You couldn’t have asked for a worse start to the Premier League season, if you’re a Mancheser United supporter. Crystal Palace, the biggest underdogs of the entire second weekend slate of action, came into Old Trafford and put in a complete, end-to-end, dominant performance.
They won 3-1 in a match that saw them in total control nearly all the way. Manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer admitted after the match that his side is really short-handed right now. It’s clear, given what he said and what we all saw today that this club must strengthen in the last couple weeks of the summer transfer window.
“You can see we are short and they deserved the points,” Solskjaer said after the game.
“They were sharper than us in challenges, tackles. We started off slowly and that had a knock-on effect for the rest of the game when they got the first goal.
“We had a long season last season and we didn’t finish until August 16 and we have not had enough preparation time to be sharper.”
“We’ve worked hard with the ones who’ve been here, there have been a few players away on internationals.”
United definitely need help in defense, especially in the center. Victor Lindelof was absolutely shambolic today, and he was directly at fault for much of Palace’s scoring.
There have long been persistent doubts at #MUFC that Victor Lindelof is just not good enough, and he has proved it yet again today. Too easily bullied and not quick enough. United desperately need a new central defender.
— Sam Pilger (@sampilger) September 19, 2020
Harry Maguire was subpar as well. Together, they had a dreadful outing, and it conveyed just how badly United must upgrade at central defender (as the tweet above agrees).
A lot was said on social media today about how bad Lindelof was, but most of it was just too mean and off-color to post!
Heading into this match, Solskjaer made it clear that his club’s transfer window had just not gone as planned. Well, that’s an understatement.
“You want always to have as long as possible with players,” said Solskjaer on Friday.
“I think last season though shows that good players can adapt and get into a group quickly. Harry [Maguire] came in very late in the transfer window and had a great impact on the performances in the team.”
https://twitter.com/united4changw/status/1306864917983625217
“You can’t ignore the impact of the coronavirus,” said Solskjaer.
“I think that’s really changed the market. It has been more or less in a period that maybe negotiations will happen. Of course the financial uncertainty of that has added on the difficulty of predicting where we’re at.
“I want players in the building that we want to work with and who want to be a part of it, and who want to be here.
“One, you need the quality on the pitch. You also need the personal qualities and to really want to be here, and you need to show that you want to be here. That’s really important for us as a group.”
“We’re looking at a small pool of players that can add to the quality of our team, and let’s see what we can do. They are working hard and I understand that they are working hard.”
It’s interesting because heading into the summer transfer window, OGS actually said that the pandemic provided a situation that advantageous for his club. The Norwegian explicitly said that his club could even exploit the market.
Funny how that all changed so drastically in such a short period of time.
Interestingly enough, the only player who did score for United today was the one new acquisition that they have made- midfielder Donny van De Beek, who came over from Ajax. You can see video of his goal, scored in the 79′ at this link.
So will United makes moves in the window? Well, reportedly, they are currently in talks to sign Porto left back Alex Telles.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank, partnered with News Now. Banks, the author of “No, I Can’t Get You Free Tickets: Lessons Learned From a Life in the Sports Media Industry,” has regularly appeared in WGN, Sports Illustrated, Chicago Tribune and SB Nation. Follow him on Twitter and Instagram.