Richard Buxton: Man United are like the old Liverpool
Red Devils are clinging on to their glorious past in hope of a renaissance
Reality is finally beginning to bite for Manchester United in more ways than one.
| EVERTON | MAN UNITED |
| 4 | 0 |
| (Lucas Digne 56, Theo Walcott 64) |
A third straight English Premier League defeat on their travels in last night’s humiliating 4-0 reversal to Everton has erased every lingering bright spot associated with Ole Gunnar Solskjaer since he became interim manager in December.
The last time United suffered such statistical ignominy was back in 1996 – but it doesn’t end there.
The 20-time English champions have now conceded 48 league goals, their worst return in the EPL era and eclipsing the 47 shipped in the 1989/90 campaign.
A sixth defeat in eight games added further confirmation that the “Ole Express” has been emphatically derailed.
It was always going to come to this, in truth.
Laboured wins have merely papered over the cracks since Solskjaer’s permanent appointment was confirmed at the end of last month.
The Norwegian and his players can no longer hide behind Jose Mourinho’s veneer.
Bad as the former Red Devils manager was, he is absolved of any role in the current free-fall.
United remain plagued by their past. A previous Easter Sunday visit to Goodison Park coincided with a Champions League quarter-final exit that rendered their season trophyless.
David Moyes found himsel fthe visitors’ dugout during what proved to be his last stand.
Solskjaer’s own harbingers of doom were right in front of him.
Hopes that a defining week for their Champions League qualification prospects would begin with victory and conviction were unfounded.
They lacked both. Desperate pleas of “attack, attack, attack!” from the visitors’ section underpinned a Mourinho-lite performance.
It was a complete betrayal of all that advocates of the “United way” continue to hold dear.
Even David de Gea’s presence is causing more harm than it once did good.
POOR DISTRIBUTION
The Spain international was well beaten for all of Everton's goals, with three of them arriving from outside the penalty area, and was also routinely caught out by his own poor distribution.
EVERTON: Jordan Pickford, Seamus Coleman, Michael Keane, Kurt Zouma, Lucas Digne (Phil Jagielka 84), Morgan Schneiderlin, Idrissa Gueye (James McCarthy 76), Richarlison (Theo Walcott 51), Gylfi Sigurdsson, Bernard, Dominic Calvert-Lewin
MAN UNITED: David de Gea, Victor Lindelof, Chris Smalling, Phil Jones (Ashley Young 46, Diogo Dalot, Paul Pogba, Nemanja Matic, Fred (Scott McTominay 46), Marcus Rashford (Andreas Pereira 77), Romelu Lukaku, Anthony Martial
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