Manchester United’s unbeaten run is as good as meaningless, writes Jim White, as the Europa League is now top priority for Jose Mourinho and his side…
As unbeaten runs go, this 20-match spurt Manchester United are currently on must rank as the least productive in English league history. Twenty matches since they faced defeat at Stamford Bridge in October and United have climbed all of one place to sit in fifth. As the business end of the season arrives with a rush their pursuit of Champions League-attaining fourth place has all the conviction of a drunk staggering around in search of the last taxi of the night.
Speaking after yesterday evening’s scrambled, frantic, desperate draw with Everton, earned after Zlatan Ibrahimovic converted a last-second penalty, Jose Mourinho was not shirking from the real meaning of the run.
“20 unbeaten, but ten draws,” he said. “I would sign immediately next season 20 matches unbeaten, but we need to score goals to win matches.
” “We are third worst [in the Premier League] in relation with shots and number of goals we score. That says everything.”
He is not wrong there. Even the return of Ibrahimovic from his enforced break did not see a significant uplift in the goals-for column. Mourinho’s side have scored just 21 times in 16 home games this season, nine of which have ended in stalemate. Nine home draws: that is no way to win a title. As it turns out, it is no way to reach the top four either. Indeed, with a home league win percentage of just 38 per cent, that makes Mourinho currently the least successful United boss at accruing points at Old Trafford since Frank O’Farrell.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic says he ‘didn’t come here to waste time’, fans convinced he’s leaving…
The problem, the manager reckons, is one of confidence. United can’t finish. Collectively they just cannot find the back of the net. With another one last night, Paul Pogba seems inadvertently to have embarked on a singular pursuit of the record number of shots against the woodwork. He has hit the post or bar ten times already this season.
Alongside him, Marcus Rashford and Jesse Lingard have shown increasing evidence of second-season syndrome. Lingard spent most of last night submerged in irrelevance. While his good mate Rashford, as Mourinho pointed out, works like a Trojan, tearing up and down either wing, doing the leg work of half a dozen men. But when it comes to putting the ball in the net, the skill seems to have deserted him.
Marcus Rashford has his shot saved by Joel RoblesEurosport
There was a telling moment last night when his electric-heeled pace took him clear of the Everton defence. He found himself one-on-one with the keeper Joel Robles. As it happened, he had begun his run fractionally early and the linesman had correctly raised his flag. But the referee had yet to respond with a whistle: Rashford was not to know any goal would not have counted. As far as he was aware, the game was still live. Yet he put his shot too close to the Everton keeper, allowing him to palm the ball away. The Rashford who first burst on to the scene with a flurry of finishes last season would have buried that chance.
“The kid can’t buy a goal,” said his manager. Maybe they should increase his wages.
With Henrikh Mkhitarayan currently stalled, with Anthony Martial’s work ethic clearly not sufficiently lung-busting for Mourinho’s taste and with Juan Mata injured, it means there is only one man putting away chances for United on a regular basis. And in truth, Ibrahimovic is far from the most efficient finisher in the league. He needs opportunities and plenty of them.
There was a moment early in the game which rather summed up his play. Put through by Ander Herrera’s judicious dummy, he found himself clear of the Everton defence. But the 35-year-old is not the most fleet of foot these days. As was clear from the identity of the man who out-paced and dispossessed him with a glorious sliding challenge. It was Ashley Williams. And when you’re overtaken by Ashley Williams…
The one thing about Ibrahimovic, however, is that, unlike Rashford, he is not stricken by any hint of self-doubt. He misses a hat full, but that does not diminish his confidence one jot. Thus when Williams took his defensive duties a little too far in the last seconds of the game and dived full length to gets his hands on Luke Shaw’s goal-bound strike, there was no hesitation from the Swede. Never mind that he had missed his last penalty, never mind that this was as critical as any he has taken in his ever-lengthening career, he stepped up to the challenge and clinically sent Robles the wrong way. Never in doubt.
It was, however, a little too late for three points to be gained. Indeed all it did was preserve that good-as meaningless unbeaten record. And it means that, barring an unlikely collapse in form by one of the current top four, United’s only route to next season’s Champions League will come from winning the Europa League.
On paper, it is not the toughest of obstacle courses up ahead in the competition. There are no clubs still involved who should give red supporters sleepless nights. Any of them should be beatable by a team as expensively acquired as this United. There is just one small matter required: Mourinho must somehow persuade his forwards to score a few goals. Because in a knock out competition, drawing is never enough.
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