Man United were good, bad, ugly at Wolves, adding more doubt

WOLVERHAMPTON, England — It's hard to make sense of Manchester United's 4-3 win over Wolves, but it's also been difficult to make sense of Manchester United all season.

In a chaotic match at Molineux, United won twice, blew it and won again in the 97th minute thanks to a stunning solo goal from 18-year-old midfielder Kobbie Mainoo.

Man United were good, bad and ugly, all rolled into one. But especially for manager Erik ten Hag, a week that has been dominated by questions about team discipline and further speculation over whether he is still the right man for the job at Old Trafford s ended with a well-deserved victory.

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It should have been a lot more comfortable than after United dominated the first half and went into halftime 2-0 up. They led 3-1 after 75 minutes only to concede twice in 10 minutes, the second of which came five minutes into injury time. At that point it looked like United would be lucky to escape Wolverhampton with a point, but Mainoo had other ideas.

The 18-year-old danced around the penalty area and produced a superb finish into the far corner to score his first Premier League goal. Mainoo will never forget it, nor will the 3,000 traveling supporters who almost spilled onto the pitch amid the jubilation.

“A team is very happy, of course, it’s a massive victory,” Ten Hag said. “I think for a neutral fan, a spectator of this match, it was great to see. But a manager, when you see that you dominate a match for an hour and then the way we concede goals, we should better handle this on the ground. … This cannot happen.

“Then you see the team spirit and the resilience and especially in Kobbie Mainoo, it’s great to see.”

There will be questions for Ten Hag to answer once the dust settles, such as: How can his team control such important periods of play while looking so vulnerable? Even if you look past Pablo Sarabia's penalty to make it 2-1 and forget about Max Killman's close-range goal to score Wolves' second goal, how on earth did United get caught behind? break while leading 3-2 in stoppage time to give Pedro Neto the chance to make it 3-3?

It all came from a United corner and after a number of defensive changes intended to preserve the result. Raphaël Varane, Harry Maguire and Jonny Evans were all on the pitch and yet Neto still had space to run into the penalty area and drag his finish inside the near post to bring Wolves to within 90 seconds. a crucial point.

“We should handle this better,” Ten Hag said. “We need to correct these mistakes, they can't happen. We also had a few extra steps in games this season. What is required is leadership and it can't be that this happens and you concede such goals.

“It's quite naive. Stay calm, keep the ball and make sure your defensive organization is always good.”

But as the home fans bounced into the Molineux stands to celebrate as the clock ticked away, they probably weren't banking on Mainoo, a youngster with fewer than 20 senior games under his belt, being the calmest man in the stadium. It was a run and a finish – passing through Killman – that Lionel Messi would have been proud of, let alone an inexperienced teenager.

How Mainoo showed such composure at the end of such a thrilling game, only he will know.

“It's wonderful to see and I hope he stays calm like he is, like he did with his goal,” Ten Hag said. “He is determined, he is a good character and I hope he continues on this path.”

Ten Hag admitted afterward that he had “mixed feelings” about a match that had so many positives but also many of the same negatives that plagued much of the season.

Marcus Rashford scored after his ill-advised trip to Belfast and Rasmus Hojlund found the net for the third game in a row. But then there were chances that went begging and leaks in defense – such that it was not a night to talk about a turning point for this Man United team, despite the victory. Based on this evidence, it's still a long way off.

At the very least, though, Ten Hag can highlight the character of his team dragging themselves off the field to find a winner and also the hope for the future exemplified by Mainoo, the player who got it.

Ten Hag's job now is to make sense of what happened against Wolves with a view to building on that ahead of West Ham's visit on Sunday, but that could take him some time.