Manchester United produced two comebacks in each half to claim a point against Aston Villa in what was a humdinger of a tie at Old Trafford on Sunday.
The visitors scored twice within the opening five minutes of the first half and then restored their two-goal advantage within the opening eight minutes of the second half.
Each time, the Red Devils pegged them back, with Bruno Fernandes and Youri Tielemans doing so in the first half before Patrick Dorgu and Joshua Zirkzee added a final flourish in added time.
This style of conceding and then fighting back is unsustainable, and it is time underperformers like Diogo Dalot are shown the door.
Substitutes made their mark
Michael Carrick is not devoid of blame either. He needs to be far more bold with his selection calls, as seen from the impact his substitutes have had in the last two games.
Shea Lacey, who should have started against Villa, once again produced a promising cameo, registering two key passes in only 24 minutes.
He replaced Amad, whose end product keeps letting the team down.
The Ivorian managed a single key pass and failed to gobble up his chance in the first half when put clean through on goal against a vulnerable Zion Suzuki.
The less said about the Portuguese full-back the better, and he was rightly booed off on the night. Apart from making two huge errors, he also won only 50 percent of his duels and has not had a single goal contribution all season.
| Stat | P. Dorgu |
|---|---|
| Minutes | 24 |
| Goals | 1 |
| Assists | 1 |
| Shots | 1 |
| Shots on target | 1 |
| Shot accuracy % | 100.0% |
| Conversion % | 100.0% |
| Passes | 13 |
| Accurate passes | 11 |
| Pass accuracy % | 84.6% |
| Key passes | 2 |
| Dribbles attempted | 0 |
| Dribbles completed | 0 |
| Dribble success % | – |
| Tackles | 1 |
| Interceptions | 0 |
| Blocks | 0 |
| Duels | 4 |
| Duels won | 4 |
| Duels won % | 100.0% |
Carrick needs to be bolder
The Dane, who replaced him for the final 24 minutes, already has three assists and a goal, and he also won 100 percent of his tackles and duels on the night.
As for Bryan Mbeumo, he does have four goals, but his overall gameplay has been disappointing and he was a ghost against the Villans.
Zirkzee scored and worked hard off the ball, and the Dutchman now has two goals in his last four substitute appearances.
It is time for Carrick to start paying attention to what is working and what is not. His job depends on it.
Feature image Michael Regan via Getty Images
