{"id":798747,"date":"2026-10-11T03:24:23","date_gmt":"2026-10-11T03:24:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/798747\/"},"modified":"2026-10-11T03:24:23","modified_gmt":"2026-10-11T03:24:23","slug":"the-consistent-and-concerning-trend-that-should-worry-manchester-united","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/798747\/","title":{"rendered":"The consistent and concerning trend that should worry Manchester United"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Independent<\/p>\n

Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.<\/p>\n

Join today<\/a><\/p>\n

\n Already a member?
\n Log in<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

To paraphrase Sir Alex Ferguson, lads, it\u2019s Manchester United<\/a>. A game that Tottenham Hotspur<\/a> ought to have won instead saw then entering injury time staring at defeat. An eventual draw may have showed some of the shortcomings of two early-season underachievers but reflected far worse on United. <\/p>\n

\u201cMassively disappointed with the result,\u201d said Michael Carrick<\/a>. United\u2019s poorest start to a league season for 40 years has constituted of a series of missed opportunities. Given the lead by Bryan Mbeumo<\/a>, given a one-man advantage by the stupidity of Rodrigo Bentancur<\/a>, given the opportunity to turn their dismal first-half display into a second domestic victory of the campaign, they contrived to concede to winless opponents. \u201cWe need to do better with seeing out games,\u201d lamented Carrick. As against Everton and Brighton, a lead was lost, along with any thought there was a springboard to their season. <\/p>\n

Boos rang around Old Trafford at the end. \u201cIt hurts a lot,\u201d said Carrick as the supporters who had begun by decrying Manchester City\u2019s \u201ccheating bastards\u201d soon realised they had more immediate issues. But their Tottenham counterparts were buoyant. They have spent a record amount to fail to win but, in the performance in the first hour and the spirit at the end, there were reasons for optimism. \u201cFootball is character,\u201d said Roberto de Zerbi<\/a>. \u201cWe played a great game. Today has been the game where for the first time this season we showed we are a team.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"BryanBryan Mbeumo scored the opening goal for Manchester United (PA)<\/p>\n

There is still work to do. Even factoring in Dominic Solanke<\/a>\u2019s injury-time equaliser, Tottenham still lack ruthlessness. A team with three league goals all season could have been three ahead before they conceded \u2013 inevitably, given their recent history \u2013 to Bryan Mbeumo. Since they tried to sign him last year, he has three goals in as many games against them. <\/p>\n

Part of the script seemed copied and pasted in from Spurs\u2019 previous games. Tottenham were terrific for half an hour and failed to turn that dominance into a lead. Then, as they often do, they conceded in the final quarter. It may be slightly harsh to fault Jan Paul van Hecke for Mbeumo\u2019s well-taken goal but the summer signing, culpable against Aston Villa three weeks ago, did not get tight enough to the Cameroonian. <\/p>\n

Yet there was a twist at the end when the stand-in skipper Solanke stooped to glance in a header from Sandro Tonali\u2019s cross; it was a first assist for the Italian since his \u00a3100m move from Newcastle but Lisandro Martinez was too busy tugging Solanke to actually try and defend the ball in. <\/p>\n

\"RodrigoRodrigo Bentancur and Luke Shaw got into a tussle on the side of the pitch (Getty)\"RodrigoRodrigo Bentancur was dismissed for a headbutt on Luke Shaw (Getty)<\/p>\n

So United remain the only club without a clean sheet in the Premier League<\/a> this season. They ought to have conceded far sooner; indeed, Senne Lammens had to make a fine second-minute save from Solanke, remedying the error of his own poor pass. <\/p>\n

United were slow and sluggish at the start, hassled and harried. The two managers made six changes apiece but there was some method to De Zerbi\u2019s apparent madness, a seemingly strange selection explained by the omission of several who had played all four internationals for their countries and the inclusion of those he had worked with for the previous three weeks. They had a plan and a blueprint; United seemed to have neither. They looked faster, fresher and fitter. They pressed ferociously. <\/p>\n

They were summed up by Conor Gallagher, that least creative and most energetic of No 10s, who almost scored by bundling the ball in; it was all graft and no craft. Savio was electric but lacked an end product, a comment that could be made all too often in his career; the wisdom of spending \u00a375m on him remains questionable. Luke Shaw nudged Savio\u2019s low cross-shot off the line. Solanke spooned a shot from six yards over. Tottenham\u2019s spending spree came to over \u00a3300m \u2013 almost \u00a3400m when Omar Marmoush\u2019s loan becomes permanent \u2013 but has not bought them a finisher. \u201cI probably should\u2019ve had three goals today,\u201d admitted Solanke. <\/p>\n

\"DominicDominic Solanke headed in a late equaliser for Spurs (Getty)<\/p>\n

United\u2019s first-half yielded one shot, from a fit-again Amad Diallo, and an xG of 0.05. They scored after Carrick made a triple change and relocated Mbeumo to the right. Granted a licence to roam infield, he took Matheus Cunha\u2019s low pass, turned and angled a shot past Antonin Kinsky. Ultimately, though, United could rue the chance Mbeumo had to make it two. <\/p>\n

But United struggle to beat teams reduced to 10 men and Tottenham had lost Bentancur, sent off for reacting to a push by Luke Shaw by headbutting the United left-back. \u201cI kiss Bentancur in the dressing room,\u201d said a forgiving De Zerbi but, only on for 12 minutes, the Uruguayan will now be banned for three matches. Meanwhile, United\u2019s next three are away at Atletico Madrid, Leeds and Como. They have faced two of the promoted three, two of the current bottom three. They have only won once. It is one more than Tottenham but that will be scant consolation. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Want to bookmark your favourite articles and stories to read or reference later? Start your Independent Membership today.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":798748,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[3936,183800,6494,309,1725,185829,59,11237,185827,183803,10088,6487,1671,217,101,183798,192299,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-798747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-bruno-fernandes","tag-club-soccer","tag-color-image","tag-england","tag-english-premier-league","tag-facial-expression","tag-gb","tag-horizontal","tag-manchester-united-f-c","tag-match-sport","tag-old-trafford","tag-photography","tag-soccer","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-stadium","tag-tottenham-hotspur-f-c","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=798747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/798747\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/798748"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=798747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=798747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=798747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}