Bruno Fernandez led Manchester United to a tough victory 3–1 over Everton
Bruno Fernandez took off his manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer a load of responsibility for the not-looking good performances of the team that put his manager in a tough position recently.
Here are the starting line-ups for both sides:
Everton Starting XI (4–3–3):
Pickford, Digne, Holgate, Keane, Coleman, Sigurdsson, Allan, Doucoure, Bernard, Calvert Lewin, James Rodriguez
Manchester United Starting XI (4–2–3–1):
DeGea, Luke Shaw, Maguire, Lindelof, Aaron Wan-Bissaka, Fred, Scott McTominay, Marcus Rashford, Bruno Fernandez, Juan Mata, Anthony Martial
Following the inexcusable defeat against Istanbul Basaksehir in midweek and a loss to Arsenal 0–1 last weekend, the visitors started preoccupying again after Bernard gave the lead to Everton with 19 minutes into the game.
Jordan Pickford’s volley and a header by Dominic Calvert-Lewin was enough to end up on Bernand’s legs who stroke the ball to the left side and provoked upheaval to the Reds side.
Six minutes later, United, by pulling off a great build-up with 15+passes, the ball ended up on Shaw’s legs who crossed the ball into the box where Fernandez was in readiness and scored a goal with a great header to tie the game 1–1. It was Fernandez’s fifth goal of the season.
There was an ideal moment for Everton to equalize when Scott McTominay and Aaron Wan-Bissaka almost put in trouble United, when both in their effort to cover and cut the movement from the left flank, conceded enough space to the opposition to attack. Digne received the ball and despite the fact that Lindelof was guarding him, he liked his chances and took the shot, but the ball hit the external side of the goalpost.
Then after Digne’s missed opportunity, Fernandez with a great cross in the box, tried to find Marcus Rashford, but even if he didn’t manage that, the ball ended into the net leaving Pickford puzzled and disappointed.
With 82 minutes into the match, Ole decided to make two substitutes with Juan Mata and Anthony Martial heading out and Edison Cavani along with Paul Pogba entering the game to add some certainty and stability and seal the victory. Pogba displayed his strength and velocity by keeping the ball away from the opposition and feeding his teammates with great passes. Cavani didn’t get many touches but he didn’t need to. His positioning was great and in a counter-attack that commenced due to Fernandez stealing the ball, he was the last to receive it and with a perfect strike sealed the victory for the Reds.
This win allowed Ole to breathe a little bit after all the off-colour performances that we have seen since the beginning of the season.
It is not a matter of quality as United has a lot of players with great qualities — instead, the issue here is the lack of consistency, focus and initiatives that players don’t take when it’s needed.
The reason why United’s defense was better, was the presences of Fred, McTomminay who covered very well the midfield and warded off Everton’s load of talent with James Rodriguez, Bernard, and Calvert Lewin usually putting more pressure on the opposition than what we saw today. Everton had only one shot on target out of totally seven attempts. Their strong beginning with three consecutive wins caused a great portion of enthusiasm that has been vanished in the last four matches, as they had a draw at home with Liverpool, two consecutive losses away by Southampton and Newcastle, and today they recorded another defeat this time at home.
Everton manager Carlo Ancelotti to BBC Sport: “We have to stabilise the defence, this is for sure, but it is not a problem individually — it is collective work and this is absolutely normal.
“It is fortunate that there is an international break. This was a really difficult, bad period for us and I hope that is finished. I hope we can come back from the international break in the way we started this season.”
Next test for Everton is away against Fulham, while Manchester United will host West Bromwich at home.