WOOD YOU BELIEVE IT
Now even Burnley can go to United and win
THERE have been many significant moments for United and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer this season but rarely has the club or manager had a worse week.
Three days after swallowing bitter defeat against Liverpool and announcing their best player Marcus Rashford was out for months, the chance for good news was missed. And how.
Defeat by a Burnley side who have not won here in 15 attempts stretching back to before man walked on the moon in 1962 was bad and heaped further pressure on Solskjaer, Ed Woodward and the players.
But a performance lacking fight, energy and most worryingly a plan will send shockwaves through the club.
After Jay Rodriguez had added to Chris Wood’s firsthalf strike to double Burnley’s lead, the chants of “We want United back” echoed around the stands. Of greater worry was the request to “Stand up if you hate Glazers” was met by 80 per cent of the home support.
Clarets boss Sean Dyche was content to surrender the wider areas to Brandon Williams and Aaron Wan-Bissaka and congest the middle.
On the few occasions United did get the ball through the crowds they conspired to show just what Rashford offers, with the finishing from Anthony Martial and Co little short of woeful. In the 16th minute the
French striker failed to get any boot behind a Wan-Bissaka square ball, glancing his effort so wide that Williams had time to rescue it by the left byline.
Just after the half hour he missed an even better chance after Nemanja Matic slid the ball through, only for Martial to delay and allow Charlie Taylor to smother brilliantly.
Juan Mata was another to blow a good chance after Wan Bissaka fired another cross into the area only for the Spaniard to miscue badly.
At the other end Burnley looked anaemic in open play. But when they had a chance to punt it long from set-pieces they threatened and it was no real surprise that they made United pay for their profligacy. Ben Mee had won a header
some minutes before only for Wood’s follow-up to drift wide – but on 39 minutes the same one-two combination turned in a long Ashley Westwood free-kick.
Mee rose ahead of Matic and Wood swept a first-time shot past David de Gea.
Solskjaer reacted at halftime by withdrawing Andreas Pereira – the man without a position – and throwing on Mason Greenwood, and he may well have thought long and hard about leaving Martial on the pitch.
Many more shiftless displays like this and the patience with the talented striker will snap.
The change did not provide the impetus United needed and after 11 minutes of the second half Burnley doubled their lead. The move started with another dead ball with a throw on the left flank, but the speed of a one-two between Rodriguez and Wood flummoxed a flatfooted United defence and the former needed no invitation to lash a stunning left-footer high into De Gea’s net from an acute angle.
United had stormed back from 2-0 down against the Clarets last season but here it never looked like they would.
Luke Shaw had the ball in the net with a minute of normal time to go but was adjudged to have pushed Jeff Hendrick.
It seemed to sum up the night perfectly.