United concede worst CL goal ever

ISTANBUL. — Ole Gunnar Solskjaer described it as “unforgivable”.

Paul Scholes called it “under-10s football”. Robin van Persie was a little kinder, opting to call it something that is coached out of you by the age of 12.

Rio Ferdinand hoped “someone is going nuts in that changing room and people are being made accountable”. BT Sport commentator Peter Drury described the team as “simply absent”.

In the 12th minute against Istanbul Basaksehir, Manchester United tried to work a short corner, only for one of the most damning images you may ever find of a senior level football team — let alone one with Premier League and Champions League aspirations.

There are United’s back four, all stood in the attacking third as a loose ball makes its way to Basaksehir midfielder Edin Visca, who spots the opportunity.

There is United assistant coach Mike Phelan at the edge of their technical area, gesturing to last man Nemanja Matic about the looming threat behind him.

There is former Chelsea and Newcastle United striker Demba Ba, gesticulating wildly for the ball, 20 yards beyond Matic, almost in shock at how easy this chance is going to be.

Ba — safely in his own half — cannot be offside when the pass is made, and Matic — who can kindly be described as “not the most mobile of players” — has only the smallest of chances of catching him.

Visca does not have to make his pass particularly accurate, nor does Ba need to be particularly skilled in his first few touches.

The only real threat is if goalkeeper Dean Henderson is aggressive in coming up the pitch to make the tackle and even then, Ba has half the pitch to use to get around that obstacle.

Save an act of God, a terrible bout of the yips when shooting, or Ba’s hamstrings popping from sheer excitement at the opportunity presented to him, Manchester United, one of the biggest football clubs in the world, who defeated last season’s Champions League semi-finalists RB Leipzig 5-0 last week and beat last season’s Champions League finalists Paris Saint-Germain 2-1 the week before that, are about to concede a goal so farcical it teeters on tragicomedy.

Some goals are famous, some goals infamous. While many at United would like to draw a line under this moment and forget it as quickly as possible, The Basaksehir Goal may go down in history as something else entirely.

Before kick-off on Wednesday, Solskjaer was in a quiet but confident mood, describing changes to his starting line-up as ones of “game management” and “rotation”, rather than the dropping of any personnel.

Basaksehir are no slouches, last season becoming one of only two sides outside of Turkey’s traditional big three to win the title in 26 years, amid a mixed reception in their native homeland, but United should possess enough talent in personnel to beat them.

When Martial scored in the 43rd minute, it was expected that United would find a way to retool and rebalance at half-time.

But, the Red Devils still lost 1-2.

What happened was Scott McTominay replaced Tuanzebe, while Matic worked at left centre-back alongside Harry Maguire.

Solskjaer would eventually empty his bench over the rest of the second half, bringing on Paul Pogba, Edinson Cavani, Mason Greenwood and Timothy Fosuh-Mensah, but United’s method for much of that 45 minutes, as one observer said on Twitter, was to “stick 300 million quids worth of talent on the field only to attach them to man markers with half a pitch between them and expecting McTominay to find them as a creative pivot”.

United were a mess, and yet the assortment of talent their wealth allows means they nearly rescued a point in the dying moments of the game.

That is the maddening issue with this team. Even in this iteration, which can look undercoached and often devoid in confidence, there is still just enough there to almost do something.

Solskjaer has lost his 101st game in charge at Old Trafford and outside the broad strokes of “attacking quickly” and “defending well in one on ones”, it can be hard to define the principles of United’s play under him . . . and yet they are still favourites to progress out of this difficult Champions League group.

It remains to be seen whether the Norwegian will ever get a United side that is often staccato in attack and tardy in defence to play with any consistency.

The question may now have turned to whether he should be given the chance.

All we know for sure is, on a Wednesday evening in November 2020 in Istanbul, Manchester United conceded a goal they really shouldn’t have.

And big questions will be asked about why. — The Athletic.