Starters
Sergio Romero: 5/10
Norwich’s only attempt at goal hit the back of the net. Sure, it was a huge strike through Todd Cantwell’s traffic, but still …
Diogo Dalot: 4/10
Subbed in the 63rd minute for a 19 year old. Where’s my “Dalot is better than AWB” now?
Eric Bailly: 5/10
He did some good things, some bad things, and some weird things. I’m glad to have our soccer comedy Haley’s Comet back. I hope you stay healthy fam!
Harry maguire: 6/10
The winner of the game scored. Thanks to the creator.
Luke Shaw: 5/10
My conspiracy theory is that United allowed Norwich to force overtime for Shaw to lock himself in developing some match aptitude. To be fair, he had a few bright spots, including Teemu Pukki closing in what appeared to be one of Norwich’s best opportunities.
Scott McTominay: 5/10
Commercial effort without final product. He needs to continue learning from the man who replaced him in the 78th minute.
Fred: 5/10
Like Scotty Mac, a lot of effort and not much more.
Bruno Fernandes: 4/10
This feels like a difference in perception. Some will argue that he was out there trying to make things happen. Others will suggest that his game was out of place and that it was almost reckless. I’m in last and I think I may have to take off Brighton’s next game after playing 291 (!) Minutes in eight days.
Jesse Lingard: 10/10
Lukewarm at best. Replaced in the 63rd minute by Rashford because Solskjaer needed a player to influence the left wing. I wish I had seen Lingard impact his first chance in a while to start.
Odion Ighalo: 7/10
When United was dangerous in attack, Ighalo was the superior man who did the dirty work. Between delivering the opening goal and delaying the game so well that he pulled out a red card on top of the box, he continues to do business. By the way, he has scored in every game he has started.
Juan Mata: 3/10
It had a decent approval rating. Unfortunately, Mata is not the type to have on the field if you take out most of Team B with him.
Substitutes
Brandon Williams: 4/10
Despite being put in in the 63rd minute, he managed to do a full turn. He had good statistics, but he did not do much more than the man he replaced.
Marcus Rashford: 5/10
He had a difficult task against Max Aarons but he played well. I’d like to see Rashford regain his first goal before skeptics decide to make a noise: he almost did it with an incredible shot that required all Tim Krul’s gloves to save him.
Mason Greenwood: 6/10
I had some dangerous moments. I’d like to see him play centrally instead of right.
Paul Pogba: 7/10
It is almost as if he is one of the best midfielders who converts oxygen into carbon dioxide. Instant impact the moment he entered the field and was the catalyst for United to put Norwich under siege.
Nemanja Matić: 6/10
The Nemanjassaince is something to behold. It provides the competition you need at 6 to let Pogba and Bruno do their thing before her. Hopefully they never administer a PED test for Matić.
Anthony Martial: 4/10
He was given 24 minutes in overtime to save United’s impactful performance. The magic of Wednesday could not be replicated, but who can blame it?
Manager
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer: 4/10
Squad rotation is important. Therefore, he is anticipating the influence that a combination of 11 players will have on the field. Pray that we will NEVER see that when XI started, he jogged to start a game because he would have difficulty getting out of a relegation battle.
