Premier League: Manchester United fall to bottom of table after 4-0 beating at Brentford
The great Manchester United has had one of the worst starts to their campaign in the premier league history. They suffered a second defeat on the trot to start their campaign. And are now languishing at the bottom of the table.
Before the start of the season, there was a massive uproar about Ten Hag’s ball. People talked about how his playing style would also change the United’s game and results.
But when they took the field against Brentford, it seemed like Eric Ten Haag’s men forgot even the basics of football. Hence committing errors that lead to four goals within 40 minutes of the game.
Brentford thump United in first half
The first goal in the 10th minute was a rudimentary error by goalkeeper de Gea. He failed to save an easy shot by Mbeumo from outside the box. And it resulted in the opening of the flood gates for Brentford.
Eight minutes later, Jansen doubled the lead. And once again, the rudimentary playmaking was to be blamed.
Starting from the back from a goal kick, United failed to move the ball upfield. Brentford players pressed them down, and Eriksen of all players lost the ball inside the box. As a result, Jensen had a tremendous opportunity to beat the keeper. And he did so rather coolly by placing the ball in the left corner away from de Gea.
The third goal was defending chaos that Manchester United failed to cope with. It was a long corner by Brentford that United failed to deal with. And defender Ben Mee in the 30th minute, tripled his team’s lead by netting the ball.
The fourth goal was an example of great counterattacking and schoolboy defending. Being on an attack, Manchester United committed too many men forward. Hence leaving their defence in shambles, Brentford made the most of it.
They played one long ball and a through pass that found Josh Dasilva in the United box. The rest was sublime finishing by the English attacker. He tore away from his marking defender to blast the ball past the goalkeeper for the fourth goal in just 35 minutes.
On the other side of the pitch, Cristiano Ronaldo missed three crucial chances. In total, he tried 6 shots, of which only 2 could find the target while 4 went wayward.
United made a triple substitution at the break. And that saw them regain some stability in the second half. But there was no traction for them throughout the contest. They failed to make a comeback and the game ended at 4-0.
With this scoreline, Manchester United languishes at the bottom of the table.
Ten Hag’s words on the dismal performance
When asked about his triple substitution at half-time, which saw him take off defenders Lisandro Martinez and Luke Shaw alongside Fred, Ten Hag said: “I changed three, but I could have changed them all. We wanted to bring some fresh energy in the game, there was nothing specific to the ones we subbed because I don’t think it’s all to them.”
“It’s naive, how we played today, you have to play more direct. We said: invite them in [to press] and play long. We attracted them, the space was high on the pitch and we had to choose that option. That’s what we couldn’t do. It’s no good, definitely. That’s not the standard on how we want to act.
“You can have a plan, but we put the plan in the bin. It’s nothing to do with tactical – the first two goals. It’s about dealing with the ball. That’s one. And two, decisions.
“They followed my instructions but they made bad decisions. That’s football, it’s a game of mistakes and we got punished.”
