Pogba’s indifference is catching as United serve up more dross
More than 20 minutes remained when Jose Mourinho decided he had seen enough of Paul Pogba going through the motions again in another masterclass of indifference and dragged off the France midfielder.
The baton was handed to Alexis Sanchez but, predictably, the Chilean proceeded to drop it, too. Sanchez had been on the pitch only a few minutes when Manchester United broke after excellent work from Marcus Rashford. Sanchez picked up the ball but, with Anthony Martial striding down the left, United’s expensive misfit hit a simple pass behind his team-mate and out for a throw-in, to widespread groans at Old Trafford.
Welcome to the modern-day United, a stuttering, labouring monument to mediocrity assembled at exorbitant cost. Mourinho has claimed United will be in or around the top four by the end of the year but, watching this and so much of the dross they have served up this season, that seems fanciful at best.
If anything, you have to wonder how much further they have to fall, and they will certainly need to be better than this to see off Young Boys in the Champions League on Tuesday. This is United’s worst start to a campaign for 28 years, and by the final whistle those groans had turned into boos.
It was a good job for Mourinho and his players that Crystal Palace cannot shoot. United could not either, and these two teams – both of whom had goals correctly ruled offside – could have played long into the night and still not found the net. But at least Roy Hodgson’s side were enterprising, and looked like a team with a plan.
Mourinho talked up the way United had managed to find space against a compact team who do not leave much of it, but it was hard to remember any passages of play worthy of applause. Mourinho’s complaint about an absence of heart were on the money – the lack of urgency, embodied by an insipid display from Pogba that contrasted starkly with Luka Milivojevic in Palace’s midfield, was alarming – but there is also a lack of quality.
The Sanchez episode was a case in point, and there were plenty of others. How about Romelu Lukaku attempting a first-time lay-off only for the ball to balloon 20 yards off his foot? The Belgium striker had a header well saved late on by Wayne Hennessey but he has now gone 11 games without a goal and, like Sanchez, Pogba and others, his confidence appears at rock bottom.
United had other chances. Chris Smalling should have done better with a close-range header from Juan Mata’s free-kick and Jesse Lingard’s first-time Sign up for your exclusive Man Utd newsletter shot from Ashley Young’s cross was well saved, but they both came in the first half, and on the balance of play the best opportunities fell to Palace. Poor Hodgson. His team have played well against Arsenal, Chelsea, Tottenham and United and probably deserved more than two points from those games, but the lack of ruthlessness and composure in front of goal is a problem.
David de Gea was forced to make a double save from Cheikhou Kouyate and Patrick van Aanholt, but Andros Townsend had a golden chance to win it in the 74th minute after furrowing his way past Nemanja Matic and Victor Lindelof with alarming ease, only to shank his shot wide. Kouyate later blazed over after being teed up. It had been the same story in the first 45 minutes, when United were again guilty of standing off and inviting their opponents to shoot.
When Lingard gave the ball away cheaply, Milivojevic found Wilfried Zaha first time, his thumping shot making De Gea dive full stretch down to his right. Zaha had already shot over by then, Matteo Darmian – making his first start since the opening day as Mourinho’s latest favourite outcast, Antonio Valencia, was again overlooked – made no attempt to close down the space. Palace’s best chance arrived when United were exposed on the counter, Zaha kick-starting a freeflowing move that culminated in him squaring for Van Aanholt, who screwed a first-time right-foot shot wide.
Palace thought they had finally scored on the cusp of half-time but Kouyate was marginally offside when he got ahead of Lindelof to head home Milivojevic’s free-kick. It was much the same with Lukaku when he stabbed home after Young’s shot had been spilt. In both cases, they were half an arm’s length offside. It summed up the fortunes of both in front of goal.