Manchester United managed to steal all three points from Ukranian outfit Zorya Luhansk in a group stage match of the Europa League. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who is growing into more of a saviour for the side, scored the only goal of the match in the second half to give his side a 1-0 win.
The goal, which was nothing but a ‘comedy of errors’ summed up the night for the Red Devils, who were playing in front of a half-filled Old Trafford. Zorya displayed immense grit and composure to keep United quiet for the majority of the game but were not able to hold the hosts to a draw.
United were quite far from their best and would like to get things straight as soon as possible as a daunting list of fixtures awaits them, which includes clashes against Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City within a month. Juan Mata, though, impressed yet again along with Paul Pogba, but were they the best player in a Red shirt on the pitch?
Manchester United
Sergio Romero – 6/10
The Argentine, who replaced De Gea between the sticks for this Europa League clash, did not have a big part to play in the match. After being restricted to a couple of goal-kicks for the first half, he was forced into a good save midway through the second half when he, at full stretch, palmed the ball away intelligently.
Timothy Fosu-Mensah – 7/10
Fosu-Mensah was brought in the side for Antonio Valencia, who has made the right-back position his own. However, the Dutchman did not disappoint and played the role assigned to him pretty well. While his runs forward were decent, one of which led to the goal as well and his defensive work rate was also commendable.
Eric Bailly – 7/10
The Ivory Coast international, who has already cemented his position in the United starting line-up, once again gave a robust performance, firing in crunching tackles and crucial interceptions when Zorya counter-attacked. However, he picked up a silly yellow card in the second half.
Chris Smalling – 7/10
Captain for the night, as Wayne Rooney started on the bench, Smalling marshalled the troops at the back well. While he was good with the clearances, he ventured forward with the ball on occasions and played decent passes for the attackers to feed on.
Marcos Rojo – 5/10
Another sub-par performance from the Argentine who has failed to find his foot this season. He did try to provide another attacking dimension to the side but failed more often than not. He was defensively fragile as well and made a couple of weak challenges here and there.
Marouane Fellaini – 6/10
Fellaini was brought in for Ander Herrera to partner Paul Pogba in the midfield. The Belgian disappointed largely as apart from winning a couple of headers on a couple of instances, he failed to provide the creativity United were in desperate need of. The passing was pretty ordinary and he committed a lot of fouls as well.
Paul Pogba – 7/10
The world’s costliest player is slowly and steadily coming into his own with each passing match now. After having a belter of a match against Leicester, Pogba gave another assuring performance. He sprayed passes all around the ground and tried his best to help the team make the breakthrough.
Jesse Lingard – 5/10
Lingard is another player who has not impressed in the chances he has got thus far in the season. He was toothless for the majority of the time he spent on the pitch and after his fortunes didn’t take a turn in the second half, he was taken off for Rooney.
Juan Mata – 7/10
The Spaniard gave yet another eye-catching performance and was in the thick of things for United. He was full of running and along with Pogba, provided some creativity which eventually helped United break the deadlock.
Marcus Rashford – 6.5/10
The youngster started the match brightly and was unlucky that he struck the bar with a thunderous shot in the first half. Though this was not one of his better performances, he did enough to keep the Zorya defenders engaged.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic – 7/10
The Swede once again took United past the finish line as a miskick from Rooney bounced towards him and a couple of Zorya defenders who were marking him. But Zlatan rose the highest and flick-headed the ball into the net to give United much-needed three points.
Substitutes
Wayne Rooney – 5.5/10
Rooney was brought on for Lingard in the 67th minute and ‘assisted’ for the goal. He was lucky that his horrendous shot, after bouncing, fell kindly for Zlatan but other than that, he was just about average.
Anthony Martial – 5/10
Martial was brought on for Fosu-Mensah in the 74th minute and provided some pace on the flanks.
Ashley Young – N/A
Young was deployed at right-back after coming on for Mata. He didn’t see much of the ball after coming on.
