The striker for Bournemouth, Dominic Solanke, feels that his team can “beat anyone” following their “magnificent” victory against Manchester United on the road.
The visitors’ first victory at Old Trafford was made possible by Solanke’s early goal, which puts more pressure on Erik ten Hag, the manager of the struggling United.
In the span of five minutes in the second half, headers from Marcos Senesi and Philip Billing sealed what will go down as one of Bournemouth’s most memorable victories.
“The boys are overjoyed,” Solanke remarked. “Over the past three weeks, we’ve built a lot, and we feel confident.
We may have just begun to click. We were still getting used to our new philosophy at first [under Andoni Iraola].
“Over the past several weeks, we have undoubtedly begun to gel, and that has shown on the pitch. It is heartwarming for everyone to win away at Old Trafford.”
The situation might have been even worse for United, as the video assistant referee disallowed a fourth goal for Bournemouth in stoppage time due to a handball. The player Dango Ouattara was the substitute.
Ten Hag, who recently won the Premier League’s manager of the month award, had the worst day possible. The match took place just three days before United’s Champions League match against Bayern Munich, which they need to win to have any hope of making it to the round of 16.
Currently, his team has lost seven of its sixteen league games. They have lost 11 times as many matches as they have won across all competitions. They have suffered three home losses of 3-0.
Almost nobody in a red shirt got any credit at all, and Ten Hag’s unexpected choice to start Antony Martial didn’t work out.
Following United’s lacklustre loss to Newcastle last Saturday, Martial and Marcus Rashford received the most criticism.
It was unexpected that Martial was called up so soon because both were benched for the team’s triumph over Chelsea. The French striker was not a threat to the Bournemouth goal, despite dropping deep once or twice to join play.
It did not help that Alejandro Garnacho failed to respond to one of his passes, and he missed one due to a couple of misreads.
Midway through the first quarter, Martial’s lone noteworthy shot came from the edge of the area, lacking any force and was easily collected by Neto.
There was a clear difference with Solanke.
The former player for Chelsea and Liverpool always felt compelled to threaten the goal as soon as he had control near the United area.
After Bruno Fernandes floated a clearance out of the penalty area to send the ball in at the far post, Lewis Cook took advantage of stagnant United defending, and his finish made the most of the soggy conditions.
Solanke posed a continual danger. Additionally, he hit the crossbar with a shot across goal, and it was his header that allowed Marcus Tavernier to score what appeared to be a second goal but was really disallowed for offside.
Rasmus Hojlund took Martial’s position after only an hour of play, a move that was enthusiastically applauded by the home crowd.
There was not much of a change with the substitution.
Billing and Senesi both scored spectacular goals for Bournemouth, exposing United’s weaknesses in the air as they leaped over Luke Shaw and Senesi, left unmarked at a corner.
BBC
