Welcome back to the blog.
Going to do something a little different with the EFL Carabao Cup, where after each match I’m going to give out five superlatives to summarize the game. It’s not really a serious competition, unless we end up winning then it definitely is a trophy that definitely counts, so I’m not going to write a serious blog.
Manchester United slapped around an overmatched Barnsley side at Old Trafford 7-0. A crispy three piece of braces for Rashford, Eriksen, and Garnacho with an Antony goal instead of coleslaw sums up the meal that the Red Devils had with the opposing back line. A full home debut for Ugarte and 8 changes from the side against Southampton over the weekend made for stroll in Stretford and an overall a nice fun game to watch.
I’ll assume you watched the game at 3pm EST on Tuesday like I did, but if you didn’t here’s the youtube link to the match highlights>
Now onto the superlatives for the match:
- The “I’m way out of position so when in doubt I’ll just hammer you” Award goes to Toby Collyer. Ten Hag with the shocker of the day playing our up and coming holding/center midfielder at left back, not even giving Harry Amass a shirt by the way. Collyer didn’t necessarily do anything crazy and he didn’t make a mistake of note. I just liked his vibe where his first couple interventions were straight fouls, and from there it was smooth sailing for the youngster. Can’t get scored on if the opponent is on the ground.
- The “Country Roads, Take Me Home, To Old Trafford” Award goes to none other than Manuel Ugarte. It’s hard to tell whether or not it was a stellar performance given the competition but nonetheless he put on the 25 shirt (rest in peace Sancho). Jokes aside he looked solid there and the fact that there’s not much more to write about is generally a positive.
- The “Silky smooth goal of the day” Award goes to Marcus Rashford who opened up the scoring today with a chef’s kiss of a goal. The first touch to bring the ball over top down perfectly in stride was nasty. Then the quick glide touch towards the penalty spot and to smash it home right after was the kind of dynacism that we have come to expect from Marcus. Please, please, please translate this form to more goals in the league and in bigger competitions moving forward.
- The “Good for you kid” Award goes to two players really, Bayindr and Antony. Bayindr getting on the pitch, good for you. Antony drawing and scoring the penalty, good for you! I think getting contributions from the squad players is a good sign despite the competitive imbalance. It is important to see positive takeaways from Antony who knowing the slog of the season we will need to turn up in these matchups more often than I think we want to admit.
- The “Hell ya dude” Award goes to Christian Eriksen. The guy put in a great shift over the weekend away at Southampton and then to get a 5 minute brace late in the game on two pretty solid goals had me saying “hell ya dude” in the office. After everything he’s been through and his good service to the club I’m always pleased to see a player get that enjoyment of scoring at home.