Solskjaer passes job test

By now, most of us have become distinctly aware of Manchester United’s ability to tear teams apart on the counter.

And hand in hand with that, their complete inability to break down teams that are prepared to let the Red Devils have the ball.

The above is a solid blue print for beating United. Keep it tight, don’t give them much room to counter into and eventually they’ll implode and let you score a goal or two.

In a match that has been rumoured to have his job at stake, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer opted for the unspectacular but solid double pivot of Fred and Scott McTominay. This was seemingly a commitment to a more solid counter attacking style.

Carlo Ancelotti and Everton certainly have the tools to unlock a stern defence though, with the magic of James Rodriguez and bustling form of Dominic Calvert-Lewin.

A lovely back-heel from Rodriguez got Seamus Coleman into the area in a dangerous position early on. That was shortly followed by a subtly spectacular ‘no-look-header’.

But despite the beauty of the Colombian, it was a route one approach that would break United in the 19th minute.

A typically lengthy Jordan Pickford goal kick found the obvious target of Calvert-Lewin, who was able to apply enough pressure on Victor Lindelof to see the ball skim off the Swede’s head to Bernard on the edge of the box.

The Brazilian cushioned the ball, took a step inside to shift David De Gea’s weight across goal and hooked his shot through Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s legs to the near post corner.

Everton had looked a tight ship, but this bizarrely went out of the window after their Bernard’s strike.

United’s own sparkly player, Burno Fernandes, was able to get them level seven minutes later following a deathly quiet Wednesday night in the Champions League.

The Portuguese playmaker equalised with a towering header, bursting into the box late to catch out Everton’s defence and place Luke Shaw’s well weighted cross into the top corner.

And with that, any carefully planned game plans laid out by either manager seemed to go flying out the window.

United careered forward with a couple of counter attacks as Everton pushed up the pitch, with tidy play between Bernard and Lucas Digne saw the Frenchman get into the box to crash a fierce strike against the post.

The game opening up ultimately suited the pace and dynamism of United’s attack more, so much so that they took the lead around 15 minutes after Everton opened the scoring, with Fernandes involved again.

His floated cross from the outer corner of the area saw another runner into the box not picked up by the Toffees - this time Marcus Rashford who may or may not have brushed the ball with the tip of his hair.

Either way, his presence was at least enough to put Pickford off, who could only watch helplessly as the ball bounced off his post and into the net.

It was a goal that capped off an interesting narrative for the first half. Everton begun in a solid shape, generally looking to control the game and were doing so until their opening goal.

This seemed to kick up the adrenaline levels and open up the game into something that better suited the helter-skelter talents of the United attack.

To use some classic managerial tropes, Everton needed a ‘reaction’ in the second half. And they gave it, the Toffees very much ‘taking the game’ to United, snapping into tackles in midfield to keep the Red Devils pinned in their own half.

Then came another flashpoint involving Pickford (featuring Michael Keane) booting a centre back once they’ve taken their shot or touch.

This time it was Harry Maguire, who attempted to hook the ball into an empty net after Pickford had calamitously dropped a cross. The England keeper, along with Keane, swiped at Maguire leaving in a heap, in what seemed an obvious penalty but was bafflingly not given as such.

Even Peter Walton, usually there to staunchly back any decision from the match officials, agreed that it should really have been a penalty.

It was another moment in which Pickford had gotten away with clattering an opposition player after the ball had gone. An offence that is deemed strangely acceptable if it’s committed by goalkeepers. One that both endangers opponents and gives the goalkeeper an intimidatory advantage: “if you try to kick this ball, I will batter your leg.”

On the bright side, it was something to unite Liverpool and United fans in anger about.

Despite some more tenacity from Everton in the second half, it was a game that now suited United. They had a lead that they could sit back on - something which they generally tend to be good at - and look to hit the Toffees on the counter. Just as they did so well against RB Leipzig the other week in the Champions League.

Everton struggled for chances, with Rodriguez’s passing radar seemingly skewed after a promising opening to the match. And as the Toffees struggled, United got those breakaway chances.

Rashford fired straight at Pickford after a long ball had put him through, before Juan Mata saw a potentially goal bound shot booted away before it could reach the bottom corner.

They did get their inevitable killer goal, after 45 minutes of ‘huff and puff’ from Everton. Maguire stepped in to cut out a loose pass, Fernandes sprinted away on the break and slipped the ball to Edinson Cavani, who couldn’t miss such a glorious chance to get off the mark for the Red Devils.

It was the first time Ancelotti had lost three consecutive games in 14 years, while United avoided their worst start to the season in years.

Solskjaer looks to have manoeuvred past questions over his job, while smartly shifting the focus in his post match interview to ‘the authorities’ for having his side play on a Wednesday night in Turkey before a lunch time kick off on Saturday.

United are a hard side to predict, a volatile team who can rip the opposition to shreds just as well as they can meekly fail to trouble rigid defences for long periods.

But today was their day, as they looked to truly mark the end of Everton’s strong start to the season.