Manchester United vs. Newcastle: Winners and Losers from Premier League Game
Manchester United and Newcastle United played out a 0-0 draw at Old Trafford in Saturday's early kick-off in the Premier League.
Chances came and went for the home team early on, with Wayne Rooney seeing a goal ruled out for offside in debatable circumstances before Aleksandar Mitrovic hit the crossbar with a header from range. The second half was Manchester United's in terms of possession, but Newcastle defended stoutly and deserved the point they took.
Here are all our winners and losers from the Old Trafford fixture.
Winner: Fabricio Coloccini
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Newcastle started the match looking worryingly open, with too large a gap between their midfield and defensive lines as Manchester United played through them time and time again.
From about 20 minutes onward, though, the ranks closed and Fabricio Coloccini was an absolute rock at the centre of that defence. He headed crosses clear, made blocks from shots and put in more than a couple of exceptionally well-timed tackles to stop Manchester United coming forward.
Alongside him, Chancel Mbemba deserves a mention for recovering from a tough start to perform very well against United winger Memphis Depay.
Loser: Adnan Januzaj
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Given another starting role in the No. 10 spot, Adnan Januzaj saw a lot of the ball in the first half but failed to really do much at all with it.
Too many of his passes were passive, safe, uninventive and certainly not penetrating the lines of Newcastle's defence. That was in part due to a lack of movement ahead of him, of course, but there were few opportunities when Januzaj tried to create space himself too, either by Wayne Rooney running beyond or dribbling past his man.
A dive by one corner flag went unpunished moments before he was substituted after a poor foul in the opposite corner.
While Rooney's failure to score goals has been noted, Mark Ogden of the Telegraph noted on Twitter that going forward, the Englishman "needs pace around him" if United's attack is to flourish. Januzaj certainly didn't provide that in the final third Saturday.
Winner: Georginio Wijnaldum
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Newcastle United played a triangle central midfield full of energy, determination and defensive intent. Vurnon Anita sat mostly at the base with Jack Colback and Georginio Wijnaldum ahead, though there was a lot of rotation between the three as they looked to utilise their power and stamina on the counter-attack in the first hour of the game.
Wijnaldum was the big outlet for the Magpies most of the time and came closest to opening up United's back line with his driving runs and clever first-time passes.
He worked very hard to close down spaces in front of his own defence, too, and stopped Bastian Schweinsteiger from having too many free runs forward after the opening stages.
Loser: Louis Van Gaal
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The Manchester United manager must be feeling a little irate right now with his front line. They lack ideas and continue to play at a low tempo.
United started very brightly and kept up that level for 15 minutes or so—but Memphis, Juan Mata and Wayne Rooney soon fell out of that spell of interchanging passes and getting half-chances away.
Van Gaal didn't have any intention of changing the method of build-up at all, clearly, making like-for-like switches with his three subs in terms of positions and roles. But he couldn't cajole any extra quality or speed out of his players.
Three games, three clean sheets—impressive at one end, but two goals scored is a different matter.
Van Gaal had obvious concerns post-game, as he explained to BBC Sport:
"We can be satisfied with the performance but not with the result - we were unlucky.
We did not make the right choices in the final third but we played fantastic as a team. I like these kind of games when we work like this, but not this result.
The performance was one of the best in my period but we don't reward ourselves and there was only one club that wanted to win and that was us.
"
Winner: Centre-Back Partnership for United
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While the United attacking frustrations still need work in light of several perceived failed transfer bids, at the opposite end, Chris Smalling and Daley Blind once again looked composed, complemented each other stylistically and dealt with almost everything Newcastle threw at them—which, admittedly, wasn't much.
Blind still had to deal well with a few runs down the channel from Newcastle's attackers, Smalling dominated aerially, and both made a couple of good tackles.
Without a goal conceded so far in the campaign, they can be very pleased with their performances, especially considering neither Blind nor goalkeeper Sergio Romero are likely to have been first choices before the season started.
