A number of Manchester United players were poor in their draw with the Cherries....CONTINUE READING
This wasn’t how the 2023/24 season was meant to go for Manchester United, nor was it how the opening act of Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s time at Old Trafford was meant to play out.
After securing Champions League football and winning the Carabao Cup last term, it gave United a platform, one which they should have built upon during year two of Erik ten Hag’s stewardship.
The Red Devils are still in the semi-finals of the FA Cup but they were bumped out of Europe in the group stages and now sit sixth in the table, ten points behind fourth-placed Aston Villa after failing to win any of their last four games.
Ten Hag has found himself under pressure for huge parts of the season and his tenure at the club now feels like a ticking time bomb. How long will it be before Ratcliffe gives him the boot? Surely not very.
The Dutchman found himself storming out of a press conference following their 2-2 draw with Bournemouth on Saturday evening. Questioned by his players too, notably Alejandro Garnacho, it doesn’t bode well for a bright future at United.
The Argentine has been one of the most productive players during the current campaign. Who can forget that ludicrous overhead at Goodison Park last year? Not many.
His performances have only gone from strength to strength, scoring nine goals and supplying four assists. That isn’t bad for an attacker who, lest we forget, is still only 19 years of age.
The latest of his assists came for Bruno Fernandes’ equaliser in the first half at the Vitality on Saturday, but that was as good as it got. However, did he deserve to be replaced by Amad Diallo at the break? Arguably not.
Manchester Evening News journalist, Samuel Luckhurst, gave the winger a dismal 3/10 match rating in his post-game thoughts, noting of the youngster’s performance that ‘the workload took its toll’ and he ‘had no joy in the first half.’
Ten Hag criticised his performance in his post-match presser, saying: “I think we had to repair over the right side. We didn’t play well, the spaces were there. In possession, we had to bring a sub there. Garnacho was during the week not training.”
Well, in a display akin to Jadon Sancho, the Argentine took to social media in the aftermath to like a number of posts defending him.
Despite a game that put the young winger in the headlines, he wasn’t the only one in a United jersey attracting criticism.
Well, it would be rather fortuitous on Garnacho’s part if he were to gain a start again next weekend but truth be told, it’s not he who should be dropped to the bench.
In fact, it should be notable underperformer Marcus Rashford. Last season the Englishman was on fire, a scorer of 30 goals, but this time around he has just eight to show for his efforts.
A lack of work rate has also hurt the academy product, who has often been spotted barely even breaking into a jog to track back and help out his teammates defensively.
However, as any good forward should be, they are largely judged for their output in the final third. Sadly, that has been sorely lacking this season and indeed, it was lacking again on the south coast on Saturday.
In a performance that Man United personality Mark Goldbridge labelled as “awful”, the Red Devil
lost possession of the ball 17x and was lamented by the aforementioned Luckhurst for being ‘wasteful’, subsequently handed a 5/10 match rating.
That is the story of Rashford’s season with the 26-year-old only fashioning one goalscoring opportunity and failing with each of his two dribble attempts against Bournemouth.
Not only that, but he only won one of his nine duels. As Luckhurst said, wasteful stuff indeed.
For once, the wide man may not be the headline maker from their draw to the Cherries, but his performance must be put under the microscope. Ten Hag will likely now drop Garnacho, but he should be looking over at Rashford too. Neither of them are undroppable now.
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