Manchester United are through to the FA Cup quarterfinals after having vanquished Chelsea FC at their house 2-0 in a fifth round match-up last night. Up next is a visit from arch-rival and table topping Liverpool for a Premier League fixture on Sunday. Here are some of the United news topics that are trending today, one of the sandwich days between these two huge clashes against giant clubs.
When will finally see a new development in the David de Gea contract extension saga? Well, probably not for awhile. The topic that is first and foremost in the minds of many Man United supporters is very far reaching closure.
An ESPN report states that United are offering De Gea: “a wage package of £350,000-a-week — worth more than £90 million over five years,” but the obstruction to closing the transaction is because: “there are concerns agents’ fees are driving up the price of the deal.”
Well, I guess all we can say for now is “watch this space.”
De Gea didn’t play of course last night, so it was the backup goalkeeper, Sergio Romero, who turned in a clean sheet. Monday night was the first time that caretaker manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer led United into battle off the heels of a defeat. We were all curious to see how the side would respond to a loss.
“I think it was the perfect reaction to our defeat by Paris Saint-Germain,” said midfielder Juan Mata after the match.
“It’s never easy to come to Stamford Bridge, to win against Chelsea, to not concede any goals, to play some good football. I think it was a very good evening for us and gives us a lot of confidence for the next games.”
It was Juan Mata’s position group, midfield, which provided all the scoring as the Red Devils got goals from Ander Herrera and Paul Pogba. United beat Chelsea so handily that the home ground essentially turned on their manager Maurizio Sarri. The night featured some rather strong anti-Sarri chants from the home crowd.
One of the biggest knocks on Sarri is his unwillingness to change tactics, while on the other sideline essentially the opposite is true. Mata credits Solskajer with putting him at the top of a midfield diamond formation, a tactical switch that he believes opened the door to the dominant performance.
“I think it was good preparation from the manager, from the staff,” Mata added.
“We knew what we had to do, we knew how to press, with the ball we did some good things. I think we still can do better. Overall, we’re very happy with the preparation, with the formation and with the result.”
The victory made it 11 wins, one loss and one draw in 13 games across all competitions for Solskjaer. United travel to Wolverhampton Wanderers for the next round of the FA Cup.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, regularly appears as a guest pundit on WGN CLTV and co-hosts the “Let’s Get Weird, Sports” podcast on SB Nation.
He also contributes sociopolitical essays to Chicago Now. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram. The content of his cat’s Instagram account is unquestionably superior to his.