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Manchester United’s penalty takers suffer a Krul twist of fate

<span>Photograph: Marc Atkins/Getty Images</span>
Photograph: Marc Atkins/Getty Images

Has the Manchester United bus run over a black cat on a Europa League away trip? Has Jesse Lingard cracked a mirror from overuse? Maybe Ole Gunnar Solskjær was looking at the blue sky and not the pavement and walked under a tradesman’s ladder. Or maybe United just aren’t any good at penalties, that’s the other possibility.

Marcus Rashford and Anthony Martial both missed spot kicks in this breeze of a victory at Carrow Road. That means, that of the six penalties they have been awarded so far this season (the highest total in the Premier League) Solskjær’s men have contrived to miss four of them. They’ve been missed by three different players to boot, Paul Pogba the other and that after a long debate with Rashford over who deserved the right to mess it up.

On the day, Rashford’s was the worst of them, a shot placed so gently down the centre that the Norwich goalkeeper Tim Krul could not only fall on the ball, but smother it, all with enough mental capacity remaining spare to start compiling his Christmas list. Rashford the England international, you will recall, scored the decisive spot kick in the miracle of the 16th arrondisement, or whatever they’re calling the Champions League last 16 victory over Paris St Germain last season. Martial’s was a bit better, down low to Krul’s left, but it was some distance inside the post and didn’t require the Dutchman to fully extend himself, neither literally nor metaphorically.

Related: Manchester United shrug off penalty failures to secure win at Norwich

In the ground on the day there was some relief that these gifts were spurned. Firstly, they would have killed the contest even earlier than happened otherwise and neither the home fans nor the United end that had travelled the lengthy journey cross-country would really have wanted that. Secondly, there was the fact that both awards came after lengthy consultation with VAR and a sense that neither incident – a shoulder to shoulder challenge between Daniel James and Ben Godfrey, a shot caught on the top of Todd Cantwell’s arm with his back turned – were really so egregiously obvious an infraction as to merit overturning the decision of referee Stuart Attwell.

Both were ultimately awarded however and both were ultimately missed and, given the trend, the question must be asked as to why. Was it to do with the performance of Krul, who became the eighth Premier League keeper to save two spot kicks in a game? The Dutchman joins such not-quite-legends as Pavel Srnicek, Martin Stekelenberg and Heurelho Gomes (who has managed the feat twice) in this particular pantheon. He is so renowned for his penalty keeping, meanwhile, that Louis van Gaal used him as a shootout sub against Costa Rica during the 2014 World Cup.

In his club career, however, Krul had saved only three kicks before this match, two of them in the Premier League back in 2011-12 (for Newcastle and against David Dunn and Frank Lampard if you’re interested). So maybe there’s another cause. And the prime candidate is surely the mental attitude of United’s takers. There’s a fine line for any pro between the necessary arrogance to impose yourself on a match and a complacency that can undermine it. In the spot-kicks United have missed this season there has been a touch of the lackadaisical to each of them. This has sometimes been apparent in United’s play more broadly too.

The good news for Solskjær and his side was that in the rest of their play during this match, decisiveness was one of the defining qualities. Aaron Wan-Bissaka typified the quality most clearly with an imperious performance at right-back, but he was hardly alone. Rashford responded to his penalty failing by scoring United’s second goal of the game just five minutes later. His finish displayed the kind of ice cold technique of which the 21-year-old is eminently capable, but does not deliver consistently enough. United’s third goal, meanwhile, was converted just as coolly by Martial as he dinked Rashford’s looping lay-off over the advancing Krul. Solskjær has been outspoken in his support of Martial, not only in keeping the previously malcontent Frenchman in his squad but in insisting he can be the club’s main striker. With that goal, and in much of Martial’s diligent work lower down the pitch (it was his 20 yard through ball that sent James clear for the first penalty), the Norwegian will feel vindicated.