempt was cleared off the line. It would be disingenuous to suggest these openings highlighted a dominant performance from United, Samuel Luckhurst Ritchie (65), None 36% 64% 13 19 0 10 52,309 None Valencia, Smalling Craig Pawson who were hampered by a seemingly injured Pogba staying on for 66 minutes.
There was a breathless final flurry where McTominay was thwarted, the ball was fizzed across goal by Juan Mata but scooped clear.
Mourinho’s unwanted comparison with his peer across Manchester will persist as long as he and Pep Guardiola reside in Salford. United’s fifth Premier League defeat this term came barely a month after City required just one goal to defeat Newcastle, who chose to defend the deficit in maybe the most one-sided contest to end 1-0 in living memory.
On Sunday, it was the reverse.