Villarreal, Atalanta, Arsenal, Tottenham Hotspur.
Those are just a few occasions where Cristiano Ronaldo has been solely the decisive figurehead throughout this season.
You can now add Norwich City to that list.
If it wasn’t for Ronaldo, the chances are that Manchester United would have fallen foul to the side placed bottom of the Premier League. Aside from three moments of brilliance from Ronaldo to secure his second hat-trick in just over a month, United's performances left masses to be desired given the standard of opposition.
The day commenced with showings of unrest - a theme which overrode the majority of the afternoon. A few thousand fans (the exact number unknown) marched from a nearby pub, The Tollgate, to Old Trafford in remonstration against the Glazer family's ownership of the club. The pre-arranged protest was peaceful but took a stand enough to be certainly noticeable.
Those firmly involved in the demonstrations left Old Trafford somewhat sparse for the opening 17 minutes of proceedings (one minute for each year of the Glazers' tenure), waiting in the concourses and even imposing gridlock within the Munich Tunnel.
In the meantime, chants including 'love United, hate Glazers' were voiced by the sizeable number of fans protesting, with the premise echoed inside the stadium with utterances of 'we want Glazers out'.
The on-field action saw United start on top, with David de Gea compounding a sense of encouragement by successfully rushing off his goal-line to deny Teemu Pukki once such foothold started to waver. However, such a clear-cut early opportunity was engineered with ease by Norwich, dampening senses of belief.
Ralf Rangnick opted to start a midfield three of Paul Pogba behind Bruno Fernandes and Jesse Lingard - extremely attack-minded thus contributing to an imbalance which left susceptibility to counter-attacking moves.
However, Ronaldo's early goal was testament to United's front-footedness, with Anthony Elanga pressing high to dispossess Ben Gibson and Ronaldo perched opportunely inside the box to finish from his teammate's square ball.
Such an early goal has become a rare occurrence, with United taking advantage of Norwich's disorganisation. Once more, though, it was a case of a positive being almost instantly neutralised by a more negative note.
United's assurance and invention was quick to begin to falter and regress once more, with the tempo typically fluctuating and a stealthy foothold ceded. It was testimony of the inconsistency that has been so rife throughout the season, and in recent times in general. Applicable to both within matches and on a larger scale in terms of results, United's inability to sustain a high level has constantly reared its head.
United are still yet to muster a run of three wins over all competitions this term, whilst the concept of a '90 minute performance' has continued to remain illusive.
There were phases of imposition of more control and improved interplay, especially comparative to the defeat against Everton one week prior. Regardless, against a side destined for relegation, spells simply won't suffice.
It was subsequent to Ronaldo doubling United's advantage with a purposeful header from an Alex Telles corner that issues became of particularly grave prevalence. United should have soared into the distance and cruised to a comfortable win given their two-goal advantage with around an hour still to play. But that was far from the case. Instead, their level stooped again.
On the stroke of the break, into injury time, Kieran Dowell brought Norwich right back into the offing after freely latching onto Pukki's delivery. The finish was a tap-in. But, really, it was a tap-in of a goal. United's defensive display was woeful.
Initially, Diogo Dalot displayed weakness when trying to dispossess Norwich left-back Dimitris Giannoulis, failing to win the tackle. Contrary to the belief of many social media users, Harry Maguire did his job in covering the threat of Milot Rashica. The onus was on Elanga or Pogba (as the deeper-lying midfielder) to pick up Pukki's run into the box.
Ultimately, nobody took ownership of tracking Pukki and he had a free roam of the box to receive the ball and supply Dowell. Telles failed to pick up the goal-scorer having roamed into no-mans land, marking nobody, criminally unaware of the impending threat.
It was the definition of disjointed.
And into the second half, there was no response. The lull only continued and it took the best-part of only seven minutes for Norwich to equalise. Again, it was a comedy of defensive lapses that afforded Pukki the opportunity to level affairs.
Telles was the predominant culprit once more having drifted infield away from his left-back berth. Conjoint indecision between him and Victor Lindelof allowed Pukki to bisect them with his run, receiving a through ball played with ease amidst United's midfield porosity. Telles was too far out of position to recover and halt Pukki's progress, with the finish intricately placed off the post and past De Gea.
Twice United were punished for their defensive inabilities, even when trying to adhere to basic principles. No doubt, against a more punishing side higher up the table the mishaps would have been even more costly. It was lamentable anyway that two goals had been conceded against a side who had only previously scored eight times on the road this campaign.
Rangnick did lament his back-line post-match by insisting, "Defensively, I was not happy at all."
"We need to become physical and aggressive," he also said. "But we weren’t and it's too easy. We're the only team in the league to concede goals like this."
Norwich were made to look like an offensive powerhouse at some junctures, with United's lack of structural discipline detrimental.
The response from the crowd grew adverse, translating the frustration exuded during the earlier protests into resentment against the players. Chants of 'you're not fit to wear the shirt' were voiced with United growingly lacklustre.
When Pogba was withdrawn from the action, he was greeted by a concoction of boos and cheers before sour chanting of 'f**k off Pogba' emerged. He didn’t make things any better by cupping his ear as he departed the field at full-time, but he does have a right to feel aggrieved by the reception.
"I can totally understand the fans being frustrated, but I don't think they should be targeting players individually," Rangnick responded at full-time. "This is not right."
Ronaldo converting a free-kick to seal his 60th career hat-trick shortly after the hostility set in was timely, with observation of some improvement after the introduction of both Nemanja Matic and Juan Mata (in addition to Marcus Rashford). As with Ronaldo, the pair displayed the importance of experience, as well as the virtue of a footballing brain.
Despite being outward-bound this summer, the pair largely changed the dynamic of the game given their more measured approaches, almost to the extent that a lack of footballing intelligence within the rest of the squad was exposed.
By the final whistle, despite United taking three points to bolster pre-conceived faint hopes of a top four finish whilst Tottenham Hotspur and Arsenal lost, the pre-existent unrest could seldom be laid to rest.
Against the side sitting 20th in the league, such a close-call of a game in which such a plethora of frailties remained exposed is hardly encouraging. A win is important after a torrid recent run, but you can't help but fear what may be in store when United venture to Anfield on Tuesday night.
Comments