Man Utd 0-2 Newcastle (Isak 4′, Joelinton 19′)
OLD TRAFFORD — This game was over before it started. Manchester United, bereft of confidence, character and above all craft, were ruthlessly dispatched by a team replete in all three attributes.
Ruben Amorim claimed he was hired for his big idea. To change, he said, would mean the end of him as a coach. Don’t worry Ruben, greater thinkers than you have altered course.
Half an hour against Newcastle United taught Amorim that dogma is death to prospects if the idea is stupid.
A team sheet featuring ageing travellers Casemiro and Christian Eriksen in a midfield two looked plain bonkers when set against the brick walls that are Bruno Guimaraes, Joelinton and Sandro Tonali.
The score could have been anything Newcastle wanted it to be in that opening half.
Two goals to unanswered headers in quick time exposed Amorim’s ridiculous attachment to a three at the back formation that had yielded three successive defeats before this horror show.
By the time Amorim hooked Joshua Zirkzee after 33 minutes Newcastle had also had a goal disallowed and hit a post. “Who the f**k are Man United?” asked the Newcastle fans. It was a fair question.
Zirkzee has never looked anything other than a preposterous signing, utterly ill equipped for the rigours of the Premier League. Being outjumped by Kieran Trippier, fully eight inches shorter, wasn’t even his worst moment. He would tackle himself if he could control a ball.
His withdrawal for Kobbie Mainoo and the temporary reversion to a more conventional 4-4-2 at least introduced a semblance of order. Indeed Casemiro and Rasmus Hojlund shortly before the interval both missed excellent chances to score.
At half time, chroniclers of this once mighty institution wondered if this team was worse than the heroes of 1974 who went down under Tommy Docherty. It was agreed that even slow-moving vehicles like Arnie Sidebottom, Steve James and Mick Martin would have got into Amorim’s selection. And Big Jim Holton would have absolutely worn the armband.
Whether it was embarrassment or humiliation that fired them, United at least showed some fight after the break.
By throwing everything he had at the encounter Mainoo lifted those around him and United began to see more of the ball.
A diving header from Harry Maguire came back off a post to hint perhaps at a late recovery.
But as Newcastle demonstrated, this game is always about the quality and experience of players. Newcastle’s were better.
Isak is a fearsome predator whose hunger and pace at the point of the Newcastle attack was a vivid contrast to the laboured contribution of opposite number Hojlund.
Anthony Gordon and Lewis Hall pulverised United down the left and that aforementioned trio in midfield had the game in their pockets.
The defeat was United’s sixth in December alone, an unprecedented number that ought to concentrate minds in the boardroom let alone the dressing room.
Not even Marcus Rashford, who returned to the United squad for the first time since mid-December, could force his way onto the pitch.
Since he was booed by some fans on his arrival, that was perhaps a blessing.
from Football - The i Paper https://ift.tt/xfajF0Z
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