Carrick stops rot as Ronaldo and Sancho seal path to last 16
For a club that know how to deal in drama, of all varieties, Manchester United and Michael Carrick, their caretaker manager, looked like they were gearing up to take quiet pleasure from a boring 0-0 here.
Plug the holes, stop the rot that cost Ole Gunnar Solskjaer his job and move on to Chelsea on Sunday with only a third clean sheet in 26 matches and an important Champions League point in the bag.
Amid the turmoil of recent days, they would have taken that beforehand, you would have thought. But then the clock hit 78 minutes, Fred pressed, Cristiano Ronaldo pounced and suddenly a team that had not offered much threat to Villarreal’s goal up until that point amid their safety-first approach were on their way into the Champions League knockout stages with a game to spare. If only United could bottle that caretaker bounce.
By the end, there was even a first United goal for Jadon Sancho to celebrate. Carrick, in truth, could probably not have dreamt it would go this well. Credit to him, though. Thrown into an invidious position – the interim to the interim, assuming United fail to land a permanent manager in the coming weeks and look to another temporary figure to carry them through the remainder of the season – Carrick had a plan and got his players to buy into it. They will have to do the same at the weekend when they visit the Premier League leaders but they now go to Stamford Bridge feeling a bit better about themselves. Wins do that. Carrick said he had a clear idea of how he wanted to tackle the game that, whittled down, amounted to a sharp departure from the “to hell with defence” approach of late. Keep it tight, do not make daft mistakes, prioritise a clean sheet and hope their luck is in. If they could score, great, but above all stop Villarreal scoring. That a heavy dose of pragmatism was supplemented by some late panache in front of goal was a huge added bonus but the origins of both of them – Fred applying pressure in the right place for the first, Ronaldo working back in the buildup to the second – felt like a counterpart to some of the criticism of recent weeks. Carrick will also have been delighted with the reaction from the bench of Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford, both of whom had been dropped. Carrick reputedly had a lengthy chat with Fernandes in the Carrington canteen at breakfast on Monday. Maybe he disclosed his plan to omit the Portuguese then. Fernandes had been untouchable under Solskjaer and Carrick made quite a statement by leaving him out and picking in his place Donny van de Beek, a man so frozen out by the previous manager they could have built an ice statue of him at Old Trafford. But Fernandes did not sulk and, along with Rashford, injected some attacking impetus from which United reaped rewards.
A foolproof plan? Well, Villarreal squandered several good chances and United were grateful David de
Gea had another very good night, notably when diving full stretch to his right to push aside shots from Manu Trigueros in either half. Arnaut Danjuma should also have done a lot better from 15 yards out and Yeremy Pino had two good opportunities in the opening period.
But there was a far better defensive shape and discipline and, crucially, work ethic. It was a flat midfield four in the main, with Fred operating on the left and Ronaldo just ahead of him, rather than through the middle. That changed in the second half, with a move to a 4-5-1, with Ronaldo central, Anthony Martial left, and Van de Beek asked to break in support of
the Portuguese as the most advanced midfielder before Fernandes and Rashford were introduced with great success.
Villarreal had not done much wrong but when Geronimo Rulli rolled out a pass to Etienne Capoue, the former Tottenham midfielder dallied and Fred was on him in a flash, nudging the ball into the path of Ronaldo, who looked up, spotted Rulli off his line, and lifted the ball over the goalkeeper. A superb finish from a man who, with six goals in this group campaign, has done more than anyone to drag his side into the last 16. It would get even better, too, and again the second goal showcased players doing precisely the sort of things they have been scolded for not doing during the tumultuous run that culminated in Solskjaer’s sacking on Sunday.
Sancho’s role on the night was more of a sentry on the right of midfield than a swashbuckling winger, but he stuck to that task doggedly and then when the opportunity finally presented itself he was able to claim the goal his confidence so desperately needed. Its origins lay in Ronaldo tracking back on the left and winning back possession, from which the ball was worked into his path by Fred and Scott Mctominay. Ronaldo slipped in Rashford ahead of him and he crossed to Fernandes, who pushed the ball to Sancho on his outside and watched the England winger lash home a shot off the underside of the crossbar.
Sancho had missed United’s best chance of the night shortly before then when, cutting inside from the right, he exchanged a one-two with Fernandes and swept inside his marker only for his shot to be kept out by the onrushing Rulli.
United will not be getting carried away but this gives them something tangible to build from.