Abhranil Roy
The Red Devils got a real shot in the arm in their chase for the 4th Champions league spot, as they beat relegation-threatened Norwich City by 1-0 at Carrow Road. Juan Mata got the goal after a nice little assist from Wayne Rooney, and Ander Herrera and Morgan Schneiderlin should both have scored later on. The game wasn’t pretty to watch at all, for the same problems of excessive passing and lack of cutting edge still existed. A moment of quality settled the tie in our favour, but it’s hard to see the team posing a considerable threat next season if the sane symptoms continue to exist. Here are 3 things we learnt from the game:
1. Rooney reborn?
For probably the first time in his career, Wayne Rooney has come back from an injury and started performing straight away. Last night he was played up top as a lone striker after Martial’s pre game leg injury, and although he looked out of sorts most of the time, he still managed to keep his calm and feed the ball to Juan Mata for a tap in. The United captain was sensational in midfield in the last 2 games, and that is where he should be playing now, but the manner in which he helped us get 3 critical points makes me optimistic about our team morale.
2. Van Gaal keeps making unrealistic decisions
Louis van Gaal has a habit of making stupid, unfathomable decisions and he did exactly that yesterday when he played Jesse Lingard down the centre and Mata on the right. The academy graduate looked completely out of sorts in the centre, but Mata was exceptionally creative and ended up scoring the goal. If only the Spaniard had played in his natural role from the beginning, the scoreline would probably have been drastically favouring us.
3. The race is on!
The race for the last Champions League spot is well and truly on, with just a point separating us from City at the moment( this was written before the City v Arsenal game). If the Blue Mancs do lose to the Gunners, it will go down to the wire with only 2 games remaining in the league season.
