THE VERDICT: NEWCASTLE 0 UNITED 2
OLE Gunnar Solskjaer’s most memorable impact as a player was off the bench and Romelu Lukaku may have inherited his substitute skill set. Twice he has emerged in United games under his new manager and twice he has scored.
Just like Sammy Kuffour letting go of Solskjaer in Camp Nou, there was an element of fortune as Martin Dubravka, possessed at St James’s Park on his Newcastle debut in last February’s win against the Reds, fumbled Marcus Rashford’s free-kick that Lukaku pounced on with his first touch. There were 38 seconds between his entrance for Anthony Martial and his opener.
Lukaku, one of the few remaining loyalists under Jose Mourinho, clenched his fist and roared in Solskjaer’s direction as he marched back to the halfway line. The boss did likewise, like a proud father whose son had done exactly as he had asked. Lukaku’s loyalty lies with the badge.
Even on a night where United briefly regressed to the sterile dominance of Louis van Gaal, Solskjaer still had the Midas touch. Only he and Sir Matt Busby have won their first four games in charge of United.
Paul Pogba is performing, Lukaku is scoring and Alexis Sanchez is playing again. And assisting. It was Sanchez who played Rashford in for the contest-killing strike in the 80th minute. Rashford, unfortunate not to receive the club’s player of the month award for December, produced maybe his most polished performance as the figurehead, effectively playing as a No.9 and 10. His movement and ball-retention were worthy of a United figurehead and he is one of the team’s new talisman. This was viewed as the trickiest pre-Tottenham assignment of Solskjaer’s start, which was a curious outlook on a Newcastle side with two home Premier League wins all season. So it proved, though, as United suffered their first goalless half under their caretaker and threatened to be schooled by the experience of Rafael Benitez. Six of the United starters limped to defeat at St James’ Park last February and there was a prosaic pattern about their play against Benitez’s compact set-up, with Jesse Lingard especially missed in the attacking trident. Solskjaer repeated Ryan Giggs’s caretaker mistake of overly rotating in his first four matches, only his record reads played four and won four, rather than two. The returns of Antonio Valencia and Juan Mata, a right-sided combination that ironically only functioned under Van Gaal, were flawed and Mata was Samuel Luckhurst None Lukaku (64), Rashford (80) 35% 65% 14 16 2 1 52,217 Lascelles Lindelof, Shaw Andre Marriner replaced – along with the tepid Martial – for Lukaku and Sanchez in the 63rd minute. Solskjaer’s proactive judgement earned the luck of Dubravka’s spill.
The Norwegian learnt more about his team from this, their most unconvincing victory. Valencia, who played the duration practically by default, does not fit the criteria of the gung-ho full-back in Solskjaer’s side and Mata, out of kilter again in a more rigid attack, has the innovation if not the intensity to enhance United’s free-flowing football that was lacking in Newcastle.
Sanchez, back for the first time in more than a month, slotted in seamlessly.
What was an incongruous performance was still enhanced by a first clean sheet since November and, in keeping with the Solskjaer reign, a comfortable conclusion. Alan Shearer, on co-commentary duty in the Milburn Stand, was mercilessly mocked by the United