Erik ten Hag and his Manchester United side slumped to another draw, their third in four games since the international break. Man Utd have just the ONE win in their last seven 🙃.

This was yet another lackluster and flat display from the Red Devils who appear to be just ‘going through the motions’ as they say. Very little heart, energy and passion from too many players and too many senior players at that.

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The game itself started off pretty slowly but 15 minutes in, disaster.

A sloppy giveaway by Alejandro Garnacho before poor defending by youngster Willy Kambwala gave Dominic Solanke a chance to line up a shot from the edge of the box. In the form that he’s in, he was never going to miss. That was his 17th goal of the campaign.

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Bournemouth bossed the game not in terms of possession but in terms of what they did when they had the ball.

United on the other hand, looked lost and all over the place leaving plenty of time and space for the home side to exploit. Andoni Iraola’s team were particularly dangerous down United’s right flank as there seemed to be no understanding between Dalot, Garnacho and Kambwala.

The Cherries targeted that area and should’ve done better with some of the chances they had.

Not putting away those opportunities did come back to haunt them as MUFC managed to get themselves back in the game. Bruno Fernandes with his 3rd goal in three after a bit of luck from a cross by Garnacho. The Bournemouth defender couldn’t get enough on the ball to stop the cross and ended up popping it up for Bruno to have a pretty simple volley in the 6-yard area.

This gave some life to United’s game as there was nothing to suggest that this team was going to level the game up.

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Despite equalizing, it was still the home side that looked the likelier to score the next goal. We know that United have had an issue all season when it comes to conceding straight after scoring and looked like that could happen again.

Luckily for ten Hag, that didn’t although the home side did hit the bar and had a very good chance for Justin Kluivert who ought to have punished United from his shot.

But in those two instances, we could see just how not there these United players were and how poor we were defensively.

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With the header off the bar, nobody was marking the Bournemouth player who then had a rebound header that he put over the bar. Again, no United player was near him nor quick enough to react to the second ball.

Kluivert had a free shot inside the box from a cross. No one was near him for that opportunity either.

Absolutely pathetic.

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However, Kluivert didn’t make any mistakes in the 36th minute as he managed to put one away.

Once more, poor defending from United’s right-hand side gave the forward the time and space to cut in and have a shot that ended up beating Andre Onana at his front post. One could argue that the goalkeeper should’ve done better on both goals.

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Bournemouth headed into the break 2–1 up and was absolutely deserved. United were lucky to still be in it.

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The second half started off much like the first but there was no real urgency from ten Hag’s players. None of them showed that they really wanted to go and get the equalizer. I’m not sure if they even knew we were losing the game.

There was nothing.

Then out of the blue, penalty.

A deflected effort ended up coming off the arm of Adam Smith in the box resulting in a spot kick for United. Bruno does what he does and levels it up for the second time.

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Good-ish character shown by United to comeback twice, but why are we having to comeback twice in a game like this and having to ‘rise from the dead’ if you will, this often? It’s not good enough and those two shots by Bruno were our only two on target all game.

One was a penalty.

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The game then sort of fizzled out although there was a bit of late controversy as the referee awarded a penalty! However, it was deemed a foul just outside the box after a VAR check and United and ten Hag were spared their blushes.

2–2 is how it finished but we probably deserved nothing from the Vitality Stadium.

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Erik ten Hag has been a man under pressure for what feels like since the dawn of time and this game doesn’t make things any easier. He needed a performance and win as he now has just 3 points from his last 12 when he probably should’ve had at least 10.

When looking at his face towards the end, he looked utterly defeated. I think he appeared more defeated than when we lost 7–0. That’s saying something.

Another evening to forget for the Dutchman. Who knows how long he has remaining as United boss.

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Ratings:
Onana — 5

Dalot — 4
Kambwala — 5
Maguire — 6
AWB — 5.5

Casemiro — 4
Mainoo — 5.5

Garnacho — 3
Bruno — 5
Rashford — 4

Hojlund — 6 MOTM

Amad — 6
Mount — 5

Erik ten Hag — 4

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Final Thoughts

Some of those players look like they’ve checked out, and not for the first time in a United shirt.

Marcus Rashford is one of those as he looks the most checked out of them all. Casemiro is another as I hardly noticed him all game. Despite his two goals and running about, was Bruno good enough? Has he been good enough this season for a player of his quality?

This is unfortunately the reality we’re in as Man Utd fans: being dependent on whether players (and mainly senior players) actually show up or not.

Should they do so, we’ll win more than not as we have enough quality to get us over the line. Don’t show up, and we’ll see more performances and results like these.

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It’s a pity we’re having to ask this question but is one that we’ve had to ask for many years when it comes to these players. But at least that makes the problem that more obvious, right?

I’m Erik ten Hag in despite his faults but I’m definitely him in over those players. Although, I’m not quite so sure INEOS are and I do fear that they will end up sacking another manager and keeping these players.

That would be the WRONG decision in my opinion. We’ve been here several times in the past and have always failed yet we never seem to learn. If we truly want to get back to the top, we have to remove a lot of the crap players and back a manager. That is the only way.

Forget about the league, focus everything on the FA Cup as win that, we get a trophy and we’re into the Europa League. I’ll take that right now.

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Background image: Bruno Fernandes | Image credit: Getty Images via Eurosport