Man United were held to a frustrating 1-1 draw by Premier League relegation battlers Burnley on Tuesday.
The Red Devils dominated the first half and got the lead through Paul Pogba, but conceded early in the second half through Jay Rodriguez and couldn’t win the game after that.
Tactics
Ralf Rangnick stuck with almost the same team as the Middlesbrough game, with only Edinson Cavani replacing Cristiano Ronaldo and David de Gea coming in place of Dean Henderson. He retained the 4-3-3 formation which seems to be suiting his players.
United were completely on top of the game in the first half. They had two goals disallowed by controversial VAR decisions, but Pogba’s first goal of the season gave them an early advantage.
Like the Middlesbrough game, Rangnick set up his side pretty well to control the possession. While United started the game with a 4-3-3 formation, they changed it to what looked like a 4-2-3-1 or 4-2-4 throughout the game to confuse the Burnley players.
He urged his full-backs to push forward and midfielders to be more proactive. Luke Shaw bombed forward and created some nice moves, with 41% of the attacks being created down the left Bruno Fernandes set up plenty of chances too.
United dominated 64% of the possession and had 22 shots in total in the game, including 15 in the first half itself. They had 5 shots on target in the first half, but were just not able to finish their chances well enough.
What is more surprising is that 9% of United’s shots came in the six-yards box. 64% of it was from within the 18-yard box, yet their shots were either saved by Nick Pope or just not good enough.
Rangnick’s substitutions didn’t really work out either. Ronaldo, who was benched, had a few good chances to score but was unable to end his goal drought. Jesse Lingard or Anthony Elanga couldn’t really make any big impact either.
Tactics rating – 7/10
Finishing
United were able to create a whole lot of chances in the game because of how brittle Burnley were in midfield. The Red Devils had 22 shots in the game, but only scored 1 goal – with a conversion rate of 4%.
While the result could’ve been better if VAR had not canceled out Raphael Varane’s header or the own-goal scored in the first half, the overall finishing from the United forwards was underwhelming.
Cavani had a golden opportunity in the first half, but somehow his header from yards out was denied.
Ronaldo had a few attempts to score headers too, but saw his efforts go way over the goal. Marcus Rashford took a few swipes at the goal which were easily saved by Pope.
55% of the Red Devils’ shots came from the middle, but most just weren’t sharp enough to beat the keeper. United were also able to create some chances from set-pieces but just weren’t accurate enough to score from a corner or free-kick.
Attack rating – 4/10
Defence
In the first half, the United backline had very little to do as Burnley started the game in sloppy fashion. The Clarets didn’t attempt a single shot in the first half, with the Red Devils defenders not having much to do because of how much they controlled the game.
But things started to crumble right after the break. Harry Maguire made a horrendous error leading to the goal, getting absolutely spun around by Wout Weghorst before Rodriguez’s equalizer.
He was also caught scrambling and brought down Rodriguez in a last-man challenge in the 60th minute, but was lucky not to get sent off.
To their credit, United defended the set-pieces well and didn’t really let Burnley threaten in those situations. But because of how much they dominated possession and the hosts' defensive mindset, the defenders weren’t that tested either and failed to be strong before their goal.
Defence rating – 5/10
Team Spirit
Like the Middlesbrough game, United started the match against Burnley on the front foot. They got the ball into the back of the net three times in the first 20 minutes, but were unfortunate to see two goals ruled out.
Things were almost too comfortable for United in the first half, but they failed to put the finishing touches to build on their lead. That came back to haunt them as Burnley scored the equalizer quickly after the break. Following that, the Red Devils just couldn’t gain the fire needed to score the winner.
They tried, but the players didn’t seem confident enough in the final third. A lot of attacking chances were messed up and nobody seemed determined to go the extra mile towards the end of a rainy day.
In the end, United just couldn’t get the much-needed second goal and put in an underwhelming performance in the second half – underperforming at periods when they most needed to score goals.
Team spirit rating – 4/10
