Manchester United travelled to the London Stadium to clash heads with West Ham United earlier today hoping to build on their two back-to-back 1-0 victories over Leicester City and Astana respectively. The Red Devils made a bright start to the game but could not capitalise on their domination in the first half. The Hammers managed to make the breakthrough just before the half-time break when Andriy Yarmolenko scored with a clever finish.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s men came back strong in the second half and created some decent opportunities to score. However, the visitors were wasteful in the final third and ran out of ideas in the end. Manuel Pellegrini’s side managed to kill the game off when Aaron Cresswell scored with a fabulous freekick in the 84th minute. The match ended with the Red Devils suffering a 2-0 loss on the road.
Let’s take a look at how each Man United player fared during the match against the Hammers.
GK: David De Gea – 6/10
The Spanish keeper made a couple of world-class saves to keep his side in the contest. However, he couldn’t do too much about either of West Ham’s two goals on the day.
RB: Aaron Wan-Bissaka – 6/10
The former Crystal Palace talent was defensively solid but couldn’t create too many opportunities going forward.
CB: Victor Lindelof – 4/10
He was sloppy in possession of the ball and made some poor errors at the back.
CB: Harry Maguire – 5/10
The English defender passed the ball accurately unlike his centre-back partner, but he failed to keep the Hammers attackers at bay during the game which would disappoint him.
LB: Ashley Young – 3/10
The English veteran couldn’t deal with Yamolenko’s threat out on the wide areas and put in an underwhelming display in the opposition half.
CM: Scott McTominay – 5/10
He made some darting runs from midfield but didn’t show enough invention going forward.
CM: Nemanja Matic – 4/10
The Serbia international is a liability in midfield for the Red Devils as he slows the tempo of the game down and doesn’t have the legs to recover when he gets stretched at the back.
RM: Andreas Pereira – 4/10
The Man United youngster failed to get himself involved in and around the West Ham penalty box and had a quiet outing at the London Stadium.
CAM: Juan Mata – 3/10
The Spaniard could have and probably should have scored the equaliser early in the second half when he missed a sitter from close range. Besides that chance, he was largely ineffective and failed to trouble the West Ham defenders.
LM: Daniel James – 4.5/10
The Welsh rising star struggled to get going as he was often left isolated down the left flank.
ST: Marcus Rashford – 4/10
It was another lacklustre display from the Red Devils centre-forward. He has often looked like a striker out of form this season, and it was no exception today.
Substitutes:
CAM: Jesse Lingard – 5/10
He was largely ineffective after coming on at the hour mark.
CM: Fred – 6/10
The Brazilian talent brought some fresh energy to the Man United midfield.
CAM: Angel Gomes – N/A
He did not have enough time to make an impact.
