MARTIAL AND MATA REACT AFTER FULL TIME
Jose Mourinho said that Manchester United didn’t really
want to be in the Europa League and his team played like it in Rotterdam with a
turgid performance that did little to dismiss the theory that Europe’s second
tier trophy ranks low on the list of priorities this season.
United’s lethargy was punished at a jubilant De Kuip as
Tonny Vilhena struck the winner for Feyenoord 11 minutes from time, beating
David de Gea with a low effort from 15 yards to inflict a second defeat in six
days on Mourinho. Even though this will not hurt as much as the Manchester
derby, it was another reality check for the new United manager.
He made eight changes to the team beaten by Manchester City
at Old Trafford – five of them making their first starts of the season – and
it’s fair to say that no-one in blue made a great impression.
Jose Mourinho said that Manchester United didn’t really
want to be in the Europa League and his team played like it in Rotterdam with a
turgid performance that did little to dismiss the theory that Europe’s second
tier trophy ranks low on the list of priorities this season.
United’s lethargy was punished at a jubilant De Kuip as
Tonny Vilhena struck the winner for Feyenoord 11 minutes from time, beating
David de Gea with a low effort from 15 yards to inflict a second defeat in six
days on Mourinho. Even though this will not hurt as much as the Manchester
derby, it was another reality check for the new United manager.
He made eight changes to the team beaten by Manchester City
at Old Trafford – five of them making their first starts of the season – and
it’s fair to say that no-one in blue made a great impression.
The seats closest to the pitch were covered and 10-metre
high fence had been erected to prevent missiles being thrown, following trouble
when Feyenoord played Roma in the Champions League in February. It couldn’t
stop green and white flares being lit at the end United were attacking midway
through a half that produced little else in the way of fireworks.
The hosts started well, to be fair, and Smalling had to be
on his toes to block a shot from Dirk Kuyt after Trindade’s pass had picked out
the former Liverpool favourite in the ninth minute.
De Gea then had little trouble holding onto a curling effort
from Karim El Ahmadi despite being partially unsighted, before Trindade’s half
volley into the turf also ended up going straight into the arms of the
Spaniard.
It took United 17 minutes to threaten the Feyenoord goal as
Paul Pogba curled a 20-yard freekick over the wall towards the top corner only
to see Brad Jones, the other ex-Liverpool player in the Dutch ranks, pluck it
easily out of the air.
Martial then drilled a shot wide from Darmian’s cross, but
the Frenchman wasn’t the only one struggling to rouse a flat United and they
could easily have fallen behind five minutes before half-time when
Jens Toornstra started the move out on the right and it
swept across to the left. Terence Kongolo cut inside Darmian far too easily and
squared the ball across the face of United’s penalty area for Toonstra who
should have done better than blaze a first-time effort over the bar with a
clear sight of goal.
Mourinho resisted the temptation to make changes at the
interval, and the fact that Herrera flashed an ambitious attempt wide within 30
seconds of the restart suggested that the United manager had called for a
little more enterprise from his team.
A similar effort from Pogba left Jones equally untroubled as
United tried to raise their game, and it was the impressive El Ahmadi who went
closest to breaking the deadlock with a low 25-yard effort that fizzed wide of
De Gea’s right-hand post on the hour mark.
That was the cue for Mourinho to change his entire front
three, sending on Ibrahimovic for Rashford and Memphis Depay and Ashley Young
for Martial and Mata. Loud whistles around the De Kuip greeted Ibrahimovic, the
former Ajax striker, and former Eindhoven man Depay was ridiculed when he
blasted a volley high into the stands in the 78th minute.
The place truly erupted a minute later when Vilhena slotted
in what proved to be the winning goal, firing past De Gea from 15 yards after
Nicolai Jorgensen had got in behind Rojo and crossed from a suspiciously
offside position.
United might not care much about the Europa League but
Feyenoord certainly do, and how it showed.
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