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MOTD: Newcastle United 3-3 Manchester United

By on January 12, 2016

Perhaps it’s the high and wide camera angle at St James’ Park or the helter skelter, end-to-end football on the pitch far below, but Newcastle United’s 3-3 draw with Manchester United bore a great semblance to a FIFA video game. The tempo of the content was sporadic — Newcastle’s cautious, poor first half replaced by a far more adventurous second period — and errors were ridden throughout the ninety minutes. Moments of utter genius and utter madness wove a cutthroat storyline, and after United took an early 2-0 lead, only Paul Dummett’s late strike salvaged a well-deserved point for Newcastle.

St James’ Park was the most unlikely of hosts for the six-goal thriller, with the relegation embattled hosts having gone goalless in their last four matches in all competitions and Louis van Gaal’s United side having scored just over a goal-a-game in the league previously this season. “Boring” made way for scoring in abundance as Wayne Rooney, who put in a magnificent performance with a brace to show for it, slotted home an early penalty for the visitors and assisted Jesse Lingard for United’s second on thirty-eight minutes.Both sides were sloppy in the extreme and it was Chris Smalling’s inexcusable rugby-esque handling of Aleksandar Mitrovic in the box that allowed the hosts to bag an equalizer following Georginio Wijnaldum late-second-half strike.
Imperfect football, as the Premier League knows all too well, is often more exciting football. “Boring” this was not.

The match, and the scoreline in particular, evoked memories of United’s 4-3 victory over the Tynesiders on Boxing Day of 2012, the largest difference being the last-minute heroics coming from the opposite team. Indeed, the nature of the draw felt like a loss for United, who twice blew leads and had mainly their shaky back-line, which has been a cornerstone of Van Gaal’s team so far this season, to blame for the result. If anything, United’s inability to control an open match is reason for Van Gaal to retreat to his more favored conservative approach against a more clinical Liverpool side at the weekend.
Rooney put United in front in the eighth minute, cooly burying a penalty from Chancel Mbemba’s handball. The English talisman spearheaded United’s attacking ignition, sliding a low effort across goal and just wide of the right-hand-post after Jesse Lingard slipped Rooney in down the left-channel.

The creator became the goalscorer for the visitors’ second goal on thirty-eight minutes, tucking a low effort between Rob Elliot’s legs in goal after Rooney had slipped Lingard in down the left side of the box on a blistering overlap.
Newcastle, however, responded with resilience in the second period, sparked by Wijnaldum’s goal on the brink of the half. Mitrovic out-jumped Marouane Fellaini and Smalling, who both had woeful nights, and headed a long-ball down for Wijnaldum’s darting run from the midfield. The Dutchman slotted the ball past David de Gea and into the bottom corner of the net from fifteen yards.

Mitrovic seized the opportunity to bag an equalizer in the sixty-seventh minute, drawing a rare penalty from a corner from Smalling and finishing the resulting penalty.

Yet United never lost their confidence and could have had five or six goals, as Van Gaal later noted, as Fellaini saw a point-blank-range header stopped by Elliot and Lingard curled over from the edge of the box. In the end, the Red Devils settled for three goals, with Rooney curling a lovely finish into the top-left-hand corner of the net from twenty yards.
The visitors had appeared to manage the game tidily into the final moments of the match, yet from a late corner, the ball rebounded out to the edge of the area, where Dummett wasn’t closed down quickly enough and arrowed a half-volleyed effort into the top corner of the net with a wicked deflection off Smalling.

After the match, Van Gaal appeared understandably peeved about the result. Yet to the dismay of many supporters, his post-match remarks sounded as if he would have greatly preferred United to draw 0-0, valuing control over entertainment. Therein lies the disconnect between his philosophy and the fans’ expectations.

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.