Middlesbrough destroy United
Middlesbrough 4 Manchester United 1
Any lingering pretence of a Manchester United title challenge was sunk in embarrassing fashion at the Riverside.
Eight days before a so-called showdown with Chelsea, the Red Devils turned in a collective performance so bad it must raise genuine doubts over their ability to avoid humiliation against Jose Mourinho’s men at Old Trafford next week.
Boro struck three times before the interval as United collapsed in startling fashion with Gaizka Mendieta launching a brilliant man-of-the-match show with a thunderous second-minute opener.
Once Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink had pushed Rio Ferdinand aside with ridiculous ease on the way to belting home a second, United were consigned to a damage limitation exercise.
And they did not make a very good job of that either.
Aiyegbeni Yakubu gave Boro a three-goal cushion at the break with a coolly-taken penalty and although the scoreline suggests United improved after half-time, if anything they got worse and the only wonder was it took the hosts another 31 minutes to score again with Mendieta firing home Yakubu’s cut-back.
It is not entirely unheard of for United to find themselves three goals adrift at half-time; they famously won from such a position at Tottenham four years ago.
But rarely can Sir Alex Ferguson have approached his interval teamtalk with such an air of despondency hanging over the club.
Thirteen points adrift of Chelsea at kick-off, Ferguson stressed yesterday talk of a showdown with the Premiership leaders at Old Trafford next week would be irrelevant if United could not collect three points from their trip to Teesside.
The point was reinforced by Edwin van der Sar, which made it even more ironic that he should be at fault for the goal which saw Boro start in such sensational fashion.
Mendieta’s 30-yard shot was dipping and swerving, but the big Dutchman still seemed to have it covered as he plunged to the left. Somehow, though, the ball slipped through Van der Sar’s grasp and nestled in the bottom corner.
For a while, it looked like a minor setback, with even the visiting supporters remaining in jovial mood as they repeatedly sang their tributes to George Best.
But, after the efforts of Ruud van Nistelrooy and Wayne Rooney had brought precisely no reward, United found themselves undone again, with Ferdinand now the man in the firing line.
At £29.1million, the England defender is expected to deliver far more assured performances than he is coming up with just now.
Ferdinand has already lost his international place once this season and when Sven-Goran Eriksson sees how easily Hasselbaink shrugged him off in the race to reach Mendieta’s lofted pass, another axing could be on the cards.
Having nipped in front of Ferdinand with some ease, Hasselbaink then pulled the ball back before unleashing a ferocious shot which Van der Sar got a hand to but could not keep out.
Barely able to believe what he was seeing from the touchline, Ferguson took action by replacing Phil Bardsley and throwing on Kieran Richardson. It was an obvious move given Bardsley’s inexperience but the 20-year-old could count himself unlucky as he was by no means the worst performer in a United shirt.
Richardson’s more attacking instincts did see the visitors carve out a few more opportunities but they brought nothing more than increased frustration as Ruud van Nistelrooy and Alan Smith were both booked and Wayne Rooney engaged in sustained banter with referee Alan Wiley.
The teenager had far more important things to complain about before the interval whistle blew though as Richardson’s clear tug of Stuart Parnaby’s shirt, initially unseen by Wiley, provided Yakubu with the opportunity to roll home a third from the penalty spot.
Whatever words of wisdom Ferguson aimed at his team during the break, they did not have the desired effect as they increasingly turned into a shapeless rabble, with all four members of the re-jigged rearguard guilty of crass errors.
The major surprise was that it took Ferguson until virtually the hour mark to introduce Cristiano Ronaldo off the bench.
It was a move which had negligible impact though as United fell apart in startling fashio.
Had it not been for a couple of last-ditch interventions from Smith and Mikael Silvestre, they would have been further behind long before Mendieta gleefully netted a fourth.
Ronaldo nodded home United’s 1000th Premiership goal in stoppage time but, given what went on before, it was no consolation.
