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Man Utd 1-1 Chelsea

Apologies to all football fans for that bore fest

Yuveer Madanlal
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3/11/2024
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6 mn read

Yeah, spoiled your Sunday if you watched that. Two hours that you'll never get back.

As United and Chelsea do though, they drew. 1-1 is better than a 0-0 but other than a penalty, a worldie and some argy-bargy, you might as well have watched paint dry.

After Erik ten Hag's sacking, we all expected a reaction from United. The term 'new manager bounce' was something given to United because of how well they react whenever a manager is booted out.

We did get that on Wednesday against Leicester but that was the Carabao Cup against their reserves. We needed something like that today and surprisingly, we didn't get much of a bounce.

It was a really flat game from start to finish with the best chance of the first half falling to Rashford at the end of those 45 minutes. A cross to the back post saw him unmarked only for him to hit the bar from a volley that tbh, for a player of his quality, should've been doing better.

It looked like an attempt from a man lacking in confidence. Or can't be arsed. Either of the two.

I say can't be arsed there because there were countless times throughout the game where he didn't track back despite seeing the runner right in front of him. This resulted in overloads with Chelsea's full-back and winger over our full-back.

Nothing was done to rectify this.

The second period carried on much like the first until the 70th minute when Casemiro played a great ball over the top to find an unmarked Hojlund who brought the ball down and was then brought down himself by goalkeeper Robert Sanchez resulting in a penalty.

Bruno Fernandes scores a penalty against Chelsea | Photo by Ash Donelon/Manchester United via Getty Images - The Busby Babe

Captain Fernandes proceeded to put the ball in the net and score his first league goal of the season. That was about all the good he did all game.

However, as seems to be the case with United, we concede straight away. The difference is this time, I don't think we did much wrong.

Casemiro heads the ball away from a Chelsea corner. The ball comes to the edge of the box and Moises Caicedo smashes it in on the volley.

Absolutely no chance for Onana. It was just a good finish.

Chelsea were then on top for a little bit but never really threatened although Enzo Fernandez did have a good chance to give the Blues the lead but put his shot over the bar and wasted a great opportunity.

Not long after that though, the other Fernandes, Bruno said he'll raise you one and did even better.

In the dying minutes of the game, the ball sits up perfectly for him inside the box with time and space only for him to boot the ball into space.

How he managed to blast it over that badly only he'll know.

But that basically summed him and United up in that they were utterly wasteful whenever they had good opportunities to create something. That lack of composure in front of goal and rashness was also clear to see.

For Ruud, I guess getting a point against Chelsea isn't a bad thing for him personally. I also don't think we can be too harsh on him because it is a short term role.

With several injuries, it made things even harder for him. There wasn't much in the way of options although the only thing I would mark him down for is not bringing Amad on earlier when both Garnacho and Rashford were poor.

Other than that, I don't think he could've done any more.

I do think however, he would've liked to have seen more from his players because that was nowhere near the same effort they showed against Leicester just a couple of days ago. At home in a game we needed to win against a big team, the side had to display a lot more energy and willingness to give their best.

Mazraoui was the player to display this better than anyone else. He was superb and if we had just a couple more players who showed that same attitude, we could be so much better.

Ratings

Onana - 6

Mazraoui - 8 MOTM

De Ligt - 7

Martinez - 6.5

Dalot - 6

Casemiro - 6

Ugarte - 4

Rashford - 4

Bruno - 5

Garnacho - 4

Hojlund - 4

Amad - 6

Zirkzee - 6

Lindelof - 6

Ruud van Nistelrooy - 6

Final Thoughts

There was nothing different about this performance to what we were doing under Erik ten Hag. It was basically the same. He will be sitting somewhere saying 'you all laughed at me. Well who's laughing now?'

He did need to go as he was doing too many wrong things but I think seeing this type of performance was a blessing in disguise. Yes we were shite and needed the win, but it was clearer to see that maybe it wasn't just the manager who was the problem and that a lot of those players aren't good enough too.

That was a performance devoid of energy and bounce when we needed it more than ever.

12 points after 10 games is our worst start to a league campaign since the 86-87 season. There was also a managerial change that time 👀.

Very disappointed with this from United. I did expect a bounce and see more of a performance even if I did predict this result. We needed that bounce to last for as long as possible so as to give us the points required.

Anyway, on to Thursday.

Background Image: Bruno Fernandes and Romeo Lavia during Man Utd 1-1 Chelsea | Image via Manchester United official X (@ManUtd)

Yuveer Madanlal

Yeah, I can talk and talk and talk about the things I love, like football and United, as you can see in this post. Once I get on a roll, it's pretty hard to stop me. This is all coming from a guy who doesn't talk that much. How weird.

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