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Manchester United are asking for a serious restart in the summer after the end of their season. This terrible defeat against Cardiff, already relegated city, followed the draw last Sunday in Huddersfield, a city already down. This means that Ole Gunnar Solskjær's team has been afloat since his appointment as permanent director.
It was late March and since then, only Watford and West Ham United have been beaten on a run of two wins and eight losses in all competitions.
This afternoon, they started well, but they were powerless in front of goal and allowed Neil Warnock's men to come out too easily.
This means that United finished sixth – the position he occupied before Solskjær took over before Christmas – and made his entry into the Europa League at the end of July if Watford won the FA Cup.
Solskjær made his full debut at Mason Greenwood and made five changes when Diogo Dalot, Andreas Pereira, Jesse Lingard and Chris Smalling also made the debut. Antonio Valencia, the captain, was on the bench, his last commitment before leaving, while Ander Herrera, who will also leave, was not included at all.
Warnock made two changes: Víctor Camarasa, who was injured, and Danny Ward, who became substitute, were replaced by Kenneth Zohore and Leandro Bacuna.
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Cardiff's first goal was scored after Nathaniel Mendez-Laing pushed the ball past Dalot into the box. When the right back tried to recover, he stretched one leg and No 19 was shot down. As Dalot protested, the referee, Jonathan Moss, inflicted the penalty, which seemed severe. Mendez-Laing progressed and scored for the delight of traveling fans, who sang "1-0 for the championship" and, to their former manager, "You'll be fired in the morning".
For the second half, Solskjær took off from Phil Jones and brought in Anthony Martial. Scott McTominay was forced to return to the center back conceding a touch near the goal, under pressure from Zohore.
It was McTominay's missed tackle that led to Cardiff's second place – this allowed Josh Murphy to get in the right and with a big clearance past David de Gea, he spotted Mendez-Laing who was old advanced to finish.
United were turning into shambolic territory. Every time they came back, a loose pass for Martial or Lingard, or a failed shot by Paul Pogba or Rashford, put an end to any hope of return. There was a panicked edge, a lack of the required quality: calm. Cardiff was the side strutting in the afternoons and whenever they were attacking, they looked in control and were in danger of scoring.
Solskjær's last action was to take off from Pereira and Dalot for Angel Gomes and Valencia, who received a warm welcome.
But that turned out as much content as the local fans would feel. At the final whistle, there was – unsurprisingly – a handful of boos.
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