FA Cup: United Through to the Semifinals After Fulham Implode

Manchester United played host to west London side Fulham FC today in the quarterfinals of the FA Cup. If United had all players available they would have been heavy favorites, but the absence of regular starters Casemiro (suspension), Christian Eriksen (injury), and Raphael Varane (injury) would have been encouraging to Fulham and manager Marco Silva. Fulham have historically struggled at Old Trafford, but Silva knew that today would likely present an opportunity for an upset. Fulham have been in good form generally this season, which is a testament to the job Silva has done with them given that they were only promoted from the Championship last season. Meanwhile, United manager Erik ten Hag and the players have made it clear that they are pushing for another trophy this season, so he named as strong a team as he could possibly select.

The first half was almost all Fulham. They were more dominant in possession almost the entire opening 45 minutes. United were simply being over-run in midfield. The absences of Casemiro and Eriksen were very noticeable. Fulham’s best player by a mile was midfielder João Palhinha. He won tackles, played some excellent passes, and was able to carry the ball through United’s midfield routinely. There was a lack of energy by the Red Devils today, too. They looked tired. Perhaps the grueling fixture list this season was finally taking it’s toll a bit. Still, despite their dominance, Fulham were having trouble creating clear chances. United’s back line, marshalled by center back Lisandro Martinez, was the only unit of the team playing with any degree of ferocity.

United really struggled going forward as well. Forward Marcus Rashford was isolated on the left hand side, midfielder Bruno Fernandes’s passing was more wayward than accurate, and winger/midfielder Jadon Sancho didn’t look like he knew where he was supposed to play. No matter how much ETH shuffled the forward line, they really struggled to make Fulham keeper Bernd Leno earn his paycheck in the first half. Midfielder Marcel Sabitzer forced him into a fairly routine save on 40 minutes, but that was about as dangerous as things got for the Black and Whites from London. So while Fulham were the better of the two teams, it was 0-0 after 45 minutes.

All of Old Trafford and most of the people watching would have expected a second half response from United. This is because ETH has proven himself to be an effective reader of the game, and also an effective motivator. United needed to up their intensity a bit, but instead what we got was Fulham taking things up a notch instead. They won a succession of corners that really put United under a lot of pressure, and they finally got their break-through from talismanic striker Aleksandar Mitrović on 50 minutes. Fulham forced a corner after a series fine saves from keeper David De Gea, at first to deny left back Antonee Robinson and then again from winger Willian. For the goal, it was former United midfielder Andreas Pereira playing the ball in over the top, and it was flicked on into the path of Mitrović by Fulham center back Issa Diop. Mitrović stuck his left leg out and fired home from about 5 yards out, despite what appeared to be a foul on Rashford in the build-up to the goal. Fulham were good value for their lead, and a VAR check confirmed there was no foul on Rashford. An argument could be made that he was indeed fouled, but again the bigger issue was United letting Fulham outplay them for 50 minutes. 0-1 to the Londoners.

Things kept going Fulham’s way for another 20 minutes or so after that as well. United’s response to going down was rather tepid, and Fulham kept pushing. De Gea did well to athletically save a headed effort from Mitrović on 66 minutes, and Mitrović saw another header go wide just seconds after that. United were truly under the cosh and lucky not to be down by 2.

The entire nature and complexion of this match changed on 72 minutes. United broke forward and got into a promising position for the first time in a while, with the ball finding Sancho in a forward position after a good run and pass from substitute winger Antony dos Santos. Sancho took the ball around Leno, but his shot from 12 yards was cleared off the line by Willian at the near post. A corner was given by referee Chris Kavanagh, but there were calls from United supporters and players alike for a VAR check on the clearance. Upon review, it was clear that Willian stuck his arm out and used his hand to clear the ball! As Kavanagh made his way to the pitch-side monitor to check for a penalty, Silva said something to either him or the 4th official on the touchline. Kavanagh took issue with it, and he showed Fulham’s manager a red card! He then checked the replay and awarded the penalty, while simultaneously sending off Willian for a deliberate handball in the box. As if the situation wasn’t bad enough for Fulham, Mitrović then decided to get in the referee’s face as well, and the confrontation escalated to Mitrović actually shoving Kavanagh! There is no professional sport where can you deliberately contact the referee and get away unpunished, and this sport is no different. Kavanagh instantly went back to his pocket and showed Mitrović a red card too! Absolutely wild.

In the span of about 40 seconds, Fulham saw their manager, striker, and winger all sent off. They were down to 9 men for the final 20 minutes or so, with United also having a penalty awarded to them for the handball. Bruno stepped up to the spot and casually sent Leno the wrong way, making it 1-1 to United! The Red Devils smelled blood, and it was apparent that Fulham were shell-shocked by the mad decisions of Silva, Willian, and Mitrović. United were ahead just 2 minutes later, with left back Luke Shaw operating in acres of space before he crossed back into the middle. Sabitzer was on hand to flash down and back-heel the cross into the goal, with Leno unable to keep it out. Talk about a wild swing! United went from 11 vs 11 and down a goal to up 2-1 versus 9 men in the span of about five minutes. Well done to Sabitzer for opening his goal scoring account today as well!

Fulham’s heads were gone after that, and they didn’t have the numbers to cause United problems going forward. Once it was 2-1, United never looked like conceding another goal. They kept possession and created more chances going forward as well. They got their third deep into stoppage time, with Bruno firing home decisively from about 12 yards out after being found by substitute midfielder Fred. A good goal from Bruno to seal the deal, but United were definitely aided by their numerical advantage. The final whistle blew and United won 3-1, having earned themselves a second Wembley trip this season.

Make no mistake, Fulham gave this game away. Up until 72 minutes, they were the better side and looked like they would be the ones moving on to the semis. United looked fatigued, the tactics from ETH weren’t great until the subs started coming on, and Fulham were more or less bossing the game. I have been watching this sport for 20+ years, and I don’t think I’ve seen a bigger implosion and mental collapse from a team than what I saw from Fulham today. I don’t know what was said by Silva to warrant his sending off, and I am even more in the dark as to what he was complaining about. Kavanagh hadn’t even awarded the penalty before Silva started mouthing off to him. Willian’s decision to use his hand was also mystifying, but he probably thought it was necessary to prevent a goal. The biggest mystery here though is why Mitrović felt the need to start remonstrating with the official. Mitrović has a reputation for being a hot-headed and aggressive player, but his decision to get into the ref’s face and then shove him was pure recklessness. Fulham had the game in hand, and even with a penalty to United it was still 1-0 with 10 men at that point. Had Bruno missed the penalty, Mitrović still could have helped his team get a result. He has to be smarter there. He has to realize the big picture of the situation and stay out of the referee’s face, no matter how upset he was. But it was 3 red cards shown to Fulham in the span of about 40 seconds, and all 3 were probably deserved. A total and complete mental implosion from Fulham FC today.

ETH knew his side got away with one today, and he rightfully praised De Gea’s timely saves in the second half to keep United in the match. Sometimes you have to be lucky in this game, and that is precisely what happened today. For 72 minutes, United were second-best. I am still frankly in a degree of disbelief that the colossal mental collapse of Fulham. United were better once they were down to 9 men and it was 1-1, but that is to be expected at this level with the quality United have. Credit to Kavanagh for holding his nerve today, although I would like to know what Silva said to him that earned him a red. A manager being red-carded for dissent is not unprecedented, but it is exceptionally rare. Fulham will be absolutely kicking themselves today. Well done to United for immediately taking advantage of the situation and getting their second goal just moments after the first one went in.

United do not have another match until April 2nd, as we have hit the March international break. Players that have been called up to play for their countries will go and do so, with some others getting a little bit of a break. England face Italy in a Euro 2024 qualifier on March 23rd, with another qualifier against Ukraine on March 26th. United’s next match is in the Premier League away to Newcastle, and they will be returning to Wembley for the FA Cup Semifinals against Brighton & Hove Albion at the end of April. I do think some of our players need a break, so some of them having the next two weeks off to recover will do them wonders.

Glory Glory Man United! Glazers Out!

A Golden Opportunity; Mostly Wasted

With losses by both Chelsea and Leicester City over the weekend, Manchester United knew that the stars had aligned for them. They had to cash in with a victory over Southampton at Old Trafford if they wanted to leapfrog into 3rd place. Southampton, sometimes known as the Saints, are a very tricky side to play though. They are currently in good form and get results primarily through defense and tactical nous, having recently beaten Manchester City. Weirdly, they are side who play much better away from home than at it, and with players like Danny Ings and James Ward-Prowse they can be a threat to score as well.

United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer named an unchanged side for the fifth consecutive game, a decision that merits further examination later. It was Southampton who were quick out of the gate though unfortunately, as they used the same tactics Aston Villa used against us in the previous match. They pressed us when we had the ball in our own half and weren’t afraid to play attacking football when they had the ball themselves. Put simply, the Saints did exactly what Villa did, only better. Anthony Martial was perhaps guilty of wasting a 1 v. 1 with Southampton keeper Alex McCarthy early on, but the angle didn’t favor him and McCarthy made a good save with his left hand.

Southampton were rewarded for their endeavoring play when Paul Pogba lost possession of the ball about 30 yards from his own goal. The ball was then played to winger Nathan Redmond in the left channel, who was not properly shut down by the scattered United defense. Redmond’s cross found an unmarked Stuart Armstrong at the far post, and the Scottish midfielder fired past United keeper David De Gea from close range. It was a very cheap goal to concede from a United perspective, with Pogba being primarily at fault for losing possession in such a dangerous area when Southampton were pressing. Still though, all credit to them for taking advantage of a critical error.

Similar to the Bournemouth match last week, United had to fight back after being down. They did just that though, with Marcus Rashford getting a well-deserved equalizer just 8 minutes later. It seems like this team needs to be jolted into life at times, and that is a side-effect of a team that hasn’t lost in 18 games. We expect to win, so when teams don’t just roll over for us and let us play our game, it can take awhile to get going. Pogba made some degree of amends for his earlier error by playing in a sublime pass in to the feet of Martial in the box, who showed excellent close control and strength to hold off his marker. He then played in Rashford around the “corner” of the defense while he was falling to the ground. Rashford made no mistake and blasted a shot into the opposite netting from a tight angle. Rashford looked more relieved than happy about scoring, even though at 1-1 with only 20 minutes gone most people probably felt confident about the match at that point.

There was even more reason for confidence three minutes later when Martial got United’s second. Pogba brought the ball forward in space in the center of the park and played the ball to Bruno Fernandes who was in between the midfield and defensive lines for Southampton. Rashford was running into the box ahead of him to his right, but he opted to play the ball left to Martial. Two of the Saints defenders then followed Rashford’s run, leaving the right back to deal with Martial on his own. That was a bad idea on their part. Martial cut in from the left and had a significant amount of space to strike the ball with power and he put United ahead. Two goals in three minutes and I would have bet my dog on us scoring another one.

The match slowed down after the second goal though, as Southampton became much more physical in their play. A prime example was when Saints midfielder Oriol Romeu inflicted a very nasty challenge on Mason Greenwood that was unpunished by both referee Chris Kavanagh and VAR. Romeu made a lot of contact with Greenwood’s ankle and resulted in the young striker going down in a heap, and for me it’s at least a yellow card and probably even a red. I am not one to spend a lot of time complaining about referee or VAR decisions, as United have definitely benefited from some questionable decisions in both the recent and distant past. It must be said though that this ref had an absolute shocker today, and I have to wonder what the Premier League is going to do about the use of VAR going forward. Whatever they intended it to do, it’s clearly not working as intended. Decisions that are seemingly “obvious” aren’t being corrected, and it’s affecting game play. I think VAR is the answer to reducing human error, but the “clear and obvious” standard is apparently too nebulous to be applied consistently. This must be fixed in the close season.

The second half was a somewhat tepid affair as well, much like the final 20 minutes of the first half. United created a few good chances and Rashford was unlucky not to get a 3rd goal on two separate occasions. One chance he just missed and the other he was ever-so-slightly offside. United did not create much outside of those chances though. The longer the match stayed at 2-1, the more stressed and anxious I became. Southampton were creating half-chances here and there as well, and they had quite a lot of possession. Luke Shaw was the first man taken off for United after he picked up an injury, with Pogba and Bruno going off shortly after due to fatigue.

This is the drawback to playing the same starting XI five games in a row: eventually someone is going to get tired and have an off day. Pogba had a sub-par day by his standards, but the player who really stuck out as off the pace today was Bruno. He did contribute on the Martial goal, but many of his passes went awry and he was often not on the same page as his teammates. When Pogba and Bruno aren’t really creating consistently, we run into problems. Scott McTominay and Fred are both good midfielders when it comes to running and making tackles, but neither are really naturally creative. Nemanja Matic was still on the pitch and can occasionally play a creative forward pass, but he was stuck defending for most of this match. We did not have the quality in-depth today to keep creating once Bruno and Pogba were subbed off. Either another creative midfielder needs to be bought or OGS implements a rotation policy where each player can get enough rest between matches. I understand the desire to not tinker with something that is working, but OGS gambled today on the conditioning of his players and the gamble didn’t quite pay off. He would likely argue though that it would have worked had we converted all our chances and/or the ref hadn’t screwed us.

Southampton’s shithousery continued throughout the second half, with multiple fouls being committed against United players in possession. Some were punished, many were not. Towards the very end there was a nasty collision of heads between substitute Brandon Williams and a Southampton attacking player, and while there was no malice in the challenge it meant that Williams had to come off. We had one substitute left, but for some reason it wasn’t used. I think OGS may have wanted to just get the match ended and felt we could hold on a man down. Not sure about that, but it was his decision in the heat of the moment. Unjustly, United were down to 10 men for the final few minutes while Southampton were still at full strength. In the ridiculous amount of extra time, Southampton won a corner, the result of which was the ball being scrambled over the line by substitute striker Michael Obafemi. There was some very poor marking by United on that corner, with both Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof probably at fault for letting Obafemi get a touch on the ball that close to the goal. It was 2-2 and even though there was still (somehow) some stoppage time left, the match petered out and ended in a draw. Southampton celebrated like they had won the World Cup while United players looked disappointed and dejected, which were my exact sentiments at the time.

Of course a draw is not the end of the world in this situation, but to hold a lead until the 96th minute before conceding is very frustrating. Three points would have put us in sole possession of 3rd place with 3 matches to go, but a measly point means that we are level with Leicester City on points but still sit 5th on goal differential. We are now just one point back of Chelsea in 3rd. Ultimately, the most important thing is that we still control our own destiny when it comes to the top-4 race. If we win our final 3 games, we will be 4th no matter what and will qualify for the Champions League. Really, we just need to stay within 2-3 points of Leicester. If we can do that and then beat them on the final day, we will be fine. Of course, leave it up to United to make it harder on themselves than it needs to be.

Still, 18 games unbeaten. That’s our best run of form since 2010. Man of the Match today was undoubtedly Martial. United next play Crystal Palace away on July 16. 3 pm ET / Noon PT.

I think I am going to do a blog on Manchester City’s court case next. Stay tuned!