
On Tuesday evening, Manchester United failed to win a game of football for the first time in five outings, when they drew 1-1 to West Ham United down in the capital.
It so nearly could have been worse too, if not for an insane finish from substitute Benjamin Sesko, who managed to somehow flick a Bryan Mbeumo cross into the top corner to rescue a point and keep the unbeaten run going.
With all due respect to West Ham, who played very well, especially defensively, if an inform United team does not win this fixture, it means something(s) went wrong during the night. So, what were they?
As alluded to there, West Ham sat very deep in this game. After the wins over Manchester City and Arsenal, many said that the game against Fulham would be completely different, as they would sit in a low block and frustrate.
Whilst Marco Silva's side were not as expansive as the other two sides, they were certainly more open than expected, and United ended up winning a ding-dong affair 3-2.
Then, Spurs managed to frustrate United and were probably edging the game until the red card. United then scored from a set-piece goal and had something to hang onto.
So, this game was different from any of the previous four games. A solid, setback side playing with 11 men. And the truth is, Michael Carrick's side struggled to break them down.
Until the Joshua Zirkzee header towards the end - which was harder than it looked - United had created just 0.09xG from open play. West Ham were incredibly organised and hard to play through.
Nuno's side completely packed out the centre of the pitch, not allowing United to build up and progress through the middle. This led to the team having to play wide, where Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo had poor games, though it was a nice cross from the former for the equaliser.
Which is a good segue to the next point. Simply put, Mbeumo is not a left winger. It didn't actually work very well against the Spurs either. His cross for the goal came from the right-hand side. He is either a right-winger or a striker.
We can expect much of the same in the next game, away to Everton. They could be slightly more expensive considering it's a home game, but a lot of it will look the same as last night. Therefore, particularly with his good form, it feels sensible to play the physical, natural centre-forward in Sesko for that one.
Although he has been very good since he came back into the team, and was in general last night, the ball watching from Kobbie Mainoo for the West Ham goal was very poor. He allowed Tomas Soucek to get across him far too easily.
It was also terrible from Luke Shaw, who let the ball bounce at the beginning of the attack, before allowing the low cross from England teammate Jarrod Bowen. Just not great all round leading to their goal.
In short, switching off for West Ham to score, a lack of space in central areas, poor performances from the wide players, and a lack of a focal point were mostly to blame for last night. And, once again, just a very good and resolute performance from the hosts, who deserve lots of credit.
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