Manchester United’s unbeaten run of nine games came to an end after falling to defeat against Aston Villa this afternoon.
It was a terrible day at the office as things never picked up after falling to a two-goal deficit after 11 minutes.
Luke Shaw got a lucky deflection to score on the brink of half time, but any chance we had was lost after conceding early into the second half.
Without further ado, here are three things we learned from the game.
Slow starts to both halves
We started both halves on the back foot and you will pay the price for doing that in the Premier League, especially against a side scrapping for points and looking for a bounce under their new manager.
However, United never got going and that showed throughout the game.
Time and time again, Unai Emery’s side were able to cut through United’s midfield and it didn’t help that Victor Lindelof had one of his worst performances of late.
David de Gea needs to be doing better for the free-kick that hit the back of the net. It was at a perfect height for the goalkeeper to stop, but he fluffed his chance to stop it somehow.
The result gives us a -1 goal difference in the league after 13 matches.
Bruno Fernandes was a huge loss
Since Bruno Fernandes was unavailable for selection due to suspension, Donny van de Beek was handed another opportunity to prove himself and ultimately failed.
The Dutch midfielder flattered to deceive and we had no creativity whatsoever in the final third.
Van de Beek looked disinterested and it shows that Ten Hag doesn’t have enough options in the squad to switch things around.
That said, why not play Christian Eriksen further forward and drop either Scott McTominay or Fred into midfield. That would have been a better option today in my opinion.
First sign of weak management from Ten Hag
I was shocked when I heard Cristiano Ronaldo would wear the captain’s armband.
Ten Hag made such a point by dropping him from the side. Today, he retracted and let stroppy Ronaldo huff and puff yet again.
I think this was the first sign of weak management under Ten Hag considering most of the fanbase want Ronaldo gone.
We can understand the lack of available number 9’s, but the captain selection was silly.
de Beek just seems another Neil Webb.
Neat, presentable, nice hair-do, but not contributing anywhere near enough to be a United player.
I we are complaining too much..man u is a team in the process and every should be patient.And if at all we should bring some advice,criticism and direction;we should do it the context of the whole team.please we should stop finger pointing players individually.For instance even if we sign the best striker let’s say with the quality of halland of the young ronaldo…we still can’t win if the team doesn’t have the winning mentality and the a proper distribution from back to from front.
Haaland is performing well because he is being fed well
Football is game that builds and players depend on each other
AND PLEASE WINNING MENTALITY IS CRUCIAL
WE ONLY HAVE 4 TO 5 PLAYERS WITH THE WINNING MENTALITY