José Mourinho fielded a side featuring a number of youngsters and appeared to come through Manchester United’s final domestic game with no injuries before the Europa League final against Ajax in Stockholm on Wednesday night.
The one question is whether Paul Pogba was taken off just before half-time to rest him or because of a problem. The midfielder’s body language suggested it was the former and he appeared on the pitch after the final whistle.
The one odd note was Mourinho skipping his media duties. He gave the club’s in-house broadcaster, MUTV, a 17-second interview. “Don’t ask me too many things because now I am in a final,” he said. “Let me go home, I am in a final now.” Asked if he knows the side to face Ajax, he said: “I know, but let me go. I am in a final now.”
As Mourinho also entered the press room while most journalists were still watching the players’ lap of honour, nothing could be confirmed about the condition of Pogba, who scored United’s second goal and the Portuguese declined a chance to praise some fine performances from his starlets, with Josh Harrop scoring on his debut.
This may have been Wayne Rooney’s last United match and the sign of the changing times for the club’s record scorer was illustrated in another anonymous performance. On being substituted two minutes from the end, making way for the 16-year-old Angel Gomes to make his debut, Rooney was given a standing ovation but the harsh truth is that he is a shadow of the player who signed for the club in 2004.
Before the match Graeme Souness had claimed that the United manager’s serial complaining about fixture congestion gave United players excuses for poor displays. Mourinho’s response was curt: “A pundit is not honest if they cannot forget their colours. It’s not my fault if their managerial career was poor.”
While Sam Allardyce brought James McArthur and Patrick van Aanholt into his lineup in place of Yohan Cabaye and Andros Townsend, Mourinho gave four full debuts. Joel Pereira, Demetri Mitchell, Scott McTominay and Harrop were all named in a starting XI with an average age of 22, United’s youngest of the Premier League era.
The new boys started well: from left-back Mitchell curved a sweet 40-yard pass to Rooney, but the striker’s attempted dink over the Palace keeper, Wayne Hennessey, was too high.
Mitchell said: “Beforehand, Paul Pogba, [Michael] Carrick, Phil Jones, were helping a lot. They give you confidence and helped me a lot in the game. After the game, I was thinking, ‘This is what it’s all about, it’s what dreams are made of.’ I hope to play many more games at Old Trafford.”
Harrop, who is 21, had given notice of his skill by winning a corner with some neat footwork and he followed that up soon afterwards with a memorable debut goal. Receiving a deft outside-of-the foot pass from Pogba, the Stockport-born midfielder moved forward, cut inside, fashioned a snake-hips swivel to evade Martin Kelly and then produced an excellent right-foot finish to beat Hennessey. Cue a delirious celebration that had Harrop making an imaginary phone call and rushing to the left corner flag as his team-mates engulfed him.
Mitchell said: “He scored a hat-trick last Monday, he had two similar goals in that, and you could see his confidence from that game.”
At the end of the first half, Michael Carrick came on for Pogba and moments later Anthony Martial entered for Jesse Lingard. Allardyce may have given his men a rocket at the interval because they started the second half seeming to mean business. The ball was passed quickly to Wilfried Zaha, who had Carrick flailing at his cross.
Eric Bailly had been momentarily injured near the end of the opening period and when the centre-back took another knock it looked as though the 20-year-old Matthew Willock was about to make his debut, but Mourinho waved him back to his seat when Bailly insisted on playing on.
After Christian Benteke fired a shot past the post, United continued to stroll through the contest by playing keep-ball. If this was indeed Rooney’s swan song he will be relieved that his attempted stabbed clearance from a free-kick went over rather than under Joel Pereira’s crossbar.
The latter stages featured a Pereira save from Luka Milivojevic’s free-kick earning a thumbs-up from Mourinho. It was that type of day. Now preparation begins for United’s serious business of the Europa League final.
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