United’s lightning-quick start out of the blocks hit a few hurdles last week as they drew away to Southampton. Paul Pogba recorded his fifth assist of the campaign setting up Mason Greenwood just before the hour-mark in United’s only goal of the game but how did the rest of the team get on?
David de Gea: 7.5
Big Spanish Dave had a relatively quiet afternoon truth be told, as United were much the superior side for most of the game. Che Adams’ shot deflecting off Fred’s lazy outstretched boot gave De Gea no real chance, completely wrong-footing him and sneaking just inside the post. He was however, abruptly called into action late in the second half after Harry Maguire lost possession deep in United territory, ultimately leaving Saints’ new signing Adam Armstrong one-on-one with the Spaniard. De Gea managed to keep Armstrong at bay though and potentially saved United from what would’ve been a very damaging defeat.
Aaron Wan-Bissaka: 5
Wan-Bissaka’s defensive performance is probably balancing that rating out a bit, as I don’t remember the very dangerous Moussa Djenepo getting much of a kick if I’m being honest but other than that his attacking output was really quite lacklustre. Hopefully him and Sancho can develop a real partnership and our right-hand side is looking scary. Last Sunday against Southampton was riddled with misplaced passes and broken–down attacks though so Aaron needs to improve.
Victor Lindelöf: 6
Another fairly mediocre performance from The Iceman as a few too many errors crept into his game in the last twenty minutes dragging his rating down. United defended quite well for the most part barring a few lapses of concentration but Lindelöf himself managed to keep Southampton quiet on the day so he escapes unscathed for the most part.
Harry Maguire: 4.5
This one may seem a little harsh to a few but ultimately if Adam Armstrong could finish then our skipper would’ve been almost directly responsible for us probably losing the game and you’d all be agreeing with me right now. Being robbed in his own third should’ve cost us big-time but fortunately for him De Gea bailed him out this time. His performance as a whole wasn’t that bad but as I’ve said on another day, he ends up in the back pages for all the wrong reasons. Hopefully a certain Frenchman can sort him out…
Luke Shaw: 6
Shaw has cemented himself as one of the best left-backs in not just the country but the world too, in the last year-or-so. Last weekend’s performance though was not one of his best days as, like everyone else, a bit of sloppiness started to kick in during the last third of the game. A period of time United really should’ve been going for the throat and killing the game. Disappointing in the end but there’s no doubt in my mind that Luke – and the rest of our defence – will be back to their best in no time.
Nemanja Matić: 4
Many may feel Nemanja deserves an even worse rating than that but I can’t help feel that he just isn’t cut out for it at the top anymore. He’s certainly in the twilight years of his career now and we can’t keep relying on him anymore to balance our midfield. When he was at his best his arrogant nonchalance on the ball was brilliant; now he comes across as laboured and almost lazy. The fact that he’s still the best No.6 at the club really is a shocking indictment of how things are at the moment in defensive midfield. Hopefully we can fix it soon.
Fred: 3.5
Fred’s performance wasn’t too dissimilar to Matić’s to be honest as neither covered themselves in glory but Fred is 28 and meant to be in his prime for United. His performance on Sunday off the ball, as it does often it seems, resembled that of a headless chicken running aimlessly after the ball hoping to win it back. He wasn’t really any different on the ball either, displaying about as much vision and finesse, a headless chicken might, when trying to find a pass. I think we all accept he isn’t really good enough for United but we really need to replace him otherwise results like this could become more frequent…
Bruno Fernandes: 6.5
A slightly disappointing display from Bruno after the heroics against Leeds but I still felt like he tried his best to make things happen, it just didn’t quite come off for him this time. United created a lot of half-chances and a lot of maybe moments, especially from set-pieces but made none pay. He’ll continue to tally up his goals and assists throughout the season, no doubt. Nothing to worry about.
Mason Greenwood: 7
Another tidy display from Mason by all accounts and managed to grab a goal too but there wasn’t quite the silkiness to his performance there was against Leeds. It could be argued his game was somewhat sabotaged by Ole’s decision to move him out wide in lieu of out-of-form Anthony Martial up front but we’ll get onto that in a second. A decent performance capped off with a goal – much more to come from Mason this season.
Anthony Martial: 2
Some might argue that it’s worse when you’ve got a situation like Chelsea have with Timo Werner, who can’t hit a cow’s arse with a banjo at the moment but at least Werner is getting himself into the positions to miss chances, Martial isn’t even doing that anymore. You hear it from Footballers a lot, that it’s worse when a manager stops shouting at you and stops being angry because that means they don’t care anymore. I feel like this is where we’re getting with Tony to be honest, the apathy is setting in. He was absolutely anonymous for an hour, in fact if it wasn’t for him getting one cleared off the line in that set-piece melee in the first half, I’d have probably given him a 0. Awful performance.
Paul Pogba: 8 (Man of the Match)
Another very good performance from Pogba, who don’t forget is playing out of position on the left-hand side. Anything we did well seemed to go through him, from spraying more outside-of-the-foot passes to the forwards to bagging yet another assist. It wasn’t quite vintage Pogba but our best performer nonetheless for me.
Jadon Sancho (Sub): 6
Jadon managed to get another half-an-hour in a United shirt but, much like the game against Leeds, the game pretty much died as soon as he came on, this time because of sloppiness during the first phases of our attack. An alright performance and tried to create a few linkups with Wan-Bissaka on the right but ultimately he was fairly average throughout his cameo. A start in the offing in the near future undoubtedly.
Scott McTominay (Sub): N/A
Only played the last fifteen minutes and barely had anything to do. Perhaps things might’ve been different if he was fit enough to start the game…
Jesse Lingard (Sub): N/A
Played even less than McTominay did and had no chance to show anything. Seems Donny van de Beek can’t get his five minute cameos anymore. Tragic.
Ole Gunnar Solskjær: 4
Starting Martial up front and subsequently shunting Greenwood out wide would’ve been unnecessary at the best of times given Greenwood’s previous performance. But also taking into account Martial’s form, or lack thereof, it really does seem absolutely criminal that we essentially wasted an hour with him on the pitch and Greenwood, who’s in good form, out of position. Another point of contention for me was the increasingly abrasive omission of Donny van de Beek. Fred couldn’t pass wind on Sunday and yet he played near enough the entire game whilst the creative, press-resistant and intelligent-running Donny sat on the bench, again. Ole got the lineup wrong and it may have cost us the victory in the end.