Neil Humphreys: Why Man United don't deserve Champions League
Dreadful Red Devils need reality check to rebuild from scratch
For obvious reasons, Manchester United were desperate to reach the top four, but they didn't deserve it. They never did.
HUDDERSFIELD | MAN UNITED |
1 | 1 |
(Isaac Mbenza 60) | (Scott McTominay 8) |
Champions League qualification would've been a con job, an inconvenient smokescreen.
Even among the rabble of top-four pretenders doing their utmost to fall short, the Red Devils stood alone in their mediocrity. Their wretched 1-1 draw at Huddersfield Town last night shattered the illusion held in place by the sticky tape of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's endless nostalgia.
His "Spirit of 99" reeks like stale wine, increasingly tasteless and unpalatable.
Heroic nights in Paris hinted at what Solskjaer's United might be, but Huddersfield's dogged display revealed what the Red Devils really are.
A team relegated weeks ago ran harder, chased further and generally showed a greater application than a squad of mismatched superstars that cost the best part of half a billion dollars.
TEPID DRUDGERY
The only man associated with United to show the kind of frenzied commitment required was Gary Neville, foaming in Sky Sports' commentary box about the usual lack of spirit and character and so forth.
They were the typical cliches associated with the club of late, but that doesn't mean Neville was wrong. United's lackadaisical efforts were astonishing, considering what was at stake.
Their tepid drudgery had an end-of-season feel about it, as if the fixture was meaningless. From the pitch to the dugout, there were no solutions. No inspiration. Nothing.
Even the most jaundiced of United optimists must be thinking that the boardroom went too early in appointing Solskjaer, just one of the many dodgy decisions that need to be addressed in the coming months.
Missing out on the Champions League is perhaps a necessary short-term pain for a long-term reality check. United are hopeless, from front to back.
David de Gea might be worth saving, but 19-year-old Tahith Chong, who came on in the second half, showed more tenacity than his illustrious colleagues.
Solskjaer needs the kind of fire sale usually seen in the final moments of Black Friday. He can't start flogging his defective stock fast enough.
He seemed to write a mission statement with his line-up. Romelu Lukaku and Anthony Martial were dropped. Their omissions offered all the subtlety of a nightclub bouncer ushering a couple of drunks towards the exit.
Ironically, Solskjaer gave Alexis Sanchez his first start for two months, but the Chilean probably isn't extending his living arrangements in Manchester. At 30, Sanchez's selection felt like an ageing mannequin being nudged towards the shop window, in the hope of impressing a gullible buyer.
So it was fitting that the first scorer came from a young academy graduate, the kind of footballer that should be the future of Solskjaer's revolution.
PLOD
In the eighth minute, Scott McTominay struck a low shot that was decent, but stoppable. Huddersfield goalkeeper Jonas Lossl didn't agree.
Instead, the Dane allowed the ball to pass beneath his flailing legs, suggesting he had briefly lost control of his limbs.
But the early lead and the lowly opposition only underlined the mess at United.
Even against a relegated side, the Red Devils plodded.
Their lack of urgency clearly exasperated a manager raised on speedy counter-attacking. At one point, Solskjaer and assistant Mike Phelan were spotted remonstrating with Paul Pogba, demanding greater penetration.
United were painfully slow in transition. Each attack seemed so laborious and uninspired, as if waiting for an impresario to take charge.
Juan Mata slipped into the hole behind the front two and pretty much stayed there.
Pogba clipped the crossbar with an excellent header and de Gea's legs denied Karlan Ahearne-Grant, but there was honestly little to choose between the team chasing the top four and the team going down.
In the 60th minute, Huddersfield got their just desserts. They scored an equaliser that was shocking only in the sense that it wasn't against the run of play at all. Lossl launched a long clearance towards Isaac Mbenza. Luke Shaw stood between Mbenza and the ball. And then he wasn't.
United's left-back misjudged the ball completely, laying out the red carpet for Mbenza to gleefully accept his gift, slipping his finish under de Gea.
Huddersfield were going down in style. United were down and out of the top four for good.
In his celebration, Mbenza smashed both the corner flag and whatever was left of United's dignity. The corner flag took six minutes to restore. It could take years to restore United's dignity.
HUDDERSFIELD: Lossl, Durm (Smith 46), Schindler, Kongolo, Loewe, Mooy, Hogg, Bacuna, Pritchard, Ahearne-Grant, Mbenza (Diakhaby 90+1)
MAN UNITED: De Gea, Young, Lindelof (Dalot 83), Jones, Shaw, McTominay, Matic (Herrera 53), Pogba, Mata, Rashford, Sanchez (Chong 54)
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