Jordan Ayew admits Crystal Palace struggled to cope with the movement of Manchester United’s wide players with Diogo Dalot, Facundo Pellistri, Alejandro Garnacho and Sofyan Amrabat shining in the Carabao Cup third round.
With summer signings Mason Mount back and Sofyan Amrabat making his first start, Tuesday’s 3-0 victory at Old Trafford offered a tantalising glimpse into the future of Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United.
Amrabat, in particular, made a huge difference on his full Red Devils debut. A left-back on the team sheet, the Moroccan maestro was everywhere, doing everything, seemingly all at once. Amrabat’s trademark switches of play out to the right-hand side – Pellistri and Dalot holding their width – certainly left Ayew craving Aspirin, Dalot breezing forward and crossing for Alejandro Garnacho to open the scoring.
United stretching the pitch and dovetailing in a manner reminiscent of Ten Hag’s Ajax in full flow.
Garnacho scores in Manchester United win
“We know they were just better than us tonight,” Ayew sighs, speaking to the Crystal Palace website after the Eagles failed to lay a single talon on a United side producing their best performance of the season.
“I just felt we were a bit narrow. We wanted to close the middle and they were just hitting diagonals, going wide to the wingers (Pellistri and Garnacho) and full-backs (Amrabat and Dalot) and causing us a lot of danger.
“That was a problem.”
Dalot, in Aaron Wan-Bissaka’s absence, has stepped up of late. Rediscovering the form that made him one of the first names on Ten Hag’s team sheet 12 months ago.
Pellistri was as lively and as direct as ever ahead of the Portugal international too, while Ten Hag was full of praise not only for Garnacho’s well-taken finish but also his off-the-ball work.
A night of rare positives
“You have seen in the start of the season, we played him, then his contribution was not good enough,” Ten Hag tells the Man United website, the Red Devils’ new number 17 struggling in starts against Wolves and Tottenham Hotspur.
“He has to learn; ‘When I do my job in defending, I will always have my moment.’ And he will always be decisive, because he has great qualities.
“As well, it’s not only off the ball (where Garnacho has to improve),” Ten Hag adds. “But also I want to see, like today, he’s entering the box, he was on the right spot to finish. But I think it’s quite normal, for a player of his age, that there is space for a lot of improvement.”
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