Manchester United 1 CSKA Moscow 0
By the time Manchester United emerged from a stressful, wearying and occasionally mutinous night Wayne Rooney had moved alongside Denis Law as the second highest scorer in the club's history, a dozen short of Bobby Charlton's record of 249 goals. Old Trafford, once again, felt like a happy place but it had not always been that way and the importance of that goal cannot be overstated given what had preceded it.
In the worst moments, it felt like it was straying dangerously close to a full-on revolt. Louis van Gaal's decision to substitute Anthony Martial with Marouane Fellaini brought a level of dissent that has not been heard at Old Trafford for many years. Shortly afterwards, there were chants that have to be interpreted as an open challenge to Van Gaal's tactics and we can only speculate how rancorous it might have become, after 78 minutes, when CSKA Moscow suddenly had the chance to sour the mood even further. Their substitute, Seydou Doumbia, was clean through and beat David de Gea at the second attempt only for Chris Smalling to rescue his team with a desperate and brilliant saving tackle.
United had been spared and in their next attack Jesse Lingard turned Michael Carrick’s crossfield pass across the penalty area for Rooney to head in their first goal for six hours and 44 minutes of play. A fourth successive 0-0 draw had been averted, moving United to a position of new strength at the top of Group B, but without shaking off the sense that Van Gaal is still searching for the right balance to convince an increasingly sceptical crowd.
The first chant of "attack, attack, attack" went up from the Stretford End directly before kick off and the same plaintive cry could be heard intermittently at other points, with varying degrees of urgency. Then there was the latest withering critique by Paul Scholes, unmoved by the prospect of further offending United's manager and defiantly repeating his view that the team paint the town grey these days. Many supporters appear to hold the same view, although at least Van Gaal did show an appreciation that something had to change in his attacking positions.
Rooney’s switch to the No10 role was overdue and also had the twin benefit of allowing Anthony Martial to stretch his legs in a central position again. CSKA were dreadfully conservative at times and United did at least show a determination to play higher up the pitch. Yet there were still imperfections and this is fundamentally a slow team, particularly in the centre of midfield where Bastian Schweinsteiger possesses great football intelligence without having the legs to keep up with his brain. Michael Carrick is of a similar pace and, for all his elegance on the ball, it is also the case that the best United sides have always had players who could drive through the middle.
Instead, United set about trying to wear down their opponents by force of pressure and, by half-time, they had certainly had enough of the ball to feel they ought to have soothed some of the crowd’s frustrations. Jesse Lingard put a reasonable chance over the crossbar and Marcos Rojo also missed the target from a similar position from Ashley Young’s cross. Rojo and Young were both playing in defence and the fact the two full-backs had ventured that far forward demonstrated a level of intent on United’s part. Rooney had begun brightly and his through-ball for Lingard, after nine minutes, was much more like the incisive play that Old Trafford is accustomed to seeing. Igor Akinfeev, CSKA’s goalkeeper, was quickly off his goalline to save at Lingard’s feet and, towards the end of the first half, there were audible signs of frustration among the home support.
“We’re Man United, we want to attack” the song went, after a forward move broke down with a loose backward pass and the players started to look short of ideas.
The clock had ticked past six hours without a goal and, when Van Gaal left the pitch at half-time, he must have noted the irritability of the voices he could hear.
Early in the second half, they were ironic cheers when Rooney nudged the ball over the line, knowing the offside flag had already been raised. There were also the first signs that CSKA might finally start to emerge as an attacking force in their own right. For the most part, however, the Russians rarely threatened David de Gea’s penalty area. Rojo had another chance, two minutes after the restart, misdirecting his header at the far post, but Rooney and Martial were struggling to link up effectively. The crowd made it clear what they thought of the decision to replace Martial but, to give Van Gaal his due, the Frenchman has followed up that early burst of four goals in his first three appearances with only one in the last nine.
Later, there were also impassioned cries for Van Gaal to bring on Ander Herrera, a player many United supporters feel should be in the starting XI. Rooney could not adjust his feet when Juan Mata created his first clear chance of the night but the captain finally lifted the gathering despair.
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