MATCH REVIEW - MANCHESTER UNITED VS WEST HAM

 

Manchester United beat West Ham in FA Cup 5th Round

Manchester United were left in agony after their PL clash against Everton ended on level terms as Calvert-Lewin netted a 95th-minute equaliser. The Red Devils missed an opportunity to go level on points with Manchester City, even if that was for only 21 hours. We allowed City to further the gap between us and look up the table to see them 5 pts clear at the top with a game in hand. Let's accept it. City are running riot at the moment.

A game in the FA Cup allows managers to rotate their team and fringe players to come into the side. Not when you're Manchester United. We have a knack of drawing relatively stronger opposition from the available pool. This time around it was a revitalised West Ham side. Although, Solskjaer did rest Bruno and Shaw and brought in Van de Beek and Telles.

I've to be really frank. This was possibly the dullest 90 minutes of football I've seen in a while. Manchester United dominated possession, but failed to create any clear cut chances, while West Ham naturally opted to sit back and hit us on the counter. It was more of a snore-fest rather than a football game until extra time. The Hammers finally started opening up, allowing McTominay to grab his 7th goal of the season.

First Half - Dominant, But Nothing To Show For

Greenwood pulls off the Berbatov turn
[Image Courtesy of United In Focus]

It's safe to say that Manchester United virtually had all of the ball, but were almost clueless once they got into the final third. We did get enough opportunities though.

In the 11', Telles slid in a wonderful ball for Martial inside the box. Martial managed to get a shot which was excellently blocked by Ogbonna. Although, in the process, the defender was injured due to Martial's follow on and had to be replaced by Issa Diop.

The Red Devils got as close as hitting the post in the 27' when Telles curling corner was headed in by Lindelof. The Swede's header took a deflection from Craig Dawson to wrongfoot Fabianski. The Polish shot-stopper pulled off a wonderful save to fingertip the ball towards the frame of the post. Telles was enjoying the space he was getting and was creating chances at ease. But West Ham's backline remained firm.

Martial excellently defended a West Ham corner. Although, there was a sickening clash of heads between the Frenchman and Diop. Dean Henderson was looking to make an impact on the match to show the manager what he's capable of. Unfortunately, he was virtually redundant in the first half.

Second Half - Snooze...

Donny van de Beek 'played with fear' in Manchester United's win against West Ham,
says Jermaine Jenas
[Image Courtesy of Metro]

Manchester United were yet again at the top and dominated possession. As early as the 53', Greenwood drilled in a good ball inside the box, which was flicked on by Martial. The ball fell straight for Marcus Rashford who must've felt he's going to put this in the net and wheel away to celebrate. However, Fabianski came out quickly denying the Englishman time and space to settle. The West Ham #1 was yet again their saviour as The Red Devil's frustrations kept piling up.

As the game proceeded, The Hammers looked much more adventurous, causing the Manchester United players to make mistakes. Wan-Bissaka miscued a clearance and scooped the ball high backwards towards his own goal. Henderson needed to be alert to tip the wayward ball clearance over his bar.

Having seen his team unable to create anything significant, Solskjaer brought on his talisman, Bruno Fernandes for Van de Beek and replaced the sitter Matic with a more adventurous McTominay. Bruno saw an 80' shot deflected over the bar and Martial had a header wide as the Reds searched for a late winner. Cavani was brought on in the hope of killing the game in normal time but 4 minutes proved to be too less.

Extra Time - McSauce Finally Breaches Fabianski

Fernandes to Mctominay after his goal: “Hey, the ball was for me M*therF***er” 💀😭

pic.twitter.com/IfgKbPp9cQ

— United Zone (@ManUnitedZone_) February 10, 2021

Solskjaer swapped both his fullbacks for Shaw and Brandon Williams at the start of extra time. One could say his substitutions finally worked. Shaw made a brilliant tackle to win the ball deep in our own half and launched a counter-attack.

Martial took the ball to the opposition box before laying it off for Bruno. The Portuguese decided that Fred had a better chance of putting a ball in and laid it off for the Brazilian. Fred's clipped ball caused havoc in the West Ham box but failed to find a Manchester United player. Fortunately, the ball dropped for Rashford who rolled the ball for McTominay. The Scotsman killed the deadlock with a brilliant drilled finish and finally breached the Fabianski wall. Martial almost added a second goal right at the end of the game but yet again Fabianski was there to deny him.

Summary

This match was sincerely very difficult to watch. Manchester United had all the ball and still couldn't breach West Ham until the 97'. As Solskjaer said in his post-match interview, 'we need to be more clinical'. We saw how those missed opportunities can come back to haunt us in the Everton game and Solskjaer certainly doesn't want a repeat of that.

On a positive note, McTominay has scored 7 goals this season in 30 appearances, as many as he had scored in his previous 84 appearances. Solskjaer commented after the match that he wants to 'unleash' McTominay's attacking threat. Manchester United fans might finally get to see him in a role we've all thought he'll excel in. A box-to-box midfielder and the engine of the team.

We face West Brom in 3 days and Real Sociedad in our first Europa League encounter of the season.