Michael Carrick’s Manchester United side drew for a third straight match in the Premier League on Sunday after a 1-1 result at Elland Road. The squad managed to leave Leeds unscathed despite a testy match and a hostile road atmosphere, but there will be disappointment again that the side missed on opportunities to get forward.
United were on the backfoot for most of the first 25 minutes of play. Leeds would control possession in the contest, holding 61% of the ball, but it was United who got on the scoresheet
first. A good move down the right saw Youri Tielemans create the opportunity, and Bryan Mbeumo finished in front of goal after missing on a header minutes earlier. There would only be a couple of big chances for United in the match and that proved to be the breakthrough in the 35th minute.
The issues resurfaced for the side shortly after conceding. They failed to keep possession and the poor giveaways kept the defensive effort on alert too often. Leeds found the net shortly after halftime after Dominic Calvert-Lewin got on the end of a corner kick. The tall striker got loose from his marker, Carlos Baleba, and wound up against Bryan Mbeumo. The United forward could do little physically to hold off DCL, and did even less not knowing that he even had the ball under control to turn and fire from close range. The shot beat Senne Lammens and brought the teams level, though it didn’t ignite a total collapse from the Reds.
United did well to deal with pressure. There were 33 clearances across the team and Lammens only had to make three saves despite Leeds’ control of the ball. The team even got the ball forward for the final half hour of the match, and should ahve done more with it. As was the case in previous matches there were issues with stray passes, slowing down play too much and settling for bad shots. The only effort on target in the second half was an angled shot from outside the box by Bruno Fernandes, which turned into a simple save. Bruno and Amad both had efforts inside the box with some space to aim at goal, but neither player was able to steer their effort on target.
The live table has United in 13th place with seven points from seven matches. The Reds still have just one win this year, against newly promoted Ipswich Town, who actually sit three spots above them in the table. The gap to the European places is still razor thin as there aren’t many other teams having a great campaign either, but it doesn’t negate the fact that this is Manchester United’s worst ever start to a Premier League campaign.
Carrick’s side has another road trip in Europe this week, at Como on Wednesday, before returning to Old Trafford next Sunday for a match against Bournemouth. A week after that, the Reds take a trip to face Chelsea at Stamford Bridge.
