Devil’s Diary: Slow Maguire, goal-scoring Martial and the new Zidane or Manchester United’s second win

After the win over Liverpool, Manchester United won the second game, beating Melbourne Victory 4-1 thanks to goals from McTominay, Martial, Rashford and a Lupancu own goal. Who performed well in the second preliminary match and who did not?

Slow Maguire

The cashed goal confirmed the well-known fact to the Hague that Maguire is too slow to be counted on in the starting line-up. The Manchester United captain simply doesn’t keep up when counter-attacking and on other occasions, and he simply can’t be where he should be in time.

Try as he might, this indisposition will cost the team a lot of goals if he is on regularly.

Otherwise, he played the rest of the first half well. It is fair to say, however, that since the goal was scored it has been mostly one goal attacking, and the Melbourne forwards have not put any substantial pressure on their opponents. Rather, they were waiting to see what their opponent would come up with.

Martial takes another breath

Just as there is a problem with speed with Maguire, there is a problem with Martial in terms of scoring goals. But the question is whether the French striker needs proper confidence or he just doesn’t have the confidence to pull a top team goal-wise.

He has been performing well in the preparation so far, scoring a goal in each half, plus he is very active. If Cristiano Ronaldo stays at Old Trafford and Martial manages to carry over his interim performances to the Premier League, the Hag would have the spearhead striker position sorted out perfectly.

But then if the Portuguese cannonballer does indeed leave, Martial could become the No. 1 spearhead striker and would finally have enough space to show his abilities. Then all he has to do is score goals!

No Donny van de Beek

If anyone was going to cash in on the arrival of that Hague, it was undoubtedly a Dutch footballer. However, the first few games after his return from Everton certainly don’t fill the fans with confidence in this creative midfielder.

Van de Beek, however, has had a very difficult time. If the new United coach decides to stay with the team next season, he will definitely need to have some patience with him to find his lost confidence. But this is true with more players.

New Zidane great again

Once again Iqbal Zidane was in great form, his calmness on the ball, movement and accurate passing are a great promise for the future at his still young age.

Nani’s salute

The Manchester United legend got the chance to play against his former team for a few minutes. However, the Portuguese winger, who played 228 games for Manchester United, scoring 41 goals and assisting on another 72, ran out for the last time in a league game in a Red Devils jersey on 16 August 2014 against Swansea.

He was called on at half-time by Louis van Gaal, but it didn’t help and Manchester United lost 1-2. The only ones who still remember that game are David de Gea and Phil Jones, who assisted Wayne Rooney for United’s only goal.

After that, Nani spent time at Sporting, Fenerbahce, Valencia, Lazio, Orlando, Venezia. Finally, a few days ago, he signed for Melbourne. He’s certainly had a lot of experiences in that time. The same can be said for Manchester United, just not in a positive way.

Hopefully the tide is turning! It looks promising so far, but there’s a lot of work to be done for that Hague!

Source: Transfermarkt, Manchester United