Man Utd’s mid-season saviour shows class to salvage Fulham draw with Newcastle
“I’ll go for Gabriel from Arsenal, Jude Bellingham, Michael Olise, Kylian Mbappe and Harry Kane. Actually, I’d swap Declan Rice for Harry Kane,” Paul Scholes said this week when asked for his dream Manchester United additions.
A man who himself came out of retirement in January 2012 in a Man Utd rescue act is doing nothing to ease concerns of Red Devils fans seeing news of their three-man January shortlist as further evidence of their perpetual fall from grace.
A fallen giant that counts Nemanja Vidic, Bruno Fernandes, Patrice Evra, Henrik Larsson and Juan Mata among its mid-season additions is now looking at Manchester City outcast Rayan Ait-Nouri, Crystal Palace’s Tyrick Mitchell and Fulham substitute Rodrigo Muniz as possible recruits to save their season.
Man Utd were linked with a number of left-backs in the summer transfer window but decided not to make a move as top target Lewis Hall proved to be too expensive.
That’s predictably come back to bite them as Ayden Heaven, Noussair Mazraoui and Diogo Dalot have all played out of position on the left in recent weeks to cover for the injured Luke Shaw.
Michael Carrick and Man Utd are also counting the cost of failing to source a striker to compete with Benjamin Sesko, who’s out with a shin injury, as Joshua Zirkzee again pushes for the exit having failed to secure his move away from Old Trafford in the summer.
Leeds’ Dominic Calvert-Lewin, Al-Ahli’s Ivan Toney and Crystal Palace’s Jean-Philippe Mateta have all been linked with a January move, but it was Muniz who staked his claim on Saturday.
Dan Burn had already had a goal ruled out for Newcastle as the visitors missed a host of other chances before Jacob Murphy gave them a deserved lead with a stunning effort from the edge of the box, running from halfway before cutting inside and smashing a left-foot shot into the far corner of Bernd Leno’s goal.
But Fulham responded almost immediately to extend their unbeaten run to four games under Alvaro Arbeloa.
The ball fell to Muniz with Newcastle bodies all around him and he expertly found the only possible route to goal, bumping the ball into the net with the outside of his right foot via deflection. It was a fabulous way to score his first goal of the season having traded watching Raul Jimenez from the bench for watching Gonzalo Garcia from the bench.
He’s got a perfectly decent goalscoring record for Fulham, with his two in the Carabao Cup this season meaning he’s got a goal every 109 minutes, while he’s scored 30 in his career for the Premier League side at close to one every two games.
A Man Utd move to secure his services would be met with predictable and entirely reasonable scoffing on the basis of him not starting any Premier League games for Fulham so far this season.
That’s not the calibre of striker that Manchester United should be in the market for. But there aren’t many who meet their cheap and eminently available criteria, and if Muniz can continue to show his value as an impact substitute in the next couple of months, he’s in with a chance of underwhelming at Old Trafford in the second half of the season.