Odion steals the limelight
Loanee Ighalo outshines club legend Rooney in United win
There are 250 goals between the Manchester United career totals of Wayne Rooney and Odion Ighalo and, while one of them will be remembered among the club’s greatest ever, the other is just delighted to seize this brief opportunity to write a footnote in Old Trafford history.
The Nigerian on loan from the Chinese Super League scored the second and third goals of what is likely to be a brief United career that began amid an injury crisis and is now guaranteed greater longevity with an FA Cup quarter-final against Norwich City. He may lack the goalscoring repertoire of Rooney, a man capable of all kinds of goals in his prime and now Derby County’s veteran midfield anchor, but Ighalo is fulfilling the specific role asked of him.
“He is doing what it says on the tin,” Ole Gunnar Solskjaer said of his new striker, “and what we asked for when we got him.”
He made the point that Ighalo was a physical presence from whom his younger team-mates might learn a thing or two in old-fashioned centre-forward ringcraft.
The outcome of this FA Cup fifthround tie was never in doubt, however much the scene might have been set for Rooney, at 34, to orchestrate a shock against the team for whom he is the all-time leading goalscorer with 253. He remains a splendid footballer who can still do many of the things that made him a crucial part of United for 13 years, the only problem being that he does them at half the speed and Rooney, more than anyone, can see that.
Against less able opposition in the Championship, his reputation will carry him a long way, but against United it was exposed at times and, while there were some great moments, he dropped deeper and deeper as the game progressed.
With the Premier League game against Manchester City looming on Sunday, this was a victory achieved with economy of effort and takes the current unbeaten run for Solskjaer’s players to nine in all competitions.
The only concern will be Harry Maguire, who Solskjaer said injured an ankle in training that meant he was not involved for this tie and would potentially be a significant absentee in the derby.
It was around this time last year that the new-manager bubble burst for Solskjaer and his team went into a slump from which he is yet to properly recover. What is the difference one year on?
“They are fitter, better mentality,” he said. “We had a winter break, we have added a few signings, we are injury-free, getting players back and the whole squad is ready to go.”
Not quite the achievements that the team soared to in Rooney’s best days at Old Trafford, but comfort nonetheless for Solskjaer, whose team are alive in the FA Cup and well placed to progress into the last eight of the Europa League.
In the absence of Marcus Rashford, there seems to be growing trust now in what Ighalo offers in terms of physicality.
“It is hard to play against him,” said Solskjaer, who added that there were elements of Ighalo’s game that the likes of Mason Greenwood and Anthony Martial could learn from.
United took the lead through Luke Shaw in the first half and never looked back. By the time Ighalo struck his second goal of the night, the away support were deep into a long repetition of the Rooney song they once sang.
In the final minutes they even burst into a few choruses of “you Scouse b------” – although meant entirely with affection.
For Rooney, it was more a case of getting through the game and, having exhausted his options in midfield, in the final moments he decided to relocate to centre-forward. If there was to be a goal then it was most likely to come from a free-kick, and there was one in the last minute. From a wide, unpromising position, Rooney got it on target and it was just tipped over by Sergio Romero.
Phillip Cocu had made four changes from the Derby team who won at Sheffield Wednesday and his side included four teenagers, among them lively 18-year-old academy graduate Louie Sibley.
There was a Rooney free-kick in the first half that Romero also got a hand to. In the second half, Martyn Waghorn glanced a cross wide of a post, but that was just about everything Derby offered in attack.
United’s two first-half goals were both untidy episodes at the heart of the Derby defence that undermined positive efforts going forward.
Shaw scored a rare goal after 33 minutes with a left-foot volley that was driven into the ground and bounced up over keeper Kelle Roos.
Having failed to get the ball away that time, the second was not much better for Derby, with Ighalo’s persistence eventually yielding him a goal, despite the numerous chances for the home defence to intervene.
He found enough room between Max Lowe and Craig Forsyth to nudge a shot past Roos.
Ighalo lashed home his second in the 70th minute after his first shot on goal had been blocked.
“We have got to go for everything,” Solskjaer said when asked where the FA Cup ranked among his priorities.
“That’s what it is at Manchester United – you can’t discard the chance of a trophy.”