Even wins reveal the scale of the United rebuild job
Manchester United's Alejandro Garnacho, right is fouled by Everton's Ben Godfrey, centre, who gave a way a penalty to Manchester United during an English Premier League soccer match between Manchester United and Everton at the Old Trafford stadium in Manchester, England, Saturday, March 9, 2024. (AP Photo/Dave Thompson)
THE talk all weekend was about the rebuilding of Old Trafford and the bright vision for the “Wembley of the North” that will take the place of the crumbling, tired old cathedral that Manchester United currently call home.
The 90 minutes that followed on Saturday lunchtime was a reminder of how the rebuild job the pitch is every bit as daunting for whoever takes over from Erik ten Hag as United manager.
It is a safe bet that whenever their new home is ready to be moved into, the Dutchman will no longer be in charge of the club. Indeed, the smart money, increasingly, has been pointing to the summer as an obvious point at which new minority owner Jim Ratcliffe may well decide to bring in his own man to lead his vision of United’s future.
And, despite the manager's increasingly frantic claims that injuries are the only thing that stand between his team and elite success, even victories now serve only to underline United’s shortcomings.
Put simply, United were outplayed for long sections of this win, against an Everton team that may yet end this season in relegation. The shot count was 23-15 in favour of Sean Dyche’s men and, while ten Hag correctly pointed out that raw data can be misleading, it did not feel that way as Everton cut through United’s midfield and exposed gaps in their defence with alarming ease.
By game’s end, United had conceded 198 shots in their last 10 league and cup games, an astonishing statistic that begs the question how long ten Hag can expect to concede 20 shots per game and still maintain acceptable results.
In his defence, those 10 games have brought just two defeats, and seven wins, but ten Hag’s consistent crutch of blaming injuries for United’s sub-par season is not only wearing thin, it is one that does not bear close scrutiny.
Rivals Liverpool and Manchester City, in particular, have both negotiated potentially crippling injury lists - long absences of De Bruyne, Haaland, Salah, Jota - thanks to superbly-crafted squads.
But United’s squad and recruitment, as has been the case since Alex Ferguson’s retirement a little more than a decade ago, has been nothing short of a catastrophe, and ten Hag’s fingerprints are all over the last four transfer windows.
While the €100 million signing of Antony will be the one piece of almost laughably bad business that looks like defining his reign, the fact that, arguably, his best value-for-money signing has been the free transfer of Jonny Evans - 36 and impressive against Everton - also speaks volumes.
So, whoever is in charge, the rebuild job is going to be every bit as complicated, and probably even more expensive, than the £1 billion-plus they are expected to spend on the new Old Trafford.
Even those players who look strong candidates to remain at the club longer term raise issues. Two of them, Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford, were on the mark in the first half against Everton, both from penalties rashly conceded by fouls on Alejandro Garnacho.
Fernandes’s attitude and lack of composure can often hurt United but few could question his work rate and desire to win. Nor his penalty-taking ability with this conversion marking the 29th of his United career, a club record.
But Rashford is a far more complex issue with last season’s career-high 30 goals having been followed by seven so far in this campaign, two of them penalties now gifted to him by Fernandes. Such is United’s obvious desire to kickstart Rashford’s season and, it could be argued, stagnating career.
"Obviously, as I said many times, we have more than one penalty-taker and we have a list in the dressing room," said Fernandes. "Marcus is the second name as a penalty taker and I am more than confident whenever Marcus steps up to take a penalty, "I am more than confident that he can have the same effect as me. I did score the first one but I felt that with the second one, we should have changed because it then moves the mind a little bit of the goalkeeper."
Andre Onana 7; Dalot 6, Varane 6, Evans 7 (Kambwala 88), Lindelof 6; Mainoo 7 (Amrabat 78, 5), Casemiro 6; Fernandes 7, McTominay 6, Garnacho 8 (Antony 82); Rashford 7.
Bayindir, Eriksen, Diallo, Mee, Kambwala, Collyer, Ogunneye.
Pickford 8; Godfrey 5, Tarkowski 5, Branthwaite 6, Mykolenko 7 (Chermiti 87); Harrison 6 (Dobbin 61, 5), Garner 7 (Young 74, 5), Amadou Onana 6, McNeil 7; Doucoure 6 (Gomes 61, 5); Beto 5 (Calvert-Lewin 61, 6).
Patterson, Keane, Virginia, Coleman.
S Hooper 6
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