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It is now 600 days since the Parisian night that suggested Ole Gunnar Solskjaer was returning Manchester United to the kind of high plain that Sir Alex Ferguson’s players once toured.
That impressive Champions League win over Paris Saint-Germain in March last year was about youth, courage, ambition and hope.
The club will come full circle this week on Tuesday, when they return to the Parc des Princes in the same competition, and while this was a credible comeback to send them there and extinguish the memory of that gutting Old Trafford two weeks ago, it was no more than that. .
This was another reminder that they are still looking up the face of a mountain on their way to the top.
It helped Solskjaer to dispense with a player whose indifference towards the club confirms all the suspicions Ferguson had about him and his agent.
With Paul Pogba safely benched, Scott McTominay had scope to show presence and stature at the rear of the midfield, making United a better team when he’s in it.
You imagined Ferguson nodding appreciatively somewhere as his young compatriot spotted Daniel James with test passes on the channels in the first half.
There was also a kind of salvation for Harry Maguire. There seems to have been gratuitous pleasure in regards to Maguire’s struggles and the look on his face when his side was left behind made you fear for what the night might bring.
The imposing header, as he escaped Jamaal Lascelles’ attentions to power in a draw, deconstructed the narrative as far as he was concerned.
He would have scored again if Jonjo Shelvey didn’t clear another header off the line in the second half.
But there were some tough Maguire moments that would probably have stood out more if Sky Sports had offered the same quality of in-game analytics for its £ 14.95 box office customers as those who subscribe to its channels.
The cross that Allan Saint-Maximim lifted from the starting line for Callum Wilson around the clock was too much for Maguire, who went over his head to present the forward with an opportunity to overtake Newcastle that he failed to seize.
Maguire cut several of the balls down the right that Wilson could have run to, but he and Victor Lindelof are pale imitations of Rio Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic, whose contrasting skills made United so impenetrable for so long.
The point about Ferdinand and Vidic was that they looked out for each other. It would help Maguire’s development to have someone by his side whom he could also trust, but Lindelof is not that man.
Luke Shaw’s deflection of the knee that left the Red Devils behind was unfortunate, of course, but the ease with which Newcastle cut United’s midfield on the counter attack was desperate to behold a team experiencing their worst start. season in the Premier League.
The true story of that goal was in its early stages, with Callum Wilson turning Lindelof and finding Saint-Maximim, who ran the ball through Fred’s legs and found Shelvey running into a more open space than he possibly could. he would have imagined that she would be available to him.
The look on Lindelof’s face seemed like blind panic as Newcastle began that breakthrough and that moment was enough to tell us that this is a United side that lacks the fundamental defensive faculty necessary to deliver football commensurate with its wealth.
Lindelof is now entering his fourth season at United. He would have been absent if Fergie was still in command. It does not correspond to a side with serious ambitions.
The pre-game looping larey Sky promo clip boasted the ‘skill, style and panache’ on offer for anyone willing to part with £ 14.95 per pay-per-view over and over again this season.
It seemed like a joke at United’s expense when they conceded so early.
The best of United came from Juan Mata and Bruno Fernandes, working the midfield spaces with some moments of genuine class.
Mata was the outstanding player of the game and the winning goal came from the outstanding combination of the night.
It wasn’t just Bruno Fernandes’s shot that took your breath away, but the 60 yards of grass he cleared, receiving the ball from Donny van der Beek at one point with his own penalty area, processing it, rushing those yards for get it back. Marcus Rashford’s instep and take home the winner.
Aaron Wan-Bisska’s goal, his first high-level goal for the club, reflected his own ability to find space.
Next week will be one of reflection on United and how far they have traveled from Paris. Not far enough for a club of his immense wealth.
But at least they got back the feeling that they are on the mend.
Source: m.allfootballapp.com
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