The 4-1 defeat to Watford at Vicarage Road in November provided a neat wrap-up of everything that was wrong during the final weeks and months of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s spell in charge of Manchester United.
That day, United were toothless in possession and atrocious out of it, as they had been for a while. Both the result and the performance were those of a truly desperate team in need of a change of manager.
Three months have passed and things have improved, even if it does not always feel like it. Under interim manager Ralf Rangnick, this team plays with a recognisable style, at least, and tends to dominate inferior opponents. One defeat in 16 games is better than seven in 17 under Solskjaer.
Yet when the final whistle sounded on Saturday’s return fixture against Watford, it was hard to focus on any small signs of progress. For if the Vicarage Road defeat had summed up Solskjaer’s problems, this goalless draw at Old Trafford to the same opposition summed up Rangnick’s.
First up, a familiar inability to finish chances which has plagued United in recent weeks. In the six Premier League games that Rangnick has failed to win, his players have had 70 attempts on goal, creating chances worth approximately 9.6 xG. Despite that, they have scored just five goals in those five draws and one defeat.
That is not even including the FA Cup fourth round exit to Middlesbrough, when United’s wastefulness ended their last realistic hope of silverware this season.
“Our job as coaches and head coaches is to help the team create enough chances,” Rangnick said on Saturday. “If we only had two or three opportunities in the game, we could ask ourselves what can we do to create more, but the number of clear chances we had today have to be enough to win a game like this.”
At least finishing slumps tend to right themselves, so long as the chances keep coming. What’s more concerning is the tendency for United’s momentum to waver during games. One half is typically stronger than another. Whether they start or finish well, maintaining a performance for 90 minutes seems impossible.
That was the case again on Saturday, as a strong opening half-hour petered out. United were still dominant but nowhere near as penetrative as during the initial stages. Bruno Fernandes should really have scored from either of his golden opportunities, yet fired a one-on-one right at Ben Foster before diverting a Paul Pogba cross wide soon after.
There were two clear-cut chances in the second half, though: one created and nearly converted by the lively Anthony Elanga, the other spurned by Cristiano Ronaldo.
Ronaldo had already missed United’s first clear sight of goal, turning a tame shot against the post after just five minutes, and rarely threatened from then onwards, save when a Fernandes cross met him in the box. He misjudged its flight, perhaps because of Pogba’s run in front of him, and harmlessly chested it towards goal for Foster to claim.
It is now one goal in the two months for Ronaldo since his peculiar Instagram post on New Year’s Day, despite last year’s 47 scored across all competitions. As he laboured during the latter stages of Saturday’s stalemate, miscontrolling the ball on the dribble and running down blind alleys, the game looked beyond him.
By the start of next season, Ronaldo will be closer to his 40th birthday than his 35th. If he is still United’s only reliable option up front, questions will be asked. In the meantime, it would help if Edinson Cavani was fit again. Ronaldo increasingly looks like a 37-year-old centre-forward in need of relief but at least he is consistently available to play.
“We have to play with those players that we have available,” Rangnick said, in response to a suggestion that Ronaldo is starting to show signs of fatigue. “I spoke with him yesterday before the game, before the training session he told me that he is fully fit to play and that’s why I decided to have him in the starting XI.”
“Edinson, as you said, is not available. We don’t have that many other central strikers,” he added, pointing out that United threw everything at Watford during the final stages. “I brought on for the last 15-20 minutes Marcus [Rashford] and Jadon [Sancho]. Almost all the offensive players we have in our squad were on the pitch.” Still, it was not enough against the Premier League’s second-bottom side.
When the final whistle went at Old Trafford, there was none of the genuine anger seen at full-time at Vicarage Road in November, but the boos and jeers were loud all the same. With a derby at the Etihad next week, the fixtures are about to take a turn and a top-four finish feels more and more unlikely with every point dropped.
Despite some small, faint signs of progress, the many problems are still there for all to see.
