Man Utd were awful for 45 minutes in their Premier League fixture vs. Burnley and Jose Mourinho has got too sentimental with Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Jose Mourinho’s Christmas complaint about the fixture schedule has become as futile as a turkey begging for mercy and his Manchester United players froze like turkeys in the first-half against a Burnley team which still manages to surprise in this remarkable campaign they are enjoying. United did not resemble a David Moyes side, never mind a Mourinho one, in a first-half display which was one of shapeless rabble, exacerbated by their manager’s sentimental decision to start Zlatan Ibrahimovic with Romelu Lukaku. The two No.9s made the same runs to deprive United of any attacking variety and Ibrahimovic unfortunately looks very much like a 36-year-old who has just recovered from a serious knee injury. ‘The lion’ played like a cub.
It was not a coincidence United improved without Ibrahimovic on the pitch. Henrikh Mkhitaryan, perhaps affronted by Ibrahimovic’s selection ahead of him in his preferred position, was the unlikely individual who brought brawn. That said so much about United’s abject first period. Officially, Mkhitaryan replaced Ibrahimovic, but the second-half belonged to Jesse Lingard. It must have smarted to be branded ‘childish’ and effectively dropped for that careless finish at Leicester and this was a response worthy of a United player. Had more matched his level United may have emerged with three points instead of one. Marcus Rashford, starting at the expense of the injured Anthony Martial, failed to respond to his manager’s ‘childish’ jibe by running down blind alleys. Marcos Rojo is a shadow of the warrior Mourinho transformed a year ago and Nemanja Matic, like United, on current form is in danger of having peaked in the autumn.
Barnes’s eventful start included a fourth-minute booking for a scything foul on Paul Pogba. That rattled the United captain and Scott Arfield rattled the Stretford End crossbar eight minutes later. Rojo, who has secured a suspension for Southampton’s visit despite making his first domestic appearance on November 27, has recently resembled the panicky player from the Louis van Gaal era. The Lukaku and Ibrahimovic axis started against Burnley and may also have ended against Burnley. It is perverse a club of United’s standing which has splurged £590million on players in the last four-and-a-half years should have two static players as its No.9 and No.10. Ibrahimovic’s afternoon ended after 45 minutes. It will have upset Mourinho that he had to remove the Swede earlier than intended.
Mourinho had confided with assistant Rui Faria before Defour struck and Jesse Lingard and Henrikh Mkhitaryan were instructed to warm-up. Both emerged at the pause for the ineffective Ibrahimovic and struggling Rojo. In his programme notes, Mourinho urged his players the Bristol City defeat was ‘another reminder about the importance of converting the chances we create’. Those comments were penned before the profligate draw at Leicester and Lingard spurned an opening that was maybe easier than his open goal at Leicester when he diverted Ashley Young’s drilled centre at goalkeeper Nick Pope’s fact and onto the crossbar.
