- Manchester United 0-2 PSG (Matuidi 25; Ibrahimovic 34)
- David De Gea replaced at half-time by fourth-choice Sam Johnstone
More significant than this first ever pre-season defeat for Manchester Unitedunder Louis van Gaal is the question of how prepared David De Gea is for the coming campaign.
United have no more matches before their Premier League opener against Tottenham Hotspur on 8 August at Old Trafford. So when De Gea was taken off at half-time, his competitive-minute count on the tour ended at 107. Whether or not this was because of injury, the bottom line remains that little more than a full match is hardly ideal. Especially as De Gea is the United No 1 whose future remains unclear as he could still leave for Real Madrid.
What this means is that Van Gaal has a first-choice custodian who could be under-cooked and unsettled going into the coming term. The sense of disarray within United’s goalkeeping ranks is heightened by Victor Valdes being persona non grata for refusing to turn out for the reserves last year. Van Gaal wants the Spaniard out of the club.
Meanwhile, the manager’s No3 keeper, Anders Lindegaard, has played only 45 minutes on tour. Sergio Romero, the recently signed No2, is yet to don a United shirt in anger. In Sam Johnstone, then, Van Gaal has a fourth-choice goalkeeper who replaced De Gea here in Chicago and whose 208 minutes gives him the most of the four he can choose from.
United had started promisingly at Soldier Field, in what was the sternest test of the trip. Paris Saint-Germain entered the encounter having played three previous times, the same number as Van Gaal’s men. So this final outing before the flight back to England offered the best gauge yet of where United were on the pre-season graph.
At half-time PSG led 2-0, and the answer seemed to be: “Not too advanced.” Once again Memphis Depay was positioned behind Wayne Rooney in a 4-2-3-1 shape, and the messages were mixed when it came to any understanding between the pair. There was link-up play but no end product. Often they occupied the same space. Although the captain looked for the young Dutchman whenever United roved forward, each failed to finish when they might have done. By the break, each will have regretted not doing so.
PSG’s opener came from a royal mix-up between Phil Jones, Luke Shaw and De Gea. There appeared no danger when Blaise Matuidi chased a ball aimed into United’s area. Yet as Jones, De Gea and Shaw converged in a clumsy moment of timing, the latter stuck out a leg and the ball was stabbed into the empty net.
That was after 25 minutes. Moments later, Shaw tried to make amends with a burst that had the French side parting before him. Yet the threat fizzled out as the corner won from his run amounted to nothing. By the 34th minute PSG were two up.
As with the first, the manner of this strike will concern Van Gaal. Zlatan Ibrahimovic exchanged passes with Maxwell and moved into the area. Jones, Shaw and Bastian Schweinsteiger all might have tracked the No10. But none did, and the Swede slotted beyond De Gea.
When Alan Kelly, the referee, blew for the interval, the United players trotted off surely to face a stern word from Van Gaal. On his mind might have been the shoddy defending for the goals and the profligacy in attack. The closest United came was a Depay free-kick. This was taken almost with a toe-poke à la Cristiano Ronaldo. Kevin Trapp, PSG’s German goalkeeper, pushed the ball away but the closing in Rooney could not finish. This was one illustration of how United lacked the killer touch, and which Van Gaal pointed to recently when voicing the need for world-class attackers.
Juan Mata played in Matteo Darmian, and the right-back fired in a fine cross, but Rooney had peeled away to the far post. This was too near to Depay and the ball found the space the 29-year-old had vacated. There was another chance when Rooney passed to Depay but the latter could not register. And, when Darmian got in once more, the ball again eluded Rooney and Depay.
These were all moments when a sharper United could and should have registered. On the plus side, Depay appeared strong when holding up possession and United were at least creating chances to be missed.
As expected, Schweinsteiger had been able to start following the minor knee injury that ruled him out of Saturday’s 3-1 win over Barcelona in Santa Clara. This meant Morgan Schneiderlin was dropped. Yet for the second half the Frenchman replaced the German, along with the introduction of Andreas Pereira for Ashley Young and Johnstone for De Gea.
Van Gaal had said his strongest XI would play the last two matches of the trip for an hour or so. Against Barca, this had happened, so to see the manager pull off Schweinsteiger, Young, and De Gea after 45 minutes was a head-scratcher. Unless all had picked up knocks.
As he had done in previous games when introduced, Pereira injected zest into United. The Brazilian was on hand to fire over a dangerous cross from the left that deserved a finish. When he found Mata with a dipping pass that had the Spaniard in near Trapp’s goal, Pereira watched as the normally technically supreme No8 allowed the ball to slip under his boot.
As in the opening period, no cutting edge was the tale of this second stanza. But the real story is De Gea and the United goalkeeping department. With nine days until the season starts, it does not seem in the best state.
Manchester United (4-2-3-1): De Gea (Johnstone h/t); Darmian, Jones (Smalling 63), Blind, Shaw (Valencia 63); Carrick (Goss 80) Schweinsteiger (Schneiderlin h/t); Mata (Lingard 80), Memphis, Young (Pereira, h/t); Rooney
PSG (4-3-3): Trapp; Van der Wiel (Marquinhos h/t), Thiago Da Silva (Sabaly 64), Aurier (David Luiz h/t) Maxwell (David Luiz h/t); Stambouli (Nkunki 70), Verratti (Rabiot 64), Matuidi (Kimpembe 70); Augustin (Cavani h/t), Ibrahimovic (Bahebeck 70), Moura (Ongeda 70).
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