Manchester United finished their US tour with a 3-2 loss in Las Vegas.
Diogo Dalot opened the scoring with a superb strike as he curled an effort from 20-yards out in from range.
The first half was going to plan until a quick-fire brace from Donyell Malen following some sloppy defensive play from United. This meant the scoreline was 2-1 in the German’s favour at the break.
Antony equalised just six minutes into the second half.
Dortmund then struck to retake their lead.
Here are three observations from the game:
Sancho and Pellistri give Ten Hag something to think about
Jadon Sancho has a big season ahead of him so it is important that he had a positive US tour, scoring against Arsenal and adapting well to his new role as a false nine.
United may be signing Rasmus Hojlund from Atalanta but Erik ten Hag clearly prefers to play Sancho centrally. If you look back at the goals he scored last season, the vast majority came from central positions rather than cutting in from wide areas.
Sancho was sharp against his former club Borussia Dortmund. He showed an array of sublime touches and flicks, keeping the ball and not letting Dortmund get near him.
Of course, Sancho wasn’t the only United winger to impress. Facundo Pellistri gave Ten Hag something to think about because he ran rings around the Dortmund full-back.
Antony back on the scoresheet
I don’t think Antony has had a good pre-season and fans will be expecting more from him next term. He replaced Omari Forson after 40 minutes and drew United level in the 51st minute. Hopefully, it’s a sign of things to come because we need all of our attacking players chipping in with more goals next season. Not just Marcus Rashford.
For the goal, Van de Beek tee’d it off for Antony to strike a low finish into the far bottom corner of the net.
Sloppy goals
Looking back at the goals from the goal, they were all avoidable, so it was a silly game to lose.
The common fault was United’s midfield — second rate for most of the game — stupidly gifted possession to Dortmund in dangerous areas. That was essentially the source to all of their goals in Las Vegas.
Raphael Varane wasn’t available but is that how we’re going to react to missing personnel next term? Ten Hag will hope not.
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A hat-trick of losses!! OMG
Can it get any worse? probably.
Getting rather concerned about the number of times ETH has said ‘ this is not acceptable ‘ or ‘ this cannot happen ‘ yet it continues to happen. We seem to have a number of players who are unable to focus for the entire 90 minutes; their mind wanders and the opposition scores. It’s what turns one nil at half-time into seven nil embarrassments.
Glad we’ve got a shouter in goal to go with Bruno, should help concentration!