Burnley 1-1 Manchester United: Familiar problems for the Red Devils against club second from bottom
It’s not hard to imagine the vitriol that would have gushed out if Ruben Amorim was still in charge and Manchester United drew 1-1 against Burnley. As things stand, Amorim is off the grid after his dismissal from the top job, caretaker manager Darren Fletcher has no target on his back, and United’s executives are somewhere in the shadows, remote and inaccessible.
It leaves the focus for once solely on the football, which was not particularly great. Supporters, the club hierarchy and Fletcher himself might have been hoping for a win to close the chapter on the old and look ahead, but ultimately United did not do enough to beat the club second bottom in the league.
On the positive side, Benjamin Sesko netted a brace, doubling his tally for United in a stroke. But on the flip side, United still drew against Burnley and are now seventh in the league, leapfrogged by Newcastle and Brentford, both of whom won on Wednesday.
With the old regime gone, Fletcher turned from the much-hated 3-4-3 and lined United up in a 4-2-3-1, Manuel Ugarte and Casemiro as the deep-lying midfielders and the returning Bruno Fernandes playing as a No 10. In a more puzzling decision, Fletcher elected to start Matheus Cunha on the more unnatural right side, Patrick Dorgu playing on the left wing.
United got off to a bad start after the hapless Ayden Heaven tried to block a cross and saw the ball deflected into his own net. The visitors were clumsy and disconnected, but Fernandes’ free kick found Casemiro on the right and the Brazilian headed across goal to Cunha who headed beyond the goalkeeper, only Bashir Humphreys was on the goal line to head clear. The resulting corner kick by Luke Shaw caused havoc in the box and Lisandro Martinez thought he had pulled United level, but he was adjudged to have pulled down Kyle Walker.
There was another goal line clearance by Maxime Esteve to deny Dorgu on the stroke of half time, before the first half gave away to a much more entertaining second period that saw United begin to gain some attacking rhythm. Sesko dismissed criticism of his pace when he burst through the Burnley backline ten minutes into the half and slotted the ball beyond Martin Dubravka into the far corner. His second was an even better statement of his striking prowess, timing his run superbly to slam home on the hour mark.
United had lift off and appeared to be heading towards a highly positive victory, but a familiar problem reared its head. Substitute Jaidon Anthony was given leeway on the edge of the box by a tentative defence and he helped himself to a superb top corner finish to force a draw.
