Full time wolves 1_1 Manchester United.

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Thrilling.

Solskjær defends his two penalty-takers system
Ole Gunnar Solsjkær has faith in Paul Pogba to keep taking penalties

Traoré justifies Nuno’s faith but more hurdles await Wolves marathon men


That’s it for tonight’s blog. I’ll leave you with the brilliant Paul Doyle’s match report from Molineux. Night!

Manchester United held to draw at Wolves after Paul Pogba fails from spot


Ole Gunnar Solskjaer speaks

“We knew they would come out like a house on fire in the second half, and they got the goal they probably deserved. We took control again after that and we could have won it. I thought we finished the game the strongest. The first half was a mature performance, the second was a bit sloppier. We’re a young team and we are improving. You have to learn on the pitch.

“Paul and Marcus are the designated penalty-takers, and it’s up to them to decide there and then who feels, ‘This is mine.’ That’s our system, you can see the slides on the Powerpoint. [Will it change?] No, not at all. The two of them have been very confident and I like players with confidence.

“I don’t think it was a booking [for Daniel James]. I haven’t seen the video; if you’ve got it, show it me, but when I saw it live I didn’t think it was a dive. He gets kicked a lot because of his pace.”


Ruben Neves speaks

“We had to adjust at half-time. Man Utd started really well, pressed us high up the pitch, and we found it difficult to control the game. We adjusted, took some risks and did well in the second half.

“We worked on that corner during the week, and fortunately I scored. I’m really happy. It’s horrible, honestly [waiting for VAR], but that’s football now. Thankfully this time they gave us the goal.”



Gary Neville: “It’s not like ... spin the bottle.”

Jamie Carragher: “Who’ve you played spin the bottle with?!”


That was Pogba’s fourth penalty miss in a year. He’s missed 36 per cent of his Premier League penalties. Marcus Rashford, I think, has missed 0 per cent of his in senior football

Neville is properly on one about the penalty. He’s said “this is not right” umpteen times. “This is a Manchester United penalty. This is not a tombola. This is not under-5s on the playground

Manchester United held to draw at Wolves after Paul Pogba fails from spot


Here’s Gary Neville on Paul Pogba

“Before he even took the penalty I was fuming. I’m not sure whether Rashford took the one off Pogba last week or vice versa tonight. Why is there a debate on who takes a penalty? There should never be a debate. There wasn’t a leader on the pitch tonight. Something’s not right there. At first I thought, ‘It’s typical you, you’re selfish, why are you even thinking about taking a penalty off a player?’ But we’ve looked at the footage of last week’s penalty and Pogba and Rashford had a long chat before that as well. It’s weird. Only Ole Gunnar Solskjaer can tell us what happened.”


Well, that was a lot of fun. Martial scored a fine goal, Neves equalised with a scorcher and Pogba missed a penalty. Both teams will feel they could have won, United in particular, but both will be reasonably happy with a point.


United almost stole it at the last, when Pogba’s low cross just evaded Martial. Shaw spanked the loose ball at Patricio but by then Pereira had been penalised for blocking a defender.


90+3 min Nothing much is happening.


90+1 min Another Wolves sub: Patrick Cutrone replaces the marvellous Raul Jimenez.

90+1 min Four minutes of added time. Neto tries to run Wan-Bissaka, who stalks him and makes another fine interception.


90 min Maguire slides a nice pass down the inside-left channel to find Martial, who is wrongly flagged offside.


89 min A double change for United: Greenwood replaces James, Pereira replaces Rashford.


88 min “The incessant moaning about VAR is worse than any amount of time ‘wasted’ on getting correct refereeing decisions,” says Gustav Björklund. “If we didn’t have VAR tonight, former top 6 club players turned pundits would be zooming in on still footage with evidence of error in refeering, complaining that it was missed, or saying they got away with it, based on which club they played for. That is not a better system. It doesn’t matter if someone is 5 millimeters or 5 meters offside - the rule still applies, and he same goes for handball or any other offence. It’s the same as before, where a human referee makes a judgement call, helped by the three other officials in the stadium, only now the ref on the pitch is helped on by yet another ref, this one in a shed near Heathrow. The moaning has to stop.”

But what about the people moaning about the people moaning?

87 min A Wolves sub: Neto on, Jota off.


86 min Wolves break superbly down the left through Jota, whose deep cross is screwed over the bar from a tight angle by Dendoncker.


85 min And this is no different, Mata failing to clear the first man.


85 min James beats Jota superbly and finds Wan-Bissaka, whose cross deflects behind for a corner. United’s set-pieces have been poor tonight.


85 min “I’d prefer to see VAR quietly buried and never spoken of again,” says Ciarán McCabe. “But if it is here to stay, how about a time limit? If the VAR team cannot decide within 30 seconds of the incident with the aid of replays there was no clear and obvious error. Play on!”

I like the idea in principle, but I’ve a feeling there would be unforeseeable fiascos.


84 min Wan-Bissaka is booked for blocking the ball with his shoulder. Jon Moss, the referee, hasn’t had a great game.


82 min Traore beats Shaw yet again and swings a high cross towards Jota beyond the far post. He tries to head the ball back into the far corner but plants it straight at de Gea.


81 min Juan Mata replaces Jesse Lingard, who had a fair-to-mediocre game. At his best Lingard is a deceptively dangerous player, but he hasn’t been at his best for a while now.


80 min Traore beats three players on a storming run before driving a dangerous low cross that is cleared by Lindelof.

79 min I certainly don’t think Rashford bottled the penalty - he took one in a World Cup match, and also scored the winner against PSG. I suspect he is slightly in awe of Pogba and deferred to him.



78 min An execrable pass from Shaw gives Wolves the chance to break, but Wan-Bissaka makes an important interception. He’s had an outstanding game.

77 min Rashford’s curler from the edge of the box is blocked by Bennett, and then James - who has had a good second half - wins a corner.

75 min I did Pogba a disservice. What seems to have happened is this: Pogba picked the ball up, having won the penalty, and Rashford was happy for him to take it. It’s still a load of nonsense, though, because Rashford is a far better penalty taker.


73 min Wolves are chasing not just a hat-trick of wins, but a hat-trick of 2-1 wins against Manchester United at Molineux this year. I don’t think this game will end 1-1.


72 min “Surely VAR has got to bring in the equivalent of the ‘umpire’s call’ rule in cricket - either that or hire an anatomist to decide where a shoulder becomes an arm,” says Dan C. “The theatre of the Neves goal was ruined by 2 minutes watching someone move a line a few pixels back and forth, it’s kind of pathetic.”

I’d get rid of the whole sorry shambles. But assuming we are stuck with it, they should definitely introduce something like that for offsides.


70 min James scurries into the box and has a shot blocked by Coady. This has been a cracking second half.


 I would suggest that Gary Neville’s views on that penalty may be worth watching after the game. It seems Pogba pulled rank on Rashford, even though Rashford is a much better penalty taker

RUI PATRICIO SAVES IT!
68 min Nice one, Paul. He bulleted the penalty towards goal, and Patricio flew to his right to beat it away. It wasn’t a terrible penalty, but it was at a saveable height. And when you pull a stunt like, you’d better score.