Bullish Reds put on show to end drought
THIS is what the United manager’s role is supposed to be like – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has not enjoyed a more enthralling or authoritative day in the dugout since that prolonged purple patch as caretaker manager that ended in March.
United treated Norwich City with all the contempt newly-promoted relegation candidates merit.
They have been in danger of gaining a small-time reputation – slackening off against the fodder yet geeing themselves up for the elite. This suggested the chastening defeat at Newcastle has reinforced the focus.
No, you are not seeing things – United really did score more than one goal in a game – and more than two away from home since their Paris peak on March 6.
Finally, they have won away from Old Trafford in the Premier League. The away-day drought ended in Belgrade on Thursday and the domestic one exactly eight months on from the triumph at Selhurst Park.
For all the misgivings about Solskjaer’s pre-match chatter that ‘we’ll need to be at our best to have a chance,’ the ruse was vindicated. He demands his United players are humble and respectful off the pitch and become arrogant once they pull the shirt on. The arrogance was patent. The Reds were so bullish and superior they should have surpassed the first-half blitz at Norwich in 1993, the night Giggs, Kanchelskis and Cantona ran riot. This time it was James, Martial and Rashford interchanging and running amok.
United had not beaten Norwich on their own patch by a two-goal margin since 1995 – the year before Jim Lawlor recommended Alex Ferguson sign Solskjaer from Molde.
For at least 90 minutes in East Anglia, the good old days were back, with the game a fait accompli long before full-time and the only audible voices those in the away end. Martial reaffirmed just how key he is to Solskjaer’s fluid football. In a season interrupted by an eight-week lay-off, the Frenchman has four goals and an assist from five starts. Even if Martial had not atoned for his tame penalty, his impact on an unpredictable and quicksilver attack was obvious and United are a far sharper team with him in it. His goal is a late contender for the monthly award. Scott McTominay underpinned the performance with that magical blend of silk and steel. He lashed the ball in on 21 minutes to deflate Tim Krul moments after he defied belief to deviate Martial’s header over from point-blank range. Those three pillars of success United speak about – trophies, attacking football
and youth – are embodied by the unlikely success story of McTominay. He will not be the only one desperate to tick the box marked ‘silverware.’
He will also be seething at his dithering that enabled Norwich to make the scoreline look misleading.
McTominay’s shot rewarded United for the kind of intense burst of pressure they used to be synonymous with.
Their shots on target tally for the
Martial reaffirmed just how key he is to Solskjaer’s fluid football
Samuel Luckhurst
first-half alone ended at eight, roughly about the amount they have managed over the last two months.
They cannot let up now.
What a pity for Solskjaer United blemished their best performance of the season – or of the last eight months – with wasteful penalty-taking – they have scored three and missed four now this term.
The Video Assistant Referee overruled on-pitch official Stuart Attwell on two separate occasions in a madcap first half where the legacy of Louis van Gaal was present.
Goalkeeper Krul, the Dutch spotkick specialist, denied the Van Gaal-nurtured Martial and Rashford.
Rashford’s penalty – awarded on the evidence Ben Godfrey had upended
James – was so meek Krul, the spotkick specialist Van Gaal sent on in the Netherlands’s 2014 World Cup quarterfinal triumph over Costa Rica, gathered it.
Within two minutes, Rashford latched on to a clipped lob from James and put the ball through the keeper’s legs.
He goaded the nearby fans almost as ecstatically as they taunted his penalty failure.
‘You’re just a small town in Ipswich,’ the United supporters goaded the Norfolk crowd.
The yellow throng was incandescent again upon the announcement VAR was checking an apparent handball by Cantwell from Fred’s effort.
The wait was unnecessarily long for it was clear and obvious the ball had deflected off his hand. Another penalty.
Krul was back in World Cup mode again, whipping up the crowd and moving from post to post, and with every second’s delay Martial became more uncertain.
His side-footer was pushed around the post.
Martial, like Rashford, eventually breached him via the obligatory counter, started by Rashford, who fed Martial and then played an outrageous reverse pass for the No.9 to dink over Krul.
Onel Hernandez punished McTominay in the 90th minute yet the match ended to the din of ‘Oh United, we love you.’
This is how it is supposed to be like for Solskjaer.