Match report
What a fascinating game that turned out to be. Hull defended with their brains for an hour and with their hearts for the last 30 minutes, but one mistake from Elmohamady was ruthlessly punished. This could be a very important day for Manchester United because Mkhitaryan and Rashford should be regulars after this. They are both fast and intricate, a rare combination, and United look a different team with them on the pitch. I’ve just knocked out this quick blog about Rashford if you’d like a read. Thanks for your company, night.
Full time: Hull City 0-1 Manchester United
It’s all over. That is so cruel on Hull, who were heroic. But Marcus Rashford came from the bench and completely changed the game before scoring an injury-time winner. If you’re a Manchester United or England fan and that kid doesn’t give you goosebumps, you need to seek urgent medical advice.
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90+4 min Smalling replaces Rooney. Rashford is booked for celebrating with the fans.
Rooney did brilliantly to make the goal. He sucked Elmohamady in on the left and then slipped past him. There was still plenty to do to but Rooney played a superb sidefooted pass along the face of the goal, and there was Rashford to stab it in. He deserves that after a wonderfully classy cameo as sub.
GOAL! Hull City 0-1 Manchester United (Rashford 90)
We are watching a future genius here.
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90+2 min Meyler almost nicks it for Hull! Diomande bulldozed through Fellaini and Bailly on the edge of the area and squared it to Meyler, who scrunched a shot over the bar.
90+1 min Pogba shoots on the turn for 25 yards. It goes miles over the bar. The BT Man of the Match is rightly Curtis Davies, who has been simply immense. I really hope he is in the England squad tomorrow; he deserves to be.
90 min There will be four minutes of added time.
89 min Mkhitaryan’s low shot from distance is well held by the sprawling Jakupovic.
88 min Rashford and Shaw combine before Shaw plays it square to Pogba, who dummies his man and curls fractionally wide from 20 yards.
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86 min Rashford floats out to the right and whacks a marvellous cross into the corridor of uncertainty between keeper and defender, but nobody can get on with it. With every performance, this kid looks more and more like a potential genius. He is so accomplished.
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83 min Mike Phelan declares at 0-0: the defender Harry Maguire replaces the centre-forward Abel Hernandez. Hull have been absolutely marvellous today.
82 min It’s a siege now. The heroic Davies blocks Mkhitaryan’s shot after great play from Rashford, and then Jakupovic claws away Valencia’s deflected cross.
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80 min Rashford and especially Mkhitaryan have made a huge difference to this United team, both with their pace and their intricacy. Mourinho can’t avoid the Rooney issue much longer, surely.
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79 min Jakupovic makes a superb save from Rashford, who slipped Clucas and guided a shot through the legs of Livermore towards the far corner. Jakupovic was unsighted but got down to palm it round, a really good save.
78 min Meyler is booked for a foul on the excellent Mkhitaryan, just outside the box. Pogba curls it over the wall and well wide.
77 min That should have been a penalty for United. The replays show that Meyler stuck his elbow out to divert the ball. It was a clear penalty.
76 min “Rooney needs his game time because he obviously won’t be picked by Allardyce tomorrow,” says Ian Copestake. “That’s when the revolution begins.”
75 min Hull almost take the lead! Huddlestone’s fierce left-footed shot from 25 yards takes a big deflection off Bailly, wrongfoots De Gea and goes just wide of the far post.
74 min A headed clearance comes to Rooney, who hits a sweet volley not far wide of the near post.
72 min It looks like United have gone to a 4-4-2, with Rooney on the left and Mkhitaryan on the right. Valencia’s cross hits the upper arm of Meyler, prompting loud appeals for a penalty. That might have been given.
71 min Huddlestone is booked for a foul on Mkhitaryan, though it looked like it might have been a dive, and now Rashford replaces Mata. Wayne Rooney is still on the pitch, somehow.
70 min “Offside decisions should be overruled on artistic merit if the goal is beautiful enough,” says Ian Copestake.
Likewise red cards if the foul is funny enough. Here’s exhibit A.
69 min The other problem for Hull is that they have few options from the bench, which is populated with under-21 players. The starting XI must be mentally and physically exhausted from their brilliant defensive performance.
68 min Jose Mourinho has suddenly remembered the existence of Marcus Rashford, who is getting ready to come on.
66 min It’s daft that Mkhitaryan is playing out of position on the left to accommodate Rooney. He has already made a difference. It’s sad for Rooney but he is a shadow of the player he was.
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65 min Mkhitaryan’s crafty pass finds Ibrahimovic, who moves infield and is about to shoot from 20 yards when he is dispossessed by Mata. He moves into the area but overruns it and the chance is gone. Moments later, Pogba whooshes a shot not too far over the bar from 35 yards. This is much better from United.
62 min Ibrahimovic’s glorious backheeled volley puts Mata through on goal, but he is just offside.
61 min United are starting to warm up. Pogba’s pass towards Mata is blocked on the edge of the area, but Ibrahimovic reacts superbly with a snapshot that is deflected just wide for a corner.
60 min Martial’s low drive from 25 yards skims a few yards wide of the near post. That’s his final touch, with Mkhitaryan replacing him. He’s playing from the left, although that’s not his best position.
56 min “Hull kicking from left to right,” says Tom Inglis. “Might be a useful comment for a television commentator to make but doesn’t have much value in a text commentary. It depends on where you are watching from in the ground.”
So when you listen to radio or read a text commentary of a football match and you picture the action in your head, where are you? Maybe you have the exact view from seat X24? Or you’ve found a portal into Mike Phelan’s brain and you see it from his point of view? How about you have the view from the Eiffel Tower?
55 min Mkhitaryan is getting ready to come. Juan Mata’s heart sinks. But it doesn’t need to, because the subdued Martial is going off.
53 min “Do your boys understand the difference between half - and full - time?” says David Davies. “Quality Journalism?”
Have you any idea how exhilarating it is to have you as a digital friend?
52 min Rashford and Mkhitaryan are warming up for United. A couple of tea ladies are warming up for Hull.
49 min It’s John Cusack weather in Hull, with the rain really thumping down. Shaw’s chipped cross loops up off a defender and into the box. Rooney reacts smartly to get there first but there is no pace on the ball and his header is straight at Jakupovic.
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48 min Shaun Maloney, who scored a famous and significant winning goal against United in 2011-12, replaces Snodgrass.
47 min Snodgrass is down again. There was nobody near him when he went down, so presumably it’s the same leg injury he suffered when he slid into the near post. That’s such a shame as he is a really lovely player to watch, and of course it’s the last thing Hull need.
46 min Peep peep! Hull begin the second half, kicking from left to right.
“The combination of Rooney, Fellaini, Mata, Ibrahimovic through the middle is much too slow,” says Chad Noyes. “He needs to give someone else a chance.”
If only he had one of the most talented teenagers in the world on the bench.
“Rob,” says Francis Mead. “I think you’re being a tad negative about Utd. I think they played with quite a lot of freedom on the first half - were clearly the better team and are slightly unfortunate to not be ahead. It doesn’t feel like a Van Gaal performance to me - but you could say I’m seeing through Jose-tinted eyes.”
That’s the difference: the great managers don’t tint spectacles, they tint eyes. I agree, they were the better team - but of the front four, Martial is out of form and Rooney and Mata are not at the standard United will need to win the Premier League this season, so it puts a lot on Ibrahimovic.
HALF time: Hull City 0-0 Manchester United
A fine defensive performance from Hull, who have also had a couple of chances on the break. United have been too slow in possession. See you in 10 minutes for the second half.
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45+2 min Clucas plays a really nice pass towards the edge of the area, where Hernandez’s low, first-time drive is too close to De Gea and comfortably saved.
45 min Ibrahimovic stretches out a telescopic leg to bring down Rooney’s free-kick and take it around Jakupovic in one movement, but it goes a fraction too far and his second touch is an improvised backheel into the side netting. I think he had been given offside anyway.
44 min “I don’t think I’ve seen a more miserable looking bunch than the Manchester United bench just then,” says John Tumbridge.
43 min Valencia’s flat cross finds the head of Mata, who flicks a clever header across goal from 15 yards. It was a comfortable save for Jakupovic but a decent effort.
42 min This might be a day for the subtler skills of Herrera and Rashford. Hull have kept United out with few alarms.
40 min If you’re just joining us the big news is that Ugly House to Lovely House is on Channel 4, and you’d be better off watching that.
39 min Ibrahimovic, dropping deep, plays a cracking through pass to find Rooney on the right of the box. He cuts back a fine first-time cross towards Martial, who isn’t as alert as he might be and doesn’t take advantage of the opportunity.
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37 min A great chance for United. Mata beats Robertson beautifully without touching the ball and crosses into the six-yard box. The diving Jakupovic palms it out to Rooney, who shoots first time from six yards. Huddlestone’s tackle takes a little bit of pace of the ball, and then Davies chests it off the line. Rooney appeals for a penalty but it looked like it was chest rather than hand.
36 min Hernandez’s flicked header from the edge of the area is comfortably held by the plunging De Gea. It was a decent effort though, and Hull are playing admirably.
35 min Curtis Davies should be in the England squad, shouldn’t he? He has been terrific so far, as usual
34 min Mata is shoved over just outside the D by Diomande, a silly foul to give away. It looks like Mata is going to take it. He does, and it’s a meek effort that is held down by his feet by Jakupovic.
33 min “What is this dark power Fellaini has over managers?” says Hubert O’Hearn. “How does the great gallumphing foul-o-matic still start for supposed title challengers? It surely isn’t his sunny personality that charms them.”
Yeah, I thought Schneiderlin might be Mourinho’s sort but I’m not sure what’s going on there.
32 min Pogba, bored of this increasingly tedious nonsense, hits a bouncing shot from 25 yards that kicks up and is comfortably held by Jakupovic.
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30 min “Rooney has scored 1 and assisted 1 in the first 2 games for United this season,” says Dan McGarry. “It’s time people gave the lad some respect. Fans always complaining about loyalty, there aren’t many players to have delivered so consistently year in year out for one team. Loyalty goes two ways. He’s a Utd legend.”
I agree: he has scored one and assisted one in the first two games.
29 min Snodgrass is back on, though he is running a little gingerly and may have to go off.
28 min “Can we assume Henrik Mkhitaryan has joined Juan Mata and Bastien Schweinsteiger in the massed ranks of people whose lives Jose wants to make unhappy?” asks Daniel Brooke. I just assumed it was a Pires/Sunderland type of thing.
26 min A magnificent pass from Huddlestone to Diomande sets Hull on the counter-attack. He plays it back to the left-back Robertson, who curls a wonderful cross towards Snodgrass at the far post, and Shaw defends superbly to save a probable goal. Snodgrass’s momentum takes him through into the post and he’s receiving treatment. Hull could win this you know. Their gameplan has bee immaculate so far.
24 min The free-kick is 28 yards from goal, almost perfectly central, and Snodgrass will take it. It’s a lovely curling effort, over the wall and just wide of the right-hand post with De Gea motionless. He has a gorgeous left foot, does Snodgrass.
23 min A good ball from Huddlestone finds Diomande, who is fouled 25 yards from goal by Fellaini. He is booked and can have no complaints. Correction: he should have no complaints, but he’s a footballer so complain is precisely what he does.
21 min It’s a surprise to see that Hull have had 41 per cent of the possession because it feels like they have been camped in their own half.
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19 min Ibrahimovic’s shot from the edge of the area is blocked. This has, so far, been like watching Van Gaal’s United. The difference is that now they have more players who can produce a goal out of nothing, but it’s a reminder that they are still in transition. I would guess that, of this XI, only two or three will be in the first XI in two years’ time.
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17 min “You have to answer us Rob,” says Archith Mohan. “Why is Rooney in this team!!!”
I haven’t a clue. The only sensible explanation I can come up with is that Mourinho didn’t want the political hassle of dropping him early on, so will bide his time and phase him out. But you risk losing important points by doing that.
15 min This United attack still looks a little slow, with only Martial of the front six having real pace. That is allowing Hull to defend relatively comfortably for the time being.
13 min The full-backs are very important for United in this system, and so far they haven’t really been in the game going forward.
12 min Hull will be pleased with this start. They look compact defensively and have hinted at doing something on the break.
10 min The first half chance for United. Martial’s clipped cross from a narrow position is headed just over the bar by Ibrahimovic, 12 yards from goal. Some of the United fans thought it was in. It was a terrific effort because he was facing away from goal and the cross wasn’t the greatest.
7 min “Contrary to the popular view of Mike Phelan’s job, I reckon it’s so easy, I could do it,” says Gary Naylor. “You take the register on Friday and make sure the kit man has the corresponding shirts washed and you send them out on Saturday with a hearty handshake and hope for the best. Yep - I could do that.”
Now I think about it, you and Mike Phelan have never been seen in the same room. At least not one without a mirror.
6 min Snodgrass curls the free-kick into the wall, and Huddlestone rakes the rebound into orbit.
5 min Fellaini drags Diomande over 22 yards from goal, a needless free-kick. It’s a fair way to the right of centre, but Snodgrass won’t mind that.
3 min A good move from United involving Pogba, Ibrahimovic, Rooney, Mata and then Valencia, whose deep cross is pulled out of the air by Ibrahimovic with a remarkable scorpion kick. It goes back across the face of goal before being cleared.
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2 min A nice pass from Pogba allows Martial to open his legs, but it’s Elmohamady who shows his class with a strong interception.
1 min There’s a fine atmosphere at the Whateveritscalledthesedays Stadium. United kick off from left to right.
The players emerge into the open. “Your Saturday night starts here!” says the BT Sport commentator Darren Fletcher, callously failing to acknowledge those who have been quaffing pints of Fleeting Happiness Facilitator since midday.
So, both teams are unchanged from their Premier League matches last weekend. “We’ve got real strength in depth,” smiles Mike Phelan, who now has 14 senior players after the return of Harry Maguire.
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Team news
Hull (4-3-3) Jakupovic; Elmohamady, Livermore, Davies, Robertson; Huddlestone, Clucas, Meyler; Snodgrass, Hernandez, Diomande.
Substitutes: Kuciak, Maguire, Maloney, Olley, Clackstone, Hinchcliffe, Bowen.
Man Utd (4-2-3-1) De Gea; Valencia, Bailly, Blind, Shaw; Pogba, Fellaini; Mata, Rooney, Martial; Ibrahimovic.
Substitutes: Romero, Smalling, Herrera, Mkhitaryan, Schneiderlin, Young, Rashford.
Referee Jon Moss.
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Preamble
Hello, good evening and put that bloody smartphone down for just two minutes will you. In a post-Leicester Premier League, we are desensitised to surprise. But Hull forming a temporary Big Four with Chelsea and the two Manchester clubs was on the WTF side of unexpected. Those four teams are the only ones with 100 per cent record in this season’s Premier League, and two of them - Hull and Manchester United - meet in the evening game at the elegantly named KCOM Stadium.
Hull know this won’t last, and that life begins at 40 – the points total that usually guarantees safety. United don’t know their exact target, but they do know it’s a big one. In the two seasons that Jose Mourinho and Pep Guardiola did battle in La Liga, they finished second with 92 and 91 points respectively.
After last season’s endearing, old-fashioned competitiveness, when anyone could at least draw with anyone, it seems likely that the bar will be raised this year. The highest total by a team that did not win the English top flight was Manchester United’s 89 in Sergio Aguero season. If only they hadn’t drawn with Stoke in September.
It was Mourinho who made everyone in England, particularly Sir Alex Ferguson, realise that the points you win in August are worth the same as the ones you win in April. He won’t be happy unless United get three of them today.
Kick off is at 5.30pm.
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