Manchester United continue to confound all-comers, possibly even Ruben Amorim, on a weekly basis.
This team looked dead and buried midway through the second half, their miserable performance having been utterly bereft of energy and belief. A resurgent Everton were 2-0 up and cruising with Sir Alex Ferguson, watching from the front row of the directors’ box, blanching at the feeble showing offered up by those in red. The contrast in the respective players’ confidence levels had been laid bare.
Then, from an apparently hopeless position, they revived.
Bruno Fernandes’ free kick halved the deficit before Manuel Ugarte’s beautifully controlled volley from just inside the box forced the visitors level. The mess that had been United’s defending, with Beto then Abdoulaye Doucoure benefiting to thrust the hosts into a lead they merited, was forgotten in an instant.
Even so, United might have ended beaten after the referee, Andy Madeley, awarded a penalty after Ashley Young went down under challenge with Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt. Yet the VAR recommended an on-field review and, having watched back the footage, the spot kick award was revoked.
Mark Critchley dissects the main talking points from United’s dramatic last trip to Goodison Park.
Was that another set-piece concession?
It was no surprise to see United go behind to yet another set-piece goal — the 12th conceded in the league this season. Only Wolverhampton Wanderers have let in more from dead-ball situations.
But have you really conceded from a set piece if you try (and fail )to clear a corner at least five times and the opposition score a good 11 seconds after taking their corner?
In that sense, this was maybe the worst of the many times United have been beaten on a set play under Amorim because they were given more than enough opportunities to clear their lines.
First Diogo Dalot failed, then Harry Maguire, then Noussair Mazraoui. Patrick Dorgu and Casemiro contested the same ball before Rasmus Hojlund was totally bested by Doucoure. The second goal was no better, with Doucoure beating Maguire to the rebound from Onana’s save.
Everton are a physical side. “Here, we know we need to win a lot of duels,” Amorim said in his pre-match interviews. But here his players were, floundering in the face of physicality, failing to impose themselves on their opponents, and summing up why United have been so poor at defending set pieces under his management to date.
Was this United fighting for Amorim?
In his pre-match press conference, Amorim said he did not recognise this week’s claims that his players are losing confidence in his methods. Some on the ground at Goodison Park thought differently.
“I didn’t like the (United) warm-up,” former Everton striker Duncan Ferguson said on TNT Sports pre-match. “I didn’t like the body language. I think they’re there for the taking.” Ferguson’s instincts were correct, for the first hour at least.
But an unlikely second-half comeback was evidence that these players are not totally disillusioned just yet.
To be fair, there have been several spirited displays under Amorim’s management — at the Emirates in the FA Cup, on the other side of Stanley Park, too. Here was another. Because as poor as United were in the first half, the show of fight in the second was something to build on.
Amorim may be asking why he cannot see the same week in, week out. United need to start winning regularly again, even if there is little to play for in this miserable Premier League campaign.
Sacking a manager mid-season, then hiring a replacement who plays a different style and system without giving him either the funds or the preparation time to improve things was always going to be plenty of bumps in the road. It is a positive United managed to come through this one. Even with the controversy of the non-penalty at the end.
How did the visitors revive?
For the first time since the defeat to Brighton, Bruno Fernandes started in the front three. It needed to happen. After weeks of United lacking creativity up top, Amorim wanted his playmaker-in-chief further up the pitch.
But then came the reminder of why the United manager had moved Fernandes deeper in the first place. He is one of the few in United’s squad with the technical know-how to take the ball off the defence and move it up the pitch.
Without him there, United failed to score in the first half of a Premier League game for the 20th time this season. They have only played 26.
But once Alejandro Garnacho was introduced in the second half and Fernandes reverted to the midfield, that was the spark for United’s fightback. Amorim’s side saw more of the ball, carried a far greater threat, and their captain came up with a goal too.
United need Fernandes’ creativity up top. They also need his ability to progress the ball in midfield. The problem is that he cannot be in two places at once. If United had a team full of Fernandes, they would not be in such a predicament.
Was it a penalty?
And yet for all United’s fight, they so nearly threw a hard-earned point away, and were arguably fortunate not to concede a late penalty for Harry Maguire appearing to tug on Ashley Young’s shirt in the 94th minute.
The spot kick was initially awarded by referee Andy Madley on the pitch, only to be overturned on the VAR monitor.
The Premier League’s Match Centre, which explains such decisions publicly, is still yet to deliver its verdict but the reasoning seemed to be that Maguire’s contact with Young was not sufficient for him to go to ground.
Young won a fair few penalties in his nine years at Old Trafford in a similar fashion, and it was definitely a debatable call, but it was also a surprise to see it overturned. How exactly had Madley made a clear and obvious error? That wasn’t immediately clear or obvious.
United perhaps got away with one on this occasion.
What did Ruben Amorim say?
“If you start the game without the first half and losing 2-0, it’s a good point. But we need three points. We need to play all the game. The worst part is we have free men, but we are losing balls without any pressure. We are not doing what we’re supposed to do. That is really hard.
“We suffered two goals on second balls, and it is clear they would create chances with second balls. We were soft.”
“Everything we do during the week, we have to use it in the game. If we do that, you’ll see us like we were in the second half. If not, you won’t. We need to focus day to day and survive this season, and then to think ahead. But we have so many problems. It’s really hard. But the second half was so much better in terms of the belief.”
On the penalty award at the end: “I think it was a soft touch from what I saw. I don’t like to talk, especially when the game’s only been finished a few minutes, but I think it was a soft penalty.”
What next for Manchester United?
Wednesday, February 26: Ipswich Town (away), Premier League, 7.30pm UK, 2.30pm ET
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(Top photo: Jan Kruger/Getty Images)
