MUFC felt sorry for Palce and decided not to score resulting in a frustrating evening for all. Erik ten Hag's side did everything but put the ball in the back of the net.
Another game where unnecessary points were dropped. United now sit in 11th after this draw.
1. Wasteful
I'm sorry to bring this up again but the Red Devils have been struggling in front of goal.
The chances are being created which is an obvious improvement to previous seasons but failure to score sort of makes those chances a little moot.
While ex-Red Dean Henderson channeled his inner Iker Casillas and made some brilliant saves, United should've still managed to score a couple of goals despite Casillas between the sticks.
This was down to the sheer amount of good opportunities that were created. And that is the problem: we're failing to score from good opportunities. Not half chances or difficult ones to take but chances where we go 'how did we miss?'
17 big chances missed now for United which is the most in the league. Villa are second with 12. However, Emery's team have scored 10 while MUFC have netted just the 5.
These missed opportunities are seriously costing us.
2. Erik ten Hag is confusing
I've found that in his 2-and-a-bit seasons at Old Trafford, ten Hag is very confusing.
When you expect him to do one thing, he does another. When you think 'surely he's not going to do that', he goes and does it.
Nobody would've predicted that starting XI. Nobody can ever predict his starting XI's which isn't necessarily a bad thing but to start Eriksen was surprising but to leave Rashford on the bench was just down right flabbergasting.
When does he ever leave him out?
Erik ten Hag said that Rashford being benched was due to rotational reasons which is why we saw Garnacho start. The 20-year-old did warrant a start given his performances this season but as I believe Rashford is a confidence player and has that confidence now, he should've been in the lineup which would've given him another opportunity to try and keep his momentum going and hoped that he would've grabbed a goal or assist at Palace. Garnacho has also shown that he is quite effective off the bench.
On the other hand, a man we all thought would struggle to finish a game of football in Eriksen has started all three of the last three. No rotation for him.
Admittedly, the Dane has been superb in those matches but even still, it is contradictory from the manager. There was around £100m worth of CDMs sitting on the bench.
He also kept Bruno Fernandes in the lineup despite him dropping a stinker. Yes aking him off wouldn't necessarily have been rotation but a substitution for him was definitely needed. He took him off at a time when we could've used him most in the defeat to Brighton but kept him on when he was detrimental to the team at Palace. ten Hag also had the option of bringing on Mason Mount, a player he desperately wanted and gave the number 7 shirt to.
What was the point in signing him if he isn't used in these situations?
3. Christian Eriksen
He has been one of our standouts in the last three matches. The Dane has come out of nowhere and dropped 7/10s against Southampton, Barnsley and Palace.
He's a player that I've alwyas rated quite highly but felt that his best position is number 10. The manager could've also moved him into CAM and brought on Ugarte for Bruno.
Eriksen has that control on the ball, that calmness in possession. His ability to spread passes is unbelievable, his wherewithal of where he is on the pitch is brilliant and what I like about him most is that he keeps things simple.
His problem is that he doesn't have that running power of a Bruno nor is he physical. This is why I think he should be playing further forward.
There was also a distinct difference when he came off as that control from United was gone. Ugarte doesn't have that ability on the ball like Eriksen and Mainoo just hasn't been at the races so far this season causing us to lose that control in midfield and game overall.
He needed to stay on.
And is this an indication that the manager could use Eriksen and Mainoo moving forward?
4. Bruno Fernandes
WTF is going on with the captain?
Most of last season, Fernandes was showing this type of form where he just wasn't his usual influential self.
At Palace, he was the worst player for United and ended up hindering the team more than helping it. He also should've scored at least one goal when looking at the chances he had, which is something else that is now an issue of his: missing goal scoring opportunities.
He gave the ball away a total of 34 times!
Seems a bit less to me.
The amount of times he used the outside of his right-foot as well made me thing Quaresma was playing for United!
I'm not sure why the manager wouldn't take him off when the captain was clearly not having his best game. There are also options on the bench for that substitution now whereas last season, there wasn't.
His leadership as a captain isn't at the level required as well. He doesn't rally the troops and given his poor form, isn't a man that the rest of the team can follow.
Something is not right with Bruno as many are now thinking whether he is capable of playing in a possession-based team, which is where Erik ten Hag wants to take this United side, or not.
5. Consistent style of play
I do want to end off on a positive though.
I don't think we've played this consistently good football for a while as the only game this season where we forgot how to football was Liverpool, unfortunately.
Every other game had some elements where we saw improvements with the last three in particular being our most impressive so far.
Away to Palace was a game I called 'defining' because they are a difficult opponent and if we were to see what this United side were truly made of, we needed to go there and dominate.
That is exactly what we did with the only thing missing being a goal or three.
While it was a disappointing result, we have made massive strides in our style of play.
Before we complained about several aspects such as not keeping the ball well enough, giving up too many chances, not creating many of our own, not scoring and not having an identity.
Now the only major issue is not being able to score.
I would definitely take these improvements in style even if the results aren't what we want. I believe that with consistently good performances, the results will follow. It's a lot better than playing awfully and scraping an undeserved win. That is more short-term than long-term.
Trust the process.
Background Image: Dean Henderson denies Matthijs De Ligt | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)