Advantage Milan

Two steps forward, one step back, this is the only constant in Manchester United’s campaign. A tie that befitted the Champions League was being played out in the Europa League, a testament to the fall from grace of both clubs involved, Manchester United and AC Milan. Both teams entered this match without a full-strength squad. Half of Milan’s absentees would have been part of the starting line-up had they been fit. For United, most of our absentees were concentrated in the midfield and forward positions.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oHpwt0ctHY

United Takes The Lead

It was Milan that had the better of the game as they made light of their injury situation. They kept possession better, passed it with urgency and showed vigour in their movement. The game started pretty evenly but Milan got more confident after they had two strikes ruled out, one for offside and another for handball that was hard to pick out from replays. VAR rescued United on that occasion. Most of United’s play was just in front of Milan’s defence as we struggled to penetrate their defence and stretch them. But despite that, we could have gone into the half-time break in the lead. Harry Maguire had an astonishing miss with the goal at his mercy off a flick on by Bruno Fernandes. We took the lead against the run of play when Fernandes showed his quality with a brilliant assist for the young substitute, Amad Diallo. The young man from Ivory Coast is not the tallest but he improvised very well to produce a Chicharito-type header to beat a giant of a man in Gianluigi Donnarumma.

Deserved Milan Equaliser

I thought that goal would give the team confidence and spur them on but the play wasn’t any better. Daniel James was another guilty of a glaring miss for United. Mason Greenwood had made good progress on the right and squared it for James who had all of the goal to aim at but inexplicably, put his attempt wide. For all of Milan’s better possession and goal attempts, there was no real danger on the United goal so you can’t say the equaliser was coming. But one cannot begrudge Milan for scoring as they played better. Fingers have since been pointed at Dean Henderson for not keeping out Kjaer’s header as it was relatively straight at him. The marking at the corner was also questioned.

Short Of Quality Depth & Creativity

With Marcus Rashford and Edinson Cavani out and Anthony Martial unreliable, we look short of quality depth in attack. Donny van de Beek and Juan Mata’s injury couldn’t have come at a worse time for the players and the club. With the team desperately short of creativity and Bruno Fernandes blowing hot and cold and looking fatigued, we could do with either player being available. We don’t know which United will turn up from one game to another and that pattern continues. At this stage, I feel it is frustratingly a story of our season which has led me to question claims of our progress.

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