Ruud handed reality check as decent oppostion I control game

SIR Jim Ratcliffe has now attended seven Premier League matches involving United since he became a minority shareholder. They have not won one of them.

- SAMUEL LUCKHURST

Ratcliffe will have to venture to Suffolk in three weeks if he is to witness a visibly and pleasingly unrecognisable United. It is now three wins in ten Premier League games. Only Crystal Palace and Southampton have scored fewer goals than 13th-placed United.

There were bound to be parallels aplenty with the Dutch-managed United of last month. United's shape was forlorn, as it usually is against the Premier League's big hitters, their play was devoid of strategy, largely absent of quality and reliant on the counter-attack.

United were without ten players and the absences of Christian t Eriksen and Kobbie Mainoo were particularly felt in a contest controlled by the visiting side. It was a novelty for United to encounter a costlier midfield than their own but Moises Caicedo's British record £125million fee is starting to look moot now.

Ruud van Nistelrooy's week in the manager's office ended creditably. Van Nistelrooy has conducted himself impeccably on the touchline, at the training ground and with the press since his temporary promotion on Monday.

United ought to be bullish about two wins against PAOK and Leicester City next week.