Ole’s new wonderkid!
Teen star Greenwood at the double as he closes in on Rooney’s record
FOR most of the last seven years, Manchester United and their fans have looked to the past. They have dreamed of the glory days of Sir Alex Ferguson and shuddered at the memory of the misadventures they endured under David Moyes, Louis van Gaal and Jose Mourinho. For one reason or another, they have been unable to move on.
For the first time since 2013, that is changing. United are learning to love the idea of what lies ahead at last. Suddenly, there is the kind of excitement at the club about what the future holds that has not been seen here since the Class of 92 emerged from United’s youth team and helped to take the Premier League by storm.
United are still a long way from emulating that kind of success but the fearlessness of youth is working its magic again. Bruno Fernandes has rightly been given the credit for transforming their season since his arrival in January but this demolition of a struggling Bournemouth team sinking fast towards relegation was driven by the brilliance of Mason Greenwood.
He is only 18 but he is on the verge of eclipsing Wayne Rooney’s record for the most League goals scored by any player under the age of 19 in a season. Rooney scored nine for Everton in 2003-04. Greenwood’s brace against Eddie Howe’s side took his League tally to eight and boosted United’s hopes of earning a Champions League place.
It was the way he scored them, too. One with his right foot, one with his left. Both spectacular finishes. It feels as if the world is at both his feet.
Marcus Rashford — now the grand old age of 22 — scored his 20th of the season with a penalty. Anthony Martial curled in a beauty, too. United have gone 16 games without defeat and even if the top honours slipped out of reach, optimism has returned to their grasp.
United are still a long way behind Liverpool and Manchester City but after one false dawn at the start of the reign of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, they finally appear to be on the right track. They are not back to what they were. Not by a long chalk. But they are, at least, moving beyond the point of mourning for what they had lost. Now they can dream of what may be to come.
They still have work to do. The two goals they conceded were a defensive shambles. They need to buy a centre back with pace and quality and another t op- class midfielder as a minimum even to enter the conversation with Liverpool and City. Even then, the gap will almost certainly to be too big to bridge next season. But if this trajectory continues, it may not be too long before the top two start to look over their shoulders.
Solskjaer deserves much of the credit for sticking to his plan even when he was under pressure. And
Ed Woodward, United’s executive vice-chairman, deserves credit for keeping faith with him when many were urging him to sack Solskjaer. Now they need to add to these promising beginnings.
They were fortunate, too, that they ran into a Bournemouth side whose confidence is rock bottom. They have not won a point in four games since the restart and as sides s such as West Ham and Brighton edge tentatively t owards safety, Bournemouth are struggling to see a way out.
United should have taken the lead d i n the 10th minute. te. Rashford received d the ball on the left-hand touchline deep in his own half and drove a sumptuous long pass inside Lloyd Kelly into the path of Fernandes. He was clean through on Aaron Ramsdale but instead of taking the ball round the goalkeeper who had rushed out to meet him, he tried to lob the ball over him and it went over the bar.
Fernandes should have scored but it is a measure of his recent excellence that the main emotion surrounding his miss was surprise. He has been so good since he arrived at United that he has come to be seen as a panacea for all the team’s problems. His failure to put the ball past Ramsdale was a rare dip below excellence. Five minutes later, United paid fo for the miss. Junior Stan Stanislas, recalled to the sid side, drove in a leftfo footed shot from the e edge of the area that w was blocked by Harry Maguire. The ball ricocheted towards t the byline and S Stanislas retrieved it be before it could go into tou touch. Maguire came to clos close him down but Stanisl Stanislas slipped the ball between his legs and drilled it past David de Gea at his near post. It was a clever individual goal but the defending was poor.
The nutmeg of Maguire will appear on highlight reels for years to come and the way De Gea failed to protect his near post will be used as more evidence that his standing in the game has slipped in the last couple of years.
United pressed for an equaliser i mmediately. Ramsdale t hrew himself to his right to beat out a dipping free-kick from Rashford and just before half an hour had elapsed, the home side were level.
Rashford played the ball in from the right to Fernandes on the edge of the box. He let the ball run and slid a pass into the path of Greenwood. The teenager has been hugely impressive since the restart and he burnished his reputation here. He t ook one t ouch and lashed a left-footed drive across Ramsdale. The keeper got a hand to it but could only deflect it into the roof of the net. It made the finish look even more spectacular. It was Greenwood’s 14th goal this season.
Six minutes later, United were ahead. Luke Shaw lofted a ball to the back post, Martial nodded it across goal and when the ball bounced in the area, it hit Adam Smith on his trailing hand. VAR checked it but for once there was little cause for controversy. It was an easy decision. Rashford took the penalty and sidefooted it home.
Rashford had attracted so many plaudits during the coronavirus crisis for the campaign he launched to provide free school meals that we had almost forgotten he scored goals, too. His first since the restart was his 20th of the season and if he had not scored since football’s return, his contributions have been superb. It is not just off the pitch that he has grown in stature.
United appeared to put the game out of reach in first-half stoppage time. Fernandes rolled the ball out to Martial, who was standing on the touchline, level with the edge of the Bournemouth area. The Frenchman took a touch, stepped inside his marker and exploded into space before curling in a delicious shot that kissed the underside of the bar as it eluded the despairing dive of Ramsdale. It was Martial’s 20th goal in the past 39 games.
Bournemouth nearly pulled a goal back seconds after the interval. De Gea pushed out a shot from Lewis Cook and when the rebound fell to substitute Arnaut Danjuma on the byline, De Gea left his near post open again. Danjuma spotted the chance and tried to squeeze his shot past the goalkeeper but it cannoned off the post and away to safety.
In the 49th minute, Bournemouth did drag themselves back into the game. It was another United defensive mix-up. This time, they presented it to Bournemouth out of nothing. Nemanja Matic played what should have been a simple ball
back to half-time substitute Eric Bailly but it was a loose pass that put the defender in trouble. Bailly tried to control it with his chest but the ball hit him on the shoulder and after long deliberations by VAR, it was decided he was inside the area. Joshua King clipped the penalty beyond the dive of De Gea.
But it was merely the cue for United t o pull further ahead. Greenwood scored again after 54 minutes, this time with his right f oot . The s t r i ke was j ust as spectacular as the first, a rising drive from 15 yards that Ramsdale got a hand to but which was too powerful to keep out.
Five minutes later, United got a free-kick on the edge of the penalty area and Fernandes curled it beyond the keeper to make it 5-2.
They should have had a sixth five minutes from time when substitute Odion Ighalo wriggled free but his chip bounced wide. It did not affect the mood. United are resurgent.