Apologies to all those who watched. If you were a neutral who saw that game, I'm sorry because that was absolutely terrible. I've had more interesting dumps than that.
Honestly, we won. I feel like that is more than enough to say.
Ruben Amorim rotated his team once again which raised some eyebrows with some selections. I actually felt he went stronger than he needed to. However, after that first half display, he perhaps didn't go strong enough!
It was so bad even City will beat us!
That first hour especially was 60 minutes of my life I will never get back. I couldn't believe what I was watching but then realized that this is Man Utd so it is exactly what I should have expected.
Slow, lethargic, flat, energy-less, lifeless, looked like they couldn't give a shit. It was one of those, again. We've had far too many of those for too long.
There honestly wasn't much to talk about in that first half other than that lack of an oomph, the fact that we still couldn't defend crosses properly and some players seriously need to be moved on. The first shot from either side came in the 35th minute when Bruno forced a decent save from the Plzen goalkeeper. 35 minutes into the game 😐.
Surprisingly though, Amorim didn't make any alterations in the second half. However, I think he would've liked to have changed that just 2 minutes into it as Onana decided to Onana and make the game interesting.
In an attempt to play out from the back, he instead played a pass to Plzen who obliged and ended scoring into an open net. Matej Vydra, the former Burnley player on hand to tap the ball in.
I know that the manager wants the team to build up from the back which would mean there will be risks but sometimes, just boot it the hell out. Old school style. It allows you to regroup and remove the unnecessary danger.
This is the second game in a row where a goalkeeper mistake causes us problems straight after the restart. Despite a good season, the last two matches has seen Onana return to old habits.
That gaff coupled with Rashford's poor form forced Amorim's hand perhaps earlier than he would've liked as he brought on Hojlund for the doctor in the 56th minute. Rashford was also on a yellow with the manager probably not wanting to risk a red card.
That change proved correct as immediately, we started to see a different United. The manager then brought on Antony and Mount for Malacia and Zirkzee and they too, made a lot of improvement.
Not long after those substitutions, Amorim's changes proved correct as Antony and Hojlund were both involved with the equalizer with Amad playing a big part as well before the Dane managed to tap the ball into an empty net.
That meant that Hojlund became the third player to score 9 or more goals in European competitions aged 21 or younger for United.
The Red Devils then started to look like an actual team who not only understood what they were supposed to do in this system but one that actually gave a shit.
What a difference that makes.
Amorim's players were now on the front foot and the chances started to come. Hojlund had a chance after a cross was flashed across goal by Bruno but unfortunately, Hojlund couldn't make the most of an opportunity that he should've done better with. This too, was after he was played through on goal by a Plzen defender just after coming on. The striker didn't make the most of that chance either.
Mount was also involved going forward and had two good opportunities that forced top saves from Jedlicka in goal.
But this just made it feel like that goal was coming.
And it came late on as Hojlund bagged his second. A quickly taken free-kick by captain Fernandes found Hojlund just inside the box. His first touch caused the ball to popup before he volleyed it into the bottom corner to give United the lead.
That was his second brace in two Europa League games. This also makes him the competition's top scorer with 5 goals.
The Danish Gladiator ⚔.
The away side managed to hold on and came out 2-1 victors with their first-ever win in Czech Republic and first win away from home inEurope since March last year.
Ruben Amorim cut a very frustrated figure all game and didn't even celebrate the goals as while he may be happy with his side's win, it was far from convincing.
The tempo was lacking, there was a lot of sloppiness, poor decision-making was evident again, stupid goalkeeping error for no reason (again), not great at defending crosses and struggling to breakdown a Viktoria Plzen defence which is hardly the quality of Liverpool with all due respect.
These would've caused the manager to be quite infuriated with his team as this game ended up being harder than it should've been.
This type of performance will do no one any good and give us very little confidence heading into the derby even if City themselves are struggling.
Amorim would not have been happy with that.
Ratings
Onana - 3
Mazraoui - 6.5
De Ligt - 6.5
Martinez - 6
Dalot - 4
Bruno - 6
Casemiro - 5.5
Malacia - 6
Amad - 6
Rashford - 4
Zirkzee - 5
Hojlund - 7 MOTM
Antony - 5
Mount - 6
Garnacho - 6
Ugarte - 6
Ruben Amorim - 6.5
Final Thoughts
A win's a win and I'll definitely take it but boy, we are shit. That was truly embarrassing and I mean no disrespect to Plzen but we really should be going there and putting them to the sword.
I know that we're not that team anymore but the lack of effort and overall care in that first hour was not the level of United. A lot of these players have to go and when we keep making stupid sloppy mistakes like we did, we will continue to fail.
Even though Amorim has given all the players a chance, there's only a select few that he can truly trust both in terms of attitude and quality. But few is not enough for United.
INEOS have been very quick to remove staff, cut bonuses and cancel Christmas parties so they better start getting down to removing a lot of those players.
Nowhere near good enough.
MUFC also moved into 6th place in the table and into those automatic qualification spots for the RO16. I feel as though this win has all but put us through to that next round. So at least there's that. We can park the Europa League for a bit.
Background Image: Rasmus Hojlund scores a double to help Man Utd beat Viktoria Plzen 2-1 in the Europa League | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)