Garnacho gives Ten Hag exactly what he needed as Man Utd plans take shape
Lord Sebastian Coe is leading some sort of Old Trafford task force, Omar Berrada is getting ready to take up his chief executive role, Sir Dave Brailsford is doing his thing, Dan Ashworth will soon be on board and Dougie Freedman has been linked to a sporting director job.
In recent weeks, it has been easy to forget who are the most important employees at Manchester United: the players. And over the course of the next few years, no-one will be more important than Alejandro Garnacho.
This ugly win over an Everton team that keeps finding new ways of getting poor results was a reflection of United’s season, Garnacho sparkling in a lot of gloom.
Apart from Garnacho’s incisiveness and invention, there was nothing particularly impressive about this performance from Erik ten Hag’s side. But the promise and potential of whippet-quick Garnacho are serious grounds for optimism, as are the restructuring and bolstering of the so-called football operation.
True, United and Garnacho were helped by some bizarrely amateurish defending from James Tarkowski and Ben Godfrey, whose first half challenges on the 19-year-old were so daft, penalties were formalities. And it is also true Garnacho could have been more clinical in counter-attacking opportunities and he still has an inclination to show-boat.
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But he was a rare dynamic presence in a very pedestrian side, an occasional flash of quality in a game that was virtually bereft of blue-chip work. All over the field, there was a dearth of quality but nowhere was it more painfully stark than in Everton’s attacking play.
It is very rare you see a Premier League team enjoy so many half-chances yet lack the intuition, technique and composure to even threaten to turn any of them into goals, of which Everton have scored only 14 from open Premier League play this season.
Join the debate! What did you make of Garnacho's performance against Everton? Let us know here.
Erik ten Hag remains under pressure at Old Trafford (Paul Ellis/AFP)That must have been to the dismay of one man in the posh seats. Andy Burnham was doing the pre-match media rounds, trying to explain why we should all forget our daily battle with austerity and chip in to help billionaires in America and Monaco get a fancy new football complex in Manchester.
Burnham can go on about infrastructure and the public benefits of a new Old Trafford all he likes but the bottom line is that tax exile Sir Jim Ratcliffe and absentee owners, the Glazers, have unimaginable wealth. If a penny of taxpayers money is used to redevelop or rebuild this stadium, it will be a disgrace, simple as that.
Maybe Burnham just wanted a free ticket to watch his team, who definitely will be playing in a new stadium the season after next - but in what division is far from certain.
Unless the second Premier League rule breach brings another hefty points deduction, it is still hard to see Everton being relegated this season but Dyche should not be dodging the critical spotlight.
The wins keeps United's Champions League hopes alive (Michael Regan/Getty Images)That is eleven Premier League matches without a win, a run that has included six defeats. And as opportunities to snap out of a bad streak go, United away has become a very decent one.
Apart from Garnacho’s contribution and the penalty conversions by Bruno Fernandes and Marcus Rashford, this was entirely forgettable stuff from an ordinary team. There will be little to fear for Liverpool when they visit for an FA Cup engagement next Sunday.
But in United’s pursuit of fifth place - which may or may not provide Champions League football - the win was all that mattered to Ten Hag.
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Whether results alone will be enough to keep him in his job when all these director types are finally convened remains to be seen.
Ratcliffe and his entourage might not look too favourably on United allowing a struggling Everton 23 attempts on goal. But if Ten Hag does survive, he will have at least one reason to be bullish about the future: Alejandro Garnacho.
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