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Manchester United were disappointing yet again as they were held to a goalless draw against a low-energy Aston Villa at Villa Park on Sunday afternoon.
Coming off a series of disappointing results, Man United needed to grab a win in order to take any pressure off manager Erik ten Hag, who continues to be under fire following his team’s shambolic start to the season.
One of the main problems faced by United was their ineffectiveness in front of goal, a problem that has plagued Ten Hag’s side throughout this season.
Still, Marcus Rashford displayed some keen attacking intent, showing some promise on the attack despite his team lacking the final product overall.
From the start of the match, Rashford put in a high work rate, racing into the box minutes after kick-off and thumping in a hard shot from close range to force a save from the goalkeeper.
During the second half, Rashford continued to show attacking intent, making a series of promising runs and drilling in a thunderous shot from distance that forced the goalkeeper to tip the ball over the crossbar.
With two shots on target from two, it appears that Rashford has been working hard on his accuracy. He also completed his only dribble of the game.
Taking only 26 touches throughout the match, Rashford was effective with the ball at his feet and not only in his opponents’ final third. While his passing accuracy was just 68% due to 13 of his 19 passes reaching their intended target, he did make one key pass, exhibiting his desire to create goalscoring opportunities for others as well.
Still, his long balls and crosses left a lot to be desired, as none of his two long balls nor one cross were accurate.
Rashford struggled to beat his Villa opponents physically, winning just one of his six ground duels as well as one of his two aerial battles.
Perhaps the biggest concern about Rashford’s performance was his poor discipline.
Rashford committed his first foul just before the hour mark when he took down Matty Cash near the touchline, receiving a yellow card in the process.
Mere seconds later, an ill-tempered Rashford clattered into Leon Bailey, handing Villa a free kick from a dangerous position on the edge of the box. What’s more, he was fortunate that the referee decided to let him off with a warning, especially since the tackle was worthy of a yellow card, which would have resulted in a sending-off for Rashford.
Clearly noticing Rashford’s loss of composure, Ten Hag substituted him for Antony straight after, refusing to run the risk of going down to 10 men for the final 30 minutes of play.
While Rashford put in a lot of effort and emerged as one of United’s few attacking threats, his temper almost resulted in disaster for United, with two fouls in quick succession that could have swung the game in Villa’s favour had the referee been less forgiving. The United winger will clearly need to regain his cool before United take on Brentford in two weeks’ time.
(Stats via Sofascore)
Featured image Michael Regan via Getty Images
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2024-10-06 16:00:57
