Manchester United traveled to Craven Cottage to face Marco Silva’s Fulham after being eliminated from the League Cup by Newcastle on Wednesday night. Erik ten Hag and his players were under increasing pressure to win following a string of dismal defeats prior to the game, but the team managed to get a late win thanks to a Bruno Fernandes’ goal in stoppage time.
Here is what we learned from this unimpressive, but important win.
Varane Misses Out Again
Varane was left out from playing in yet another match. It was rumoured that he is among the players who might not be happy with Ten Hag, amid rumours of background tensions and turmoil in the dressing room. He was reportedly not happy by the manager’s choice to start Evans and Maguire instead of him in the match against Manchester City for tactical reasons. Varane did not play in the League Cup match against Newcastle which United lost, and it was stated that his illness was the only cause for his absence.
Contradictory sources said that despite being fit, Varane did not practice and was unhappy with his current circumstances over his lack of playing time. As a result, when the squad sheet for the Fulham game was released, Varane was once again on the bench. It is unexpected for Ten Hag to prefer Maguire and Evans again despite the Frenchman being present and available. Even odder was that Maguire had to leave the pitch for treatment on numerous occasions throughout the match, but Ten Hag did not give Varane a chance.
United Struggled With Chance Creation
Same old, same old from Manchester United in attack. The team managed to snatch a 1-0 win late on, but this was once again a full match in which United struggled to create goalscoring opportunities. Looking at pure numbers, five shots on target is more than Fulham had (three), but a total of 12 shots gave United mere 0.69 expected goals, compared to 1.01 Fulham had from their 18 shots.
This is a good representation of what we had seen throughout the match – United did not create good opportunities and the likes of Antony and Hojlund struggled again to do something more meaningful. Garnacho did better, but neither his performance was ideal.
Antony Is Bringing Up More Questions
And no, the Brazilian winger is not bringing them up because of his good performances. Quite on the contrary. Former Ajax player was abysmal yet again. He lasted 63 minutes, before Man United fans cheered when he was getting replaced by Facundo Pellistri. Antony had no shots on goal, no key passes, he completed one dribble from four attempts, he lost seven of the 10 ground duels, and lost the possession for a total of 10 times.
He has no assists nor goals this season and even the underlying things are missing – he is not doing anything positive that can help out the rest of the team. Sometimes those good things are not measured with numbers. But Antony’s last assist came against Wolves in May and his last goal in April against Nottingham Forest. It seems that the hopes of Brazilian turning things around are not really there among the Man United fans.
Leave a Reply