They make them pay to watch this. Holders of Manchester United season tickets are automatically charged for cup games and if they fail to hand over the money, they could lose them. Given the standard of football on display at Old Trafford, that’s far less of a threat nowadays. It took Wayne Rooney & Co. over an hour to put a shot on target against third-tier Sheffield United and no-one was remotely surprised. Louis van Gaal was typically defiant afterwards, telling journalists that the hardest thing in football was to play against a team that defended deep and put men behind the goal. True, but it should be a little easier when you’ve spent £250m on players.
United’s woes would have been deepened had it not been for Dean Hammond’s unwise late challenge on Memphis Depay. Hammond, 32, is experienced enough to know that he should not have gone to ground in the box, hanging out his studs and sliding in on the Dutchman. Depay made a meal of it, leaping into the air as if he’d been bitten by a rattlesnake, but could he really have been expected to do anything else? Hammond gave him the opportunity. It was a shame, not just for the Blades, but for the guilty player himself. He’d had an excellent game up until that point.
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