- Wolves deservedly defeated United at the Theatre of Dreams by a single goal from their midfielder Moutinho in the last ten minutes of a hard-fought match, where United was only good in spurts, while Wolves were consistently good throughout the match and demonstrated why they are in the eight position in the table. They are a solid team over the whole pitch, full of running and their players make it easy to find each other even under pressure. Arguably, if they can bring in a prolific scorer in their ranks in January, they might even challenge for the Champions League spots come May. United on their part lacked the combination play needed in the last third to unlock an organised Wolves rearguard and when they managed to create open chances, our forwards were erratic. Indeed, the best chance of the match fell to Bruno Fernandes, who on for Mason Greenwood midway through the second half, managed only to hit the bar from inside the area, where it was probably more difficult to miss a gaping goal than to score. The score was still nil-nil at that point and it was the moment that decided the match, in my opinion. No complaints on the result though. Wolves were better and took what their performance deserved. United need to lick their wounds and go again. We’re only halfway in a long season and the team has the quality to get better.
- What I noticed during the match against Wolves was that our opponents were always first to the second balls and seemed to have more legs than the United players. It might be a consequence of the decision of the Manager to name the same starting eleven that won against Burnley, with the exception of Phil Jones, who replaced the injured Maguire and was good, despite not playing for a long time. That decision meant that the same personnel played their second game in three days and while that is very common in England, the United team out today was not a young one. Ronaldo, Cavani, Matic, Varane, Jones and De Gea are all 29 or more and the time for recovery is certainly more than that of Greenwood and Sancho. Hence why I was surprised with the Manager’s decision to pull out Greenwood to bring in Fernandes, when Cavani was more of an obvious option, also when you consider that Mason was one of the players who appeared more dangerous till that time. But then again, there is a reason why I am writing this article and the Manager is at the helm of the Red Devils.
- My special mention today goes to Varane.I think he was excellent in the centre of the United defence and with the help of Jones and the rest of the back four, they managed to reduce Wolves to a couple of half-chances despite the volume of attacking play the latter had over the ninety minutes. Another clean sheet would have been a huge success but it was not to be.
Looking forward to receiving your thoughts on the Facebook page. GGMU
Article contributed by Contributor Roderick. Comments are appreciated on our Facebook page.