Frustrated Solskjaer still searching for home comforts of Old Trafford

Sun, 25 Oct, 2020 - 22:30

Richard Tanner

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer got one tactical tweak partially right as Manchester United’s home struggles continued with a scoreless draw against Chelsea.

The United manager changed his team’s pre-match routine by ordering the players to stay in a hotel rather than their own homes in a bid to get their first Old Trafford win of the season.

United have won their last 10 away games — discounting two defeats on neutral grounds — so Solskjaer tried to replicate an away trip by keeping his squad together the night before the clash with Chelsea.

He joked that “it won’t please the wives and girlfriends” but it worked in the sense United avoided the unwanted distinction of losing their first three home games in a season since 1930.

But the goal-less stalemate still means it’s their worst home start since the 1972-73 campaign under Frank O’Farrell when they lost the first and drew the next two. Ominously for Solskjaer, Cork’s O’Farrell was sacked just before Christmas that season.

Including the last two Premier League home games of last season — draws with Southampton and West Ham — United are win-less in their last five League games in their own backyard, the worst run since February 1990.

It was a frustrating game but there were positives for Solskjaer — the main one being a first clean sheet of the season in the League against a previously free-scoring Chelsea team.

David De Gea had barely anything to do, happy to leave the goalkeeping heroics to Edouard Mendy at the other end, and pointed to the work United have done on the training ground in a bid to stop leaking goals.

“I think for us it is very important to start keeping clean sheets, especially at home,” he said. “We defended really well against Chelsea. We didn’t concede many chances.

“We always try in every training session to improve, to make the team better defensively, to work and talk with each other. And it was important for our confidence to get a clean sheet against a top team like Chelsea.

“That’s the way to keep going and the way to winning games. It was a tight game but we had two or three big chances and I felt we deserved a bit more.”

Harry Maguire got away with wrestling Cesar Azpilicueta to the ground with a head lock in the first half — Frank Lampard describing the incident as “a definite penalty” — but otherwise United had few scares with Maguire’s partner Victor Lindelof continuing to show that perhaps United do not need to heed the calls to buy another centre half.

But for Mendy and the experienced Thiago Silva in front of him, United would have made it three wins in a week following their triumphs over Newcastle and Paris St Germain.

Mendy recovered from a heart-stopping moment when he almost sent an intended pass to Silva into his own net by pulling off fine saves from Marcus Rashford and Juan Mata before the break.

Then in the final minute of the game he dived acrobatically across his goal to push round another Rashford shot that had ‘goal’ written all over it.

That’s three clean sheets in his first four games for Mendy underlining why Lampard was so keen to bring him in to replace the error-prone Kepa Arrizabalaga.

The arrival of centre back Silva has also strengthened Chelsea’s suspect defence and he made a vital block to stop his former Paris St Germain teram-mate Edinson Cavani from scoring on his debut.

Cavani had gone close to scoring with his first touch after coming on — a near post flick that went into the side netting — and when the vastly experienced Uruguyan gets up to full speed — he hadn’t played since March — he will give United’s attack a much needed focal point.

Rashford and Anthony Martial — who was suspended on Saturday — are not typical centre forwards and are better coming from wide positions and running at defenders. Cavani is more of a physical presence, can hold the ball up well and is a greater threat in the air.

“Edinson gives us a centre forward who is different to what we have got,” said Solskjaer.

Another of Solskjaer’s signings, Donny Van Der Beek, continues to be strangely overlooked. He has only started two EFL Cup games since his £40m move from Ajax but his manager dismissed suggestions there’s a problem with the Dutchman by saying: “Don’t worry he will get games.”

United will need to maintain their defensive solidity as well as find a cutting edge if they are to achieve that elusive first home win because they face two more tough tests this week — Champions League semi-finalists and Bundesliga leaders RB Leipzig on Wednesday before Mikel Arteta’s improving Arsenal visit on Sunday.

If neither of those games yield a victory United will have to wait until after the November international break when newly-promoted West Brom come to Old Trafford.

MAN UNITED (4-2-3-1): De Gea 6; Wan-Biasska 7, Lindelof 8, Maguire 7, Shaw 6; McTominay 6 (Greenwood 82, 5), Fred 6; Mata 6 (Pogba 58, 5), Fernandes 7, D James 4 (Cavani 58, 6); Rashford 7.

Subs not used: Henderson, Matic, Van De Beek, Tuanzebe.

CHELSEA (3-4-3): Mendy 9, Azpilicueta 6, Silva 8, Zouma 6; James 7, Jorginho 6, Kante 6, Chilwell 6; Pulisic 6 (Ziyech 80, 5) Havertz 5 (Mount 71, 5), Werner 5 (Abraham 71, 5).

Subs not used: Caballero, Rudiger, Kovacic, Giroud.

Referee: Martin Atkinson.