Manchester United Features In Premier League winners and losers (FA Cup edition)
Losers
Manchester United is a football club based in England
As a result, unless the habitual underachievers, who are always less than the sum of their pricey parts, win the Champions League unexpectedly, Manchester United will finish the season without a trophy for the seventh time in a row.
If Anthony Elanga’s missed penalty against Middlesbrough was one of the season’s most memorable images – and raised questions about whether it was better than Bruno Fernandes’ penalty against Aston Villa – a seventh defeat in eight shootouts felt like yet another sign of the modern-day United’s wastefulness.
Cristiano Ronaldo’s inability to find the target in the first half proved more decisive, even on a night when they scored seven fantastic penalties. In 2022, a player who has scored over 800 goals in his career has zero goals in four games.
Even when they appeared to be progressing, they retreated. This was quite United. They excelled in the first half, spearheaded by Paul Pogba, but they looked unable of doing so for 90 minutes, let alone the 120 minutes they faced. They were at a loss for words. Maybe the club that had far too many attacking options to know what to do with them all ran out of forwards.
Man United can only blame themselves for their FA Cup loss.
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Ralf Rangnick’s decision to give Edinson Cavani and Jesse Lingard time off, which he said they asked but which the England international contested, backfired. The Uruguayan is capable of being both ultra-committed on the field and away from Old Trafford. When United lost their way, Rangnick might have used both to inject quality and energy. Jadon Sancho, on the other hand, stayed on for a few minutes after he appeared to be ready to leave. On the eve of his 37th birthday, Ronaldo played 120 minutes. Juan Mata, the forgotten guy, took the stage. United scored one goal in two hours against a Championship team with a goalie who appeared to be prone to errors.
Rangnick had a miserable night ahead of him. His United aren’t quite as crazy as Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s, but they’re still a disappointment. An anglophile who remembers Trevor Brooking scoring the winning goal in the 1980 FA Cup final will miss out on watching his team raise the trophy at Wembley.
Ralf Rangnick, the manager of Manchester United, consoles Anthony Elanga.
Harry Maguire is a shootout expert.
Right now, he’s a better penalty taker than a centre-back, but he’s dangerous from 12 yards.
