In a weird kind of way, Manchester United needed that on Saturday.
Like any new incoming ruler, Sir Jim Ratcliffe has promised Mancunians the world – a new stadium to better anything London has to offer, a hierarchical structure fit for purpose and the prospect of knocking Liverpool and Manchester City off their perch.
After hearing the Ratcliffe manifesto delivered in the billionaire’s wide-ranging interviews last week – revealing more less than 24 hours into the job than the Glazers have in 18 years – Old Trafford was brimming with excitement.
A Fulham team without a win in the red half of Manchester since 2003, taking on a club stoking the fires to roar back to the top of English football – the visitors would surely be no match.
But what transpired was a rather familiar story. Ratcliffe’s buoyant serfs, however, should have almost been celebrating Alex Iwobi’s 97th-minute winner themselves, as it gave the red knight in shining armour the starkest reminder of where his toughest renovation work is needed.
Whenever United suffer even just a handful of injuries to key players, what lies beneath is not of sufficient standard for a club of United’s grandeur. Not even close.
Without Lisandro Martinez and Luke Shaw at the back, a backline that cost north of £150m could not produce one pass that broke the lines between Fulham’s attack and midfield on Saturday. It went sideways, backwards or waywards instead.
Ahead of them, Casemiro looked dazed and confused at times before departing injured early in the second half, Bruno Fernandes spent more time gesticulating than shooting and Marcus Rashford may as well not have been there such was his anonymity.
Erik ten Hag has been similarly engulfed by the Ineos positivity bubble too, which should be more worrying than anything else.
“Today we could have won this game,” he said. “I have to credit the team – they showed great character. But after one defeat you have to see the bigger picture and the bigger picture looks very good.”
To Trafford property developers, perhaps. Not to Manchester United the football team. It isn’t one defeat, it is eight at home this season.
Fulham outplayed United from start to finish and should have been out of sight before Harry Maguire netted a late equaliser.
But Iwobi’s smart finish was nothing Marco Silva’s side did not deserve.
There can be no sympathy for Ten Hag, who again pointed to key injuries in the aftermath of another damaging defeat.
Such is the lack of trust in Antony, teenager Omari Forson was blooded instead. That the Brazilian only came on in the 99th minute is rather telling.
Profligacy with the company purse has been endemic at Old Trafford, but to splurge that sort of cash on a wide forward, rather than another central option has been perhaps the most epic error of all.
It is this kind of inappropriate signing that Ratcliffe and his shiny new recruitment team are going to have to eradicate if that colossal “Wembley of the North” is to get a populated trophy room.
A defeat, against a team without an away league win since August, tells a true picture of where this team is at. And the monumental task that awaits Ratcliffe.
from Football - inews.co.uk https://ift.tt/j9QUEbY
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