Manchester United returned to Premier League action on Saturday against Tottenham Hotspur at Old Trafford. It was a good opportunity to get the season back on track, but Michael Carrick’s side couldn’t get over the line in yet another draw.
The first half was one way traffic for nearly a half hour with Tottenham pinning the Reds back. The attacking approach didn’t yield many good chances for the visitors, but they were happy to keep collecting possession after poor giveaways by United.
The best chance
for Tottenham came from a turnover by Senne Lammens. The United keeper presented a gift for the visitors but managed to make up for his mistake with a right handed stop, and smothered the ball at the cost of a boot to the side of the head.
The United midfield struggled throughout the first half. Youri Tielemans and Bruno Fernandes had a few giveaways each and it seemed as though the midfield and forward line were on different frequencies.
The teams were still all square at halftime. There weren’t any until around the hour mark, but the adjustments led to a notable improvement. The problem was United still weren’t getting looks at goal.
Carlos Baleba got his introduction alongside Diogo Dalot and Joshua Zirkzee, and the new signing had an immediate defensive presence for the midfield. He showed a good sense for putting a foot in and closing in on loose passes, and his strength on the ball was a welcome change as well to Tielemans, who had struggled through the game.
The evident strength led to the right moment for United. Baleba powered his way through a foul to find Bruno Fernandes with a lovely pass out wide. That started a spell of possession that eventually fell to the feet of Bryan Mbeumo in the box, where he showed good striker instincts to turn and finding the bottom corner of the net to open the scoring.
It was a reward for the better play in the second half, but a major turn from the run of play in the first half.
United also benefitted from some Spurs stupidity, when Rodrigo Bentancur leaned his head into Luke Shaw’s forte head during an exchange of pleasantries, which earned him a straight red card. The man advantage added to the goal advantage was far from a given for the result.
Spurs kept pressing for more from the match, and United’s attacks had an unusual dead end with Joshua Zirkzee dribbling well but not finding teammates well. Mbeumo had a good chance to add another in a counter, but Kinsky made a last ditch save to keep him out.
Matcheus Cunha had a chance to finish the deal as well, but Mickey Van de Ven got to ground to make a stop. The failure to capitalize would haunt United.
Disaster struck in stoppage time as Spurs sent desperation crosses forward. Dominic Solanke got onto the end of one while muscling Lisandro Martinez out of the way, and the ball found the bottom corner.
Carrick sent Marcus Rashford on late, but it was too late to make a real difference. A half chance for Baleba proved the final kick as the final whistle signaled another disappointing performance.
