Ole Gunner Solskjaer’s winning start to life continued this afternoon at Old Trafford as he recorded his 5th win in 5 games since taking over as Caretaker Manager in December.
United had been ruthless in their last couple of games and were in full force coming into this game as Ole made 9 changes to the side that beat Newcastle at the St James park on Wednesday. United struggled to get their passing and attacking game on inside the first 15 minutes as they failed to create any clear cut chance as the VAR came to their aid.
Fred had his goal disallowed due to Romelu Lukaku being flagged as offside during the build up to the goal, however Juan Mata had been brought down inside the penalty area by Omar Richards prior to the Belgian being found offside. Referee Jonathan Moss then consulted his Assistant and his VAR team before pointing to the spot allowing the Spanish playmaker to find the bottom right corner from 12 yards on the 22nd minute.
Reading were still very much in the game as they came close to scoring after Yiadom hit the side net with a fierce shot. Reading shot themselves in the foot seconds before halftime as John Swift tried to catch Lukaku offside with fatal consequences following as the striker was played through on goal one on one against the Goalkeeper. The Belgian kept his cool as he rounded the rushing Anssi Jaakkola before slotting the ball home for United’s second on 45minutes.
The second half was less encouraging for United as sloppy passes characterised their game. They were lucky to have kept a clean sheet as Sergio Romero came to their rescue twice to prevent Reading from reducing the deficit.
The game ended 2nil in favour of the Red Devils though Reading enjoyed an enviable 60% possession and were superior in terms of shots on target, passes completed and corner kicks which will raise a lot of questions about this United team.
By: Sir Kay
