WING WONDER DAN IS THE MAN WHO KAN
IT would take a particularly disgruntled United supporter to confront an amiable legend like Ole Gunnar Solskjaer in person, though he can walk around Manchester or Molde with his face visible over the next fortnight. The Reds have entered an international break on the back of three points for the first time since Jose Mourinho’s stay of execution against Newcastle last October.
Just six of their players are on senior international duty this month and the majority of those who have booked sunny sojourns should be able to chart it on social media, safe from faceless abusers. After the regression at Bournemouth, United were back in progressive mode in what was undoubtedly their most convincing home performance of the campaign. Solskjaer punched the air on his approach to the Stretford End at full-time.
Their approach play was more alike Norwich away a fortnight ago than at the Vitality Stadium.
Solskjaer’s sole change from the defeat on the South Coast was enforced yet he received the desired response from every starter.
Victor Lindelof ’s dexterous distribution returned and Andreas Pereira performed with the authority of a proper playmaker. United even finally registered from a Harry Maguire set-piece knockdown. The Reds are a respectable seventh in the table.
Two games and six goals in a week, albeit against Europa and Premier League fodder, are baby steps for the new United. How heartening for Solskjaer his strategy was again epitomised by the daring Daniel James. The Welshman’s performance level has hardly dipped and unfortunately for his former Swansea coach Graham Potter it rocketed against Brighton.
Potter attempted to take James with him to Brighton in the summer but United blew them out of the water and such was the pace James took off at, the Brighton defenders were blown away by the gust. The Brighton analysts in the press box were constantly vexed by their inability to shackle the winger on his 22nd birthday.
Lewis Dunk and Dan Burn were both cautioned for butchering James, still on the right flank where he evoked memories of Andrei Kanchelskis.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka is still too timid to provide the old-fashioned wing play expected of full-backs but did not need to with James ahead of him. Potter and some of his staff made a beeline for James at the end to the soundtrack of ‘James will tear you apart.’
On the left, Brandon Williams underlined
United’s never-ending faith in the academy. The 19-year-old’s only firstteam exposure prior to this season was an overnight stay in Paris for the Champions League comeback at the Parc des Princes, where he failed to make the cut.
He was not among the teenage inclusions on the pre-season tour, Ethan Laird was name checked as a prospect by Solskjaer and he did not mention Williams among the callow coterie set for exposure in the Europa League.
Williams only made his debut on September 25 and is the first to have received a meaningful Premier League start, what with Mason Greenwood’s coming in the final fixture of last term. A committed early duel with Aaron Connolly brought some supporters to their feet to applaud.
The teenager’s seniority was reflected by first-team coach Kieran McKenna tasking Williams with passing on instructions to Marcus Rashford to move infield more regularly. Rashford did so and
On the left, Brandon Williams underlined United’s never-ending faith in the academy Samuel Luckhurst
Mathew Ryan had his first save to make.
The Video Assistant Review reprieved Williams for a brutal charge into Steven Alzat in the second half that did little to curb his exuberance. He soon embarked on a buccaneering surge into the Brighton third, earning another rapturous ovation for his ebullience. They rose again for his withdrawal in added time.
Brighton were the last Premier league visitors to concede two first-half goals at Old Trafford in January and became the first of Solskjaer’s starting season. Lindelof was back to his old self with some cultured defending to spark the attack Pereira almost ended with excessive step-overs, only the ball ricocheted for Anthony Martial and he laid it back for Pereira to mishit a shot that looped in off Dale Stephens on 17 minutes.
Scott McTominay was credited as the second goalscorer by stadium compere Alan Keegan two minutes later from Harry Maguire’s knockdown and celebrated as though he had the final touch. Replays showed Davy Propper prodded the ball in for an own goal.
There was a tedious check by the VAR, communicated only by Orwellian announcements, that only succeeded in antagonising both sets of supporters. The system remains contemptuous of matchgoers.
United’s sloppiness Solskjaer bemoaned in the final half-an-hour against Partizan Belgrade in midweek resurfaced at a Pascal Gross corner where Pereira was inexplicably tasked with marking Dunk and the centre-half bulldozed past him and put the ball past David de Gea. It was the stimulant for United’s doziness and sparked their best period of the match.
Fred threaded a perceptive pass for Martial, who shook off Shane Duffy, drew Ryan and spotted the unattended Rashford. He lashed it in off the underside of the crossbar within two minutes of Dunk’s connection and United began to pepper the overworked Ryan’s goal.
Rashford soon somehow failed to break into double figures from another James centre with the goal gaping, screwing the ball onto his standing foot, prompting a supporter in the first row to roar something unrepeatable.
Rashford unleashed six attempts at Ryan’s goal and beat the turf in anger after his last trickled wide.
He can still hold his head high.