Jarrad Branthwaite ‘fails Man Utd audition’ after nightmare first half at Old Trafford amid transfer links
JARRAD BRANTHWAITE had a nightmare game as he was part of an Everton team that leaked four goals to Manchester United.
Braces from Marcus Rashford and Joshua Zirkzee handed Ruben Amorim a dream Premier League Old Trafford debut.
Branthwaite, 22, was heavily linked with a transfer to the Red Devils from the Toffees last summer.
However, United saw two bids – the second worth around £50million with add ons – for the England international rejected and moved to sign Matthijs de Ligt and Leny Yoro in central defence instead.
Sunday afternoon’s clash saw Branthwaite playing against United for the first time since the links.
And things got off to a disastrous start for him as Rashford’s opener took a heavy deflection off of him to guide it past Jordan Pickford and into the goal.
It got worse for the defender seven minutes later when Amad Diallo managed to poke the ball away from him before Bruno Fernandes assisted Zirkzee for a tap in.
Reacting to the performance on social media, fans joked that he had failed his Man Utd “audition”.
One said: “If today was meant to be a secret audition for Jarrad Branthwaite at Old Trafford, this has been a first half to forget.”
A second joked: “Has it? He’s scored one and secondary assisted the other.”
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A third added: “Double agent Branthwaite.”
Another added: “Branthwaite already scoring goals at the Stretford End and he hasn’t even signed yet.”
The result left Everton two points above the drop zone, while United moved into the top half of the table.
Amorim needs A LOT of time on training pitch to fix Man Utd... unfortunately he won't get it, writes Charlie Wyett
IN theory at least, the only way is up for Manchester United, writes Charlie Wyett.
We are nearly a third of the way through this Premier League season and it is still staggering to see United lurking in 12th place.
They have managed just four wins with a goal difference of 0. Only Everton, Crystal Palace and Southampton have scored less.
It is certainly not a false position and a point at Ipswich illustrated the massive job that Ruben Amorim faces.
United’s fans sang the name of their new manager throughout the game.
They also gave the players rapturous applause on the final whistle and although this was an improvement on some of the performances this season, the bar has been set pretty low.
The club’s optimistic supporters will see that their team is only six points off the top four. Ultimately, though, it is difficult to see United even reaching last season’s final position of eighth as they look worse.
United’s patched-up defence will improve – and a three-man formation at the back will help them – but you have to wonder where the goals are going to come from. Marcus Rashford struck after 81 seconds and then went missing for the rest of his 68 minutes on the pitch.
Rasmus Hojlund and Joshua Zirkzee were also introduced in that double change midway inside the second half but added absolutely nothing. What a terrible couple of signings they have proved to be and United’s fans would swap both of them for Ipswich’s Liam Delap.
Amorim did not celebrate the Rashford goal and paced around his technical area throughout looking uneasy.
Each time there was a break in play, he called over players for instructions.
Alejandro Garnacho headed over to the touchline on a couple of occasions while there were also words for Diogo Dalot, Casemiro and Jonny Evans.
Amorim, a manager with infectious enthusiasm, will be hopeful he can get his message across to all of the players in the next few weeks.
But the problem for the Portuguese coach is that this was the first of 10 games in the space of 33 days.
What he really needs are spells on the training ground without a midweek game but he does not have that luxury.