There is a feeling that Paul Pogba will leave Man United this summer, and we saw tonight how important it will be to find a quality replacement if he does move on.
Perhaps that position could go to Donny van de Beek if he settles into the team over the summer, but it’s clear that Solskjaer doesn’t really trust him at this point.
When Pogba is missing then the midfield is usually set up with two of Fred, McTominay and Matic, but United saw tonight how much that can hinder their play if a team sits behind the ball and invites them to attack.
Matic does what he does as he sat deep and tried to keep the play moving, but he’s never going to burst forward or do anything to break the lines and get the ball into an advanced area.
That left it down to Fred to link the defence and attack together, but he wasn’t able to have a positive influence on the game at all, so he’s taken a lot of stick from the fans for his performance tonight:
Scott McTominay does have his flaws but at least he started to cause some problems higher up the pitch when he came on, but United will not be proper title challengers if the creative burden continually falls on Fred when they need to break a team down.