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The holy grail continues to elude Ruben Amorim. Call it progress, consistency, momentum. Or just back-to-back Premier League victories for the first time. The manager had taken encouragement from last Saturday’s 2-1 home win over Chelsea, even if United had almost located their own feet with heavy gunfire in the closing stages.
It needed to be a platform. And yet, as so often under their beleaguered leader, United followed one step forward with two in the opposite direction. The question beforehand had concerned which United would turn up because nobody can ever be sure, least of all Amorim.
They gave their answer during a laughably bad opening 25 minutes when they conceded two horror goals and were fortunate that the damage was not worse. Igor Thiago continued his positive start to the season for Brentford, scoring both of them and, for United, the tone was set.
There was a first United goal for Benjamin Sesko in the 26th minute but his team pretty much went through the bingo card of frustrating stuff after that. Lack of conviction at the back. Lack of penetration in the final third. Errors all over the pitch. Check.
There was even a penalty miss by Bruno Fernandes on 76 minutes, his second in west London of the season, after the one he blazed into the Thames at Fulham. This time, after another long wait, the Brentford goalkeeper, Caoimhín Kelleher, read his intentions and went the right way to save.
Amorim finished with Kobbie Mainoo, Joshua Zirkzee and Mason Mount on as substitutes. It was Mainoo alongside Fernandes in midfield, Bryan Mbeumo at right wing-back, Mount at left wing-back. It was total attack. And yet, predictably, it would end in a total mess as Brentford broke in stoppage-time and the substitute, Mathias Jensen, flashed a shot from outside the box through the hands of Altay Bayindir.
Should Nathan Collins have been sent off?
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Nathan Collins was behind Bryan Mbeumo and pulled him back. Craig Pawson awarded a penalty but Collins was only booked. The challenge was looked at by the video assistant referee but he did not recommend a review.
Law 12 says:
Where a player commits an offence against an opponent within their own penalty area which denies an opponent an obvious goal-scoring opportunity and the referee awards a penalty kick, the offender is cautioned if the offence was an attempt to play the ball or a challenge for the ball; in all other circumstances (e.g. holding, pulling, pushing, no possibility to play the ball etc.), the offending player must be sent off.
It continues:
The following must be considered:
distance between the offence and the goal
general direction of the play
likelihood of keeping or gaining control of the ball
The Premier League match centre said on social media that Mbeumo was deemed not to be in control of the ball.
For Keith Andrews, it was another good home result; the statement victory of his Brentford tenure so far. For Amorim, the numbers in the league are probably worth printing: W9 D7 L17.
Amorim had called for an aggressive start from his players. Actually, he had begged for one. Instead, United were pedestrian. They were loose. And they felt the early body blow. The finish from Thiago was quite something. He allowed Jordan Henderson’s long ball to bounce, set himself with a little header that was slightly away from goal and then lashed a rising drive into the near top corner.
The major detail of the breakthrough was that Thiago had pretty much the entire United half into which to run. Matheus Cunha had looked for a cheap free-kick at the other end that was not there and when Henderson launched the pass, Harry Maguire rushed up to play Thiago offside, only he was too slow. It almost goes without saying that Maguire was never going to make the yards back on Thiago.
Where to start with the verdict on United during those first 25 minutes? It was just so bad with and without the ball – especially without it. Brentford had time and space. They worked their patterns. They threatened from set pieces, including Michael Kayode’s long throws.
Brentford advertised the goal for 2-0. Bayindir made a fine save to keep out a close-range header from the unmarked Sepp van den Berg. Moments later, after Brentford had pulled United apart on their defensive left, the goalkeeper made another one to repel a Nathan Collins header.
The second concession was another disaster from a United point of view. It followed another long ball and more meekness, Matthijs De Ligt and Maguire both guilty. Thiago had helped it wide left for Kevin Schade, who was allowed to cross and Bayindir could only parry weakly at the feet of Thiago, who had continued his run in expectation of an error. It was a tap-in.
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This United team is incapable of playing for 90 minutes. The wildness of so many of their games is a fundamental problem. United’s lifeline came out of nothing. Patrick Dorgu stretched to cross high from the byline and when Mbeumo, the former Brentford forward, who was given a warm welcome back from the home crowd, leaned into Kelleher, the goalkeeper coughed it up to Sesko. It was a case of third time lucky for the United striker. Twice, Kelleher denied him at close quarters. He was powerless when the ball broke for Sesko again.
Somewhere on social media, there is a United fan called Frank Ilett who pledged on 5 October of last year not to cut his hair until his team had won five games in a row in all competitions. Their best streak since then has been the three in January, two of them in the Europa League. Ilett, now with something approaching a privet hedge atop his cranium, simply lives in hope. There are times when it appears that it is all the club’s supporters have.
United’s lack of goals under Amorim has been chronic and there was an edge to the pleadings from their fans on the hour. “Attack, attack, attack,” they chanted. Where was the tempo? It was as though United were going through the motions.
Brentford had the chances to restore their two-goal cushion. Van den Berg almost got to a Collins header in front of goal while Thiago was denied by an excellent Bayindir save. The chance had been teed up for him after Schade easily got the better of Diogo Dalot.
Brentford had structure in midfield. Henderson provided the assurance, Mikkel Damsgaard flitted in the No 10 role. Amorim went all out when he introduced Mainoo for the ineffective Manuel Ugarte. Now there was no defensive bone in the middle of the pitch for his team.
United wanted a red card for Collins on the penalty because he did not look to have tried to play the ball when he pulled back Mbeumo. The referee, Craig Pawson, spared him. And when Fernandes missed the kick, United had that painfully familiar sinking feeling.
