OLE’S UNITED HELD TO DISMAL DRAW IN HOLLAND
AZ ALKMAAR 0 MAN UNITED 0
MICHAEL OWEN described Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s Manchester United as ‘a bog standard team’ on BT Sport last night — and that was maybe being polite. United’s start in the Premiership has been their worst for 30 years. In the Europa League, they have kicked off Group L with a laboured win over Astana, the champions of Kazakhstan, and now this wretched stalemate against AZ Alkmaar. There were no shots on goal from the visitors and very little of note at all, aside from three penalty appeals, two of them from the Dutch side. Yes, Solskjaer made eight changes, handing a full debut to Brandon Williams in a line-up including teenagers Mason Greenwood and Angel Gomes. But right now the green shoots of recovery he talks about appear as genuine as the plastic pitch here. It leaves him without an away win in ten games since the stunning comeback against Paris Saint-Germain in March. Indeed, after two forgettable games in this competition, United are rather fortunate to have four points. Of the penalty appeals, United had the strongest of the three when sub Marcus Rashford was clipped by defender Stijn Wuytens ten minutes from time. Lithuanian referee Gediminas Mazeika saw it differently and waved play on. ‘I’m fed up talking about penalties we should have had, but that’s a penalty 101 times out of 100,’ said Solskjaer. ‘The linesman can look straight at the tackle. He wipes his foot but unfortunately for us we didn’t get it.’ Alkmaar had two appeals of their own. Fred, lamentably bad again, could easily have been penalised for bringing down Dani De Wit and Williams then appeared to handle a cross from Oussama Idrissi. The nearest United came to a shot on target was when Greenwood had a chance in front of goal but former Aston Villa defender Ron Vlaar blocked his effort. David de Gea was significantly busier. The Spaniard was beaten in the tenth minute when Myron Boadu flicked in Fredrik Midtsjo’s cross, only for the officials to rightly rule offside. To compound Solskjaer’s problems, sub Jesse Lingard limped off towards the end clutching his right hamstring.