If Manchester United fans thought they had rounded a corner this season, a 1-1 draw with Wolverhampton Wanderers brought them swiftly back down to earth.
Ruben Amorim’s side had the chance to win back-to-back Premier League games for the first time since October against the division’s bottom side, but they failed to take that opportunity, with boos ringing around Old Trafford at full-time.
Amorim changed back to a 3-4-3 formation and, despite some initial struggles, Joshua Zirkzee’s first (heavily deflected) goal at Old Trafford this season put them in front in the 27th minute.
But Wolves had chances to equalise, and finally did through Ladislav Krejci in the 45th minute. Hugo Bueno floated a corner and Zirkzee’s unfortunate header backwards found its way to Krejci, who headed past the reach of goalkeeper Senne Lammens.
United almost equalised through a comical own goal from Yerson Mosquera, which Wolves goalkeeper Jose Sa had to claw off his own line in the 55th minute. But it was Wolves who looked more likely to score from that point, with a goalmouth scramble in the 64th minute seeing Lammens save from Krejci and then palm the ball away from the onrushing Mosquera.
Amorim’s side thought they had a winner in the 90th minute when Patrick Dorgu turned home from close range following a Sa save from Benjamin Sesko, but it was flagged offside.
Here, Mark Critchley analyses an embarrassing result and display for United.
Was it the 3-4-3 system or something deeper?
After three games where there have been clear tweaks to United’s shape in one form or another, to much surprise, Amorim reverted to type.
The 3-4-3 was back, as was the lack of intensity and absence of ideas during the first half. Jack Fletcher’s introduction for Zirkzee at half-time meant a return to a formation more akin to Friday night’s 4-2-3-1, but United’s struggles to break Wolves down persisted.
Whatever the shape, a pattern is emerging — like in the defeat to 10-man Everton, or the draw against struggling West Ham United.
In other words, United struggle when opponents they should dominate sit off, refuse to engage, and invite United to break them down.
Amorim barely left his technical area until Zirkzee opened the scoring. He was back in it soon after, too, still unhappy with what he was watching, and spent much of the second half there. More than once, he threw his arms up in frustration at his players’ decisions.
Although United only took four points from nine against Bournemouth, Aston Villa and Newcastle United, they played with verve, making the most of space offered by opponents who were happy to go toe-to-toe. It was the same story at Molineux a few weeks ago, in the reverse fixture.
Rob Edwards appeared to learn his lesson from that night: if you are organised and disciplined and deny space for United to play in, you will frustrate them.
How did Zirkzee perform?
The only change from Boxing Day saw Zirkzee come in for Mason Mount, who came off injured at half-time of the 1-0 win against Newcastle United.
Zirkzee’s failure to relieve pressure by holding up the ball that night did not go down well inside Old Trafford. In apparent reference to that, Amorim told Sky Sports before kick-off that the forward “needs to step up in the duels, because the rest, he has that”.
He also has interest from Roma, who are keen to take the Netherlands international on loan with an obligation to buy. And if this proves to be one of Zirkzee’s final United appearances, it was a short but eventful one.
Zirkzee’s first league goal at Old Trafford in more than a year opened the scoring and gave United a reprieve after a poor start, with his deflected shot from the edge of the box bobbling in, albeit only after he had done well to create the space for himself with a neat flick away from Matt Doherty.
Joshua Zirkzee’s 27th-minute effort (Oli Scarff/ AFP via Getty Images)
But his headed clearance from Hugo Bueno’s corner left something to be desired, looping up and over every other United defender to fall kindly for Krejci at the far post. Zirkzee did not reemerge for the second half, replaced by Jack Fletcher.
Unless that was an enforced change, Zirkzee appeared to be the fall guy for United’s subpar first-half showing. And strangely, despite scoring, you would not say he had taken his chance to impress, and therefore could not have too many complaints.
How big a missed opportunity was this?
All in all, this means that after finally taking a chance to move into the top five on Boxing Day, after weeks of falling short of that mark, normal service is resumed.
Anyone would have looked at a winless Wolves, who had scored just three goals away from home all season before tonight, and saw a straightforward three points, especially given how easily United breezed past Edwards’ side at Molineux.
There is some mitigation. The sheer number of key players Amorim is missing — including all three goalscorers in that 4-1 victory three weeks ago — has to be taken into account, to an extent.
But on a night when fifth-placed Chelsea also dropped points against Bournemouth, with United against a side who have every chance of going down in infamy as the worst in Premier League history, this was the biggest missed opportunity of many.
United’s run of fixtures from the end of the November international break onwards was one of the most favourable in the league. Yet they have taken 11 points from a possible 24, with two more league games to go before running into title challengers Manchester City and Arsenal over consecutive weekends.
One is a challenging trip to Elland Road, and it is hard to have confidence that Amorim’s side will come away from Turf Moor with three points either based on this performance.
Aston Villa’s rise has shown just how a run of victories can pull you away from a set of flawed sides in the upper mid-table. United had the same opportunity over this winter run of fixtures, but look set to spurn it.
What did Amorim say?
Asked whether his side needed more creativity, Amorim told his post-match press conference: “No, I think we are in a situation where you have a lot of players out at the same time.
“When you play Casemiro and (Manuel) Ugarte in the middle, you know that is different (to) when you have Kobbie Mainoo, Mason Mount or Bruno (Fernandes), that is normal. So we just need to recover our players, the players from AFCON to return, and then the fluidity is going to be different.”
Amorim confirmed that the Zirkzee substitution was tactical, adding “we need to do what the game was asking. We were struggling. They put a lot of men in the middle of the park and with Jack we balanced that. We recovered the ball faster and in the first half we struggled. I am not just looking for age and experience”.
“I am really confident, we just need to recover all the players,” he added of his side’s hopes of Champions League qualification. “I don’t know what is going to happen (until) the end of the season… but I am confident we will be a strong team.”
What next for United?
Sunday, January 4: Leeds (Away), Premier League, 12.30pm UK, 7.30am ET