Premier League

Manchester United are beating Newport in the FA Cup, but Ten Hag must be worried

The Red Devils are winning 2-1 with goals from Bruno Fernandes and Kobbie Mainoo.

By Darwin Largo

He's not happy.
He's not happy.
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Matches like this Sunday's between Manchester United and Newport County can be deceiving for the giants. When the difference in quality and budget between one team and another are so great, many top clubs tend to get complacent and relax. And sometimes they pay dearly for it. As the FA Cup is now the main goal for The Red Devils, boss Erik Ten Hag wanted to avoid unpleasant surprises and decided to have all the stars of the squad on the field.

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Things started perfectly for them, as they only needed 7 minutes to score the opener: in a play that seemed to be offside by Alejandro Garnacho, the Argentine winger sent a drilled cross to Bruno Fernandes, who shot hard with his right foot and made impossible the save of goalkeeper Nick Townsend.

And that was not all, as on 13 minutes Manchester United doubled the lead with a similar move, although this time from the other side of the field. Diogo Dalot entered the box, made some movements with his body to deceive the defender who was trying to block him and assisted Kobbie Mainoo, who from the line of the box shot with great precision and scored the second goal. It was also a very special moment for the 18-year-old as he scored his first goal in 14 games as a professional player.

Everything looked set for an easy win for the Red Devils, but they relaxed and their opponents took advantage. On 36 minutes, Bryn Morris received the ball outside the box, lifted his head and had the courage to shoot from there. His shot was powerful and was lucky to deflect off a defender, making it impossible for goalkeeper Altay Bayindir to react.

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The coach must not be satisfied

Surely Erik Ten Hag had hoped to go into halftime with a multi-goal lead so that he could make changes during the second half and not physically tax his best players. But with the narrow one-goal difference, he won't be able to take that risk just yet. That's why he will probably harangue the team to improve their performance and score several goals.


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