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This article is part of Football FanCast’s Off the Bench series, which places in-game managerial decisions and squad selections under FFC’s microscope.
After appearing to get things back on track with a 1-0 victory over Leicester in the Premier League, Manchester United were brought back down to reality by a 2-0 defeat at West Ham on Saturday.
Snapshot
The Red Devils may have believed they had turned a corner after grinding out a win against a Brendan Rodgers’ side, who harbour hopes of a top-six finish. Instead, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men were woeful from beginning to end in London, and never looked like getting out of first gear.
A first-half short of any real quality was illuminated by a fine strike by Andriy Yarmolenko, before Aaron Cresswell struck a late free-kick to compound United’s misery. In a game where the Manchester side looked devoid of any ideas, creativity and sharpness, surely it was the perfect opportunity for Solskjaer to throw in the youngsters? Instead, Tahith Chong stayed glued to the substitutes bench, whilst Angel Gomes got just ten minutes.
Off the bench
Youth revolution? What youth revolution? The United boss has been banging the drum about his numerous talents at academy level, and publicly insisted at the end of last season that he would absolutely be giving them a real chance to shine. Against FC Astana in the Europa League on Thursday, they were arguably the only highlights of an otherwise uninspiring 1-0 win.
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So why, during a performance so distinctly lacklustre, with both Anthony Martial and now Marcus Rashford injured, did Solskjaer not turn to his young prospects? Instead, the Norwegian turned to Fred – a man linked with a loan move away in the summer – and Jesse Lingard (the less said the better).
The game was the perfect opportunity to give Gomes a real 20-30 minute run-out to see if he could provide some inspiration from the number ten role, whilst bringing on dribbling king Tahith Chong would have similarly helped take the game to West Ham.
Instead, Solskjaer bottled it. It’s all well and good handing them minutes in the Europa League and Carabao Cup, but there’s so much more to learn from playing against top-quality Premier League opposition week-in and week-out.
United should have turned to their youngsters on Saturday, but instead, it was quite simply more of the same. And that’s perhaps the most disappointing aspect of the Red Devils’ miserable afternoon.
