Manchester United‘s unconvincing start under interim manager Ralf Rangnick continued as they suffered a deserved 1-0 defeat to Wolves at Old Trafford after Joao Moutinho’s late winner.
Both of Wolves’ matches over Christmas were postponed due to Covid and Bruno Lage’s side looked sharp after a 15-day break, taking control of the match early on. A dipping long-distance volley from Ruben Neves forced David De Gea into a spectacular acrobatic save early on, while Daniel Podence and Nelson Semedo also stung the palms of United’s No 1 in the opening 25 minutes.
Wolves were by far the better side during the opening 45 minutes, as reflected by the match stats: the visitors had 15 efforts on goal to United’s four and four shots on target to one. According to Opta, that was the highest number of attempts that United had faced in the first-half of a league game at Old Trafford since records began in the 2003-04 season.
Things barely improved for the hosts after the restart either and United’s supporters made their displeasure clear by booing Rangnick’s decision to take off Mason Greenwood, who had been his team’s liveliest attacker. Greenwood’s replacement Bruno Fernandes should have opened the scoring minutes after coming on, cracking a shot off the crossbar after meeting Nemanja Matic’s low cross into the box.
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Lage brought on Adama Traore 25 minutes from time and 10 minutes after Luke Shaw had been booked and it was from the Spaniard’s dinked cross that Wolves grabbed a deserved lead, when Moutinho expertly fired a crisp low volley into the bottom corner eight minutes from time. United almost grabbed a late equaliser with virtually the last kick of the game but Jose Sa was on hand to palm Fernandes’ free-kick to safety.
It was no less than Wolves deserved after an excellent display, but United’s performance raised further questions about the suitability of Rangnick’s favoured 4-2-2-2 system with this squad of players.
Man Utd (4-2-2-2)
- David De Gea – 8
- Aaron Wan-Bissaka – 5
- Phil Jones – 7
- Raphael Varane – 7
- Luke Shaw – 6
- Scott McTominay – 5
- Nemanja Matic – 6
- Mason Greenwood – 7
- Jadon Sancho – 5
- Edinson Cavani – 5
- Cristiano Ronaldo – 5
Subs:
- Bruno Fernandes – 6
- Marcus Rashford – 5
- Anthony Elanga – 6
Wolves (3-4-3)
- Jose Sa – 7
- Max Kilman – 7
- Conor Coady – 7
- Romain Saiss – 8
- Nelson Semedo – 7
- Ruben Neves – 7
- Joao Moutinho – 8
- Marcal – 6
- Franciso Trincao – 6
- Raul Jimenez – 6
- Daniel Podence – 8
Subs:
- Adama Traore – 7
- Fabio Silva – 6
- Leander Dendoncker – 6
Jones marks return with solid display
With Harry Maguire and Eric Bailly unavailable through injury, Victor Lindelof recovering from Covid-19 and Axel Tuanzebe set to move to Napoli on loan, Rangnick had little option but to hand Phil Jones a first Premier League start in almost two years, alongside Raphael Varane in defence.
The 29-year-old’s last league appearance came in a 2-0 defeat against Burnley on 22 January 2020 and his previous first-team match of any description was in a 6-1 FA Cup win over Tranmere Rovers four days later. Jones’ lack of action has in part been down to a debilitating knee injury that has plagued his career.
Jones has, rather unfairly, become a much-maligned figure, but a roar of appreciation met his first action of the game as he headed a cross to safety in the first minute. A ripple of applause then followed a well-timed interception that stopped a promising Wolves attack from developing.
An encouraging evening continued when Jones made a vital block to deny Franciso Trincao a clear shot on goal just before half-time. By the end of the game, Jones ranked joint-top among United’s players for tackles (with three), top for blocks (also three) and had completed 90 per cent of his 50 attempted passes, another team-leading high.
Given how long he had been sidelined for, it was telling of the performances of most of United’s side that Jones was unquestionably one of their better players.
Analysis: Clueless Man Utd got what they deserved
By Kevin Garside, i‘s chief sports correspondent
This was coming and fitting that it should be Wolves who inflicted upon Ralf Rangnick a first defeat as Manchester United maestro since they were the victims of larceny when the sides met at Molineux.
United’s flirtation with the idea they might be rescued by some Rangnick miracle is surely discredited by another clueless display. A defeat, a draw, it didn’t really matter.
The substance of the issue is obvious. United are nowhere near good enough. Newcastle were better but didn’t convert. Norwich were no worse than United in a narrow defeat. Only Burnley of the bottom-three folded, but that hardly conferred plausibility on this listing red vessel.
Yes, United improved with the introduction of Bruno Fernandes with half an hour to go. Fernandes should have scored instead of hitting the bar when the scores were still level. Jose Sa was at full stretch from Fernandes with the last play of the match. All of it a diversion which Rangnick would do well to ignore.
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