Manchester United will not be playing in the European Champions League come next season, this is coming after the red devils played ha goalless draw with Huddersfield away from home.
Really, the state of this United team, has been a
season full of listless performances and this was the latest entrant,
Huddersfield showing the spirit and heart United - among many other things - so
obviously lack to earn a thoroughly deserved draw that consigned their
opponents to Thursday nights in the Europa League next season.
This was the last home match for Huddersfield’s
departing owner Dean Hoyle and they delivered a display of which he could be
proud. Their limitations are clear for all to see but they ran themselves into
the ground here in search of a result while United flapped and flailed around.
The rebuild job facing Ole Gunnar Solskjaer gets bigger by the week.
Make that two wins from the past 11 in all
competitions. There was no clanger from David De Gea this time around. In fact,
the United goalkeeper made two vital saves with his legs to deny Karlan Grant,
both in the first half and then with a minute to go as Huddersfield chased a
winner, but Solskjaer did not have to look far to find fault lines. Alexis
Sanchez had been handed his first start since March 2 by virtue of Romelu
Lukaku, Anthony Martial and Jesse Lingard all being injured but that was
curtailed by an injury of his own after just 54 minutes, the Chilean slumping
to the ground, taking off his right boot and waiting for his number to be
called. There is every chance he will not be seen again in a United shirt,
although his transfer this summer is likely to hinge on United being prepared
to subsidise his £500,000 a week wages. At the moment, they could not give him
away.
But Sanchez is not the only symbol of dysfunction at
this club. This is a squad full of players who do not have the attitude or
quality that should be a prerequisite at Old Trafford. Certainly here, it was
hard to grasp what they were trying to achieve or if they were even that
bothered.
Paul Pogba hit the crossbar twice, once with a
header late in the first half, then again in the game's dying moments with a
shot from the edge of the penalty area, but it spoke volumes that the best
midfielder on show was Huddersfield’s Juninho Bacuna.
Phil Jones left you again wondering how United
offered him a new four-and-a-half year contract and Marcus Rashford - who
yanked a shot horribly wide with the goal screaming in the closing stages and
had another effort punched away - was peripheral, as he has been for weeks now.
Luke Shaw has been one of United’s most consistent performers this term but his
error for Huddersfield’s equaliser on the hour mark summed up United’s
afternoon.
From Juan Mata’s corner, Scott McTominay’s header
was caught by Jonas Lossl, who launched the ball upfield. Shaw missed his
intended clearance, leaving the way free for Mbenza to career towards goal and
slot the ball through De Gea’s legs. Mbenza kicked the corner flag in two
celebrating and it took five minutes to find a replacement but even in eight
minutes of added time, United seldom looked like claiming a winner.
They were in front after eight minutes and even then
benefited from a howler from Lossl. There will certainly have been sympathy
from De Gea for the Huddersfield goalkeeper. The sight of McTominay’s shot
bouncing off Lossl and into the corner had more than a passing resemblance to
some of De Gea’s recent blunders. The Huddersfield No 1 can hardly argue he was
unsighted. He just failed to react and never came close to getting down quickly
enough to the ball but he would make some amends in the second half when United
suffered their own calamity.
United must have been pleased half-time came when it
did. In front and in control early on, things started to become increasingly
frayed around the edges as the first period wore on. It is not an uncommon
sight, of course, and addressing that will be one of the many pressing
obstacles facing Solskjaer going forward. There is a sloppiness running through
this United side and it was evident in the way Jones - careless and chaotic all
afternoon - played a weak, stray pass intended for Nemanja Matic that Juninho
Bacuna was quick to intercept before slipping through Grant.
Goals have been dreadfully hard to come by all
season for Huddersfield and Grant’s shot was kept out by the outstretched foot
of De Gea, whose stop will have done his fragile confidence a world of good.
Would United improve after the interval? If anything, they got worse - more
listless, more limp. Solskjaer brought on Tahith Chong for Sanchez and Ander
Herrera for Matic. Chong at least showed willing, as did McTominay and Mata,
but this is a team in a very dark place at the moment.
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