Manchester United travelled to Istanbul to take on Fenerbahce in a crucial Europa League match on Thursday night.
After returning to winning ways against Brentford at the weekend, Erik ten Hag’s side were hoping to record two wins on the trot.
Andre Onana started in goal, denying Altay Bayindir a start against his former side. Diogo Dalot started at right back, while Matthijs de Ligt was partnered by Victor Lindelof, who replaced the injured Jonny Evans. Lisandro Martinez continued to fill in at left back with no fit senior player in that position available in the squad.
Casemiro was left on the bench as Manuel Ugarte partnered Christian Eriksen in the midfield while shockingly Noussair Mazraoui was deployed in the number 10 position to stand in for the suspended Bruno Fernandes.
After scoring at the weekend, Rasmus Hojlund dropped to the bench with Alejandro Garnacho, Marcus Rashford and Joshua Zirkzee starting up top.
Here are three things we learned from the match.
Christian Eriksen is giving Ineos a decision to make
The incredible renaissance of Eriksen only went from strength to strength after his latest display in the Europa League.
It looked for all the world that the Dane’s race had been run at Old Trafford and he was reportedly on sale this summer for a bargain basement price.
However his fine strike in the 15th minute of play to open the scoring was his second in the Europa League and fourth in all competitions this season.
It was not only his goal but he brought a level of composure to the middle of the park that was needed in a hostile Şükrü Saracoğlu Stadium.
Eriksen recently commented that he would consider a new proposal from Ineos if he were to receive one and with every passing week, more and more fans are starting to believe that perhaps the club would be best served extending his stay at the club an extra year.
Joshua Zirkzee continues to be a bit of a square peg
To be fair to the Dutchman, he grabbed an assist for Eriksen’s opening goal and stayed calm to pick out the right ball for the crucial early strike.
In what has typified Zirkzee’s career so far at United, he had some nice touches paired with nervousness and wastefulness.
The best example of this was a wonderful spin move that resulted in a massively over-hit pass that Marcus Rashford had no chance of catching.
He also mightily frustrated his teammate Alejandro Garnacho when he twice delayed and refused to put the young Argentinian through on goal, which can only be attributed to nervousness.
Whilst pressing hard off the ball, he still lost possession on numerous occasions and did little to convince Ten Hag that he should retain the starting spot ahead of Rasmus Hojlund.
The summer signing was replaced after just 54 minutes with the Dane taking his spot at the number nine position.
United’s fragile defence shows no sign of shoring up
Conceding goals after scoring away from home in Europe has become something of a trademark of Ten Hag’s team.
After once again scoring early like they did against Porto, Copenhagen and Galatasaray within the last year, they conceded early in the second half to give the home side a massive boost.
Victor Lindelof and Lisandro Martinez got into an awful mix up and Youssef En-Nesyri snuck in to head in an equaliser, giving Andre Onana no chance from close range. Marcus Rashford and Diogo Dalot must also shoulder some of the blame as they failed to close out the cross.
United’s problems are clearly structural but one massive contributing factor must also be their mental strength.
The Red Devils boast a significantly stronger squad than any of the teams they have played in Europe over the last two seasons with the exception of Bayern Munich and clearly the inability to hold on to a lead is something deeply wrong inside the psyche of the football club.
