MAGUIRE THE STRIKER CAN’T SAVE UNITED!
Scholes slams Ten Hag tactic as ‘a bit League Two’
BY The end, harry Maguire was playing up front. An £ 80million defender who could not get a game in Manchester United’s defence, but was thrown on as a makeshift target man.
Donny van de Beek’s first start of the season lasted less than an hour and offered no new evidence that he has a prosperous future at United.
Meanwhile, the decision to take off Victor Lindelof — picked ahead of Maguire — and switch to a back three had a significant impact on the game here at the Reale Arena, in so much as erik ten hag’s side faded in the second half having played very well in the first.
‘The second-half plan was to launch it forward to look for second balls — it was a little bit League One, League Two-ish for me,’ moaned former United star Paul Scholes on BT Sport.
Ten hag is clearly making progress at United, there is no doubt about that, but last night was not his finest hour despite the scoreline. It was one of those wins that felt like a defeat as Sociedad celebrated with their fans at the end.
So a play-off it is then. Two more games in the europa League for United in February when their opponents could be Barcelona, Juventus or Ajax. That’s the price for finishing second in Group e despite this narrow win and a memorable first goal for Alejandro Garnacho.
United matched Sociedad’s 1-0 win at Old Trafford in September but could not get the second goal needed to beat their Basque opponents on a head-to-head basis. Therefore, Ten hag’s side lost out on goal difference.
Garnacho’s effort was only the second goal Sociedad have conceded in six games. So while Imanol Alguacil’s side go straight into the last 16, United go into Monday’s draw in Nyon for the play- off round with seven other teams who finished second in the europa League and the eight
teams who finished third in their Champions League groups.
‘Of course, we are disappointed,’ said Ten hag. ‘We want to be No 1 but there are positives which we need to take back to Manchester.’
Garnacho’s goal deserved to be part of a better story. It took the Argentine, 18, just 17 minutes to find the breakthrough as he became United’s youngest nonenglish goalscorer in europe, eclipsing George Best by 33 days.
Up until then, Sociedad pressed United high and made it difficult for them to play out from the back. It was that which led to the opening goal when David de Gea went more direct and pumped a long pass out towards Bruno Fernandes on the right flank.
The Portugal international directed a header infield where it found Cristiano Ronaldo with far too much space and time for a player of his quality. Ronaldo slipped a perfectly-timed pass in behind for Garnacho who took
two touches as he raced away from Andoni Gorosabel and lifted the ball beyond Alex Remiro.
After being handed his first start against Sheriff Tiraspol last week, Garnacho was United’s standout player for the second european game in a row as his stock continues to rise after a concerning summer.
‘he knows we expect a lot from him,’ said Fernandes. ‘he wasn’t at his best at the beginning of the season, and on the tour he didn’t have the best attitude he should have. But now he’s training better and getting his chances. he is still young but he is doing very well.’
Garnacho had another opportunity to score in the first half but fired over, while Ronaldo lobbed on to the roof of the net with only Remiro to beat after charging down Jon Pacheco’s attempted clearance. It needed a fine double save by De Gea to deny Gorosabel and Pablo Marin right on half-time to preserve United’s lead.
Playing Garnacho was about the only decision that paid off for Ten hag, though.
Given a dress rehearsal to replace the suspended Fernandes at Aston Villa on Sunday, Van de Beek failed the test. Switching to a back three, too, just seemed to disrupt United’s rhythm in the second half as Sociedad first dominated and then ran down the clock.
The image that will linger, though, is that of Maguire sent on in attack for the final eight minutes in the hope he could get his head on a long ball.
Ten hag isn’t the first manager to throw a big defender up front late in a game, but it wasn’t a particularly good look for United with other forward options on the bench, or Maguire himself. ‘It’s clear, we needed the goal and in Cristiano and harry you have two good headers to be more direct into the box, and I think we did several times,’ said Ten hag.
‘We got the ball in the box and created a good chance. We had to take risks.
‘You don’t always get what you deserve, that is football.’
CRISTIANO RONALDO and Manchester United face the slog of a europa League playoff in February after falling short against Real Sociedad.
United needed to win by two goals to progress to the last 16, but despite taking an early lead through winger Alejandro Garnacho, 18, they could not add a second — and ended the game with harry Maguire up front. United could meet Barcelona or Juventus in the play-offs. Arsenal won 1-0 to progress directly to the last 16.