Down The Wings

Manchester United Fan Blog

Match Review : West Ham VS Manchester United

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Manchester United travelled down to the London Stadium this afternoon and thousands of travelling fans were left disappointed with the outcome of the match. United came away with a two goal defeat at the hands of West Ham. A lovely bit of build-up play by Mark Noble and Felipe Anderson allowed the Hammers to go one up on the stroke of half time thanks to Yarmolenko and a freekick goal by Aaron Cresswell late in the game sealed all three points. West Ham now move above the Reds in the Premier League table while Ole’s side don’t take advantage of their game in hand to move level on points with a Champions League place.

United struggled to get a strong hold in the game early on, which is something that has become familiar with Ole’s style of play in the new season. Both sides failed to create any major chances in the first half with Mark Noble’s deflected effort being the highlight before the goal. A nice passing sequence allowed Yarmolenko to score his second goal of the campaign with a driven shot into the bottom corner of the net.

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Juan Mata had a glorious chance to equalise for United after a darting run from Pereira allowed a driven cross towards united number eight that couldn’t be put in to an open net. The reds seemed to be starting to get on top in what was so far a lacklustre performance up until the 61st minute when they lost their sole striker Marcus Rashford to a groin injury. Rashford is now added to a long list of injuries at United including Shaw and Martial. Despite the injury affecting the morale and confidence of the team on the pitch, Rashford’s input was very limited as he failed to register a single shot on target before being subbed.

Manchester United’s chances of getting back in the game were well untruly cut short when Cresswell hit a rocket direct from a freekick beating David De Gea. Since the 2011-12 season began De Gea has now conceded 12 goals from freekicks, which is more than any other keeper in the league.

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Overall, the game was very poor on United’s behalf, like Ole said, they looked flat. They didn’t seem to have a lot up front, something that definitely needs addressing in January, whether that’s Ole or someone else only time will tell. Whoever is in charge needs to be backed. Some serious bulking in that Man United squad needs to happen, its going to take time and the direction Ole is taking the club in is positive. He’s got one thing the previous 3 managers didn’t, and that’s a plan.

There was an image that summed up this game and it was the girl fast asleep on her boyfriend’s shoulder at half time!

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