Player Ratings: Norwich City 1-2 Manchester United

Starters

Sergio Romero: 5/10

Norwich’s one attempt on goal hit the back of the net. Sure, it was a great strike through traffic from Todd Cantwell, but still...

Diogo Dalot: 4/10

Subbed off in the 63rd minute for a 19-year-old. Where my “Dalot is better than AWB” stans, now?

Eric Bailly: 5/10

He did some good stuff, some bad stuff, and some weird stuff. Glad to have our Haley’s Comet of football comedy back. Hope you stay healthy, fam!

Harry Maguire: 6/10

Scored the game winner. Thank the maker.

Luke Shaw: 5/10

My conspiracy theory is United allowed Norwich to force extra time so that Shaw would be locked into developing some match fitness. To be fair, he had some bright spots including closing down Teemu Pukki in what appeared to be one of Norwich’s best opportunities.

Scott McTominay: 5/10

Effort merchant with no end product. Needs to continue learning from the man who replaced him in the 78th minute.

Fred: 5/10

Like Scotty Mac, lots of effort and not much else.

Bruno Fernandes: 4/10

This feels like a difference of perception. Some will argue that he was out there trying to make things happen. Others will suggest that his game was way off and borderline reckless at times. I’m in the latter and think he may need to take the upcoming Brighton match off after playing 291 (!) minutes inside of eight days.

Jesse Lingard: 4/10

Tepid at best. Subbed off in the 63rd minute for Rashford because Solskjaer needed a player to actually influence on the left wing. Would like to have seen Lingard make an impact in his first opportunity in a while to start.

Odion Ighalo: 7/10

When United were dangerous in attack, Ighalo was the man up top doing the dirty work. Between delivering the opening goal to holding up play so well that he drew a red card at the top of the box, he continues to do the business. He’s scored in every game he’s started by the way.

Juan Mata: 3/10

Had a decent passing percentage. Unfortunately, Mata is not the guy to have on the pitch if you trot out most of the B squad with him.

Substitutes

Brandon Williams: 4/10

Despite being put on in the 63rd minute, he managed to put in a full shift. Had good stats, but didn’t do much more than the man he replaced.

Marcus Rashford: 5/10

Had a difficult assignment against Max Aarons but played fine. Would like to see Rashford get his first goal back before the doubters decide to get loud — nearly did it with an incredible shot that required all of Tim Krul’s gloves to save.

Mason Greenwood: 6/10

Had some dangerous moments. Would like to see to him play centrally instead of the right.

Paul Pogba: 7/10

It’s almost like he’s one of the best midfielders converting oxygen into carbon dioxide. Instant impact the moment he walked onto the pitch and was the catalyst for United putting Norwich under siege.

Nemanja Matić: 6/10

The Nemanjassaince is quite the thing to behold. Provides the competence you need at the 6 to let Pogba and Bruno do their thing ahead of him. Let’s hope they never administer a PED test for Matić.

Anthony Martial: 4/10

Was given 24 minutes in extra time to save United’s shocking performance. Couldn’t replicate the magic of Wednesday, but who can blame him?

Manager

Ole Gunnar Solskjaer: 4/10

Squad rotation is important. So is anticipating the influence that a combo of 11 players will have on the field. Let us pray we NEVER see that starting XI trotted back out to start a match because it would struggle to get out of a relegation battle.