Manchester United’s unbeaten record of six games ended today at Villa Park as they tied 1-1 against Aston Villa. Radamel Falcao was seen in the starting line-up after 10 weeks of not seeing action as a starter. A couple of times we saw him come in as a substitute, but for the first time Louis Van Gaal decided to start him. Angel di Maria also saw 30 minutes of action after missing the past five games. Di Maria was recovering from a pulled hamstring that caused him to miss these past few games, but Van Gaal was able to have his services today. With Daley Blind, Chris Smalling, Tom Thorpe, Luke Shaw, and Marcos Rojo out due to injuries, Van Gaal wasn’t able to use them for today’s game. Marouane Fellaini was also out due to illness and Ander Herrera wasnt seen in the field nor in the bench.
With a 3-4-3 formation, Manchester United seemed to struggle a lot in the back and lacked play creation. Van Gaal’s tactics of three defenders in the back has not helped much. The defense becomes very vulnerable allowing their opponents to score or have the opportunity to score against Manchester United. Phil Jones allowed Christian Benteke score today for Aston Villa and Jonny Evans and Michael Carrick struggled as well to stop the forwards from attacking. Even with 10 men on the field, Aston Villa kept on attacking and finding those chances to score.
Manchester United started strong in the first half of the games, finding opportunities to score and creating some nice plays and great passing. 15 minutes in, it all started falling apart. The Red Devils could not create nice plays and the passing was all over the place. With a ball given away by the Reds, Aston Villa was able to get possession of the ball and a cross from Fabian Delph allowed Christian Benteke to get the ball behind De Gea’s net. With 17 minutes played, Delph crossed the ball to Benteke who stopped the ball with his chest, juked Phil Jones twice in the box and got the ball to curve and get Aston Villa up in the first half.
The rest of the second half seemed like Manchester United could not get anything done. Passes were not completed, could not find the chemisty to create plays, and struggled to stop Aston Villa from creating chances as well. The rest of the first half belonged to Aston Villa and tv cameras showed just how frustrated Louis Van Gaal was.
After the break, the second half belonged to Manchester United and we saw the players having chemistry. Ashley Young stepped it up on the left wing and started creating some nice crosses. In the 52 minute, Falcao and Young connected very well in a beautiful play that ended on a goal. Ashley Young took on Matthew Lowton on the left wing and went all the way down, crossed the ball into the box and Falcao was able to find the ball, and headed it into the left top corner of Brad Guzan’s net to tie the game and get Manchester United on the scoreboard. The last time we saw Falcao in action, he got his first goal for the Reds and was able to get his second after missing the last 10 weeks.
Angel Di Maria came in on the 61st minute to see at least 30 minutes of action after missing the last six games. Coming in for Robin Van Persie, Di Maria had many chances to score but was not able to finish the play. Three times he tried to take on players on the right side of the field and curve the ball with his left foot but could not hit the ball hard enough to get the ball behind the net.
The big talk about this game was the red card to Gabriel Agbonlahor on a tackle to Ashley Young. Both players ran to the ball with Young finding the ball first thus seeing Agbonlahor kick Young really hard in the chin. Right in the moment, the referree showed a red card to Agbonlahor thought it was not deserving of a red card. A yellow card would have been enough, but because Agbonlahor could not find the ball instead went for the kick to try to get the ball but hit Young instead. Throughout the game, Young was booed by the fans every time he got the ball and was not the favorite man of the night.
With 10 men in the field, Aston Villa was able to hold Manchester United to a tie and end their six run winning record. Both teams got a point each putting the Red Devils seven points behind Man City and Jose Mourinho’s Blues. With this, Manchester United has nine wins, four ties and four losses and hope to continue their winning ways when they face Newcastle and Tottenham for their last two matches of the year.
Photo by: Luke Reddy/BBC Sport
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