In the end it was three valuable points won for Man United against an opponent that, thankfully, didn’t make life any more difficult at Old Trafford.
At this stage of the season we can all be happy with the result if not the overall performance which was sloppy at times and a little disjointed at others.
There’s a real ‘end of the season’ feeling to some player performances and that’s not acceptable when there’s still Champions League qualification up for grabs.
Here are three talking points from the match against Wolves.
Antony needs to learn to play the easy pass
When he’s good, he’s very, very good, but sometimes Antony can be horrid. Against Wolves on Saturday, he was somewhere in between; busy for the most part and sometimes effective, without ever being great.
His pass to Anthony Martial for the opening goal was simple but exquisite, though it’s a shame that he couldn’t execute something similar on at least another two occasions.
Whilst the score was still goalless for example, the 23-year-old Brazilian opted to shoot when a pass to Martial would almost certainly have resulted in the opener, as can be seen in the picture below:
I like Antony but what kind of behaviour is this pic.twitter.com/KXhXOrhnel
— Deng. (@UTDDengv2) May 13, 2023
Garnacho has to start
Cometh the hour cometh the man, and it really doesn’t matter that he’s just 18 years of age. Alejandro Garnacho has ‘got it,’ and everyone knows it.
He frightens defenders and that’s an incredible gift to have at such a young age. Exciting, dynamic and with an eye for goal, he’s everything United need for the present and the future.
A darling of the Old Trafford faithful already, he has to be started in each game now. If you’re good enough, you’re old enough right?
More clinical up front
It’s not something which hasn’t been mentioned before, and yet even at this late stage of the season, Erik ten Hag is still finding that his forwards aren’t clinical enough.
This game wasn’t in the bag until Garnacho’s timely strike, and there is an argument that Wolves keeper, Daniel Bentley, won’t play that well again, however, when it comes down to it, United’s front men have got to find the net more consistently.
At present, their profligacy only gives ten Hag more ammo for bringing a top-quality front man to Old Trafford.
