Manchester United finally find their first win of 2020, thanks to poor defending from Norwich City and brilliance from Juan Mata and Marcus Rashford.
Manchester United got up and running in the new decade with an easy win against Norwich City. Here was a match where United were finally playing ‘proper’ football, as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has often talked about. They were pressing up the pitch, they were dominating the ball, they were incisive with their passing, and they were creating chances. All in all, this was a pretty good performance!
But let’s not get our hopes up. We were, after all, playing against Norwich City, who are currently at the bottom of the table and adrift by 7 points. Norwich City is a team which, unfortunately, looks primed for relegation; they’re a team built for possession and scoring goals, but they aren’t great defensively, and that is a minimum requirement for any team coming up from the Championship. They gave United too much space even though they were penned back in their own half, and their defensive lapses cost them. Every goal apart from the last could be characterized as a defensive lapse.
For the first, Juan Mata’s ball in was great and Marcus Rashford’s run good, but Zimmerman should really have tracked Rashford’s run into the six-yard box. The second was really just a massive misjudgement from Tim Krul; why was he even in that position? His centre back should have been there instead! The third, too, was a lapse of concentration, probably coming from the fact that Norwich had conceded just moments ago. The Norwich defense was caught napping for the short corner and despite having surrounded Martial, he still managed to get a relatively free header (of course, no disrespect to Mata’s quick thinking and inch-perfect ball there). Even for the Greenwood goal, there was a lack of closing down, but the kid ran at the defense with such purpose that there wasn’t much the defense could really have done.
Then again, I am being a bit critical. Norwich barely got a sniff, and that’s a testament to United’s high press. Norwich could barely get out of their half; almost 80% of the match was played in the middle and Norwich thirds. The pressure was bound to get to them. It’s just that perhaps a better-drilled side wouldn’t have succumbed to the pressure the way Norwich did, and that’s why we shouldn’t look too deep into the score line. But credit where it’s due; Juan Mata looked great, and he was definitely my man of the match. Although United looked like they were going to get a breakthrough, it was Mata’s creativity that proved to be key. Both of his assists were absolutely beautiful crosses – everything about them was perfect. Rashford, too, looked wicked – his elastico on Byram to fashion out a chance was out of the very top drawer, and his through ball to Brandon Williams for the penalty was brilliant – it had just the right amount of power on it for Brandon Williams to be able to reach it and for Krul to think he could reach it.
But overall, there isn’t much we could draw from this game. The main question is that of consistency. Will we see the same, or at least a similar United against Wolves on Wednesday? There are games where we see a hungry United, like against Norwich, where the team presses high, gets to the second balls, and generally looking lively. We saw a similar incarnation against Burnley. Other days, we step back and let the opposition play, like against Watford (in the first half), and against Arsenal.
Of course, inconsistency must be expected from this young squad, and that is probably what is responsible for the majority of the variation we see in United’s play this season. Young players are much more cyclical than experienced ones; that’s an established fact. We saw what experience can do today; along with Mata’s brilliance, we saw Matic and Fred (who is fast becoming one of United’s most consistent players) get through a large amount of work in anchoring the side and providing the basis for United’s dominance. It is up to United hierarchy to supplement this team and bring the right blend of youth and experience in, so that Manchester United can become a more consistent side. Along with a playmaker (the need of which was demonstrated by the fact that Juan Mata was so crucial to our win and how forlorn Jesse Lingard makes United look), United also need to make sure they keep experienced heads around and even perhaps bring some more in, so that United can maximise their peaks and minimise their troughs.
All statistics are courtesy of WhoScored.
Who was your man of the match against Norwich City?