Crisis isn’t a word to be used lightly, but, in footballing terms, Manchester United can surely be considered to be in the midst of one.
Not for the first time this season, there is a severe state of discontent riddled around Old Trafford. The alarm bells of a genuine crisis had previously sounded at the climax of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s tenure, yet progress since his departure has often seemed microscopic.
Whilst a number issues that Solskjaer suffered with have been eradicated, new problems have arisen thus development has been at a minimum. For a club that strive for perfection, United are in a state of utter discombobulation. Still, we rave on about a rebuild.
Following disappointment against both Middlesbrough and Burnley, Southampton's visit to Old Trafford on Saturday afternoon was a chance of revival for United. However, unlike in the previous two matches since the winter break, it seemed a more even encounter from the outset. Southampton's form was a catalyst for confidence, whilst United seemed to have gained belief from elements of recent showings.
The United belief was embodied by Jadon Sancho from very early in proceedings. Starting again on the left hand side, he showed an impressive injection of pace to chase one ball from Paul Pogba after combining with Luke Shaw on the left, fending off Kyle Walker-Peters and slotting into Cristiano Ronaldo's path with perfect weight. On this occasion, the striker - back in the starting side with Edinson Cavani absent with a groin injury - rounded Fraser Forster after a cutting run, but his left footed effort was uncharacteristically tame and Romain Perraud was able to recover and clear. The drought went on.
Southampton responded to the aforementioned break by displaying their own threat after a stray David de Gea ball, with Perraud delivering a troubling ball towards the back post which was put across into the danger zone by Walker-Peters - not picked up by anyone amidst some defensive disarray. If it wasn't for an unfortunate slip which saw his header travel backwards and away from goal, Che Adams would have seen his side take an early lead.
A frantic, high volume start to proceedings was further encapsulated by a further United counter attack, stemming from a breakout after a gutsy block by Shaw from a James Ward-Prowse piledriver in subsequence to the Adams miscue. The left back was attentive to further recover the ball, launching Sancho on his way to break again. Southampton were susceptible to be broken against, playing into the hands of one of United's primary strengths.
Decision making has been an issue riddling United sporadically throughout the season and, on this second Sancho breakaway, Ronaldo's support (and Marcus Rashford's beyond) was ignored as the summer signing opted to go alone and allowed the ball to get marginally out of his control.
It was agonising for the Old Trafford contingent, seeing more early chances go begging for their side. The same did apply for Southampton, though. The scoreline, within the blink of an eye, could have easily been a goal to the good at either end.
Although some chances were being conceded by Southampton, United continued to show the attacking flare that had been present against both Middlesbrough and Burnley. Pogba again seemed everpresent, providing links for Shaw and Sancho on the left whilst often interchanging with Bruno Fernandes to find himself on the right, which was a marker of the fluidity of Ralf Rangnick's 4-3-3 system. The Frenchman showed a real willingness to be in possession, massively enhancing creation given his extensive involvement in the buildup of the majority of attacks.
Despite Pogba being the dominant figurehead in midfield, it was Fernandes in his reinvented 'number eight' role who had a decisive impact in midfield. Following work from Raphael Varane and Diogo Dalot to navigate out of a tight area, Fernandes unleashed the most threatening counter attack of all. It was a perfect display of the midfielder's qualities, effortlessly turning to evade Ward-Prowse before perfectly weighting and placing a through ball into Rashford's path.
Southampton, not for the first time, found themselves punished by United's pace. Rashford had often been probing in the early exchanges, and provided a lethal burst to run off Mohammed Salisu and find himself free to surge into the opposing penalty area after Fernandes' pass. Unselfishly, he squared the ball to the oncoming Sancho, who again had the beating of Walker-Peters and could freely slot into an empty net.
Sancho had been a nuisance throughout leading up to the goal - a major source of invention and the predominant threat when running at the Southampton back line. Deservedly, he was on the scoresheet at Old Trafford for the first time in the Premier League.
Unexpectedly, it was Rashford on the right and Sancho on the left working with efficiency again. Despite the pair formerly seeming more natural on the opposite sides, they have found their best level so far this season on their less favoured flanks. When on the left, Rashford often seems one-dimensional and prioritises cutting inside and shooting - more often than not to no avail. He can still make similar runs on the right, but also has a more straightforward option to create, thus more dimensions are added to his game.
After another first half goal, which is a sign of progress through better starts, it was a necessity that United pushed on. Getting a second goal had been problematic of late, with signs of complacency in the form of merely expecting a second goal to come. There were indications that this may be the case again, with Southampton engineering an encouraging move or two, finding openings.
United remained coordinated but did appear to take their foot off the gas before even reaching the half-hour mark, with a Southampton side previously devoid of attempts on target starting to create better chances. As the half begun to draw towards its close, it was Southampton enduring more sustained spells of possession as United appeared to unexplainably ease off to an extent again.
The counter attack was still an option for United, but even that grew more of a rarity. Sancho did manage to play another ball through towards Ronaldo, though he was unable to work the ball into a shooting position. There was a rare spectacle of Ronaldo seeming to lack belief, which encapsulated the climax to United's first half. The mental block was starting to come into force again.
It was De Gea having to be the more alert of the goalkeepers, with some tame and porous defending allowing Southampton some avail. On the whole, it was the visitors holding the ball better and with more poise. Again, United were seeming content with their slender advantage, which they were fortunate to hold heading into the juncture given the opposing pressure.
Some United fans may have thought they were in for a positively abnormal second half (based off recent trends) when their side managed to keep the ball from one of their trademark long punts from kickoff, but it soon became apparent that it would be another case of rinse and repeat.
There was an instantaneous Southampton leveller, and it was widely a consequence of collective defensive lapses from United. You could go back as far as critiquing Pogba for failing to close down Oriol Romeu, later jogging towards a possible pursuit of Mohamed Elyounoussi. A domino effect appeared to commence after Dalot was forced to push out to pressure left back Perraud after Rashford's half-hearted tracking, with Elyounoussi thus free inside and wrongly Varane's responsibility. Adams was the next to be left free, with Dalot unable to retreat and the forward able to guide the ball past De Gea off the far post from a tight angle.
"It was too easy," Rangnick said post-match. "It was not even difficult for Burnley or Southampton to score."
It was another classic display of incoherent pressing and defensive incoordination, with certain individuals not putting in the required work. Hereby, it became a case of being dragged out of position to cover, losing men and leaving space without cover. Individuals can be singled out for their roles, but it was a large knock-on effect of ineptitude by way of inexecution of duties.
Ralph Hasenhuttl observed, "The pressing for them was good in the beginning, but they aren’t used to doing it for more than 30 or 40 minutes. We came into the game after that."
Was it a surprise to see United concede? No, not really. In the minds of many, the game could already have been level given the manner in which recent matches had unfolded.
The issues that culminated in the concession almost repeated themselves moments later. Certain players were guilty of standing off the probing Southampton men, with positional unawareness resulting in a mass of space to exploit. Walker-Peters was able to wander into an empty corridor with the ball, with a number of shots allowed without much duress being placed on the attackers.
United's level, not for the first time recently, had dropped right off. It was a mystifying reoccurrence, with United's mindset again seeming all wrong. It really was a case of deja vu.
Rangnick oversaw his side misusing the ball and wasting their phases of possession, which were considerably less frequent than in the matches prior. Creation became on the verge of illusive, with the sides essentially level-pegging for shots - the better share going to Hasenhuttl's side.
Forster was forced into a couple of saves, but was hardly troubled. By contrast, Southampton had more gilt edge opportunities, with Armando Broja causing Harry Maguire trouble, once dinking the ball over De Gea - but with slightly too little weight to trouble to scoreline.
United's threadbare bench offered little encouragement when changes were needed to trigger an upturn in a performance lacking sharpness and bereft of much intensity. Southampton were winning everything with aid of their effervescence, even though they had had a whole day less to recover from their win against Tottenham Hotspur.
Ronaldo did, against the run of play, have the ball in the back of the net, but he was ruled offside from the freekick delivery. He wasn't the only player offside. The five other players attacking the freekick were also offside. All five. It was an incident that spoke volumes. The lack of focus was staggering.
As it was, Ronaldo's six game wait for a goal went on - his longest goal drought at club level since January 2009.
The game was an open one, partially testament to United's lack of quality and lack of effort levels. The absence of sustained possession for the home side emphasised the tough ask for Scott McTominay to hold the midfield alone, with such battle being lost for the most-part. However, there were no reinforcements on the bench given Nemanja Matic's injury, Fred's illness and Donny van de Beek's departure.
The thinking may never be quite clear, but Rangnick decided the best way to eradicate McTominay's struggles would be to withdraw him - as happened against Burnley too. Anthony Elanga came on to bolster the attacking ranks, but it was hard to decipher how control would be regained with the withdrawal of a midfielder. The attacking minds of Pogba and Fernandes were left to operate the midfield, with a switch to a 4-4-2 system.
Where Rangnick hoped improvement would come, frustration begun to get the better of his side. Fernandes displayed ill-discipline to engage in and instigate a number of needless off-ball tussles, with Pogba booked for a cynical challenge as annoyance took control. Jesse Lingard, who had replaced Rashford, was booked for a similar offence. United were almost displaying immaturity.
Open play chances continued to remain evasive, with dead ball situations providing the biggest inroads. Very late in proceedings, a Maguire header on goal was spectacularly denied by Forster with a strong hand following an awkwardly late bounce.
The result stayed put. United settled for their third consecutive 1-1 regulation time draw. For the fourth time in six matches over all competitions, a lead had been squandered to deny a victory. For only the second time in their Premier League history, United have failed to win back-to-back matches despite being ahead at half time in both.
Whilst recent poor results hadn't necessarily been warranted, this had been a game that United were ultimately fortunate to take a point from. Southampton were the more authoritative, and had been carrying the biggest threat. In fact, the away side had one more shot than United. Nonetheless, the hosts' 12 attempts saw their goal-to-shot ratio transcend to only four converted from 82 efforts.
United's customary phase of dominance lasted for the best part of half an hour on Saturday. That was it. It was certainly more Hyde than Jekyll this time around. Against slightly better opposition than Middlesbrough and Burnley, the ability to play at the highest level diminished.
When it comes to facing Manchester City, Liverpool et al, what is going to happen? The pessimism instilled within the fanbase at the moment leads to suggestions that the outcome won’t be much better than that in the meetings earlier in the season. Whilst there have been improvements in some aspects since then, wholesale progress has been limited to say the least.
There is some clear mental block somewhere, but putting one’s finger on the exact logistics is hard. You can talk about squandering chances, and predicaments such as Ronaldo’s form relative to this, but there seems to be an overall lack of belief to push on when a lead is taken. Thus, opponents are being allowed to deal with the ball with superiority and hereby dominate proceedings. You can't point fingers as such - it’s a collective issue at the moment.
Paul Scholes was damning in his assessment, where he claimed, "I feel sorry for the manager. He's clearly trying his best to set this team up to play against this type of team and they're either not listening, can't do it or they don't want to do it."
The claims aren't remotely absurd. There does appear to be a lack of personnel to execute a functioning system or plan. "It was very similar to previous games unfortunately," Rangnick assessed. "It is the fourth game where we were ahead but took one point instead of three."
"It's not a question of not creating chances, it's a question of not being effective enough," he continued. "We created, scored a great goal. Then we stopped doing that. At the end of the first half we didn't do those things anymore and then in the second we lost a bit of shape."
"We lost a bit of composure, took the wrong decisions and this is where we have to get better. We told them they had to be aggressive, compact, not give any space to move into. It is a different thing to perform like that on the pitch. We have to do better."
"History is repeating itself again," Luke Shaw exclaimed. "We started really well the first 20 minutes, got the goal and it just happened again. We know it's not good enough and it needs to change quickly."
"It's not good enough and there’s no way we will get in the Champions League if we keep dropping points."
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