Despite claiming points in each of their last two outings, the majority of Manchester United fans are feeling almost as though they’re on the back of defeats.
That’s because, in an ideal world, the 20-time champions would be overturning the likes of Crystal Palace and FC Twente with ease. Nowadays, such luxuries are never a given.
Last weekend’s stalemate at Selhurst Park could shockingly be seen as something of an improvement considering United’s previous visit saw them hammered 4-0, but the goalless draw leaves Erik ten Hag and his men sat 11th-placed in the Premier League table heading into matchweek six.
Similarly, they’re now 10th in the new-look Europa League rankings after last night’s opener, which saw them forced to settle for a point after an anxious end to the clash. Christian Eriksen opened the scoring with a stunning strike in the 35th minute before unfortunately going from hero to zero when a lapse in concentration led to him giving the ball to Sam Lammers, who was then able to fire it past Andre Onana at the near post and send the travelling fans into bedlam in the second half.
Read more: Journo heard United fans becoming ‘increasingly hacked off’ with one Red’s ‘sloppiness’ vs Twente
Post-match, the Twente goalscorer gave an assessment that’ll be nothing short of brutal for Ten Hag to hear, as he was confident that the match was there to be won.
Twente left Old Trafford aggrieved with a draw
“We could have won. Last 10 minutes, it was a little bit tricky, [as] we had to stay back and defend the goal. There were definitely chances to take the three points, but we are very pleased with one point,” Lammers told the media, as cited by Football Scotland.
“We want to play with confidence, but we know they’re a strong team. So sometimes, we have to drop back and wait for the counter-attack. That’s how we scored, waiting for the mistake. We had two or three other moments where we could have scored. But very pleased.”
Well I’m glad you’re pleased with your point, Twente, and no doubt it was deserved. But these days getting a decent result at Old Trafford can’t really be called a shock result. It’s a boringly familiar script for us: get one goal, huff and puff but fail to add to it, lose momentum, get caught out. The pressure applied in the final minutes would have won us the match if applied throughout the second half: why was it not?