Manchester United 0-1 Everton: Painful night for Ruben Amorim’s side as they crash hard against Toffees
Manchester United fell to a 1-0 defeat against Everton on an utterly strange Monday night. As early as the 13th minute, Idrissa Gueye confronted his teammate Michael Keane, slapped him on the face and got sent off for violent conduct.
All while United stood and watched. But the problem was that United did too much standing around and watching and too little football. Before the red card Everton were the better team on the pitch, and for very long afterwards they continued to be. Just before the half-hour mark, Kiernan Dewsbury-Hall went on a run that saw him beat Bruno Fernandes and Leny Yoro before unleashing a wicked shot into the top corner from 25 yards out.
United huffed and puffed but could not get an equaliser. Ruben Amorim had started Joshua Zirkzee as a centre-forward after the injury to Benjamin Sesko. The absence of Matheus Cunha on a minor injury of his own meant that Amorim couldn’t deploy him as a centre-forward as has been his preference.
Instead, he had Amad Diallo on the left side and Bryan Mbeumo on the right of Zirkzee. Mason Mount was on the bench, while Noussair Mazraoui started in Amad’s usual right wing-back position. Whether that was the reason United looked so disjointed right from the outset is to be speculated upon, but Everton were bright and inspired. Iliman Ndiaye looked sharp on the right, and Jack Grealish threatened on the left, although he drifted into central areas when Everton got chances for a counter attack.
United’s attacking plan was to spam crosses into the Everton box, which was very helpful to David Moyes’ side. Vitaliy Mykolenko had a brilliant game snuffing out the threat of Mbeumo. James Tarkowski was superb. But Dewsbury-Hall was the Toffees’ main weapon. The man on a mission to play for England, he would have done his chances no harm at Old Trafford with the way he kept his head while on the ball and frustrated United.
In the second half Amorim introduced Mount and Kobbie Mainoo. Amad was returned to his original right wing-back position and United’s game play improved. The Ivorian put in a few good deliveries but they were wasted on a rusty Zirkzee at No 9 who isn’t actually a No 9.
Before Everton’s visit, the Dutchman had played only 82 minutes for United in the league so far this season. There are questions about whether he has a future in the team but the better question might be where does he play? Is he a striker, a winger, a midfielder? Clearly he is none of these and it compounded United’s problems on a disappointing and humiliating evening for the Old Trafford faithful.
Everton dropped into a low block as the game wore on. United had few answers. Late on Zirkzee got on the end of one cross floated in from the left by Luke Shaw, but Jordan Pickford loves these moments. When his team are under pressure and it’s backs-against-the-wall, the England No 1 tends to prove the most difficult headache for opponents to solve. He sprung to his right, demonstrating his elasticity to deny Zirzkee and keep the scowls permanently on the United faces.
There were a few more half-chances that looked like they could salvage a wretched point for United, but Everton would not budge.
