Manchester United managed to hold on for a goalless draw in what was a bitterly challenging encounter at Villa Park.
Neither team appeared to be at their best, with the hosts lacking in the finishing department while Man United struggled to establish any midfield control.
On the flip side, Man United’s defence remained resolute throughout the match, displaying a strong desire to maintain a clean sheet despite all of the hosts’ attacking pressure.
Still, despite earning a valuable point away from home, United’s performance consisted of several alarming issues that will need to be addressed by Erik ten Hag on the training pitch.
Discipline is still a major issue
Throughout the encounter, United players could not prevent themselves from committing unnecessarily rough challenges. Just minutes after kick-off, Christian Eriksen received a yellow card, with Harry Maguire, Kobbie Mainoo, and Marcus Rashford following in his footsteps.
Even substitute Victor Lindelof was booked after coming on as he took out Morgan Rogers’ legs in what was ultimately an unnecessary foul to give away.
The most concerning challenge came near the hour mark when Rashford, who had just been booked, took out Leon Bailey on the edge of the box. The United winger was fortunate to come away with nothing more than a warning, as a second yellow card could have been justified.
With five yellow cards in total compared to Villa’s one, United have shown little improvement in terms of their discipline, which is surprising given the back-to-back red cards awarded to captain Bruno Fernandes.
Lack of midfield action
Throughout the encounter, but particularly during the latter stages of the first half, United’s build-up play consisted primarily of long balls by Andre Onana after the defence remained camped with the ball within United’s final third. In addition to providing little attacking threat, this tactic saw United basically discard their entire midfield, almost ignoring the fact that Eriksen, Mainoo, and Fernandes were on the field.
Ultimately, this lack of midfield control worked against United, who may have been able to find a goal given Villa’s underwhelming performance on the day.
United’s attacking failures are becoming a major crisis
As mentioned by the Sky Sports commentators during the match, United have not scored so few goals at this stage in a season since the early 1970s.
This was United’s third consecutive match in the Premier League where they failed to score, with the club managing a total of just five goals in seven league matches so far.
It’s also worth mentioning that three of these goals came in the 3-0 away win at Southampton, a recently promoted team that already appears to be in danger of relegation.
Ultimately, this was not the first time that United have experienced any of the aforementioned issues, raising the question as to why Ten Hag still hasn’t seemingly addressed such problems.
Featured image Carl Recine via Getty Images
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