Ole won’t promise signings
We may not sign someone before start of season says Solskjaer
THE upside of no supporters being in the stadium in Cologne on Sunday night was none of the United players were obliged to stay out and applaud them.
Mason Greenwood and Jesse Lingard were so crestfallen they lingered in their seats in the stands.
Brandon Williams had withdrawn himself from his team-mates and every second he spent sat in front of the press box it seemed to dawn on him the gravity of his role in both Sevilla goals.
Scott McTominay became increasingly rattled, at the scoreline
Bruno Fernandes brought to his knees during United’s defeat to Sevilla and his unused status. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has repeatedly talked up the Scot’s attacking attributes and he had taken his bib off in anticipation of coming on, but the nearest he got to the pitch was a warm-up.
The United boss was again reactive rather than proactive with his substitutions and too loyal to Marcus Rashford, once the talisman and now the team’s Teflon.
The forward was the least threatening of the attacking quartet yet was only removed in the 87th minute.
It has been apparent since the laboured FA Cup win at Norwich Solskjaer distrusts most of United’s attacking squad players and the ‘lack of depth’ defence he invokes does not entirely stack up.
McTominay, Juan Mata, Andreas Pereira, Nemanja Matic and Eric Bailly have all had their contracts extended on his watch and were all on the bench on Sunday night.
Solskjaer signed Daniel James and settled on Odion Ighalo. He resurrected Timothy Fosu-Mensah and turned to Lingard when regulars became fatigued.
The defeat by Sevilla was potentially a sad end for Lingard, perhaps never to be seen in a United shirt again, and Solskjaer has not been swayed by sentimentalism with an academy graduate he gave his reserve debut to over a decade ago.
Rashford has been ineffectual but the alternative is Lingard or James, who barely resembles a Championship winger these days.
James’s cameo reiterated why his playing time has been curtailed so ruthlessly over the last month and his selection in the FA Cup semifinal was a defeatist move.
Ighalo has had his uses but was not an appealing option and only emerged in the 93rd minute. Extending his loan for the rest of the year already seems excessive and his only starts in the new season might merely come in the Carabao Cup.
Matic has peculiarly come out of the side just as his first-team status was recognised by a generous threeyear contract, though Fred was United’s most polished performer in the semi-final. McTominay has not reached the heights of the first four months of the season and his defensive-mindedness has largely been ignored.
Even the winger Tahith Chong was crowbarred in at left-back against LASK and pointlessly travelled to Cologne, perhaps as it is in the same country as Bremen where he is spending time on loan now. Jadon Sancho for Chong is hardly like for like and United need fillers as well as headline-grabbers in a squad where quantity still reigns over quality.
The defeat by Sevilla was potentially a sad end for Lingard, perhaps never to be seen in a United shirt again
The Reds operate via a one-at-atime strategy with targets and Sancho has already eaten into three weeks of a 10-week transfer window.
Ed Woodward raised a valid point about the ‘economic realities’ of the pandemic in April, but club sources have recently dampened expectations of more signings than the unfulfilling summer window of last year that United ended without two targets.
That does rather ignore the ‘football realities’ of a club that have gone over three years without silverware for the first time since Margaret Thatcher was prime minister.
United’s preference is to recruit two attackers and they have made room for Sancho by cutting the cord with Alexis Sanchez.
Lingard and Pereira are available if there are any takers and Chris Smalling, Phil Jones and Marcos Rojo are welcome to find new clubs.
Woodward has approved of cold decisions before and more are needed.