Jekyll and Hyde United epitomised in Newcastle thriller

If ever there was a game to epitomise the infuriating Jekyll-and-Hyde nature of this consistently inconsistent United side then the win over Newcastle was it.
The scenes that followed Alexis Sanchez late, late winner at the death were reminscent of a bygone era tempered both by the strength of opposition and for the fact that United, not for the first time, only turned up at the party when all seemed lost and the chips were down. 0-2 down, the team threw off their inhibitions, played with freedom and climbed off the canvas in magnificent fashion, a fashion akin to the dramatic victories we witnessed at Selhurst Park and, most memorably of all, the recovery from an identical position at the Etihad to stop City's title party. The players have justifiably so come in for heavy criticism this season in the midst of United's 29-year low, but deserved huge credit here. In a season during which Mourinho has got a lot wrong, here he turned the game as two of his substitutes - Alexis and Juan Mata - turned the game.

A 0-2 comeback to salvage a win or even a point in the Premier League takes some doing, regardless of opponents, status or form. It is becoming United's trademark, but one that provides more questions than answers. The common denominator in United going gung ho under Mourinho is when they are forced to do so. Only then does the handbrake come off.

Why can't we start games in this way instead of only coming to the party in 15, 20, 45 minute spells, and how is it possible for a team to lurch to the inept to the inspired and back again in the space of 90 topsy turvy, rollercoaster minutes? Answers on a postcard. The first half against Newcastle was in keeping with so many of United's recent showings - insipid, lifeless and absolutely dire. The second was a throwback to the great sides of yesteryear as we ripped into the visitors with energy, desire and purpose playing much quicker and more direct. The result aside, it was a reverse of the Jekyll and Hyde showing we saw in the Tottenham game back in August. A microcosm of Mourinho's United - inconsistent not from one game to the next but from one minute to the next. Old Trafford was a picture of discontent for much of the match, but by the end it was Mourinho's name being sung as we all pulled together and lived up to our name in the final 25 minutes. We are United.

It would churlish to pretend that this club's plethora of problems, the dark cloud hanging like an inescapable spectre over the shadow of the stadium were swept away on the solitary flick of an Alexis header that he nodded beyond Dubravka and in. But it was a rare bright moment, a flicker of light and a euphoric moment to savour in a darkly depressing season. It's amazing how one goal can change the mood so quickly but the fact remains - this is likely to only be a stay of execution for Mourinho and the club is still embroiled in the thick of continued unrest both in the dressing room and high up in the corridors of power. One last gasp win against a struggling, winless side may have felt mighty good, but it was merely papering over the multitude of cracks. With away trips to Chelsea and Manchester City looming over the turn of the month - plus a double header with Juventus - things are set to get a whole lot harder. But for now, we go in the international break on the back of a vintage United comeback. Get in!

Match report: United 3-2 Newcastle

A dramatic late Alexis Sanchez winner turned the tables on Rafa Benitez's struggling Newcastle as United completed a remarkable climb off the canvas victory.
In scenes reminiscent of last season's wins at the Etihad and Selhurst Park, the winless Magpies had raced into an early 2-0 lead, through goals from Kenedy and Japanese international Yoshiniro Muto, to seemingly pile the pressure on beleaguered boss Jose Mourinho.
Listless and ragged in a first half in which United were again lethargic and lifeless, the team were rejuvenated after half-time, as substitute Juan Mata swept home a free-kick before Anthony Martial levelled. The Reds lay siege to the Newcastle goal and were finally, improbably, rewarded through Alexis Sanchez - another substitute whom has been much criticised in a dire run of form that has come to epitomise United's collective shortcomings.
The Chilean rose to nod in Ashley Young's whipped-in delivery right on the 90 as Old Trafford erupted and Mourinho lived to fight another day.
The match had been dominated by talk of Jose's imminent departure, and that talk was only further assuaged as Newcastle hit United with a brutal one-two punch inside the opening ten minutes. A lunging Nemanja Matic failed to intercept in midfield before Young allowed Kenedy to turn, run the ball on to his left foot and fire in a well-taken finish.
Three minutes later, United were gripped by panic again as Jonjo Shelvey raced clear and teed up Muto, on his first league start for Benitez's men, to once more turn the hapless Young and bury the visitors second from close range.

Mourinho reacted quickly amid the carnage, sacrificing Eric Bailly after 19 minutes with Scott McTominay again pressed into service as a makeshift centre-half. Mohamed Diame flashed a shot wide from distance and the visitors also saw a penalty shout fall on deaf ears when Young handled in the box. David de Gea saved well from the dangerous Muto before the United keeper was soon called into action again, this time to beat away Shelvey's 25 yarder.

De Gea's opposite number Martin Dubravka denied Paul Pogba before half-time, and Jose made another change at the break as Marouane Fellaini came on to replace McTominay and Pogba dropped into an unfamiliar back three alongside Matic and Chris Smalling.

Marcus Rashford headed of target and Pogba went close again in a spell of United pressure - pressure that was rewarded as United found a foothold and set up a frantic finale. Sub Mata curled in a superb 20 yard free-kick and from then on we were in the ascendancy as Newcastle lost all semblance of belie and shape. Dubravka kept out a Fellaini header and then denied Smalling with his foot, United's tails were up and the visitors suddenly found themselves under siege. On 76 minutes came an equaliser made in France as Martial and Pogba linked up for the latter to find the former with a back-heel and he slammed home beyond Dubravka to bring United level.

Newcastle were hanging on now but were unable to resist as another sub played the decisive hand in the final minute. Sanchez was the Land of the Giants from six yards as he rose to plant Young's cross beyond the scrambling Slovakian for timely, match winning intervention.

Overall team performance: 6/10. Woeful in the first half, wonderful in the second.
United Faithful Man of the Match: 'Special Juan' Mata

Match preview: Man Utd v Newcastle

Jose Mourinho retains the full backing of the United board, despite the build up to the home game with out of form Newcastle dominated by talks of the Portuguese manager's imminent departure.
Strong reports emerged on Friday that Mourinho would be sacked regardless of the result against Rafa Benitez's struggling Toon, but the club have denied any immediate threat to his future and it seems likely that Mourinho will keep his job for the foreseeable future.

Mourinho's United welcome winless Newcastle to Old Trafford in the day's late kick off looking to avoid a fifth successive tie without a win for only the second time in 20 years. This is United's worst start to a season since 1989 with the team languishing in tenth place with as many points.
Benitez worked a minor miracle to guide his side to a tenth-placed finish last term, their first back in the big time after winning the second tier title, despite having to operate on a shoestring budget. In a match between two sides in the midst of a dire run of results, Newcastle's 0-2 home defeat to Leicester last time out left them third-from-bottom having pilfered only two points from their seven games so far.
In mitigation, four of those seven games came againt sides in last season's top six in a difficult start to the campaign.

Ashley Young is back in contention for United after he missed out against Valencia through injury. Phil Jones, Andreas Pereira and Diogo Dalot are pushing for recalls and could all feature, but Marcos Rojo, Ander Herrera and Jesse Lingard will miss out. The Reds have no other injury concerns.

Newcastle are again without striker Salomon Rondon, who will not return from a thigh problem until after the international break.
Defenders Paul Dummett and Federico Fernandez are nursing hamstring injuries and will be assessed, while full-back Jamie Sterry is ruled out.

Messrs Mourinho and Benitez have history on the touchline, but all histrionics between the two men need to be put to one side as far as the former is concerned, he has far too much on his plate to concern himself with sparring with his old rival. Frankly, there has been enough internal civil war for any more shenanigans.

On the visitors, Mourinho said: "Very, very, very good coach, a team that is always very well organised against especially the teams of the first part of the table, where their manager is very bright on his analysis of the opponent's qualities.
"The results they had against the top teams didn't get them points yet this season but gave them very, very close results and [were] very difficult matches for the opposition, so we expect a difficult match."

Man Utd v Newcastle gets underway at Old Trafford at 5.30 and will be live on BT Sport 1.

Form guide: United W W D D L D Newcastle L L L L D L
Match odds: United 9/20 Draw 7/2 Newcastle 8/1
Referee: Anthony Taylor

Only three Man Utd players are playing for the badge and with any credit

Crisis, noun: "A time of intense difficulty, disruption or danger." A sentence that surely sums up better than any the banter club, the circus, the diabolical and shambolic entity that has come to represent Manchester United. No one likes us at the best of times, and you get the feeling everyone that's not a United fan is sitting back and laughing their heads off as this great football club, this iconic institution of ours, a club once feared, revered and reviled implodes and unravels before their eyes. The rest of the football world must be loving this. Yes, ladies and gents, what we're witnessing is a full blown crisis engulfing every corner of Old Trafford, permeating through the club from the pitch, the dugouts and swirling up through the stands into the corridors of power. No one is accountable, no one can escape and no one knows what to do or where to go next. If Man Utd are a circus, then Ed Woodward's the puppet and the G****s are the head clowns.

As long as the days of the week end in ‘y’ there seems to be a story revolving around United and player unrest: From Sanchez confiding in an ex-Arsenal player that he regrets his move (don’t we all) to Marcus Rashford getting a dusting down for not doing a serious warm down in Bern, United fans have to endure negativity on a daily basis and it is as guaranteed as light and dark. That's before we throw in the shameless soap opera of the egotistical tug of war between Jose Mourinho and deposed vice captain Paul Pogba, and our club captain - whom can barely mutter a word of English after a decade in Blighty - supposedly mistakenly endorsing an Instagram post calling for his manager to be sacked after not reading the text. Then there's the worst league start for 29 years, very public fall outs between Mourinho and seemingly everyone, fights and arguments between sections of our own fanbase and a ragtag collection of jumbled playing pieces not pulling their weight and drifting aimlessly through the motions.

It may be in our very name to be united, but this is a club that is currently anything but: the squad are divided, dissenting, powderpuff and about as far removed from what is expected of a Manchester United side as it's possible to be. A squad that have downed tools, given up the ghost, waiting for the inevitable and clearly what they want to see happen.

Amidst the darkness, there has been one shining light - a ray of hope thrust upon this depressing season where there appeared to be none. This time last year, the odds of Luke Shaw becoming Manchester United's star man - becoming a player and a man whom carries the embodiment of what it takes to ply your trade at Old Trafford - seemed almost as remote as Mourinho surving the season.

Shaw was in the wilderness last year, his place at left-back was assigned to a makeshift in Ashley Young and a half-time substitution against Brighton and subsequent condemning from Mourinho seemed to have his fate sealed.
Shaw just goes to show what happens when you don’t conform to the modern day prima donna stereotype, put the hours of graft in and play for pride.He's looking like a new signing and has been the only positive to take from Man Utd's season of discontent. David de Gea has shrugged off early struggles to become a symbol of serenity and calm, but it's a sign of where we're at that I can only count the number of United players performing to anywhere near the expected standard on one hand alone. Shaw and de Gea are joined by aguably only Marouane Fellaini as red shirted men who have not disgraced themselves this season.
How scary is that? De Gea aside, two players who were close to being out of the door, two who many would not have lost sleep over leaving as last season drew to a close, are actually the only ones serving the club with distinction and effort. Two whom many felt were some distance down the pecking order, now the first two names on any Man Utd team sheet. When Fellaini becomes a player Manchester United cannot afford to be without, it epitomises the sorry state of affairs.


The rest need to put aside any animosities or beef they have with the manager, remember their duty, which many would sacrifice a lot for, of playing for United, pulling on the famous red shirt with a modicum of respect, pride and honour and arrest a slide that is gathering serious momentum.
Of course, we all know the far deeper rooted cancers crippling the club and United are a long way away from being in remission from their parasitic owners.
Surely that makes it doubly important to avoid an on-field rot infecting the club further?
Something has to change… That thing increasingly looks like Mourinho.
However, the players need to look at themselves and how embarrassing this has all become.
They are not immune or exempt from this mess, this circus, this sham.
I believe in the old adage ‘put up or shut up’.

 These United players cannot be afforded the choice. They need to do both.

Plenty of perspiration but no inspiration - Man Utd have all the gear but no idea

Four points from two Champions League ties may shine a brighter light on the bigger picture, but despite flashes of improvement, the team were very underwhelming once again against Valencia. Then again, after setting the bar at an all time low against West Ham on a miserable and soporific Saturday in East London, things could hardly have been worse. There was perspiration and effort aplenty - itself an improvement from the weekend - but there was no inspiration.
Football of match winning quality, high-octane, high tempo, energetic and swashbuckling football befitting of an Old Trafford Champions League night, was again conspicous by its absence.There were positives to take in the shape of a clean sheet, only our second of the season, and the performances of Luke Shaw and Marcus Rashford - but it's becoming clearer by the day that this is a United side shockingly short of any idea whatsoever. United sit second in Group H and look set in a reasonably strong position, but Valencia should and probably will pick up six points from their double header with Young Boys and United haven't a prayer against Ronnie and co's Juve, so there's every chance we'll go into matchday four in third place in the section.

This was a match in keeping with most of our others this season - the Reds started strongly and, in the opening 15 minutes, pressed high up the pitch and posed problems down the left with Rashford and Shaw linking to promisingly effect. But things soon lapsed into an achingly familiar pattern, with United taking an age to move the ball forwards and our defence looking constantly troubled by the pace and guile of Goncalo Guedes on the counter attack. Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez
were poor again and Rashford fitful. Antonio Valencia offered nothing, and although David de Gea was a virtual spectator, opposite number Neto was hardly overworked either. Lukaku looks like he needs a rest, he's been struggling all season and the impact of his influence on this side continues to fluctuate. At times he resembles a world beater, a player who looks every inch the £75m man we know he can be. Off the back of a brilliant World Cup for Belgium, he should be brimming with confidence but instead he's lethargic, off the pace, his touch is poor, there's no movement,
and, against Valencia, he was isolated and a peripheral figure. He failed to make the most of the one clear opening that came his way when he headed over the top from a corner late on, five yards out and unmarked.

Valencia, a side 14th in La Liga and with only one victory to their name so far. Yet, just as Wolves and Derby had done before them, a visiting team came to Old Trafford, comprehensively outplayed United and could count themselves unlucky not to win it. The stats may reflect favourably on Jose Mourinho's men, with 18 shots compared to their 8, and four on target to their one, but in truth we never looked like winning the game. Well drilled and organised at the back, Los Che dominated the midfield against the cumbersome Marouane Fellaini and nondescript Nemanja Matic, with the impressive Geoffrey Kondogbia pulling the strings alongside the guile and mobility of captain Daniel Parejo. It tells us everything we need to know about the state of this club at present that we persisted with the irksome and awkward pairing of Messrs Fellaini and Matic, two of the slowest footballers known to man, at home in a must win Champions League game against a useful but limited La Liga side. Where have we heard that before..

If not for the lack of a genuine 24-carat attacking threat, we'd be sitting here conducting another post mortem after a second defeat in three days and Jose Mourinho may be out of a job.
Man Utd have all the gear but no one - not the manager, not the players, not the board and not the owners- has any idea.

Match report: Man Utd 0-0 Valencia

Man Utd went a fourth game without a win despite flashes of improvement as Marcelino's men held out for a deserved draw at a far from full Old Trafford. It was the Reds third draw in four ties, off the back of Saturday's West Ham woe and left United in second place in the group on four points after the win over Young Boys on Matchday One.

With an 11-player United team huddle just before kick-off, Old Trafford crackling on a Champions League night and a bright start from the Reds, that dismal Saturday at West Ham seemed to have been consigned to history.

A European atmosphere was just what Jose Mourinho’s side needed after the struggle in east London. There was certainly a response from the team seeking successive Group H section victories as United started purposefully and promisingly.

Marcus Rashford was United's most creative attacking threat, and he went close twice early on as he fizzed a shot wide and then forced a smart save from Valencia keeper Neto during a bright opening 20 minutes for Mourinho's United.

Goncalo Guedes curled narrowly wide from distance and former Arsenal man Francis Coquelin was booked along with captain Daniel Parejo in a scrappy half that at times resembled a battle of attrition.  

Chelsea loanee Michy Batshuayi fired over from close range before Paul Pogba's free kick was tipped over by Neto, a flurry of corners raising the temperature and threat level. The French midfielder - in the thick of things on and off the field - almost unlocked the lowly La Liga side when he released Romelu Lukaku, and it needed another good save from the Los Che custodian to ensure that parity remained intact. 

Guedes was impressive throughout and let United off the hook again when he wriggled free but cut the ball back instead of pulling the trigger, we scrambled clear and the chance was gone. 

In an increasingly end to end encounter,  Rashford thumped a free-kick off the top of the bar, Lukaku headed wastefully over from a corner and substitute Kevin Gameiro was snuffed out by Eric Bailly as Valencia looked to nick a late win on the counter attack. 

That proved to be the last action of a largely uneventul encounter as the hosts picked up the first point of their European campaign ahead of a double header with Young Boys - as for the Reds, the small matter of Group H leaders Juventus at Old Trafford on October 25th.

Overall team performance: 5/10

United Faithful Man of the Match: Marcus Rashford

Match preview: Man Utd v Valencia

Los Che are back in the Champions League for the first time in three years and Marcelino's men from the Mestalla make the visit to Old Trafford with United in turmoil.
The Reds sit top of the fledgling Group H table, with the La Liga side in third after defeat to Ronnie and co's Juventus team on Matchday One. It's been a torrid time for eveyone in Red, with talks of unrest and infighting offset by our first start to a league season since 1989. Coupled with a Carabao Cup KO against Derby, and our 3-0 win Bern two weeks ago - our last victory in any competition - feels like an awfully long time ago.

Jesse Lingard, Ashley Young and Ander Herrera will all miss the Group H tie through injury, and Marcos Rojo also remains sidelined. Diogo Dalot could feature in Young's absence, and Antonio Valencia may get a recall at right-back. Sergio Romero is available again after he missed Saturday’s trip to the London Stadium through suspension.
A genuine European powerhouse at the turn of the century, the visitors could be without striker Santi Mina, but otherwise have a fully fit squad to pick from. Expect to see them line up in a traditional 4-4-2 system, with star man Rodrigo - who featured for Spain at this summer's World Cup - their main attacking threat. While perhaps not quite as familiar as our Matchday Three opponents Juventus, their are still a number of familiar faces among Valencia's alumni. On loan Chelsea striker Michy Batshuayi, ex-Gunners Francis Coquelin and Gabriel Paulista and captain Daniel Parejo all ply their trade at the Mestalla. Andreas Pereira spent last season on loan at the club, and Juan Mata still speaks fondly of his four years at the club between 2007 and 2011. Valencia have endured a turbulent period in their history in recent times but, under Spanish manager Marcelino -  their 12th boss in only six years - they are a club on an upward trajectory again.

Valencia sit 14th in the La Liga table on eight points after seven games and already have become the division's draw specialists with five of those matches ending all square (one win and a defeat from the others). Their first victory of the season came last time out, a 1-0 win at Real Sociedad. A win tonight would give everyone at United a lift after a troubled season and put us in a strong position at the summit of the group. In many ways, this looks to be United's most important fixture of 2018-19 so far.

Jose said: "A Champions League week is always a good week, even if you expect a difficult match, a difficult opponent with Valencia.
"Everyone wants to play Champions League, not everyone can do it. So we are here and we have the chance to play a big match. So, big match, big week.
"I prefer to say that the players’ attitude is the most important thing and then from the supporters I cannot ask for any more. I cannot ask for more than they are giving at home. Away with bad results, I cannot ask for more. I think it’s time for the people on the pitch to show them [the fans] that they love the club as much as the fans. We have to remember that, the fans are always with us and we win, lose or draw together as a club."

Form guide: United W W W D D L Valencia D D L D D W
Match odds: United 4/6 Draw 5/1 Valencia 29/10
Referee: Slavko Vincic (Slovenia)