Man United scored five times for the first time in the league since Alex Ferguson’s last game in charge.
They beat Cardiff 5-1 in the Premier League on Saturday and Alan Shearer said that the one thing that was outstanding about United was that they were always looking to pass forwards.
Talking on Match of the Day (Sat, BBC1, 10.30pm), Shearer also said that it was obvious that the United players had stopped playing for Jose Mourinho.
“For the first time in a PL game this season Man United outran their opponents,” Shearer said.
“There was definitely more freedom, more movement in particularly from the front three.
“The key thing was passing forwards, not sideways or backwards and that was the most outstanding thing in the game for me that that was the first thought.
“There’s no doubt about it, those players had stopped running for their manager.”
OPINION
Neil Warnock must have been tearing his hair out after hearing that Mourinho had been sacked just before United we’re die to travel to play Cardiff. This was entirely expected, maybe not the five goals, but the huge reaction from the players. They might say they hadn’t stopped trying for their former manager but it was obvious that they had. As the pundits on Match of the Day pointed out, this was the first time this season that United had outrun their opponents in the Premier League. That’s noting short of disgraceful for players earning the amount of money they’re on. It was the right decision to sack Mourinho and teams won’t want to play United now but some of the big-name players need to have a long hard look at themselves in the mirror. For fans though, this was much more like the United of old and it was a dream start for Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.