Manchester United’s defence of the FA Cup ended on Sunday following a 3-4 penalty shootout defeat to Fulham at Old Trafford.
The cup competitions were the club’s only shot at redemption following a dismal Premier League campaign but they are now out of both domestic cup contests.
The Europa League now represents the last shot at silverware and qualifying for Europe next season. Whether the team has the confidence to go all out in that competition remains to be seen.
On Sunday, it was the visitors took the lead at the stroke of half-time through Calvin Bassey, with Noussair Mazraoui losing his man inside the box from a set-piece.
Rasmus shocking as usual
The hosts equalised in the second half through who else but Bruno Fernandes. Roy Keane’s criticism seemed unwarranted and the club captain proved once again that he is the talisman of this team.
However, Victor Lindelof and Joshua Zirkzee’s penalty misses condemned the Red Devils to defeat while Andre Onana never looked like being capable of pulling off a save.
On yet another dismal day, the only positive was Chido Obi’s second-half cameo. Ruben Amorim once again afforded Rasmus Hojlund a start and as expected, the Dane was poor.
He looked lost up front, and the rare chance he got, he shot wide. The head coach was right to bring on the 17-year-old in the 68th minute.
And the Carrington graduate had three efforts on goal since coming on with the Fulham goalkeeper pulling off one crucial save to thwart the ex-Arsenal ace in extra time.
Chido Obi was dynamite inside the box
Despite his young age, he seemed to know exactly what to do with the ball, how to play with his back to goal and looked like a fox in the box, utilising his predatory instincts to carve out chances.
Hojlund has hardly ever managed to do all three in one game and it looks like a matter of time before he is demoted to the bench in favour of Chido Obi starting games.
The academy ace proved once again to Amorim that he must start trusting Carrington in the face of injuries and poor form. For some strange reason, the former Sporting CP boss failed to select a full complement of substitutes.
Even if he did not hand out a debut, surely two more academy outfield players could have made the bench. United looked dead and buried in extra time and could have done with fresh legs.
Especially if one considers the disastrous display of Lindelof, who hardly did anything right since coming on. He is set to leave at the end of the season, surely someone from the academy would have shown more fight?
Feature image Justin Setterfield via Getty Images
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Ayantan Chowdhury
Ayantan has worked for 10 years in the Indian sports media industry, writing for the biggest newspapers and websites but his heart was always set on writing about his favourite club. Currently an editor at The Peoples Person. You can follow him on X: @ayantanc_25
