Zlatan is put in the shade by United supersub Rashford
Zlatan Ibrahimovic tangles with Hull City’s Andrew Robertson during yesterday’s narrow win.
HULL CITY 0 MANCHESTER UTD 1 Rashford (90)
MIKE PHELAN knows all about Fergie Time having spent 14 years as Manchester United’s assistant manager.
So he will have known that when the fourth official put up the board that indicated four minutes of stoppage time, the work of his players wasn’t over.
And when Wayne Rooney got behind the Hull defence to square for teenage substitute Marcus Rashford to tap in, he would have had remembered all those times when he celebrated late winners with Sir Alex Ferguson.
His Hull team deserved the draw. They didn’t get it, because Jose Mourinho’s sides also have the habit of finding ways to win when they don’t play well.
So it’s a 100% start for the Special One, but even he will have sympathy with his opposite number. Phelan has been operating with 13 fit players, a club that’s about to be sold and with hardly any activity in the transfer market. But he doesn’t get the Hull job after this, then football has neither a soul – nor a brain.
Whatever the result, Phelan moved a step closer to being confirmed as permanent boss after the club’s owners, the Allams, indicated a deal to sell the Tigers could be completed in the next two weeks. The prospective new owners are understood to be a Chinese consortium headed by brother and sister partnership Dai Yongge and Dai Xin Li.
Vice-chairman Ehab Allam confirmed in the match programme: “The time has come for new owners to come in and take over from us and we hope to have more information for you all on that in the near future. At this point, we do believe that today could be our last game as owners of this football club.”
Phelan wouldn’t have needed the little taster of the difference between the two squads in the opening minute when Antonio Valencia over-hit a cross and Zlatan Ibrahimovic took the ball down outrageously with his heel above his head in a contortion that would have made Olympic gymnast Max Whitlock proud. The Swede headed Anthony Martial’s cross just over in the 10th minute as United imposed a not altogether unexpected stranglehold on the early stages of the game.
United not only have the edge on most teams in terms of quality, they also have a huge physicality down the spine of their team with five players over 6ft 2in. Yet Hull went closest to making the first breakthrough in the 25th minute when Marouane Fellaini was yellowcarded for bringing down Abel Hernandez just outside the box and Robert Snodgrass’s swinging freelick had David de Gea scrambling to see it safely past his post.
A minute later, Snodgrass was only prevented from getting on the end of an Andrew Robertson cross by Luke Shaw’s alert defending.
In the 37th minute, Mata got to the by-line, Jakupovic pushed the ball out to Wayne Rooney who saw his shot blocked just in front of the line by Curtis Davies.
Rooney appealed for handball but ref Jon Moss judged it hit Davies’ body and he appeared to be correct. In stoppage time Ibrahimovic collected a free kick under pressure from Jakupovic but took the ball too wide and his improvised back-heel struck the side netting.
Hull suffered a crucial blow when Snodgrass, injured in the first half, went down in a heap unchallenged in the first minute of the second period and hobbled off.
Rooney got in a header which barely troubled Jakupovic as United began to look less and less like a functioning machine as the game progressed.
Mourinho had had enough by the hour mark and sent on Henrikh Mkhitaryan for Martial then 10 minutes later, Rashford for Mata.
Hull, virtually threat-less themselves, began to grow in their conviction that they could see out the goalless draw that was their clear intent. They were unlucky, though, when Tom Huddlestone’s drive struck Eric Bailly. The deflection was wicked and could have taken the ball anywhere.
But Mourinho’s subs made the difference. Mkhitarayan’s running drew fouls that earned booking for Huddlestone and David Meyler and Rashford’s shot brought Jakupovic’s best save of the evening.
A couple of minutes later, he made a great save after Antonio Valencia’s shot deflected off a defender. But there was no denying the youngster who got Louis van Gaal out of so many holes last season.