Manchester United produced a much-needed stoic defensive performance at Villa Park on Sunday to earn a 0-0 draw.
The Red Devils, having conceded six goals in their last two games, were much more solid defensively against an in-form Aston Villa on Sunday. They were so solid, in fact, that the game turned out to be rather terrible for the neutrals.
While the clean sheet was a step in the right direction for Man Utd, it ensured the club got off to their worst ever start. Premier League campaign
How the game developed
As expected, Aston Villa were the much, much better team in the opening exchanges, taking advantage of the lack of mobility in Man Utd’s defensive set-up.
The home side came close to taking a deserved lead eight minutes into the game when some good interplay between Ollie Watkins and Morgan Rogers culminated in the latter having a good sight on goal. His subsequent effort, while well-taken, goes wide of the right-hand post.
An injury to Ezri Konsa slowed Villa’s momentum soon after, with Man Utd smartly opting to congest the center of the park to stifle the influence of Rogers, Youri Tielemans and co.
Man Utd would be forced to make defensive changes of their own at the break. Both Harry Maguire and Noussair Mazraoui were sidelined with suspected injury concerns, and were replaced by the under-fire Victor Lindelof and Matthijs de Ligt.
Despite the unwanted changes, the Red Devils started the second half well, creating their first half chance of the game in the 48th minute. The occasion fell to Marcus Rashford who, after cutting in from the left, launched a powerful effort to the goalkeeper that had to be deflected over the crossbar by Emi MartÃnez.
Rashford was very, very lucky not to be sent off soon after. The wide forward left a lazy leg to bring down Leon Bailey on the right while already on a yellow card, and was thankfully given the benefit of the doubt by referee Rob Jones.
In the 67th minute of the match, they finally offered us great quality. Man Utd captain Bruno Fernandes curled a wonderful free-kick over the Villa wall from 25 yards but was denied a goal by the crossbar.
After that effort on goal by Fernandes, not much else really happened. Villa had plenty of possession but couldn’t do anything with it – regularly seeing crosses from the wing fly for goal kicks or comfortably into the arms of Andre Onana.
In added time late in the game, Villa finally carved out a decent chance. A clever move down the left flank culminated in the ball reaching Jaden Philogene-Bidace on the right of the box. The Villa man’s subsequent effort on goal was brilliantly blocked by Diogo Dalot.
Man Utd fans perhaps feared the worst when they discovered that Erik ten Hag had opted to play the club’s two slowest centre-backs against one of the fastest strikers in the Premier League.
In the end, it turned out to be a very good decision. The pairing of Jonny Evans and Harry Maguire (Matthijs de Ligt in the second half), along with the midfield trio of Bruno Fernandes, Kobbie Mainoo and Christian Eriksen were able to overload the center of the park and largely avoid Ross Barkley, Morgan Rogers and Youri. Tielemans to have a creative impact on the game.
A shrewd move by Erik has Hag under fire.
GK: Emi Martinez – 6/10 – Made a decent save early in the second half.
RB: Matty Cash – 5/10 – He got forward frequently but failed to provide any kind of quality delivery for Watkins.
CB: Ezri Konsa – N/A – Substituted after just 12 minutes with an injury.
CB: Pau Torres – 6/10 – He used the ball well and didn’t have a lot of defending to do.
LB: Lucas Digne – 3/10 – His stop piece delivery was out all afternoon.
RM: Leon Bailey – 5/10 – Couldn’t have a big impact on the proceedings.
CM: Ross Barkley – 5/10 – Stifled in midfield by a compact Man Utd.
CM: Youri Tielemans – 5/10 – Like Barkley, Tielemans didn’t make an impact.
LM: Jaden Philogene-Bidace – 5/10 – Smooth ride, completed in just eight passes, that tells you everything you need to know.
AM: Morgan Rogers – 5/10 – He saw a lot of the ball but didn’t do much with it.
ST: Ollie Watkins – 5/10 – His teammates simply didn’t create any chances for him on the day. Frustrated against Jonny Evans.
Substitutes
SUB: Diego Carlos (12′ for Konsa) – 6/10 – He beat Hojlund on more than one occasion.
SUB: Jhon Duran (63′ for Bailey) – 5/10
SUB: Ian Maatsen (85′ for Lucas Digne) – N/A
Manager – Unai Emery – 6/10 – Forced to rotate after a dramatic Champions League clash in midweek. The day was let down by the lack of quality of their attacking players in the final third.
GK: Andre Onana – 5/10 – I didn’t have much to do, which was very surprising.
RB: Noussair Mazraoui – 6/10 – He was surprisingly substituted at half-time, potentially due to injury.
CB: Harry Maguire – 6/10 – The defender was pulled off with an injury in added time at the end of the first half and was substituted as a result.
CB: Jonny Evans – 8/10 – Big money has been spent on defenders in recent years, but Jonny Evans proved on Sunday that he is probably the best centre-back Erik ten Hag has at his disposal.
LB: Diogo Dalot – 7/10 – Extremely solid on the left flank, winning 100% of his duels and 100% of his tackles.
CM: Kobbie Mainoo – 6/10 – He wasn’t able to create much in the final third, but did his job defensively winning six duels and recovering possession five times.
CM: Christian Eriksen – 5/10 – He never set foot on the ball in the middle of the park.
RM: Alexandre Garnacho – 5/10 – Won a few fouls to slow the flow of Villa’s attack, but didn’t do much on the offensive end of the park otherwise.
AM: Bruno Fernandes – 5/10 – His passing was quite wayward at times, but he provided one of the few moments of quality in the game when he hit the crossbar with a free-kick.
LM: Marcus Rashford – 5/10 – He forced Martinez into a smart save in the second half, but perhaps should have also been sent off for two silly challenges.
ST: Rasmus Hojlund – 5/10 – He ran the channels and worked hard but managed zero service during his hour on the pitch.
Substitutes
SUB: Matthijs de Ligt (45′ for Maguire) – 6/10 – He defended well when he came on.
SUB: Victor Lindelof (45′ for Mazraoui) – 6/10 – Slotted in on the right side of Man Utd’s defense without problems.
SUB: Antony (64′ for Rashford) – 6/10
SUB: Joshua Zirkzee (64′ for Hojlund) – 4/10
SUB: Casemiro (85′ for Mainoo) – 5/10
Manager – Erik ten Hag – 7/10 – Ten Hag needed to secure his defense, and he did exactly that. A much-needed solid defensive outing from the Red Devils.
