United almost lost to Sheffield. The home side’s performance (again) failed to convince

Manchester United defeated Sheffield 4: 2. For a long time, however, it looked like the visitors would take at least a point. But their own defensive errors allowed the home team to get back into the game. The man of the match was home captain Bruno Fernandes.

United didn’t have enough movement

Looking at the flow of the game in the 1st half, we can see that the home players lacked movement. Especially the offensive ones. Maguire often just exchanged the ball with Fernandes or Casemiro in the middle of the pitch as the rest of the team stood around waiting to see what would happen.

The wingers Antony and Garnacho in particular very often just stood at the line waiting for a long ball behind the defense, which was not possible as the visitors stood in a deep block. Many times the Red Devils didn’t know how to overcome the visiting defence.

With a simple cross on the edge of the box, the visiting block was set in motion by Garnacho and out of nowhere he found himself face to face with Foderingham. However, the visiting goalkeeper was more successful in the mini-scrimmage, keeping Garnacho out 3 times on the night.

Shaky defense

Erik ten Hag only had Maguire at his disposal as a full-blooded stopper. Just like against Coventry, he formed a stopper duo with Casemiro. On the visitors’ first goal, Onana hesitated, misplaced the ball and Bogle opened the scoring.

Sheffield’s second goal, however, is a demonstration of how shaky Manchester’s defence is. Sheffield, who have scored the fewest goals of any team, created a deadlock in the penalty area and none of the home defenders were able to kick the ball away. Moreover, the visiting players were not manned and had plenty of space to finish.

Fernandes saved both the team and Haga

I wonder how they would have rated yesterday’s game at Old Trafford if Manchester had lost to last-place Sheffield. Fortunately for the home team Fernandes, the captain, stepped up. First, after a questionable tackle on Maguire, he levelled the scores from the penalty spot.

A few minutes later, he struck with his left foot from outside the box and scored a beautiful goal to turn the game around. By this time, the Sheffield defence was making one mistake after another and the cohesive first half block was slowly crumbling.

It was Fernandes who crossed to Hojlund for the 4th goal and he closed the scoring. The Portuguese midfielder also saved the Hague one as the criticism on his person is mounting and the performance is not improving. The performance against Sheffield certainly wasn’t positive, just the match ended with a happy ending.

Source: Premier League