WIN HELPS OLE STAY IN OFFICE
Fernandes brace eases pressure on United boss
AN HOUR before kick-off, a light plane flew over the stadium trailing a banner. ‘World knows Trump won,’ the message said. It was a bogus claim, of course, but it set a tone for an afternoon of trying to rescue lost causes. President Trump’s demise may have been sealed last night but Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had better luck.
The Manchester United hierarchy had let it be known that Solskjaer would not be sacked even if his team lost to Everton but many believed differently. United sat 15th in the Premier League before the game started and there is only so long the biggest team in the world can put up with those kinds of optics, especially with someone like Mauricio Pochettino waiting in the wings.
It had got to the point where it felt the momentum building towards Solskjaer’s exit was unstoppable and that it only needed Everton to administer the coup de grace. Except Everton were not in the mood. All the ruthlessness and brio of their early season has deserted them and when the time came for them to swing the axe, they could not do it.
What might have been Solskjaer’s farewell turned into a stay of execution at the very least. An accomplished win inspired by a fine performance from Bruno Fernandes and garnished by a first United goal for Edinson Cavani in the dying seconds should be enough to get Solskjaer through to the other side of the international break.
Next up is bottom team West Brom at Old Trafford. Turning points have come at stranger times.
Solskjaer was in danger. Make no mistake about that. Home defeat by Arsenal had been followed i n midweek by a humbling loss to Istanbul Basaksehir in the Champions League and the comedy defending that led to Demba Ba’s opening goal.
‘You wouldn’t see that on Hackney Marshes,’ observed Rio Ferdinand. Paul Scholes said it reminded him of a team of Under-10s.
Even Solskjaer felt the odds were stacked against United after they were scheduled for Saturday’s early kick-off. ‘The authorities set us up to fail,’ he complained. That momentum against him had been building. Pochettino appeared on Sky Sports and said — without talking about United specifically — that he was ready to manage again.
Solskjaer had remained admirably defiant. ‘I don’t look at one or two results and fall like a pack of cards,’ he said. But it is obvious he is still a long way from making United great again and everyone guessed at what was coming if Carlo Ancelotti got the better of him.
But it didn’t happen. And so it was time to point out the weaknesses in the criticism of Solskjaer.
In the last few weeks, he has got the better of Ancelotti, Julian Nagelsmann and Thomas Tuchel, three of Europe’s most celebrated coaches. He also garnered more points in his first 100 games in charge of United than Jurgen Klopp won for Liverpool in his first 100 games.
That is why it feels as if United are in a kind of holding pattern under Solskjaer. Sometimes it is good. But sometimes it is bad. Are there signs of improvement? Perhaps, but you have to look hard to see them. Even if he lived to fight another day, time is running out.
This was one of the good days. Everton had started well. James Rodriguez switched the ball beautifully from right to left and Lucas Digne played it into the path of Bernard. He whipped in a cross and Dominic Calvert-Lewin glanced his header just over the crossbar.
United should have taken the lead when Everton failed to clear a corner and the ball was hooked back into the box. Anthony Martial controlled it
neatly with his first touch but he snatched at his shot with his second touch and dragged it wide of Jordan Pickford’s left-hand post.
United soon regretted his profligacy. Pickford launched a long clearance and Calvert-Lewin got the better of Victor Lindelof and flicked it on to Bernard on the edge of the United box. Bernard drilled a shot through Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s legs and the ball crept inside David de Gea’s right-hand post.
The lead only lasted five minutes. Juan Mata worked the ball to Luke Shaw on the left edge of the Everton box and Shaw picked his moment to curl in a cross. Fernandes ghosted in between Mason Holgate and Michael Keane, who stood watching, flat-footed, and the Portuguese directed his header past Pickford’s despairing left hand.
The goal did not rid United of their vulnerability. A couple of minutes later, Digne was allowed to advance into the box undisturbed and blasted his shot against the outside of De Gea’s right-hand post.
United took advantage of their escape. Just after half an hour, Fernandes collected the ball on the edge of the Everton box and floated a curling cross towards Marcus Rashford. Rashford rose six yards out to try to flick it past Pickford but appeared to miss the ball.
Pickford, anticipating the flick, was rooted to the spot and the ball bounced tamely beyond him into the corner. Fernandes was credited with the goal but one wag said it had come off Rashford’s halo.
Pickford, who had been restored to the team after being dropped for Robin Olsen last week, nearly allowed United to go further into the lead after an hour. He leapt to try to catch a deep free-kick at the back post but dropped the ball at the feet of Harry Maguire.
It bounced awkwardly and Maguire tried to nudge it over the line with his knee. His effort went just over the bar but he was felled by a desperate challenge from Pickford just as he made contact with the ball.
The England goalkeeper faced an anxious wait while VAR checked the incident. Pickford was cleared but the incident asked more questions about his judgment and carried echoes of his challenge on Virgil van Dijk in the Merseyside derby.
In the dying seconds, Fernandes led a counter-attack and played in substitute Cavani, who swept the ball past Pickford to seal the win. EVERTON (4-3-1-2): Pickford; Coleman, Holgate,
Keane, Digne; Doucoure, Allan, Sigurdsson (Iwobi 66); Rodriguez (Tosun 80); Calvert-Lewin, Bernard. Subs (not used): Mina, Andre Gomes, Godfrey, Davies, Olsen. Booked: Holgate, Allan, Tosun, Doucoure. MANCHESTER UNITED (4-2-2-2): De Gea; Wan-Bissaka, Lindelof, Maguire, Shaw (Tuanzebe 67); McTominay, Fred; Mata (Pogba 82), Bruno Fernandes; Rashford, Martial (Cavani 82). Subs (not used): James, Henderson, Matic, van de Beek.
Booked: Bruno Fernandes, Fred.
Referee: Paul Tierney.