Home   >   MOTDs   >   MOTD: Manchester United 1-0 Sheffield United

MOTD: Manchester United 1-0 Sheffield United

By on January 9, 2016

Paul Scholes was famously private during his playing career, shying away from the limelight at every turn, which is why many found it so surprising that he turned his hand to punditry for BT Sport this season, and even more so that despite his penchant for astute observations on the state of Manchester United, his commentary style is rather dull and plenty erroneous.

Earlier in the season, some fans were laughing at his criticism of Manchester United; now, however, Scholes looks the sharp one.

Louis van Gaal is almost making it too easy for Scholes and the like-minded pundits as their starting-eleven barely scraped past League One side Sheffield United in the FA Cup Third Round today, thanks only to a stoppage-time penalty by Wayne Rooney. The performance again bore no signs of an upturn in their attacking form, which has been persistently flat since November, and United today suffered another bout of listless spirit. Van Gaal himself is hardly convincing, much less his team, and as the weeks go by the pundits have grown more tolerable, not because they’re necessarily getting better at their job, but because United are making their critiques ring true.

“It’s not good enough in my eyes,” Scholes said during BT Sport’s coverage of the game. As if we needed telling.

“They didn’t create a chance, and winning a game against a League One side with a 94th-minute penalty was not a great performance, but we haven’t seen anything different for the last six months.”

More general, but true enough statements.

“There are too many square pegs in round holes and you see too much boring, negative football. The players looked bored, there’s no spirit, nobody having a go at each other, no entertainment. I think even Van Gaal on the bench looks bored, but he’ll come out and say he was happy.”

Scholes rounded off his diatribe with more hyperbole. Yet it’s all too true. United took a far too cautious approach against a team a full two divisions below them and took seventy minutes to find the target for the first time. Ironic applause rippled across Old Trafford when Juan Mata got far enough wide for a cross (a cross!) in a dreary second half for United.

Sheffield’s match-plan was far more definitive: to sit back and absorb all the pressure they could. They held United to a couple of half-chances at best — Memphis Depay had a few speculative efforts upon his late substitution — although the visitors didn’t come all that close either, bar a timid, twenty-five yard effort from Chris Basham in the sixty-sixth minute.

Only Rooney’s late penalty saved United’s blushes, as the Englishman converted in the ninety-fourth minute after Dean Hammond fouled Bastian Schweinsteiger in the box. The win papered over United’s uninspired performance, but playing as they did tonight, it won’t be long before the Red Devils’ are exposed in their flailing efforts to book a spot in next season’s Champions League.

Homepage photo credit: Saadick Dhansay, via Flickr

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.