MANCHESTER UNITED were handed a dose of reality ahead of the new season as Real Madrid eased a another Super Cup victory. Jose Mourinho’s expensively-assembled squad are looking to make their mark on the Premier League and in Europe this season. But they were shown just how much is left to improve on as Real ran out 2-1 winners in Skopje. SunSport looks at five things we learnt from the showpiece event between the European champions and the Europa League winners.
Lof form at the back
New £30million signing Victor Lindelof is supposed to have solved one of Jose Mourinho’s biggest headaches but he looked well off the pace in his first big game for the club. An obvious area of weakness last season was the vulnerability of United at the back – and they didn’t look much better in this game. The alarm bells were ringing loud inside the opening 15 minutes as twice United escaped after leaving a man unmarked from a corner – with Gareth Bale and Casemiro both squandering opportunities to open the scoring. Lindelof lost his man for one of those chances, and though Casemiro was marginally offside when he did score the game’s first, the big Swede fell asleep and had no idea where the Real forward was behind his back. Sensing an obvious weakness on the right channel of United’s defence, Real kept probing that area and Lindelof was the man in the lurch again when Bale slipped in a pass for Isco to arrive from the left and double Madrid’s lead. West Ham could do a lot worse than taking note ahead of Sunday’s Premier League opener.
Still Luk-ing for goalscoring answers
When United splashed out £75m on Romelu Lukaku, they were not solving their goalscoring problems with one swift stroke of a pen on the cheque. Aside from doubts over whether he was a flat track bully who only performed against weaker opposition, there were also concerns over whether he was clinical enough. Having scored 25 Premier League goals last season, of course he can produce the goods – but in the very biggest games he may only get one chance and he needs to take them to really live up to his massive price tag. What he cannot afford to do is miss an empty net from six yards, which is what he did when United were trying to force their way back into the game after going two behind. Lukaku looked as though he snatched at the chance, not calmly slotting into the net with the composure which is what you would expect from a world class striker. At present he takes about one chance in three – he needs to sharpen up.
Pogba needs to wise up
The arrival of Nemanja Matic is supposed to have freed up Paul Pogba to wreak havoc bursting forward from midfield, but he will ned to do better than this showing. In a season of transition last year, Pogba can be forgiven for struggling to produce his sparkling best but he has no excuses this time round. But he still needs to make better decisions when in possession if he is really going to develop into the genuine world class player everyone expects. The Frenchman is guilty of trying to do too much himself at times, and one such instance meant United wasted a great chance to take the lead. Pogba drove forward brilliantly from midfield as United broke three on two, but having committed a Real player he ignored Henrikh Mkhitaryan who had a free run on goal to shoot from long range – straight at the defender. There were signs of him linking up well with Romelu Lukaku, but Pogba needs to do more.
United should embrace the direct approach
There were times Real Madrid looked as though it was all too easy as they looked much the better in possession - but this new-look United do have another option up their sleeves.
For they are now becoming one of the most physically imposing teams in Europe thanks to a transfer policy that has seen them bring in some giants in recent years.
From The Sun
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