Manchester United were lacklustre in defeat as Newcastle walked over them to win 1-0 at St James’ Park.
The first half saw some decent Manchester United football initially however it soon curtailed and in the end, the display was laughable from many players in the team.
Newcastle took the lead through Anthony Gordon in the second half and after that, there was barely any United attacking news to report.
It was a difficult game to watch and a performance which will have concerned many, and raises the question of what Erik ten Hag can do now as he finds himself back at step one again.
Here are five things we learned…
Andre Onana responds well
Heading into this game, nearly all the talk was surrounding the calamitous mistakes Andre Onana made against Galatasaray.
But during the game, he was very solid and didn’t show any sign of Wednesday impacting him.
A couple of top-class saves from Onana and some good dominant claims have no doubt helped him gain some confidence ahead of facing Chelsea midweek.
Harry Maguire excellent for United
Harry Maguire has been one man United can rely on lately and once again at St James’ Park he was excellent and probably was the reason United weren’t behind at the break.
Maguire made countless pivotal blocks and brought a calm head to the defence which later transferred to Luke Shaw.
Ultimately though when a team as good as Newcastle are constantly on the front foot, eventually a goal will be conceded, and that’s exactly what happened.
Marcus Rashford needs a period on the bench
After being rested mid-week, Marcus Rashford returned to the starting line-up here but was awful and offered practically nothing beyond one good cross.
At half-time, Jermaine Jenas labelled his performance as criminal and the winger was then hooked in the 61st minute.
He looked uninterested and bored the entire game and almost refused to track back, instead flailing his arms around and blaming others.
A display which won’t have left anyone eager to see him starting again anytime soon.
A weird performance which is very concerning
The performance was bizarre because it felt like watching a bottom-half team play, we were second to every ball, un-imaginative and lacklustre.
It is strange after a midweek display which saw us score three, and last weekend where we also scored three against Everton… but we didn’t look close to even wanting to score against Newcastle.
There is a serious problem with this team and if Ten Hag doesn’t address it soon he could find his job under severe pressure again.
The team needs to be rebuilt
The number one thing we learned was that this team needs so much work, and while we knew that before this game just reemphasised it. There isn’t a single Newcastle player who wouldn’t start for us right now besides Harry Maguire.
Top to bottom we need to overhaul every position and it won’t be a quick process at all. Don’t be surprised to see several leaving as soon as January if Sir Jim Ratcliffe and his new footballing hierarchy get their way.
On one hand, we can count the players who deserve to be at the club right now. There is a lot of work to do.
from United In Focus https://ift.tt/uhKrwtx