Man Utd analysis: Fans draw little comfort from point with 10-man Tottenham on home soil
The international break was supposed to give Michael Carrick time to get his Manchester United troops into gear - but it was more of the same sluggish football at Old Trafford on Saturday night.
Roberto De Zerbi’s Tottenham might be in the Premier League relegation zone, but they terrorised the hosts in the first half at Old Trafford - but failed to convert their chances.
Bryan Mbeumo put United in front with a tidy finish on 73 minutes - then Rodrigo Bentancur saw red to give Carrick’s men the perfect platform to bank three precious points.
But Dominic Solanke, who spurned a host of clear-cut chances in the match, finally found the net in stoppage time to send Spurs back to London with a deserved point.
Here, Sports News Blitz’s beleaguered Man Utd writer Robert Bore gives his thoughts on the game, which leaves United in 12th place and Tottenham in 18th with three points from six top-flight matches.
Red Devils run ragged
I hate rushing around. So when the sat-nav tells you it’s 55 minutes to get home but the game kicks off in 25 minutes, you know you’ve f***ed up.
With the extended international break, lasting something like four months, now over, I sat cursing myself with the radio on as laughing stock Spurs proceeded to run United ragged at Old Trafford.
It made for hard listening, particularly when Senne Lammens had the Calamity Button blinking early on after playing a couple of one-twos with Harry Maguire then passing pretty-much straight to Lucas Bergvall, the Belgian keeper needing to react well to save from Solanke as a consequence.
It set the tone for what came across as a pathetic opening half hour from the hosts where Spurs should have been at least a couple of goals ahead.
Mohammed Kudus as guilty as Solanke of wasting a gilt-edged chance after firing a cut-back wide of a post.
Who let the dog in
So much so that there were boos midway through the half, and that was just from the dog in the back of the car who was being forced to listen.
The common theme seemed to be United’s midfield has less legs than a KFC boneless bucket and had Spurs not been blessed with about as much confidence as a virgin on prom night, Carrick’s men would be staring down the barrel before the half-time pies had finished warming.
I got back to pictures just as Mbuemo broke at pace but after carrying the ball for 50 yards his pass out to Amad Diallo was slightly overhit and the returning wideman fired tamely at Antonin Kinsky.
Leny Yoro, in at right-back ahead of my man Diogo Dalot, did all the hard work in seeing off the artist formerly known as Savinho, but then contrived to overplay and hand the ball back to the visitors.
Misplaced passes
Kobbie Mainoo did similar soon after, Bruno Fernandes also guilty of misplacing a couple of passes that he’d usually complete in his sleep, United were off it.
And when Conor Gallagher barged his way into the six-yard box, it needed a mixture of bobbles and lack of control to somehow see the ball safe.
United earned a corner after some better play but Savio almost punished them with another cut-back that was cleared by a thankful Luke Shaw.
Savio got in again a minute later that looked gift-wrapped for Solanke but the former Liverpool man put the ball over the top from in front of goal, albeit under pressure from Lisandro Martinez.
How were Spurs not ahead?
Half-time was gratefully received.
Dicing with death
United continued to dice with death after the break, giving the ball away so cheaply.
Youri Tielemans was robbed of possession next, while at the other end Fernandes almost fashioned his own chance after nut-megging his defender, but Spurs cleared.
Tielemans then had the ball in the back of the net after Cunha thought he’d robbed Archie Gray on his own byline but the ball had gone out (by quite a fair way) for a goal kick. United had, perhaps, woken up a bit at least.
Carrick had seen enough though and readied three changes ahead of the hour.
Dalot, Joshuas Zirkzee and the (much-needed) Carlos Baleba were thrown in for Amad, Tielemans and Yoro.
Baleba’s first touch saw him bring the ball down and play a raking ball over the top for Fernandes. It was already an improvement.
Fernandes chipped a neat free-kick into Zirkzee, who won a corner which from the resulting centre Baleba hit a strike that might have hit the moon.
Spurs were still a threat, though, and Mainoo blocked brilliantly to force Savio to fire over after more sloppy play from the home side.
With 20 minutes remaining it was anyone’s game.
With 17 minutes to go it was United’s to lose.
Martinez found Shaw out left who played the ball on to Cunha who in turn found a bit of space as he entered the box.
The Brazilian looked up and fed Mbuemo who had a yard or so space between him and his marker and instinctively fired low across Kinski’s goal and into the far corner.
Call the police, there has been a mugging
United had been better since the break but this still felt like a mugging had just happened.
Carrick clenched a fist, Spurs boss Roberto de Zerbi clenched a buttock.
Then it all went off.
Bentancur and Shaw were the protagonists.
Shaw took exception to the Spurs man’s challenge, which looked dangerous as he scissored in at pace, and went and pushed the Uruguayan over.
Shaw was presumably worried that any connection would damage his legs, considering his shin pads were either non-existent or the size of a postage stamp.
That didn’t go down very well to be fair and the Spurs man jumped up and popped his head on Shaw, enough to make a red card from Stuart Attwell an inevitability.
Spurs were now down to 10 men, while Shaw and a Spurs lad received yellows amidst the handbags.
But here we go, 1-0 up and now a man over. Let’s put it to bed.
Mbeumo almost did, Baleba with another long through ball that the United man latched onto before forcing Kinsky into the save behind.
But encouraging from the new boy, who was already showing the energy visibly lacking from the United engine room previously.
Danger ahead
But, like a 3am large doner kebab with extra chilli sauce, I still sensed danger ahead.
Jan Paul van Hecke blocked well from Cunha’s low effort as we approached added time, which would be a hefty eight minutes, when the blinking started.
It was the Calamity Button again.
We were about to see someone f**k things up.
Red light. Slow at first, slow, then fast, fast, faster.
Spurs moved the ball about on the left - stop the cross please - well done, first effort headed away by Dalot.
But the ball went back to former Newcastle man Sandro Tonali who had another go as Mbeumo dropped off him rather than engaging. This didn’t look good.
Around eight yards from goal Martinez and Solanke were grappling like two 10-year-old wrestlers as the Italian pinged one across the box to where the Argentinean now found himself on the wrong side as his attacker got enough of his head on the ball to steer it into the far post as both flopped to the turf.
Somewhere, Jesus was weeping.
Even more so when that stupidly slow version of ‘When The Spurs Go Marching In’ wafted from the away end.
It should be banned, along with Man City.
There was still time for disaster to strike as Dalot was shown a yellow and Spurs were now doing most of the attacking, despite being a man down.
It all had a familiar ring to it.
Thankfully, it didn't as Baleba - impressive in his cameo - fired the final chance of the game high over the bar. The impending critique was obvious.
Poor game management
United’s game management was poorer than a 12th Century peasant, failing to see it out with an extra man against a team averaging half a goal per game.
Not for the first time this season, legs in the middle costing them dearly, as in the late leveller at Everton, throwing a two-goal lead away against Brighton and the Manchester derby debacle against 10-men. Let’s not forget Hull.
Which leaves us in a hole.
Six in six is great if you’re a striker, not if your aspirations involve the top four.
With a half dozen points to their name United couldn’t be much further away from that at the moment.
With three away games on the bounce, at Atletico Madrid and Como in the Champions League, sandwiching a trip to Elland Road next Sunday, it could be a bad 10 days or so.
The defence looks shaky, midfield gaping, Bruno a world away from last season’s record-breaking exploits and an inability to see out games with any authority.
Much like my timekeeping, there may be trouble ahead.
