Ole can’t hide fact squad needs surgery
IT came as little surprise to see Ole Gunnar Solskjaer ring the changes against Reading on Saturday.
United’s interim boss largely relied on the same group of players to get the Reds through their festive fixture schedule, with Nemanja Matic, Paul Pogba, Marcus Rashford, Victor Lindelof, Luke Shaw and David de Gea all starting each of the of the Norwegian’s four Premier League games in charge.
In the dour 2-0 win over Reading, there were rare outings for Andreas Pereira, Fred and Scott McTominay, while Alexis Sanchez and Romelu Lukaku were named in a Solskjaer starting XI for the first time.
Without the class of Rashford and Pogba in the team, United failed to sparkle.
Sanchez, still desperately trying to find his feet in Manchester, disappointed on the left flank before limping off with a hamstring problem, while Lukaku, although he scored for the third game in succession, showed why he is no longer United’s first-choice No.9 with a poor allround performance and, as always, some comical first touches.
Juan Mata toiled on the right flank, while no member of United’s midfield three impressed.
There is clamour for Pereira to feature more often but the Brazilian flatters to deceive and he is perhaps afforded more patience than the likes of McTominay and Fred because he is more of a flair player.
That’s not to say McTominay is more deserving of patience.
The Scotland youngster has been in and around United’s first team for over 18 months now and has demonstrated little to suggest he should remain at Old Trafford beyond the end of the season. It’s still early days for Fred, the Brazilian signed from Shakhtar Donetsk for £52m last summer, but we’re five months into the season and he looks more and more like an expensive mistake with each appearance that he is afforded.
Pep Guardiola was interested in both Sanchez and Fred but as time goes on you begin to wonder if it was all a ruse – an attempt by the Catalan to bait Mourinho into one-upping him and wasting United’s money. Diogo Dalot has shown plenty of promise since joining United from Porto and he is perhaps the only player to have started against Reading that looks certain to have a longterm future at the club.
Solskjaer has brought the feelgood factor back to Old Trafford but sizeable problems remain with the quality of United’s squad.
United’s next permanent manager, be it Solskjaer, Pochettino or A. N. Other, will have a sizeable clear-out job on their hands during the summer.
United’s next permanent manager will have a sizeable clear-out job on their hands Liam Corless