Man United options fail to inspire before season run-in

Manchester United may remain within touching distance of Barcelona in the Champions League, but Wednesday night did not inspire huge confidence in their Fantasy Premier League assets in Wildcard week.

The Red Devils were defeated 1-0 at Old Trafford by the Catalan giants in a game that will not go down in history as a European classic.

We have assessed what the match means for Manchester United options ahead of Double Gameweek 34.

Manchester United 0-1 Barcelona

Goals: None

Own Goals: Luke Shaw (£5.0m)

Assists: Luis Suarez

Marcus Rashford (£7.4m) overcame his fitness doubts to start against Barcelona but offered little in the way of attacking threat. Encouragingly from an FPL perspective, he was deployed alongside Romelu Lukaku (£10.8m) in the front two of a 3-5-2 formation, suggesting that Ole Gunnar Solskjaer doesn’t necessarily have to pick just one of them for Premier League matches.

“Rashy’s fine. He’s been ill as well, he had his last test yesterday so hopefully, he’ll last for as long as he can. He’ll do his best – we know Rashy, he lives for nights like this.” – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

However, the pair struggled to inspire confidence in their credentials ahead of the Double Gameweek 34 deadline. Rashford was his usual determined self, providing a great cross for Diogo Dalot (£5.3m) in the first half, but never really got the better of Barcelona centre-backs Gerard Pique and Clement Lenglet. Meanwhile, Lukaku followed up his excellent goal-scoring form of late with a particularly poor performance, offering little in the way of movement, let alone efforts on goal.

“But we can do it (win the second leg). No doubt about it. We can carry a goal threat, Anthony, Romelu or Rashy playing up there, we have to provide a bit more ammunition.”

Ultimately, there was not a single shot on target for Manchester United against Barcelona. It was the first time they had achieved such a disappointing feat in the Champions League since March 2005, over 14 years ago. It could be argued that their problems in front of goal were affected by the illustrious visitors, and that an out-of-form West Ham side will be much more obliging. While that may be true, Manchester United still have to face Everton (away), Manchester City and Chelsea (both) after that, which may be the crucial factor in whether options such as Rashford or Lukaku are included in Wildcard squads.

Someone more likely to earn their place in overhauled teams is young midfielder Scott McTominay (£4.2m). He was largely considered to be the best player for Manchester United against Barcelona and is rapidly becoming seen as a big-game player. He has been involved in some of the more important matches for Manchester United recently and in this latest one, he did not look out of depth at all. In fact, he appeared to control the midfield considerably better than Paul Pogba (£8.7m) or Fred (£5.3m). This display may see McTominay earn more game-time in the Premier League, especially with Ander Herrera‘s (£5.0m) fitness doubts and Nemanja Matic‘s (£5.0m) recent injury. That could make the Scottish international a useful budget enabler, who also scored in his last league outing.

“The boy’s developing every time he plays. He comes into training with a fantastic attitude and that’s the way to improve. Every game he plays he grows and grows. Today he was the one to take the ball down to settle us because we had to slow the game down, we were too quick to give the ball away and after 15 minutes I thought we settled and Scott, Fred and Paul, the three midfielders, did really well.” – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

Solskjaer went with a back-three and once again saw just how much that system does not work with the personnel currently available at Manchester United. After their defeat to Wolves in Double Gameweek 32, we revealed Manchester Evening News research that the Red Devils currently have no wins from six Premier League matches that featured a three-man defence for them – that trend continued against Barcelona.

After Ashley Young (£5.7m) struggled there at Molineux, Luke Shaw (£5.0m) was the latest unfortunate player to be sucked into a position he is not suited to. In fact, the local press described him as another “square peg in a round hole”. Deployed alongside Chris Smalling (£5.6m) and Victor Lindelöf (£5.0m), he had already been booked and scored an own-goal inside the opening 20 minutes. Not surprisingly, he was moved out of the back-three before half-time. That booking means that Shaw misses the second leg of this Champions League tie, adding to two his two-match ban in the Premier League. Therefore, the left-back will be unavailable for matches against West Ham, Barcelona and Everton, and will make a return to the squad for the Manchester derby on April 24. In the meantime, Solskjaer will have a selection headache in Shaw’s position, with Marcos Rojo (£4.9m) the likeliest to come in after just one start Premier League start this season.

“We didn’t start great. They scored a great goal, there was great movement by Messi and Suarez and they’re fortunate that it comes off Luke [Shaw] and changes direction. It’s a blow but we settled well. It wasn’t like PSG where we went another goal down. We’re still in this tie.” – Ole Gunnar Solskjaer

The 3-5-2 system saw FPL defender Dalot playing in a more advanced position once again. However, the 20-year-old is struggling to make the desired impact there to be considered a viable out-of-position asset. His game was typified by a bad miss at the far post in the first half, when Rashford found him with an excellent cross. It looked as if all he needed to do was nod the ball past Marc-André ter Stegen, but his header went straight across goal than towards it.

Manchester United XI (3-5-2): De Gea; Shaw, Smalling, Lindelöf; Dalot (Lingard 74′), Pogba, Fred, McTominay, Young; Lukaku (Martial 68′), Rashford (A Pereira 85′).