Manchester United missed eight frontline players so Wolves, who arrived as the bottom team with only two points, seemed ideal opponents. Yet Ruben Amorim\u2019s side struggled \u2013 badly \u2013 and while Bruno Fernandes, Bryan Mbeumo and Harry Maguire headed those unavailable, the display provokes questions regarding United\u2019s cohesion.<\/p>\n
In the contest\u2019s closing phase they were potent only sporadically \u2013 as throughout. Their opening-half goal was a fortunate one for Joshua Zirkzee, rebounding in off Ladislav Krejci, and after the Czech\u2019s equaliser just before the interval, Wolves might have recorded a first \u2013 and famous \u2013 victory of the season.<\/p>\n
After Jhon Arias went close with a late shot saved by Senne Lammens, Rob Edwards\u2019 visitors threatened again, and while Patrick Dorgu thought he snatched an 89th-minute winner he was ruled correctly offside.<\/p>\n
A draw was far more respectable for Wolves because despite United\u2019s missing personnel any team with hopes of Champions League qualification has to collect all points against opponents surely heading for relegation. The boos at the end echoed those at half-time and informed Amorim precisely how the home fans viewed the evening.<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cStrange game. We struggled \u2013 a lack of creation. We had our chances but the fluidity offensively wasn\u2019t there. When you play Casemiro and [Manuel] Ugarte in the middle you know it is different from when you have Bruno or Kobbie [Mainoo]. We have lack of fluidity and then lack of quality and then we suffer a goal from a set piece. We didn\u2019t use that excuse [players missing] against Newcastle [a 1-0 win] so we won\u2019t use it today.\u201d<\/p>\n
Amorim did strike a positive note. \u201cI\u2019m really confident we will be a strong team \u2013 we need to recover all the players,\u201d the Portuguese said.<\/p>\n
The latest to be ruled out was Mason Mount, by injury, so Zirkzee replaced him in the right-hand No 10 role. Wolves had the better of the opening period, rolling passes about, pleasing Edwards and infuriating Amorim. So when United claimed possession, Luke Shaw was found and Benjamin Sesko released down the left, a sharp turn and right-foot shot that went close cheered the head coach.<\/p>\n
The emotion was brief as Wolves again took over. Yerson Mosquera broke easily down the right and teed up Tolu Arokodare. The forward missed his kick, the ball bounced to Hwang Hee-chan, and the Korean blazed high.<\/p>\n
Joshua Zirkzee fires in a shot that deflected into the net to give United the lead. Photograph: Phil Noble\/Reuters<\/p>\n
United required someone to wrest the initiative \u2013 precisely what Ayden Heaven did. The centre-back robbed Hwang near Wolves\u2019 left touchline and drove infield. The ball went to Zirkzee and his shot beat S\u00e1 via Krejci.<\/p>\n
Hardly fantasy stuff and soon United\u2019s brittleness returned. First Heaven lost Tolu Arokodare in the area and the Nigerian missed a header. Moments later Lammens saved at point-blank range from Hugo Bueno.<\/p>\n
Finally, Wolves\u2019 efforts yielded what they deserved. At a Bueno corner from the right the ball flicked off the hapless Zirkzee to the far post and the unmarked Krejci headed home.<\/p>\n
For the second half Amorim brought on Jack Fletcher, 18, for Zirkzee, precisely a year on from when the Portuguese removed the Dutchman after 33 minutes as United trailed 2-0 here to Newcastle \u2013 the game ending in the score. Amorim explained: \u201cWe were struggling with their midfielders, and we played with three strikers and sometimes that\u2019s not the best thing to attack well.\u201d<\/p>\n
His unit had to up the tempo, as when Dorgu thumped the ball right and in it came quickly for an opening Matheus Cunha missed the target with. But could they keep this up?<\/p>\n
A Casemiro chip to Sesko prised Wolves open and though he was offside this was more encouragement. As was a Diogo Dalot effort \u2013 his radar was awry \u2013 and a panicky Mosquera header meant as a back-pass for S\u00e1 that had the goalkeeper scrambling to clear off the line. Afterwards Edwards said he told Mosquera: \u201c\u2018You\u2019re mad you are.\u2019 But he has a heart of gold.\u201d<\/p>\n
As the hour passed Wolves headed for only a third point of a troubled campaign \u2013 and possibly more \u2013 and United now mixed attack with clumsiness as when Shaw felled Mateus Man\u00e9.<\/p>\n
Hwang dipped the free-kick in and though the ball went back out of United\u2019s area, in it came again: Krejci shot, Lammens saved low to his left and Mosquera, following up, could not squeeze the ball in.<\/p>\n
Edwards said: \u201cThe lads are with us but there\u2019s nothing like results to get everyone on board.\u201d<\/p>\n
J\u00f8rgen Strand Larsen, who came on in the 65th-minute, is a target for West Ham. Edwards was asked about the striker\u2019s future. \u201cOnly time will tell,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Manchester United missed eight frontline players so Wolves, who arrived as the bottom team with only two points,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":218893,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[42,43,40,38,41,39],"class_list":{"0":"post-218892","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218892","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218892"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218892\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218893"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218892"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218892"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218892"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}