Manchester United 1-0 FC Astana: 3 talking points

While the big names in European club football strutted their stuff across two matchdays on Tuesday and Wednesday in the Champions League, Manchester United fans had to contend with watching Thursday night football as the Red Devils hosted Kazakhstan champions FC Astana in the Europa League.

Manchester United had been given a bye into the group stage, owing to their sixth place finish in the Premier League, while their visitors had to go through eight arduous matches to get to this stage after dropping out from the Champions League playoffs.

Given the vast difference in size and quality of both sides, the hosts were expected to triumph in this match, and a Mason Greenwood goal was enough to give Manchester United all three points in their opening fixture to top Group L.

Here, we shall be highlighting three talking points from Manchester United's 1-0 victory over FC Astana in the Europa League.

#3 Even in victory, familiar problems creep up again for Solskjaer's men

Solskjaer's men put up another disjointed display

In a group also containing Partizan Belgrade and AZ Alkmaar, Manchester United are clearly overwhelming favorites to top the group.

While not being pushovers themselves, FC Astana are somewhat beneath the other two clubs on the footballing hierarchy, and they were expected to be the easiest fixture to navigate for Manchester United.

In light of this, Ole Gunner Solskjaer named a significantly weakened squad, giving players on the periphery such as Fred, Marcus Rojo, Phil Jones and youngsters like Tahith Chong and Angel Gomez a run-in.

Even when the regulars play, the Mancunians have faced criticisms over their lack of inventiveness and laborious play, with their difficulty in breaking teams who defend deeply brought to the fore in the defeat to Crystal Palace.

Given their underdog status, it was foolhardy expecting Astana to come out and play, and it was not in the least bit surprising to see them defend with two deep blocks of four, with forwards Rotariu and Murtazayev also dropping back to literally 'park the bus.'

The visitors were content to let United have all the possession (72% in total), safe in the knowledge that they would not do too much with it.

This proved to be the case, as a predictable Manchester United saw a lot of the ball, but lacked any penetration, with their play characterized by ineffective sideways passes and inaccurate crosses.

Other than a Fred shot which ht the post as early as the third minute, there was never really another period where the Red Devils gave off the impression that they could score a goal despite all the amount of possession they had.

A major criticism about the previous two Manchester United managers was that they were not playing 'the United way', but over nine months on from taking the managerial reins, Ole Gunner Solskjaer has not given any indication that he has a full grasp of what the Manchester United way of playing really is.

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#2 Young forwards fail to make a case for added inclusion

Throughout their illustrious history, Manchester United have prided themselves as a club that gives chance to youth with the famous 'Busby Babes' of the 1960's laying the template for the club's success, while the 'Class of '92' brought global fame and fortune to Old Trafford.

The club is on an unbelievable run of going over 80 years and 4,000 matches with an academy graduate being named in the matchday squad, and the current crop have big things expected of them.

Despite the presence of established big-money signings like Harry Maguire, Fred and Paul Pogba, fans of the club are still desperate to see academy produced youngsters rise through.

Ole Gunner Solskjaer having had a first hand view of the 'Class of '92', has vowed to follow the trend of promoting youngsters, and the match against FC Astana gave him a chance to test some of his academy prospects.

Starts were handed to Tahith Chong, Angel Gomes, Axel Tuanzebe and Mason Greenwood, but barring the last two, others failed to make much of an impact in the match.

After seeing 68 minutes of listless play from his forwards, Solksjaer turned to his bench, bringing on Juan Mata and Jesse Lingard in place of Chong and Gomes.

Angel Gomes failed to offer creativity through the middle, and even though he completed 92.3% of his passes, most of those were unimaginative sideways passes, while he did not play any through ball and made just one key pass.

Tahith Chong fared even worse. The 19-year-old was started on the left hand of United's attack, but failed to make a mark on the game, and did not register a single shot in his 68 minutes on the field.

In light of Manchester United's struggles in front of goal this season, the fixture against Astana marked an opportunity for youngsters to stake a claim to being considered in place of their highly paid counterparts, but their performance left a lot to be desired.

#1 Mason Greenwood shines like a million stars

Given the way Manchester United played in the match, it was always going to take a moment of individual brilliance to break the deadlock, and that moment came in the 73rd minute of the fixture.

The 17-year-old Mason Greenwood picked up what was a seemingly harmless ball from yet another ordinary looking sideways pass. However, what followed was far from ordinary and belied the young age of the player.

Greenwood faked an Astana defender, going the other way before sliding a right-footed low finish past the despairing dive of Nenad Eric to open the scoring. This marked his first senior official goal for his boyhood club, and what a way to announce yourself in front of thousands of United faithful.

Mason Greenwood is the prized gem of the United academy, and he has shown flashes of his brilliance in the past and in the game against Astana, while his fellow starlets struggled, Greenwood shone under the Old Trafford floodlights to show that he is ready to step up to the big stage.