Alejandro Garnacho will always have Goodison Park. His goal against Everton cast him in a state of permanent suspension, forever frozen upside down. Like George Best weaving through the Sheffield United defence, Bobby Charlton’s howitzer at Anfield, Garnacho has his eternal symbol of the time he was a Manchester United baller.
It was a riotous moment of instinctive brilliance that was beyond even the player to comprehend. A sequence of automatic triggers along the neural pathway and onto his right boot, divined to intercept the ball in midair, and smash it into the Everton net via an arc of mesmerising beauty.
In a split second Garnacho stole Everton’s energy, blunted Goodison Park’s crusading power. Garnacho and United were suddenly the story, not Everton’s outrage over the points deduction for financial transgressions. Everton would have to tap into more mundane fuel to rescue the day. As valiantly as they laboured, United held out before pulling away.
Now Garnacho is compelled to repeat the trick in every match, beginning in Istanbul against Galatasaray on Wednesday. Impossible of course. But that’s okay.
What United need more than wonder goals is an upswing in the expected variety. United sit 10th in the Premier League’s expected goals (xG) metric, which in simple terms is a measure of quality of chances created.
United’s victory at Everton was their first in the Premier League this season by more than one goal. Despite scoring three times without reply United remain one of only two teams in the top 10 without a positive goal difference.
Garnacho snatched at an easier chance in the second half, that more accurately summarised United’s disjointed patterns.
This, and other historical examples, prompted skipper Bruno Fernandes to remind Garnacho of the need to contribute consistently rather than deliver in peaks and troughs. The point was well made and repeated similar counsel by Fernandes to Garnacho since the Argentine supernova broke through.
It also demonstrated a feature of Fernandes’ captaincy overlooked in the recent rush to bin him for his wearisome displays of petulance and frustration. For all his faults Fernandes sees the bigger picture. Perhaps he cares too deeply. He showed fine leadership too in presenting Marcus Rashford with the ball for the penalty, which was brilliantly dispatched.
While Roy Keane saw this an act of virtue signalling frivolity, putting at risk a victory at a critical juncture, others saw it as exemplary generalship, seeing an opportunity to bolster the belief of a player negotiating a confidence crisis. Rashford looked a different player in the final half hour as a result.
Keane’s leadership model has application across a smaller spectrum since it takes little account of personality type. Rashford would have wilted in Keane’s team. With Fernandes behind him, he has a chance to rise, just as he has with England in the restorative arms of Gareth Southgate.
Rashford’s one-match ban for the red card in Copenhagen adds a further loading upon Garnacho in Istanbul. However, United’s prospects perhaps rest more with 18-year-old Kobbie Mainoo, whose first Premier League start turned heads at Goodison Park.
Mainoo’s revelatory display was conditioned to a degree by the absence for so long of a player of that authority at the base of United’s midfield.
Erik ten Hag thought he had it with Casemiro until the ageing Brazilian ran out of gas towards the end of last season. Sofyan Amrabat hints at progress but delivers only episodically.
Mainoo has the aura of a player 10 years his senior, recycling the ball with ease, breaking through the lines, initiating attacks, snuffing out danger.
The victory over Everton differed from recent performances only by degree. As Ten Hag acknowledged Everton controlled the tempo in the first half.
Though United improved in the second, they lacked composure in key moments, surrendered possession too frequently and presented Everton with too many free runs at their defence.
At Goodison Park the goals went in. Had they not we might easily be talking again about Ten Hag’s replacement. He is still unable to evince from his players the game he wants to see.
United appear close to eureka moments but are just too brittle to carry his vision through with the necessary conviction. Across town, City continue to do Pep’s work. The impressive cohesion and liquid movement results entirely from players conditioned to work harder, run faster and dig deeper, for the love of their leader.
Jurgen Klopp is another with guru power. Mikel Arteta thinks he has it. Roberto De Zerbi, too.
The atmosphere around Ten Hag is poor. United need to plug into something in Istanbul to stay in the Champions League.
They will take another worldie from Garnacho, but, as Fernandes sagely advised, sometimes you have to take the mundane route. Tap-ins will do.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/IHFvfcg
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