Season review: How United done it to a Super Cup
It was a debate that took Manchester United to 8 countries opposite Europe including some of a continent’s some-more apart footballing outposts – Odesa, Istanbul and Rostov – yet it finished with a informed sight: a Old Trafford group and their manager, José Mourinho, lifting nonetheless another European trophy. With it, United finished a full set of European bar honours and there were copiousness of highlights on a highway to Stockholm.
This essay is from a central 2017 UEFA Super Cup programme. Get your copy here
Best moment
Stockholm energy show
It has to be a final. United were some-more plain than fantastic en track to a Swedish collateral yet during a Friends Arena they constructed a uncover of energy that simply blew Ajax away. It was vast players giving vast performances when it unequivocally mattered and Ajax’s youngsters simply had no answer. Ander Herrera was superb in safeguarding his behind 4 and shutting down a space between a lines, yet he was not a usually one to gleam on an dusk when Paul Pogba and Henrikh Mkhitaryan set a sign on their initial seasons during Old Trafford with a idea apiece.
Best goal
Rostov ripped apart
Marcus Rashford purebred excellent particular goals opposite Anderlecht and Celta while now-departed captain Wayne Rooney pennyless a club’s European scoring record. The collect of a bunch, though, was a group effort. It was a strike that finished Rostov’s insurgency in a final 16 during Old Trafford, and a smashing square of counterattacking football: in a matter of 10 seconds and 9 touches, Juan Mata picked adult a lax round in his possess half, Zlatan Ibrahimović ushered it on to Mkhitaryan surging down a right, and a Armenian delivered a cranky that Ibrahimović flicked on for a male who had started it all, Mata, to score.
Best atmosphere
United in defiance
There was copiousness of colour and cacophony from a supporters of a antithesis sides who came in vast numbers dynamic to bite their Old Trafford trips – from Saint-Étienne to Anderlecht to Celta on a sharp-witted semi-final night. The many noted moment, though, unfolded after a minute’s overpower in memory of a victims of a Manchester apprehension conflict on a dusk of a final as a United fans in a South Stand delivered a summary of support and rebuttal with a carol of “Manchester, Manchester”.
Key performer
Beware a ‘Beast’
Antonio Valencia is United’s Mr Reliable – a smashing contestant and a rarely gifted footballer who final tenure highlighted his softened positional play by hardly putting a feet wrong in a new defensive berth. He arrived during Old Trafford in 2009 as a winger yet has excelled of late as a right-back and it was no warn he was voted players’ actor of a year by his team-mates. “He only looks so dangerous going brazen but, during a same time, he is so plain defensively,” pronounced Michael Carrick, while Mata offering a some-more laconic appraisal: “He is a beast.”
Unsung hero
Big hair, vast impact
It is satisfactory to contend that Marouane Fellaini indispensable time to win over a Old Trafford loyal yet a soaring Belgian scored in dual semi-finals final deteriorate – in a English League Cup opposite Hull City and a UEFA Europa League opposite Celta – and is a remarkably effective footballer during both ends of a pitch. He underlined his loyal value with a shining arrangement during a Friends Arena where he won 15 aerial duels – a record for a UEFA Europa League game.
Best antithesis player
Talent-spotting opportunities
One of a quite beguiling aspects of covering United in a UEFA Europa League was saying some of a opposite teams and players handling during a high turn divided from a UEFA Champions League spotlight. Celta played some excellent football during Old Trafford with their Chilean midfielder Pablo Hernández holding a distinguished role. When Anderlecht visited, their immature midfielder Youri Tielemans (now of Monaco) held a eye with his venerable ability and reading of a game.
One to watch
The arise of Rashford
Rashford will continue to constraint a imagination of a United throng in 2017/18. The 19-year-old had a critical partial in United’s run to a UEFA Europa League final with clinching goals opposite Celta and Anderlect and finished a altogether debate with 11 in sum – a decent lapse for his initial full comparison season. There should be some-more to come from a teenager, who said: “I consider my all-round diversion has softened so most over a final year. I’m doing things that we knew we could always do, yet wasn’t doing when we was younger.”
The new season
Challenges ahead
If Mourinho’s initial Old Trafford debate brought dual vital trophies, a 54-year-old will be dynamic to drive United to a aloft position in a Premier League table, following their sixth-place mark in 2016/17. Another pithy plea looms in a UEFA Champions League where United have been to only one quarter-final given their final final coming in 2011. It will also be intriguing to see how Pogba fares in his second full deteriorate behind during a club; 12 months ago he was carrying a weight of a world-record send price and assimilated off a behind of a prolonged EURO with France, yet now he might uncover a advantages of a full pre-season, not to discuss a attainment of his good crony Romelu Lukaku as United’s new centre-forward.
Article source: http://www.uefa.com/uefasupercup/news/newsid=2488700.html?rss=2488700+Season+review:+How+United+made+it+to+the+Super+Cup