Toothless.
As Manchester United prepared to face Sevilla on Wednesday evening, much of the chatter pre-game revolved around Jose Mourinho’s decision to play largely unheralded midfielder Scott McTominay instead of Paul Pogba.
Pogba, having made himself unavailable for the FA Cup fifth-round win over Huddersfield at the weekend, landed himself a spot on the bench alongside the likes of Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial as McTominay started in midfield with Ander Herrera and Nemanja Matic.
Pogba ultimately came on in the 16th-minute to replace Herrera but it’s just as well Mourinho plumped for McTominay as the 21-year-old Scot was the only United player to register a shot on target during a drab 0-0 draw with the La Liga side.
Scott McTominay had the only shot on target for #MUFC away at Sevilla
— ᗷIᒪᒪ ᖇIᑕᕮ 🎙📻 (@billrice23) February 21, 2018
Yes, despite the goalscoring prowess of Romelu Lukaku, fresh off a brace on Saturday, the guile of Alexis Sanchez and the creative ingenuity of Juan Mata, United mustered just a solitary effort on target – and it came from the man tipped to be Michael Carrick’s successor as this team’s midfield metronome.
Sevilla looked enterprising and dangerous at times, with David De Gea producing his usual brilliance to ensure the game remained scoreless, but United resembled a rudderless ship, bereft of any attacking propulsion and entirely at peace with the notion of negotiating the return leg without a precious away goal.
If you want a measure of how this United side are failing to progress, look no further than McTominay being the only one to have a shot on target. It really shouldn’t be this way, particularly not when Lukaku, Sanchez and Pogba are all on the pitch.
