In the 88th minute of the match against Everton, Man United fans in the corner of the Hill Dickinson stadium stands lived in a passionate atmosphere when Benjamin Sesko increased the score to 2-1. At that time, no one believed that 3 points would slip out of Michael Carrick's hands and the students attacked by Everton were also not outstanding.
But in the last seconds of injury time, Ainsley Maitland-Niles' masterpiece kept 1 point for the home team. Man United had no time to score more goals and had to share points in a match where they did not play too well but not too badly to lose points.
After the match, what Michael Carrick shared was the overwhelming disappointment of the players in the dressing room. They had twice taken the lead but could not protect the result. Everyone saw the problem and knew it was the ingrained disease of the team. They could not decisively resolve the game when leading by 1 goal, even sometimes 2 goals.
Two shots by Tyrique George and Maitland-Niles were super products, almost every goalkeeper was helpless. Man United's defense was not at fault in that moment, but looking broadly, the fact that they let the opponent easily regain the game indirectly led to those plays.
After the match, Everton captain David Moyes shared about the moment the team was led 1-2. He said that after equalizing 1-1, The Toffees also did not know how to maintain the game and lost it too easily. This is also the disease of Man United, one of the common manifestations of a mid-range team.
Sesko's goal in the 88th minute should have finished the match, but it was only the beginning of the foretold disappointment for Man United. In the second half, there were 3 times Senne Lammens had to excellently save after finishes from the opponent's 2nd line. Everything seemed to be predicted in advance that Sesko's goal was not enough for Man United to win. On the field, everyone also saw that the defense of the "Red Devils" had never been really solid in set pieces. This is a problem that is gradually becoming a weakness throughout the season.
Looking broadly, defense is not done when Man United leads 2-1. If they are really meticulous in that, it should come from the moment of leading 1-0. No top team only focuses on defending early when leading 1 goal, but Man United continuously makes this mistake. Interspersed between 2 goals at Hill Dickinson, the "Red Devils" only had 1 undangerous finish.
Meanwhile, Everton made up to 9 shots in the time between Bryan Mbeumo's opening goal and Tyrique George's equalizer. This shows that it was not until they realized the risk of losing points that the team found a way to attack and vice versa.
After the match, Carrick shared that starting with 4 points after 3 matches was not too bad for Man United, but clearly everything could have been done better. The team did not handle the moments well and sometimes just because of small details like that would help the match result be much better.
Carrick is completely right to say that those small moments caused Manchester United to drop 2 points against Everton. However, if they want to go further than last season, they need to learn to change right now.
