Man Utd picked up their third draw in three games in the Europa League after a pretty flat 1-all in Turkey against former manager Jose Mourinho.
One of the most entertaining parts of the game was when he was sent to the stands. Jose did the most Jose-esque thing and talked himself into a sending off.
About the most enjoyable part of the match tbh.
Erik ten Hag has a fair few absentees which caused him to have a traveling squad that was lacking in numbers. This resulted in him picking a confusing starting XI as Mazraoui was replacement for suspended captain Bruno Fernandes at CAM!
Yeah, I had to do a double-take on that as well.
This caused many to think whether he selected his team drunk because of how little sense that choice made. United still do have options for that spot with Zirkzee possibly dropping deeper, Amad and of course, Eriksen.
The Dane was probably one of a couple of standout players for United as he managed to grab his 4th goal of the season in the 15th minute to give United their third straight lead in the competition.
This was after a relatively boring and defensive start by ten Hag's side as it was the home team with the early possession. Fenerbahce also found themselves in behind United down their right but failed to make the most of it within the opening minutes. And not for the first time.
United started to grow into the game a little more after Eriksen's goal as not long after, Rashford, who was playing at RW again, had a great run that resulted in a left-footed shot that went just wide. A 2-goal lead for MUFC at that point would've been great.
Rashy also had to be a bit careful as he did get an early booking. We didn't want to be in another situation where we were down to ten men.
Mourinho's side continued to created chances down the flanks as United didn't seem to be able to thwart them whenever Fenerbahce attacked from out wide.
Dusan Tadic had a great chance after a cross from the left came to him after Onana tried to get it away. From a couple of yards out, Ugarte managed to make a late block on the Serbian to prevent him from equalizing.
Onana was then required to make an unbelievable double save after once again, a cross from the left made it's way into the box before Youssef En-Nesyri had both his headers saved from close range.
Another close call for United.
The warning signs were there.
They obviously didn't heed them as early into the second period, En-Nesyri finally managed to beat Onana.
Another cross from their left by former Newcastle man Allan Saint-Maximim found the Fener striker who made no mistakes this time round.
Poor defending from United again as failure to stop the cross was an issue, before Lindelof (who made his first start of the season) completely switched off to allow the striker to have a simple header.
Stupid errors that wipe out a lead, again.
Erik ten Hag made changes straight away as Lindelof was subbed for Casemiro while Hojlund came on for Zirkzee, two players whom most would've predicted to be in the starting lineup.
United looked a lot more orthodox from then on as there appeared to be more of a balance to the team: square pegs in square holes.
ten Hag's team were the better of the two from that point but indecisiveness in the final third and being wasteful led to a third draw.
3 points in this competition and 21st spot won't be making ten Hag sleep any easier even if in isolation, it isn't the worst result.
Where he will be annoyed is at how simple it was for an opponent to get back into the game, again. His team were alright for most of that match but one stupid mistake and we don't get the 3 points.
We've also managed to not win any of these three matches despite taking the lead in all of them.
That is a concern.
I'm sure the manager will be happy enough with some of his players and a decent enough result but he needs consistency and it's not what we got tonight.
Ratings
Onana - 7
Dalot - 6
De Ligt - 7
Lindelof - 5
Martinez - 6
Ugarte - 7
Eriksen - 7 MOTM
Rashford - 6.5
Mazraoui - 6
Garnacho - 6
Zirkzee - 5.5
Casemiro - 6
Hojlund - 6
Antony - 5
Amad - 6
Erik ten Hag - 6
Final Thoughts
It was better than I predicted. I thought we'd lose. Looking at that starting XI, I thought that I would be correct. So in that sense, I'm happy but I really do believe we missed a good chance here.
I think a lot of people will be frustrated at the performance more than the result as we want to see more games like the second half against Brentford and draw at Palace, which is actually a perfect example: great performance, bad result but we still praise how well the team played.
There were some promising performances as Onana, Ugarte and Eriksen were the three best. De Ligt was good as well and I'm liking Rashford's simplicity when he plays on the right.
But as has been our issues all season, switching off and making stupid mistakes, and not taking our chances is why the result wasn't better than it should've been, just as Jose said in his pre-match presser.
3 points from three EL games against those opponents is a little embarrassing to be honest (with all due respect). When you play that level of opposition and you want to improve, three draws doesn't show much improvement.
Let's just hope they can take the positives from tonight into West Ham on Sunday. We absolutely need to win that.
Background Image: Andre Onana makes a double save against Fenerbahce | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)