Daniel Storey's weekend review: Warrior Cavani is suddenly Solskjaer’s go-to forward
Manchester United's Edinson Cavani celebrates scoring his side's second goal of the game during the Premier League match at St Mary's Stadium, Southampton.
Manchester United would struggle to claim that Edinson Cavani was their first-choice striker target this summer, or even that there was any plan to sign him before the final days of the transfer window. But with Paris Saint-Germain happy to see him leave and United in need of another body up front, in he came. That now looks like excellent business.
Cavani is different to Solskjaer’s other forwards. Left on the bench against Southampton, he watched as Marcus Rashford and Mason Greenwood often drifted wide to leave a space in the penalty area. Anthony Martial has struggled all season as a No 9, without a goal and now presumably out of the team.
Cavani is different. He lives for scoring goals, even if his ageing legs and high wages brought doubt about whether Old Trafford was merely being used as a halfway home towards retirement. His movement and finishing is above any other United striker, on current evidence. With Bruno Fernandes to service him, there is life in the old dog yet. He must surely now be first choice for Solskjaer.
It is a plan that is defined by the result. If Tammy Abraham had taken any of the half chances that Reece James’ second-half crosses provided, Tottenham supporters would have questioned the wisdom of sacrificing attacking ambition after the break. As it is, this was one point gained rather than two dropped.
Frank Lampard will probably agree. Chelsea looked a little spooked by Tottenham’s counter-attacking threat in the first 20 minutes and guarded against over-committing their full-backs forward. By the time they had resolved to show more intent, Mourinho had Spurs defending deep in ‘one-point’ mode.
That’s fully understandable. With Liverpool drawing on Saturday lunchtime and other likely title rivals still a few points back, the Stamford Bridge draw became the obvious result. Win their next three matches and that decision will be fully vindicated.
Leeds have always enjoyed playing away from home under Marcelo Bielsa. Setting up to soak up pressure and press and then exploit counter-attacking opportunities, they scored the most goals and registered the most wins on the road in the Championship last season. So far in 2020/21, they have taken four more points away from home than at Elland Road.
But Leeds are also over-achieving given the difficulty of their fixture list. In 10 league games they have faced five of last season’s top eight plus Aston Villa and Everton, who both enjoyed excellent starts to this season. Like Wolves before them, Leeds have found a way to frustrate — and occasionally outclass — established top-half Premier League sides as a promoted club.
That raises Leeds’ natural ceiling. They have already beaten Sheffield United and Fulham, two teams in the bottom three. Cement that ability to swat away bottom-half sides and continue their trick of picking up crucial away points through a no-fear pressing strategy and we must consider them top-eight hopefuls. European qualification isn’t impossible.
When VAR was initially mooted, it was sold to cynics as a means of eradicating the refereeing howlers that could unfairly affect the outcome of important matches. Those of us who believed those human errors were part of the sport were reminded of the significant financial implications of a wretched decision that could be proven to be incorrect on the first television replay.
We accepted that offside sat outside that aim, it being a yes/no call rather than a decision that allowed for any subjectivity. We’ve even accepted that goalkeepers straying a millimetre from their line at a penalty kick must be treated the same.
But VAR has gone way beyond those initial promises. Rather than eliminating howlers we are now re-refereeing borderline decisions to the detriment of the sport. And that was always our problem with the introduction: It always marked the starting point rather than the end game.
Look at one decision and you look at them all. And so the notion of ‘clear and obvious’ effectively becomes defunct.
The romantic view is that the great managerial overachievers of the last decade — David Wagner at Huddersfield, Eddie Howe at Bournemouth, Chris Wilder at Sheffield United — should never be sacked. The only reason their clubs are even in a position to be haunted by Premier League relegation is because those inspirational coaches took them far beyond anyone’s reasonable ambition. That should afford infinite patience.
They leave when they feel the time is right.
But reality is markedly different. The financial penalties of being relegated mean that clubs are forced to live in the present rather than the magnificent recent past, however harsh that may sound. Huddersfield paid the price for sticking with Wagner for too long and allowing a rot to set in.
Bournemouth arguably made the same mistake. And now United must make the same call with Wilder.
It does not undo the magnificent work he has done over the last three years to suggest that he is struggling to address the current slump. Sheffield United have taken one point from the last 39 available and, crucially, there are precious few signs of improvement. With Leicester, Southampton, and Manchester United to come, Wilder’s team could be cut adrift by Christmas.
