Michael Carrick had seen it in his players, he said, but no one else can. Not so far in the Premier League, where they have suffered their worst start in 40 years, and not here in Madrid, where Manchester United’s head coach insisted they would embrace the challenge. The reaction was coming, he promised; he had looked at them and was sure of it.
Instead, they were a goal down after just 53 seconds and all that came was the old familiar sting, that early opener from Pablo Barrios and a second from Ademola Lookman condemning them to another defeat. So much for a reaction, a rebellion: in their place a kind of resignation, a sense that maybe this is just United’s reality: a game that began badly, did not get very much better, and finished even worse. True, the result could have been different, Bryan Mbeumo unable to convert two first-half chances while Bruno Fernandes struck the bar and put an opportunity wide, but that did not diminish the feeling that something is really wrong.
It may even have deepened it. Even the late, harsh red card for Leny Yoro which can be offered in mitigation did not change a simple fact: at the end of another insipid night, United lost. United are lost, perhaps.
They weren’t there on the left, where Lee Kang-in’s pass sent Álex Baena into a wide-open space; they weren’t there to close him down as he cut into the area; and they weren’t there on the right either, where Barrios was running through alone. Baena laid across and Barrios’s shot went off Ayden Heaven and into the net. Barrios held up six fingers, the number of the club captain, Koke, whose mother had died in the hours before kick-off.
From the bench Koke’s shirt was raised. All around the Metropolitano, supporters roared. Although another effort from Baena soon hit Lisandro Martínez, United did find a foothold and could have found a way back.
Mbeumo had two clear chances in quick succession: the first, after nice footwork on the right, went wide; the second, following a neat exchange with Youri Tielemans, was stopped by Jan Oblak on the other side. From the corner, Carlos Baleba headed straight at the keeper. That was short-lived, though, Atlético soon asserting themselves, moving the ball with a pace and conviction United couldn’t match.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
