5 Things we learned from Man United’s uninspiring draw with Fulham

1. I don’t recognise this team anymore. This was an absolute must-win game for both teams who’ve started the season poorly which of course means it had to end in a draw after a pretty shocking game of football, the first half was equally uninspiring from both teams but United probably just edged it with Cunha hitting the post and Martinez forcing a brilliant save from Leno with an incredible effort from outside the box. Fulham had some big chances to with Josh King’s effort at the near-post saved well by Lammens before Gonzalo Garcia miskicked his effort inside the box, by half-time you could sense that game was there for the taking for both sides so I was expecting a frantic start to the second half with both teams needing a win. Of course we got the complete opposite with the start of the second half looking like it was being played in slow motion with both teams walking around the pitch without a care in the world, up until the 63rd minute when Fulham opened the scoring as Calvin Bassey’s shot was awkwardly saved by Lammens back out to Martinez who’s attempt at a clearance or back pass went straight into his own net. Just what United deserved for a disgusting start to the second half, from there Fulham were happy enough to sit on the lead with United not really threatening other than hopeful pop-shots from outside the box for the next 25 minutes. Then out of nowhere in the 89th minute Dorgu played the ball to Cunha on the edge of the Fulham box with the Brazilian lining up an effort which takes a wicked deflection off Affengruber past an already diving Leno to save a point for United, a disastrous result avoided but still far from good enough heading into a three week international break.

2. So close to a first Premier League win for Alvaro Arbeloa. The last two games have seen a huge improvement from Fulham between holding Liverpool to a draw at Anfield and now going within five minutes or so to a win against United, that’s not to say that Liverpool and Man United are great teams right now but it’s definitely a step in the right direction compared to the first few weeks of the season. Arbeloa seems to have sorted out the defence in the last two weeks which was a complete shambles in the first few games not that they would have been really threatened by United today anyway considering how poor their attackers were, that’s not to say that Fulham were brilliant today because they definitely weren’t in particular going forward were I thought they were really wasteful at times. Gonzalo Garcia had a couple of pretty good chances that he snatched at in the first half along with Oscar Bobb who really should have scored following some brilliant footwork in the box, the standout player for Arbeloa’s side today was undoubtedly Josh King who continues to look so impressive in that number 10 role for Fulham. He does a lot of his good work on the right-hand-side which we saw for the goal against Chelsea and he so nearly did it again today had it not been for Senne Lammens in the United goal, at only 19 years of age I’m looking forward to watching his career develop in the future. Overall it’ll be a tough one to take for Fulham conceding a last-minute deflected equaliser but there’s certainly positives to take heading into the break, I don’t see them going down this season.

3. I don’t really want to talk about that United performance. Following the game on Wednesday in the Carabao Cup I was tempted to add a league cup section to this website just to talk about the game because I was absolutely fuming but I thought I would be safer leaving it for the season so far review over the next few weeks, I was expecting a response this afternoon following that collapse but I’m not surprised we didn’t get it. The walking around off the ball is driving me insane at the minute and that continued in this game where we just look so pedestrian all over the pitch allowing teams to just pass the ball around however they want with no pressure on the team in possession, it was the same on Wednesday even when we were losing at home for the last twenty minutes which just isn’t good enough from the team. In terms of players performance it was the same old with Cunha, Mbeumo, Rashford and Fernandes all stinking up the pitch looking like they can’t be bothered with our current performances then you have the goals we’re conceding which continue to get more comical week after week, the midfield was the best part of the performance with Tielemans and Mainoo standing out but we really are lacking legs in there at the minute which means we’re relying on Carlos Baleba to turn into Superman when he makes his debut. If I was seeing some application from the players to get after the ball and actually look like they are hurting from the recent results then maybe I could excuse the lack of quality throughout the team but when they are walking around with just one win out of five Premier League games I’ve got to say my patience is being tested, if it’s an instruction from Carrick then fair enough but I refuse to believe he doesn’t want his team to press. Overall a draw might as well be a loss as far as I’m concerned as we go into a three week international break, does it come at a good time for United? Hopefully.

4. Is there a future under Michael Carrick at United? I was pretty unequivocal in my backing for Carrick for the job towards the back end of last season but there were obvious points of contention that I wasn’t 100% with, the lack of an out and out number nine was the first one for me as I think it takes a specialist to play in the false-9 position which we haven’t seen from Cunha or Mbeumo in the last 8 months. Second of all was the fitness levels of the team which weren’t really a worry at the start of Carrick’s tenure as despite his many weaknesses Ruben Amorim had this team running marathons just to try and play his formation, a strength which was obvious in the first two games against City and Arsenal were we completely ran over both teams. As the season continued you could feel the fitness levels lowering despite only playing 1 game a week and that leaves us here with United ranking 20th in the league for sprints, distance at high intensity, time at high intensity and time sprinting. Is this the be all and end all of a good football team? No but it certainly does show that our eyes aren’t deceiving us and United simply aren’t running at Premier League levels at the minute, fitness aside the team just doesn’t look like a competitive one at the minute and that’s for a few reasons. First of all the summer transfer window which was a complete disaster leaving Carrick short in defence and attack spending just £150 million getting outspent by just about everyone in the league, that one isn’t on Carrick but his platforming of the team has undoubtedly been a downfall so far this season. The Cunha false-9 experiment should have ended after the Hull match but his insistence on playing the Brazilian down the middle is costing matches when he played his best football on the left last season, Mbeumo has been rubbish this season so far which make me wonder why he hasn’t given Shea Lacey a start in the league considering he’s probably our best option on the right at the minute. Carrick’s hands are tied in defence which we saw on Wednesday night but I would like to see Mazraoui more in the league considering Dalot’s horrifying form at the minute, overall there’s a lot to think about for Carrick over the next three weeks and how he’s going to keep his job ahead of the next break in November. Will he even make it that far? I’m not so sure.

5. Where does that leave both teams? A draw keeps both teams in the bottom half for the break with United in 12th and Fulham moving up to 19th which puts Spurs into 20th for the international break which is quite funny, when they come back United actually host De Zerbi’s Spurs at Old Trafford before heading to the Metropolitano to face Atletico Madrid which should be a fun one. Fulham take a trip to Ipswich on the first game back before facing Hull City at Craven Cottage the week after, stay tuned on here were I’ll have an early season review for all the top sides up over the international break. Should hopefully cure the boredom a tiny bit.