Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Laboured, unimaginative, disjointed and ponderous... Ole only has himself to blame
OLE GUNNAR SOLSKJAER could not go blaming Gareth Southgate for this.
This one was on you, Ole. The Manchester United manager had bi zarrely suggested Southgate had been in some way culpable for Mason Greenwood’s troublesome, offthe-field spell.
The notion was as misplaced as his team selection, as risible as much of United’s passing, as easily ignored as Solskjaer’s motivational techniques were.
Never mind the controversy over Crystal Palace’s second goal from a retaken penalty, Ma r ti n Atk i n s o n h a r s h ly adjudging Victor Lindelof to have handled and VAR saying
David De Gea had encroached when saving Jordan Ayew’s kick.
This was an opening performance from United that got exactly what it deserved.
Laboured, unimaginative, utterly disjointed, defensively ponderous.
Quite what Sir Alex Ferguson, amongst the dignitaries allowed inside to watch, thought of it is anyone’s guess.
Actually, it is not. He would have been appalled.
If th e f irst fi xture of a campaign is all about making a statement, this one told United fans their team still has a long way to go to bridge the gap to the Big Two. Yes, they were not helped by the slightly unfathomable decisions around the Palace penalty that was e v entu al ly c onv er t ed by Wilfried Zaha.
But when, after substitute Donny van de Beek had given United hope, Zaha confirmed Palace victory by embarrassing Harry Maguire and Lindelof, it was no more than a slick Palace performance deserved.
Only one game, of course, but this was such a desperately poor display, you wonder if Solskjaer and Ed Woodward will now act further in the transfer market.
And Solskjaer will also have some tough decisions to make. De Gea was desperately unlucky to have hi s p enalty save ‘disallowed’ but he will be in the spotlight i n these coming weeks.
United spend more on goalkeeping wages than the majority of professional clubs spend on their entire staff.
At a conservative estimate, it’s some way in excess of half-a -million-pounds a week.
Most of that goes to De Gea, despite sprinkling his last season with some rudimentary errors.
And it took barely f iv e minut e s of Unit ed’s n e w campaign for De Gea to post his first rick, a pass to the feet of Palace’s James McCarthy.
It did not prove costly but set
the template for whole day for United. When Dean Henderson was away on England duty a little while ago, he was fairly belligerent about his position at Old Trafford.
The man who impressed during his time at
S h ef field Unit ed suggested he would go back out on loan if De
Gea was preferred by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
But that situation, he insisted, would not come about – well, it did, first game up.
No doubt Henderson will get a run-out at Luton in the EFL Cup this week but he will not be retaining an
England place by having the odd game at places such as Kenilworth Road.
With respect, it would be a tough call to drop a keeper such as De Gea but managing any Premier Club demands tough calls by the week, if not the day. Aside from that early misplaced clearance, De Gea di d wel l and bl ame l ay elsewhere in the build-up to the Andros Townsend opener. During his summer break in Sweden, Lindelof chased down a thief who had stolen an old lady’s handbag.
Must have been a slow thief. Lindelof could not catch Jeffrey Schlupp and neither Luke Shaw nor Maguire were alert enough to track Townsend, leaving him with an unchallenged finish.
Their sluggishness and sloppiness was typical of Unit ed’s p er formance. Paul
Pogba is the type of player who can set a tone. A talisman.
Unfortunately, the tone here was a duff one, possession gifted to the opposition time after time.
The hook midway through the second half came as no surprise.
His replacement, Van de Beek, was tidy, finishing neatly after Zaha’s spot-kick.
But the abiding image will be of Zaha making Lindelof and Maguire look like training cones before casually but emphatically rifling another past De Gea.
They were under-prepared and underwhelming – United and S oskja er had only themselves to blame.
Alex Quite what Sir Ferguson, amongst allowed the dignitaries the inside to watch of match, thought is performance, that anyone’s guess