It is an important point that, no matter how bland the game, needs to be made because you would be forgiven for thinking, judging by some of the more vitriolic criticism of manager Louis van Gaal and his players, that Manchester United lost this tie against a wonderfully spirited and well organised Sheffield United team that came with the intention to frustrate and spoil.
Rooney celebrates his last-gasp winner
They did it magnificently and, if they continue to play this well for manager Nigel Adkins, he will win promotion from League One with a third club, having already achieved that notable success with Scunthorpe United and Southampton.
The Blades, though, did not have a cutting edge. They never looked like winning the game and United goalkeeper David De Gea was not called upon to make an important save in 96 minutes of football.
What they did was make it difficult for a side that is low on confidence and under immense pressure, to break them down. They are not the first team to do that to the Red Devils and it is becoming a worrying, reoccurring theme, but Van Gaal’s side still won.
Sheffield United take the battle to their illustrious counterparts Photo: REUTERS
Regardless of the quality of the opposition, or how it was secured, Manchester United achieved what they set out to do in a competition that is renowned for depriving giants routine victories over weaker opposition.
It has been 26 years since Mark Robins scored the only goal for Manchester United in a third-round tie against Nottingham Forest. It was a goal that, history claims, saved Alex Ferguson’s job, but all that mattered at the time was that his team were in the next round.
• Five things we learned: Fellaini barely a League One player
Five months later, Ferguson won the FA Cup final and Manchester United were on their way to becoming the most successful English club of the Premier League era.
Back of the net: Wayne Rooney scores the only goal of the game Photo: REUTERS It would be a giant leap of faith to argue Van Gaal will do the same after Wayne Rooney converted a penalty in the second minute of stoppage time, following a foul on Menphis Depay by the reckless Dean Hammond, but his team are in the next round because they got the result everyone expected.
According to Old Trafford legend Paul Scholes he would have been “depressed” if he had been part of a team that played so badly. In his role as a pundit for BT Sport, he suggested the game and performance had been so dreadful, it would have taken him “three days to recover” from it.
"People need digging out!" Paul Scholes insists he would be "depressed" if he was a @ManUtd player. #EmiratesFACup https://t.co/mVPRfjZH9X
— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) January 9, 2016
It was both scathing and funny, but you have to wonder what Scholes the player would have thought of Scholes the pundit.
The Manchester United team he played in did not win every game and they certainly did not play well all the time. As brilliant as he was, Scholes had bad matches, his form dipped. If he had played in a game like this, that United won in unconvincing fashion, he would have been furious had anyone suggested they should be “depressed” about the way they had played. Not that he would have said anything at the time because Scholes was notoriously reluctant to be interviewed and diligently avoided sharing his thoughts in public.
• Manchester United vs Sheffield United: As it happened
But Van Gaal is not just fighting to win games as United manager, he is fighting to save his job because former players and many supporters are bored of watching his team stick stubbornly to a patient, possession-based approach that has not yielded a first half goal at Old Trafford for 10 games.
The Dutchman admitted after the match, looking wearily at his inquisitors, that United’s “performance was not OK” and that they had passed the ball “too slowly” to stretch the visitors from across the Pennines.
It was a difficult evening that tested everyone’s patience, but for the Italian right-back Matteo Darmian, it was a useful lesson in why the FA Cup is so different to anything he experienced at home.
Louis van Gaal can't believe how badly his team is playing
“We would never have got a game like this in Italy,” he said. “It is not the same, the cup is not so important as it is here. It is not so intense. But it is nice here. I enjoyed it that you can get a game like this against a League One side.
“Now we have to continue in the way we have started the New Year. We have beaten Swansea and won today and now we must continue in this way.”
Manchester United are unbeaten in three games, by the way, and could win a major trophy in May.
0 nhận xét:
Đăng nhận xét