PITCH PERFECT
Super United make light of surface and hit SIX to punish Tranmere
WE can presume, then, that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer is safe for another week. Even in the strange world of the modern Manchester United, half a dozen goals away from home will do something for a manager’s prospects.
They may only have been six goals against Tranmere Rovers of League One, a team seemingly averse to tackling and closing down players in their own half. This may have been the Fa cup and not the Premier League.
But a six-goal victory counts for something no matter who it is against and from that point of view, this cold and wet afternoon by the Mersey stands as one of the most productive of Solskjaer’s poor season so far.
The United manager arrived at Prenton Park under pressure. come Wednesday and a carabao cup semi- final second leg at Manchester city — United are 3-1 down already — he will probably be under pressure again. next Saturday is a home game against Wolves at which many United fans are vowing to protest at their club’s stagnation by leaving Old Trafford early. So there are more fun and games ahead for Solskjaer and his team, but here at least was something to cling to.
This was a dismissal of inferior opposition so ruthless and clinical it felt as though it belonged to a different era. When young Mason Greenwood scored United’s sixth from the penalty spot early in the second half, someone threw a roll of loo paper on to the field from the away ended. Very 1980s.
Tranmere, meanwhile, were compliant opposition. Maybe they were still feeling the effects of Thursday’s extra-time win over Watford. Maybe they were too respectful of Solskjaer’s team. Whatever the case, as occasionally dangerous as they were in attack, Micky Mellon’s team were very poor when they didn’t have the ball.
after anthony Martial had scored United’s fifth just before half-time, Tranmere midfielder neil Danns blew out his cheeks and uttered something you probably wouldn’t want your children to hear. Even at 37, Danns will not have witnessed much in the game as brutal and devastating as this.
But Danns will acknowledge the role he and his team-mates had played in their own painful demise. Tranmere simply did not do the basics well enough. Give players space in and around the penalty area in League One and you will probably suffer. against Premier League players, you will have the oxygen sucked out of you.
Every time a United player found space between Tranmere’s midfield and back four, they were unchallenged. Players in white seemed unsure of whether to stick or twist, to tackle or to back off. More often than not, they did nothing so United took advantage with some accomplished finishing.
captain and central defender Harry Maguire scored the first. It was his first for the club and given that it came after an opening 10 minutes of sustained Tranmere pressure, it was the most important of the day. Tranmere had been lively early on, ambitious and full of energy and adrenaline.
Phil Jones — one of three central defenders — was booked early on and then barged to the floor. Within five minutes, he looked as though he had suffered a face-first journey into a pig sty.
Tranmere could have scored, too. Morgan Ferrier and corey Blackett-Taylor ran hard in straight lines and worried United. Manchester-born connor Jennings turned and shot straight at Sergio Romero. and then, suddenly, United scored. Maguire received the ball 30 yards from goal, eased it inside David Perkins on to his right foot and boomed it into the top corner. a stunning goal, it changed everything.
Six minutes later they were three up. Diogo Dalot exchanged passes with Martial to drive low and across goalkeeper Scott Davies from an angle before Jesse Lingard — without a significant contribution for so long — was given time on the other side of the area to curl a right-footer into the far corner. all three were for the highlights reel. all three required sound technique. But everything comes so much easier when you have time in which to work.
On and on the onslaught came. Jones headed a corner over the goalkeeper and above Perkins on the line before Martial scored from Lingard territory in the 45th minute, this time via a deflection off Kieron Morris. a former United trialist, Morris chose not to close down, not to challenge. He paid a price like others before him.
By now we were in that uncomfortable territory in which a small club can be humiliated. nobody wanted to see Tranmere concede seven or eight or nine, but with United unleashing pent-up frustration, it felt entirely possible.
as it turned out, only one more goal came. Davies — an outspoken Manchester city fan — spent an uncomfortable second half stationed in front of 2,200 United supporters but was beaten just once, Greenwood scoring a penalty in the 56th minute after substitute Tahith chong had been felled. chong also hit the bar late on but there was to be no more damage. as for reports emerging afterwards suggesting United had been revved-up by some comments Davies made before the game, it really shouldn’t have needed that.