Man United Opinion: 4 talking points from the 4-0 defeat at Everton
Man United stumbled in their pursuit of a top-four finish as the Red Devils put up arguably their worst display of the season in the 4-0 defeat to Everton at Goodison Park in the Premier League on Sunday.
Ole Gunnar Solkjaer’s side looked completely listless and disjointed as Everton made easy work of the Red Devils at home to climb up to 7th in the league standings.
United embarked on their trip to Goodison Park on the back of a single win from their last five games in all competitions and Solskjaer would have hoped for a turnaround of fortunes, but what happened throughout the 90 minutes was exactly the opposite.
United were clearly the second best in all aspects of the game and in all areas of the park as Everton put up a wonderful display at home to reignite their hopes of securing a Europa League qualification spot.
In fact, Everton’s 4-0 humbling of Man United was the first time that the Red Devils lost by a margin of four clear goals against the Toffees since 1984.
Richarlison opened the scoring in the 13th minute with an acrobatic finish before Gylfi Sigurdsson doubled the advantage for the home side with a thunderous finish from range to catch David de Gea flat-footed.
Lucas Digne scored his fourth goal in the Premier League in the second half and Theo Walcott rubbed salt on United’s wounds with a clinical finish to cap off a rampant display from the hosts.
Here are some of the key talking points from United’s calamitous 4-0 defeat to Everton on Sunday.
1. Did United rush into making Solskjaer’s stay permanent?
This is a question that needs to be raised in the wake of United’s pathetic display of dull and boring football at Merseyside on Sunday. Solskjer took over the reins from Jose Mourinho at a time when United were in a complete mess, sitting 6th in the Premier League standings and in danger of missing out on Champions League football next season.
The baby-faced assassin was expected to bring about a change of philosophy at Old Trafford and he did so in style as United looked almost unbeatable under the Norwegian’s stewardship in the initial weeks.
The team’s upturn of form was always going to strengthen Solskjaer’s chances of landing the United job permanently, particularly after Mourinho’s unimpressive reign. The club hierarchy had time until the end of the season to make sure that the right person was entrusted with the job.
However, they saw it as a no-brainer to appoint him as the permanent manager a couple of months before the end of the campaign, a decision that has apparently come back to haunt them ever since. In fact, things have gone downhill for the Red Devils since Solskjaer’s appointment was confirmed.
Setting aside the exit from the Champions League against Barcelona, United looked absolutely listless in the 2-1 victory over West Ham at home last week and they needed to come back with a strong answer against Everton.
Whatever followed at Goodison is nothing more than history but one cannot help wondering whether Mauricio Pochettino would have been the right person to take over at Old Trafford on a permanent basis.
2. Jose Mourinho’s evaluation of the Man United squad was perfectly right
Mourinho didn’t hesitate to publicly slam the players in the media following some disastrous performances earlier in the season, a stance that made him largely unpopular amongst the players and the Old Trafford hierarchy. He emphasized on the need to bring in a new central defender time and again but his plea apparently fell on deaf ears.
The Portuguese gaffer believed that the current set of players at the club weren’t good enough to challenge for the Premier League title and that reinforcements should be made a priority if United were to get back to the top.
Going by how things have shaped up at Old Trafford since his departure, it has to be said that Mourinho’s evaluation of the squad was absolutely correct. Victor Lindelof, as impressive as he has been in recent weeks, proved that he is not capable of delivering the goods week-in-week-out, which is a sine qua non for any player playing at Man United.
His partner Chris Smalling was no better either, as Everton created plenty of opportunities and caught United napping at the back on several occasions.
Walcott has been shocking this season but even he found enough room on the day to score effortlessly. The defenders had a poor game and those sitting in front of them just didn’t do enough to take the pressure off.
3. A major clear-out of players in the summer is absolutely necessary
It is high time for United to make a decision on the futures of a number of players at the club. Agreed, they desperately need to bring in fresh faces in the summer but a sell-before-buy policy should be the way forward for the Red Devils.
Nemanja Matic and Fred looked completely statuesque in the midfield on Sunday and one has to say that United cannot get anywhere close to the title with these two players playing in the middle of the park. Matic was hardly anywhere in the frame when Idrissa Gana Gueye drove forward with pace to set up Sigurdsson’s goal and the Serb didn’t even bother to stick out his foot when the Icelandic international got the ball.
Both of them gave the ball away far too easily and didn’t work hard enough to win it back. Just like Matic, Fred too didn’t make much of an impact and looked completely out of shape in what was a terrible team performance.
United would have expected a lot more from Paul Pogba but the Frenchman did nothing throughout the ninety minutes expect a solitary instance in the first half when he found Rashford with a delightful long-pass. Similarly, Romelu Lukaku played at a testimonial pace and didn’t offer much in the final third.
United need to get rid of deadwood and some of the underperforming stars, including the likes of Lukaku, Fred, Matic, Ashely Young, Matteo Darmian, Marcos Rojo and a few others in order to free up space and rebuild their squad.
4. United need to sort things out very quickly
The 4-0 defeat certainly dented United’s chances of securing a top-four finish but they are not out of the race just yet. Solskjaer would have hoped for his team to gather some momentum ahead of two crunch games against Man City and Chelsea in a space of three days.
Instead, he has now got plenty of things to sort out ahead of the derby game and it is the manner of the defeat, more than the defeat itself, that should make his job all the more difficult. United went down at Goodison without putting up a fight and that is certainly not acceptable for any fan.
United malfunctioned as a unit against West Ham last week, though the 2-1 victory overshadowed the problems that the team had in all areas of the pitch. In the 4-0 defeat, United had only a single shot on target over the 90 minutes, which came from an effort outside the box in the 86th minute.
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The lack of creativity in the final third was absolutely ridiculous and United didn’t show enough energy to win the ball back either, not that they did too much with the ball even when they had it at their feet.
The players seemingly lacked the motivation to compete at the highest level and Solskjaer definitely has a lot of talking to do to his players ahead of the derby clash, focusing not only on the tactical aspect but on the mental aspect of their game as well.
