EVERTON 1-0 MAN UNITED
One would not be surprised if the PR people that seem to have a huge say in swaying football decisions at the club, push ‘TWEET’ on some Erik Ten Hag news.
Facing a team that are sweating buckets on relegation and had lost five of their last six league games, Manchester United shuffled out for a Goodison Park battle they had absolutely no interest in.
90 minutes later and Aaron Wan-Bissaka and Bruno Fernandes were left moaning about throw-in calls going against them after being outsmarted by Alex Iwobi.
Fabien Delph ran the show for Everton. Fabien Delph.
United crafted two early chances for Marcus Rashford but he could not find his seventh goal of a wretched season, from a personal and team perspective.
Ralf Rangnick may not see out the season as interim manager. Darren Fletcher is creeping closer and closer from the directors’ box to the side of the pitch, anyway. Could they really finish the season with a caretaker replacing their interim manager? With this bunch, and this season, anything is possible.
Harry Maguire of Manchester United reacts during the Premier League match against Everton, at Goodison Park. (Photo by Michael Regan/Getty Images)Harry Maguire’s season from hell
Somehow, Harry Maguire is still starting games for Manchester United.
All the centre-back is missing is Harry Hill doing a voice-over the stack of lowlights from his season from hell. Raphael Varane was missing, yet again, so it was Maguire and Victor Lindelof. Such is the state of that centre of the United defence that Lindelof is now the one you trust most.
Few on planet earth would be surprised, at this sorry stage, to hear it was Maguire – with his arms behind his back, striking a pose – that deflected Anthony Gordon’s strike past David De Gea.
The final stretch of the game saw Maguire deployed as an emergency striker and taking [blocked] shots from outside the box. This was in an XI that finished the game and included Fernandes, Cristiano Ronaldo, Anthony Elanga and Jadon Sancho.
Ronaldo, who spent so much of the game seething at the mess he had landed himself in. There was no Edinson Cavani [injured on international duty again] or Anthony Martial [ditched off to Sevilla].
The substitution of Nemanja Matic for Juan Mata summed up where this patch-work, listless Manchester United side are. Neither player was really wanted or needed by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer or Rangnick. Both were kept on, and paid handsomely, as United, it was deemed, needed experience and players with a good work ethic.
Paul Pogba was out there at the end, too. He was begging to be sent off with his sloppy fouls as the game drifted away. Another guy that has checked out.
United are still, amazingly, only three points off the Champions League places after that result. Spurs and Arsenal have more games left, and resemble teams that still give a toss.
We are not far away from the games, at Old Trafford, where the likes of Shola Shoretire, Hannibal Mejbri, Zidane Iqbal and Charlie Savage are all running about.
The cameras will flash up to the stands and, in team tracksuits or casual gear, we will see the collection of multi-millionaire senior stars that got the club into another fine mess.
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